Page 21 of Sharpest Court

All at once, I understood Keil’s murmured plea upon seeing me here. Because he’d made a similar appeal back in Daradon, the first time he’d sacrificed himself for me. Please, he’d begged me then, let me do this.

But I’d only ended up in this throne room tonight because I’d made the choice to save him. How, then, could I allow my error to culminate in this?

“I don’t need this from you,” I growled, tugging him back a step.

Keil finally looked down at me, stone-faced. “Erik will kill you.”

“Oh, I suspect he would do far worse than that,” Rheya crooned.

Keil’s muscles clenched under my fingers. As Rheya looked between us, I automatically dropped my hand.

“Are you familiar with the tale of Queen Piper?” she asked me. “While the First Emperor Saxon was conquering this continent in the Great War, a Wholeborn king chose Piper, a powerful Wielder, as a bride. The king tortured Piper with an excess of dullroot to wear her into submission, all to use her as a weapon against Saxon.” Rheya gave me a pitying look. “I wonder if King Erik possesses similar motives in taking you for his wife.”

A chill ran through me, thinning my specter. Because in Erik’s cell, I’d already experienced the feeling of being whittled down into submission, polished into the image he wanted. And what he’d always wanted from me was a power he could direct for his own gain.

“That is what you’re sending her back to?” Valeria asked, revolted. They all appeared revolted—even Goren, whose violent disgust seemed edged with fury.

Then Rheya released a silvery laugh. “Lady Alissa, at what point did I state any intention of returning you to Daradon?”

A taut silence passed, the words hanging above the group.

Then they landed in one great plunge.

Relief overwhelmed me to the point of vertigo. Rheya was not sending me back to Erik.

But while the room stirred with exhaled air and the relaxing of muscles, Keil alone had remained rigid beside me. As I caught the devious twinkle in Rheya’s eyes, I realized why. And new alarm quickened my heart rate.

Because if the empress of Ansora wasn’t handing me to Erik . . . then she had brought me here for reasons of her own.

7

“What do you want?” I breathed, holding Rheya’s gaze.

“I want to congratulate you,” she said, “not only for convincing the world of Erik’s attachment to you, but for gaining a fair amount of his trust. You say he wished to put Ansora in his debt, and you speak true. He recently requested a trade deal to make amends for my ambassador’s violence at court.”

I startled. What could Erik gain from a trade deal?

“I do not entertain demands I do not understand,” Rheya said, echoing my thoughts. “And my refusal evidently angered your king. Soon afterward, he extended a hand of friendship to the island of Banarrat. I believe he intends to drive a wedge between Ansora and its most powerful island at a time when the military treaty is at stake, leaving us more vulnerable than ever.”

I frowned, oddly unsettled. This method of punishment felt unlike Erik—too dependent on the temperament of others.

I knew how he operated. And something about this felt wrong.

“Unfortunately,” Rheya said, “General Holden has entertained the request. We intercepted a letter addressed to Erik, containing an invitation to join the Banarrati court for their annual fete in two weeks’ time.”

My pulse skipped. “The general invited Erik to this side of the sea?”

Rheya shook her head. “The invitation is for a Daradonian delegate to attend on Erik’s behalf.” As she arched a delicate brow, I perfectly understood her meaning.

And why she had brought me here.

Valeria spoke up, appalled. “You cannot expect Alissa to—”

“To continue to do here what she so successfully achieved in Daradon?” Rheya looked me over sharply. “Erik allegedly planned to make you a queen. So convince General Holden that you are the Wholeborn woman you have long pretended to be, acting now as the future monarch. Let your presence convince him that Daradon has no intention of waging war against Ansora. With such reassurances, Holden cannot reasonably withhold his signature from the treaty.”

“If Erik receives no response to his letter,” Keil said tightly, “he might reach out again. Lady Alissa could be attempting to fool a general who already knows she is not who she claims to be.”

“Now that we are aware of King Erik’s intentions,” Arun answered smoothly, “my agents are primed to intercept further correspondence.”