Slowly, the men parted, though they did not need to do so to reveal Welran, Petra’s bodyguard a head taller than all those around. Unarmed, and wearing only a Valcottan uniform, Welran strolled through the Maridrinian soldiers, expression amused. He was the emissary, the one who had duped Keris’s army into believing Petra would hold to a truce. “So we meet again, Your Grace.”
I should have killed you in Arakis, was the first thought that came to Keris’s mind, but he kept the fear from his face and instead dusted an invisible piece of lint from his cloak. “Well, if it isn’t Petra’s inamorato in the flesh. I was so dreadfully sorry to hear of the fate of your progeny, though in fairness, Bermin was a few stones short of a load, so it’s no one’s loss. Shame Petra’s past her prime, else you might have tried again. That was my father’s strategy.”
Welran’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t rise to the bait. “Indeed. Yet for all the warriors Silas fathered, it was you who took the crown. The brilliant, bookish genius who, rather than raising Maridrina up high, has brought it to ruin.”
“We received word about Vencia.” Philo’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “We were prepared for
“It’s—”
“Because,” Welran continued, cutting Keris off, “you are also a whoremongering, womanizing philanderer.”
“I have learned that it is difficult to prepare against the mind of a monster,” Keris answered. “Petra Keris knew the direction Welran was going, yet there was no point in denying his words. His Anaphora attacked a city full of civilians. A city of little strategic value. A city she knew she couldn’t reputation was known across Maridrina, and the soldiers in Nerastis had seen it with their own eyes.
In and out of pleasure houses, courtesans brought into the palace, parading up and down the stairs to throat tightened, but Keris forced himself to add, “Our enemies exploited my distraction, which meanshis rooms with no regard to propriety. He hadn’t cared. Or rather, he’d cared so much about being everything his father hadn’t wanted him to be that he’d delighted in his infamy. Coralyn had always told him that there’d be a cost, and Keris had laughed.
He was no longer laughing.
Not as his army shifted restlessly, having no reason not to believe everything Welran had told them because the lies were hidden within damning truths.
him now, not when Zarrah was marching to war and expecting him to have her back. Without his army,
“A bacchanal,” Welran spat, “who was content to use his kingdom in his pursuit of his own
pleasure, no matter the cost to innocent civilians. A debauched gutter rat who left his capital defenseless so that he might use his army to gift his harlot a crown.”
Anger boiled up and burned away Keris’s fear. “Say what you will about me, but speak ill of the Empress again and I will have your tongue.”
Welran roared with laughter “And who,” he demanded, wiping away tears of mirth, “will do the cutting? You?” He slapped his thigh as though the idea of it was the purest form of comedy. “You stand alone, Your Grace, with no one left willing to do your dirty work. Even your demon of a sister is having second thoughts, which is why she and her uxorious husband are hiding on their ship. Look.
Look!”
Keris refused to turn. Knew that there was nothing but empty dock behind him.
“Admit it, Your Grace,” Welran said. “Admit to your army that you put a woman before them.
Admit to them that you sacrificed their homes and families in a fool’s attempt to put a crown on Zarrah’s head. Admit that you want them to march toward a battle where most of them will die, all on the chance of keeping your whore alive to warm your bed again.”
In three strides, Keris was on him, Welran’s eyes widening in shock. Warm blood slicked his fingers as he plunged the blade into the bigger man’s throat, following as Welran staggered backward several steps, falling on his back. Keris’s armor creaked as he knelt on the man’s chest. “I told you if you insulted Zarrah again that I’d have your tongue,” he said, then reached into the hole his knife had made and pulled out Welran’s tongue, slicing it free at the base. “Now I have it.”
Keris blinked away the vision, Welran’s smirking face coming back into focus before him, the blood and violence nothing but a short-lived fantasy.
God help him, but Keris wanted to make it reality. Knew that for all of Welran’s insults, he could.
But the world had enough men who reached for blades first. Men like his father, and all the Veliant kings who’d come before him.
I swore to be different.
fear from his face and instead dusted an invisible piece of lint from his cloak. “Well, if it isn’t Petra’s Keris squared his shoulders. “Zarrah Anaphora is the rightful empress. She is the future of Valcotta, inamorato in the flesh. I was so dreadfully sorry to hear of the fate of your progeny, though in fairness, a leader and a peacemaker, and whether I remain on the throne of Maridrina has no bearing on that.
Bermin was a few stones short of a load, so it’s no one’s loss. Shame Petra’s past her prime, else you She will find a way to end the war that has ruled us for generations, a way to rip the crown from the tyrant usurper who stole it, and there will soon come a day when men such as you are given less space than an ink splotch on the history books. I will bet my crown, my kingdom, and my very life upon it.”
Welran gave a dismissive snort, but Keris didn’t miss the unease in the man’s eyes as he said,
“Your crown and kingdom are already lost to you, Your Grace. Your life will soon join them.” He turned to Philo. “I know that the attack on the fleet was not your doing. Give Keris Veliant over to us, and we will hold him to account. Then you will be free to choose a king fit for the throne of Maridrina.”
Philo gave a sharp shake of his head, then fixed his gaze on Keris. “You were supposed to be different. Instead you are the same as your father, tramping over our backs in pursuit of your obsession. Maridrina needs a ruler who will put the people first, and that ruler is not you.”
Philo was not wrong.
Keris drew in a breath, knowing that it was over. That he’d failed her. He only prayed that Ithicana would go to Zarrah’s aid, and that it would be enough. That she’d keep fighting and achieve to believe everything Welran had told them everything they’d dreamed of, and that the stars would one day tell the story of a love that changed the world for the better. “Peace is not a product of complacency, Captain. It is won by those who look at the past and the present and say, we can do better.”
“Pretty words will not save you, Your Grace. Put down your weapons.” Philo started toward him, then stopped, his gaze fixing on something behind Keris. “Why are they here? What have you done?”
he demanded, even as Welran’s brow furrowed first with surprise, then concern.
Heart in his throat, Keris slowly turned, his mind taking far too long to grasp the enormity of what he was witnessing.
When it did, the breath disappeared from his chest.
Zarrah’s head. Admit that you want them to march toward a battle where most of them will die, all on Keris squared his shoulders. “Zarrah Anaphora is the rightful empress. She is the future of Valcotta, Keris drew in a breath, knowing that it was over. That he’d failed her. He only prayed that Ithicana everything they’d dreamed of, and that the stars would one day tell the story of a love that changed the