Where would she stand now, if not for the choice her father had made? How different would her
“What of after her death?” Zarrah’s horse snorted and pranced beneath her, sensing her agitation, solife be? Would fate still have guided her path to cross with Keris’s, or would they always have stood she slipped off and allowed it to trot away. “You left me to be raised by the enemy, to be the victim of under different stars? Would she be the same woman as she was now?
her lies and manipulation, to be used in an unrighteous war. You let her turn me into a monster even as No, she silently decided. I would not.
Clearing her throat, Zarrah said, “As much as the truth hurts my heart, I’m glad you chose as you did.”
Shock filled her father’s eyes. “Why?”
“The choice you made put me on the path I needed to take to become a woman capable of taking on the Usurper. I know her better than anyone alive. Her strategies, how she thinks, and what she wants.”
Reaching down a hand, she waited for her father to take it and then drew him to his feet. “Because of your choice to leave me with her, no one in Pyrinat will question my identity or breeding, though it will be your word against hers about my grandfather’s decision to name my mother as heir.”
Her father cleared his throat. “Ephraim was no fool. There were two copies of the proclamation signed by him. One Petra destroyed. I have the other.”
Her heart skipped, and Zarrah realized that part of her had wondered whether it had been a fabrication. But a signed proclamation … that was proof.
Giving a slow nod, she started toward the waiting soldiers. “You gave your word to my mother that you’d build her an army. Have you fulfilled that promise?”
“I have. And even now, more flock to our banners.”
“Good.” She led him toward the waiting soldiers, taking the reins of her horse back from one of them and mounting, so that all might see. All might hear. Because there was a point she needed to make to every one of them. “For long years you have prepared for this moment, gathering the strength needed to stand against the Usurper. At dawn, we will march on Pyrinat to rip the crown from the Usurper’s head!”
Silence.
“Where are the shouts of enthusiasm?” she demanded, heeling her horse and meandering through the gathered soldiers. “You have dedicated yourself to the fight to remove the Usurper from the
“If you saw that, it means you watched her take me,” she said. “You knew that my mother was dead,throne. Have stood against her tyranny. Have suffered in your fight to liberate Valcotta from a warmonger. And now you have all that you need. An army. A leader. A just cause. The time to strike is now, yet you hesitate? Why?”
Zarrah scanned their faces, watching them look anywhere but at her, their jaws tight with shame and frustration. “I’ll tell you why!” she shouted when not one of them answered. “It is because even with all that, it is not enough! The Usurper commands an army tens of thousands strong, a fleet unrivaled on the southern seas, and coffers as deep as the oceans themselves. To go head-to-head with her now would see every last one of us dead on the ground.” She waited a breath. “When will we have the strength we need? In five years? Ten? Twenty?” No one spoke. “Someone answer the question!”
Silence.
that she suspected our plans to take back the crown, for Aryana played her part as a submissive sister Zarrah chose that moment to round her horse on her father. “The answer is never. We cannot fight her alone, so it is fortunate that I arrive with the truest ally that I have ever known.”
“An ally that makes promises he cannot hope to hold, Empress,” her father said as all eyes went to Keris. “I do not doubt his loyalty to you, but Maridrina does not share it. They will not fight for where one stands at a crossroads, and each path leads to a future so wildly different from the other Valcotta.”
It was a dream that verged on madness that such a thing were possible, but it had been such dreams is made, and the ripples are not ripples at all but that had brought them through every trial and delivered them to this moment. Conviction boiled up from her heart. “If Keris says he will do it, then it will be done. He’s proven that to me time and again, and I do not doubt him now.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Keris register the words, though no emotion showed on his face.
“You ask how I have earned the right to call myself Empress?” she shouted. “This is how. While all of you talk of ending the war, of bringing peace to Valcotta, of setting aside enmity, that’s all it is.
Talk. Whereas I have lived it. Proven it is possible.”
Every eye was fixed on her, and it felt suddenly too hard to breathe, her claim too great to justify,
“The choice you made put me on the path I needed to take to become a woman capable of taking on even though in her heart, she knew it was true. “I …” Words failed her, and Zarrah swallowed hard, the Usurper. I know her better than anyone alive. Her strategies, how she thinks, and what she wants.” the same spiral of emotion that had made her panic in the brothel threatening to rise again. She
couldn’t let it. Couldn’t faint off the side of her horse and expect these soldiers to then follow her into battle.
Countless times in her life she’d rallied soldiers, said what needed to be said to motivate them to fight, always wholly confident in her own leadership. In the righteousness of her cause. Only to learn that she’d been a pawn in a tyrant’s game, every goal, every ambition, every desire planted in her mind by the one who’d stolen everything from her. To be freed of her aunt should have been liberating, except Zarrah couldn’t help but wonder what she was without Petra Anaphora.
Giving a slow nod, she started toward the waiting soldiers. “You gave your word to my mother that Breathe.
She sucked in a breath, but none of the air seemed to reach her lungs, the world starting to spin.
Then a hand pressed against her leg. Zarrah squeezed her eyes shut, knowing it was Keris without looking down, every part of her responding to his touch, and the next breath of air she dragged in filled her with strength.
Her panic fell away like the deadfall of winter in the face of spring rain. Allowing the bow in her hand to slip from her grip, Zarrah reached down to take hold of Keris’s hand.
“Petra Anaphora is a tyrant whose desire to be worshipped by all causes her to turn violence upon any who doubt her. Who question her,” she said. “We know this. Know she must be removed from power for Valcotta to ever thrive as it should. Know that she needs to be defeated at all costs. But to defeat an enemy, one must understand the weapons she uses. For the Usurper, her greatest weapon is the Endless War, and the fuel of that war is hate. She needs Maridrina to be the villain so that she might be the savior. Nearly everything she does is with the mind of fueling the belief that every hurt we suffer is at their hands and that we must redeem our honor in vengeance. There is no greater proof Zarrah scanned their faces, watching them look anywhere but at her, their jaws tight with shame andof that than in me.”
Keris’s fingers tightened, and she gave the faintest of nods. “I thought I needed to stand alone to all that, it is not enough! The Usurper commands an army tens of thousands strong, a fleet unrivaled onliberate Valcotta,” she said, her throat dry from talking but her heart strong in a way it hadn’t been in so long. “Except peace wasn’t a dream I conceived alone, and if I attempt to achieve it alone, I will fail. As will we all fail if we allow her weapon to hold power against us. We must set aside old hatreds and vows for vengeance against Maridrinians, for if we don’t, we give the Usurper power over us. We must join with them and stand united against our common foe in a fight against tyranny. In a fight for a future for our children. Will you lift your weapons and join this alliance? Will you fight for peace?”