Page 41 of The Truth-Teller's Bargain
“Then why do you stay? What about Amylos?” The nearest city would accept them—she was sure of it.
“You think we have anywhere else to go? Amylos is a five-day walk, and we haven’t got enough food or gold to get us there. Ourhomesare here. Our families!”
A new panic rushed over her. She should have brought them food. That was what they really needed. Safety. Security. The truth was, she could offer them very little.
She had come empty-handed.
The crowds gathered around her, bodies pressing in closer. An older man approached from somewhere in the crowd, leaning on a cane, as thin as a rail.
“You think we don’t know who you are,princess?”
A hushed whisper rose up around them, her name echoing throughout the crowd.
“I can take you to safety,” Alethea pleaded. “Please, let me help you.”
“You want to help us? Like you helped Philip?” Just the man’s name was enough to bring tears to her eyes. The biggest regretof her life was being thrown in her face, and she deserved their hatred.
A sob rose up in her throat as the pain from her past sliced into her. “That wasn’t what I meant to happen.”
The elder man, his hair gray and thinning, was having none of it. She remembered his name: Yannis. He had petitioned the court on behalf of Philip’s imprisonment.
“My nephew is wasting away in a cell because of yourhelp.”
Another voice cried out: “Is this a trick from the queen? Didshesend you?”
“No, she didn’t send me here! I’m here to help. I’m... I’m working with Nakir Hasan.” If only they knew she couldn’t lie to them. If only they could trust her. “I can bring you to safety!”
Yannis stepped forward again, and Alethea tried to move back, only to find they were entirely surrounded by bodies. “You expect us to believe you’re working with Nakir Hasan? We’re just supposed to follow you to his army, are we? Here you are again, stirring up hope among people who have nothing. What game do you think you’re playing?”
She deserved every ounce of malice in his words. It was her fault they were even out here in the cold, hungry, separated from their families because they’d been on the wrong side of the gates at the wrong time.
“It’s not a game,” Alethea promised, desperate to be heard and believed.
“It’s a trick!”
“She’s lying!”
The anger that had been previously directed toward the gates shifted. Voices rose up all around her, bodies pressing inward, shouting. Multiple sets of hands wrapped around her shoulders, yanking her by her cloak. “Tell the queen we have her daughter—she’ll let us in!”
“No!” Alethea pleaded. “Please, don’t! I can help you!”
The crowd fell eerily silent as the mob became aware of apresence. Alethea felt it, even as it loomed behind her and outside her vision. She felthim.
“It’s him.”
“Look at his horns.”
“He looks just like his father.”
“It’sNakir Hasan.”
“She is telling the truth.” Nakir’s voice boomed over the crowds.
She heard him dismount from his horse; heard the crunch of his boots on the pavement behind her. The hands holding her released their grip, and she sagged, the air leaving her lungs. He caught her before she hit the ground, but Alethea couldn’t face him. She couldn’t bear to see the disappointment, the anger, the betrayal she knew she would find.
“I have come to tell you there will be no siege on Hyelea. Not today, not tomorrow. Not anytime soon.”
The shouting died the moment he spoke. Even the children went still.
