“And it sounds like you’ve been successful.”
“We have nothing left,” Kienen says solemnly, without a hint of arrogance.
A muscle in Zander’s jaw ticks. “Have you ever witnessed an Islorian die by this poison? It is an agonizing death.”
“We were following orders, Your Highness.” Kienen’s face remains unreadable.
“The elven aren’t the only ones suffering. There are mortals caged and others executed in squares.” Abarrane steps in close, glaring up at him. “Children being hanged.” If I didn’t know better, I’d think she genuinely cared.
Finally, Kienen’s stoic face breaks, his jaw tensing as if her words sting him. “If it is any consolation, we did not know what we were carrying into Islor at the time.”
Zander frowns with doubt. “Who didn’t know?”
“I didn’t. The soldiers who remained outside Cirilea’s wall with me did not even know Islor’s king and queen had died until much later. I can’t say if those closest to Her Highness had any clue of these plans.” There’s a hint of something hard in his voice. Gesine said Kienen was Tyree’s closest advisor, and yet Tyree didn’t trust him with the true plan? Princess Romeria’s lady maid was found with a vial in her pocket, and her guards knew enough to condemn her when they were questioned. So, is Kienen telling the truth now or attempting to save himself? I suppose how much they all knew and when doesn’t matter. They were following orders.
“And on the day of the attack, where were you?” Zander watches him closely, weighing his words for honesty.
“We fled with Prince Tyree as soon as the alarms sounded. He told us Islor had turned on us, and that we needed to head north to shelter in the mountains because we would not be able to return to Ybaris. There, he received a letter from the queen, announcing that King Barris had been murdered by an Islorian assassin—”
“We had nothing to do with that. She killed him,” Zander growls. “By her hand or her commander’s.”
Kienen’s eyes flash to mine.
I see suspicion in them, but not shock. “You already knew that.”
Kienen shakes his head. “I wondered how an Islorian would find their way across the rift, into the jeweled castle and the king’s chamber without notice, but I did not ask.”
“Queen Neilina killed King Barris, and Tyree knew she was going to do it.” He told me as much from his dungeon cell. “He supported it. He didn’t want an alliance either. He wanted to kill every last Islorian. So does Neilina. That’s been their plan all along.”
Anger glints in Kienen’s face, at them for deceiving him or at me for saying such things, I can’t tell. He opens his mouth to speak, but then stalls.
“What is it?” Zander asks. “Speak your mind.”
“When the prince revealed these vials of poison in the mountains, he said the queen had been afraid of Islor betraying the alliance, but King Barris would not listen to reason. So she enlisted the help of Mordain’s chemists to create the poison. It was meant to be a fallback, to punish the Islorians as needed.” He falters. “Is this true?”
Zander makes a strangled sound, his anger rolling toward its boiling point. It does every time someone questions his or his father’s nobility. “Islor had every intention of honoring the arrangement. Ybaris is the one who betrayed the alliance by poisoning the king and queen. They had plans to kill my entire family. Fortunately, those plans were foiled.”
Kienen’s eyes flip to me, as if looking for confirmation.
“The poison was never a fallback, Kienen. It’s always been the point. Queen Neilina’s plan has always been to destroy Islor so she can claim it for herself. It just didn’t go as expected.”
Kienen’s sigh is soft, but I catch it all the same. “It seems the prince did not see the need to entrust me with much.”
“You were very close to Tyree, so why do you think that is?” I think I already know the answer to that. I hope I’m right.
His jaw tenses. “Because I would not agree with these plans.”
“And yet you had no trouble sending all that poison into my lands.” Zander glares at him.
“I was following orders from my prince, at the behest of the queen. I believed we were at war. And I believed Tyree when he said you had betrayed us.”
Because, beyond prince and soldier, they were friends. “And now?”
“Now … I know we are at war, but I no longer know which side I am to fight for.” His eyes flitter around the room. “I assume I’ll die no matter the choice.”