Page 40 of The Truth-Teller's Bargain
The setting sun caught her off-guard—she must have slept for the entire afternoon.
Just outside the opening, where the ground had been worn down to dirt from constant foot traffic, stood Emi, Dawes, Balthasar, Kerrigan, and a young man she recognized as a scouting mage. His face was pale.
“What’s going on, Tobias?” Nakir’s voice was smooth, unconcerned, despite the worried faces of his Dark Court.
“We’ve just received a report from Hyelea. Queen Zenobia knows we’re close. She’s locked down the city without warning. The gates are closed. Hundreds of civilians are stranded outside the city walls. The seaport has also closed down entirely, no one in or out.”
The silence that fell pierced Alethea like a knife. “No—she...” She wanted to say the queen wouldn’t do that, but the words wouldn’t pass her lips.
Hundreds of people depended on their daily commute to the city for work and trade. Many of them were teetering on the edge of starvation already. Being locked out of Hyelea for anything more than a few days could be catastrophic.
“You think Queen Zenobia is afraid to let a few peasants starve while she sits out a siege behind fortified walls?” Kerrigan shot back, full of ice and venom.
“Do we have any idea of how many people are locked out of the city?” Nakir questioned, ignoring the fire mage.
Tobias rubbed his brow with a pained shrug. “It’s at least a hundred, maybe two. We have reason to believe she has scouts scouring the countryside for us. They could be on us beforesunset tomorrow. We have our people stationed to intercept, but we’re running the risk of being discovered when her scouts don’t return from their assignments. Given enough time, she could ostensibly triangulate our position.”
Nakir crossed his arms, several long fingers stroking his chin. “Understood. Dawes, how far can we stand to spread out?”
Alethea didn’t hear the rest of the conversation. Her ears were full with the sound of her pounding heart as she realized all those people were in danger because of her actions.
She had assumed her mother would bring everyone to safety, because believing otherwise had never felt like an option. She was so certain, but now she could see... Zenobia Onasis only cared about herself. There was no limit to the number of people she would allow to die just to keep her throne. Alethea slowly backed away from the group, each step silent as she formed a plan of her own.
This was her mistake to fix.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she desperately searched the camp for her horse. She couldn’t find the mare she’d ridden in on, but she did locate a saddled gray gelding not too far from Nakir’s tent. Guilt wracked her again as she mounted, praying to whatever god was listening to forgive her for yet another sin. They would have to add it to her long list of wrongdoings.
Alethea steered the horse back the way she had arrived on that very first day, but she knew beyond that, she’d be hopelessly lost. She had no choice but to force visions to find her way back to Hyelea, where she would have to try to fix her wrongs.
“Evanthia Hasan loved with a warrior’s ferocity, and Lazaros with a Healer’s steadiness. In each other, they found a grace that neither court nor council had ever managed to give them.
Their years as sovereigns were heartbreakingly brief after the crown passed from Evanthia’s mother, yet in that short span, they ruled with a unity that made this old cynic hopeful again.
I have never believed their reign ended because of the child they bore?—
but because Lenorea was too small-hearted to deserve the family they were.”
—RECOVERED FROM GORAN ARRANIL’S PRIVATE JOURNAL
CHAPTER NINE
Hunter’s Moon, Day 22.
By the time Alethea reached Hyelea, the sun was rising again. Her stomach was painfully empty, her hair full of twigs and her dress soiled with dirt from a few tumbles from her horse. She had never ridden so fast for so long in her entire life. Several times, she’d had to turn to her visions to guide her the right way, and each time, her head had throbbed, and she’d nearly lost her balance. Now she approached the eastern gates of the capital city entirely alone.
The sight that greeted her made her stomach churn once more.
The white city walls stood imposing, heavily fortified with guards patrolling along the parapets. More than a hundred civilians, among them some of Hyelea’s most vulnerable, were huddled near the gates. They gathered around flickering fires, their faces etched with weariness and fear. These people resided beyond the city walls and would be utterly defenseless if an attack occurred.
“We’ve been out here all night—let us in! We have families, children!” a dark-haired man called, attempting to shake the iron gates.
The gates hardly moved. They probably weighed ten times what he did and took four guards to open and close.
Alethea dismounted, tying her horse to a tree just off the road before slowly approaching the masses. Whispers rose around her as several people recognized her for who she was.
“Why does the queen not let you in?” Alethea asked the most vocal of the men attempting to convince the guards to let them back inside.
“Because she’s a fucking bitch,” an older woman spat, appearing at Alethea’s side. “Never gave a rat’s ass about us. Now she’s leaving us to be slaughtered. We hear there’s to be a siege on Hyelea.”
