Page 90 of A Dance of Lies

My gaze dips, catching my reflection in the surface of my tea. Disgusted, I set down the saucer before tucking my hands in my lap. Anton is silent, the seconds stretching between us.

“My brother’s plans,” he says finally. “What do you know of them?”

“Nothing. He gives me an order and I obey.”

I steel myself, waiting for him to call his guards, signal my arrest. I await the clamp of steel on my wrists.

“Vasalie,” he says, and I lift my gaze. “I am not going to have you testify before the Crowns. You are right, but whatever your past, it would not matter. My brother would have you slain before you stepped forward.”

“If I do nothing,” I say, heart careening, “Laurent and Marian won’t be absolved. They won’t be set free . . .”

A smirk presses on the corner of Anton’s lips. He eases back in his seat, sliding an arm across the back of the chaise, looking far too at ease. “A good thing I’ve taken care of them, then.”

“You—what?”

He squints out the window, then holds up his fingers, ticking them off. “In an hour, two at most, a well-paid mercenary will conveniently attack the prison cart in Philam and set them free. They will be directed to a personal escort, who will safeguard them both.”

So many words and emotions tangle together in my chest, and all I can manage is a scratchy “Thank you.”

It was desperation that brought me here. Desperation—and the small thread of hope that he disliked his brother enough, that he was angry enough about what just happened, at the audacity of the general, that he would be willing to help them. The relief is like a breath of fresh air.

“Laurent is far too valuable, as is Marian. They will continue to work for me back in East Miridran. We will simply have to be more discreet for now. As for you,” he says then, and my spine straightens, “you have betrayed my trust and the trust of my friends. Not to mention the whole of the Gathering.”

I can’t help but drop his gaze.

“But you came to me, willing to take their place. For that, you have also earned my respect.”

My head pops up at that. But I dig my hands into my cloak.

I do not deserve respect when I was only attempting to clean up the messImade.

“I don’t understand,” I whisper. “What will you do with me?”

“Nothing, at the moment.”

I blink at him. “You’re letting me go? After what I admitted?”

“Ah, you mean your actions at my banquet, where you consumedhalf the poison yourself? One could say it was an effort to exculpate yourself.” He leans in, holding my gaze. “Or one could say you saved his life.”

“I still hurt him. And I will hurt others if you don’t arrest me. I could do something worse.”

“So help me,” he says. “When my brother gives you a task, tell me. And when this is over, Miss Moran, I will find a way to help you in return.”

Help. He would help me? My heart constricts as hope inches in. Part of me wants to break down and tell him everything. Who I am, where I came from. Everything I’ve seen so far. The murder Illian would say I committed. But if Anton knew that, and if he didn’t believe my claim to innocence . . . I hug my arms around myself.

And then I remember that the word of a Crown means nothing at all. But if Antonisletting me go . . .

I could still avenge Emilia and expose my father when it’s all over.

I run my nails along the inside of my palm. All that matters is that I did what I came to do. Laurent is safe, and so is Marian.

“Something is happening, Miss Moran. Can’t you feel it?” Anton says. “It’s like a current under the island, slowly sifting the sand from beneath our feet. Gustav spoke of a prophecy earlier tonight. Do you remember?”

“You stopped him from telling me what it was.”

Rightly so, perhaps. He had just realized I was working for Illian.

He procures a piece of parchment from the folds of his cloak, worrying it between the pads of his fingers. “The elder prophets of Mirin sought a meeting with the Syndicate, then went missing rather conveniently,” he says. “Fortunately, one of my men attained the message they were trying to relay before my brother abducted them. He was detained as well but managed to escape. And he claims to have seen a tendril of fire above the mouth of the one who spoke it.”