… “It’s been a long time, Sarhina.”
If it moved her that he’d guessed her identity, Sarhina didn’t show it. “Yes, Bronwyn told me that Coralyn had involved you in our plans.”
He opened his mouth to point out that it had been her who’d been involved in his plan, but instead said, “If you wanted to talk, you could have made an appointment. You and the rest of our sisters are in no danger from me.”
“What makes you think I wish to talk, Keris?”
“Well,” he answered, “there are a limited number of reasons for an individual to sneak into my bedchamber in the middle of the night. We’ve clearly ruled out an assignation, and given that I’m still breathing, assassination, which leaves only conversation.”
She snorted. “I already dislike you.”
Keris shrugged one shoulder, then winced as her knife bit deeper. “Why are you here, Sarhina?
Fancy taking the throne for yourself? If so, it appears you need to get in line.”
“The last thing I want is to be queen of Maridrina,” she answered. “As to why I’m here, it’s to determine whether you deserve the crown.”
“In primogeniture rule, deservedness is not a factor, which means my successor won’t be chosen based on merit. So take some time deliberating before you cut my throat.”
“All the more reason to bring down the monarchy.”
Keris’s eyebrows rose, partially for her words and partially for the vehemence in her voice. “And replace it with what? Anarchy?”
Sarhina hesitated, then said, “A council of representatives elected by Maridrinian citizens who will rule for a set term in the interests of the people.”
Delight flooded Keris’s veins. “I once had too much wine and proposed just such a thing, and Father blackened both my eyes before burning the book I’d quoted from in front of the whole harem to make a point. But I managed to get my hands on another copy a few years ago. It’s here. Put down the knife and I’ll show you.”
“Nice try,” she snapped. “Just what kind of idiot do you think I am?”
“If you were an idiot, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
They stood in tense silence for a long moment; then Sarhina said, “Walk. Slowly.”
Keris shuffled forward, an ache forming in his shoulder from the way she had his arm twisted behind his back. Reaching the table, which was stacked high with books, he turned up the lamp sitting on it and trailed his thumb down the spines, searching for a title. “This one.”
With shocking speed, she moved the knife from his throat and pulled loose his belt. Keris yelped as his trousers nearly dropped, but as he reached to catch hold of them with his free hand, she lashed the leather of his belt around his wrist. She efficiently snaked it around the wrist she still held, cinching them tight. “Sit.”
Keris sat.
Extracting the book, Sarhina took the chair across from him and put her knife on the table before opening the volume. “I’d heard you were bookish.”
“Used to be,” he answered. “Recent events have left me little time to read anything that isn’t a report.”
Her brow furrowed as she flipped through the pages, the creases deepening. Keris watched his half sister as she read. He had little recollection of Sarhina from before she, Lara, and the others were taken. Coralyn had often groused that she was a foul-mouthed creature, but she’d also said that dark as night. Not one of the ones who’d been with Lara the night of the rescue, but given her coloring Sarhina was the undeclared leader among the sisters, despite Lara being a queen. She’d also mentioned that Sarhina was pregnant. That was no longer the case, and as time passed, he noted a darkening of the bodice of her black tunic. But he said nothing, for he knew that any interest he showed in his latest niece or nephew would be perceived as a threat.
And her knife was in easy reach.
Close to an hour passed before Sarhina lifted her head from the book. “You would support these ideas? Despite the fact that if such a change came to pass, you’d cease to hold any meaningful power?
Cease to be relevant at all?”
“I like to think that my relevancy isn’t merely a function of the blood in my veins,” he answered.
“As to power … it’s a burden I’d gladly shirk if not for the fact that doing so would likely require my death.”
“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded. “You have the capacity to heal Maridrina. To reform it in a better and brighter way, then release it to thrive under a better form of rule. Why would you run from the opportunity?”
He wasn’t running from anything. It was only that, above all things, he desired to run toward a woman, and a life, that required him to abandon everything else. “I’m somewhat lazy, I’m afraid.
Ideas over execution, if you get my meaning.”
Sarhina snorted. “I think you’re full of shit.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why are you planning to go to Ithicana?”
“To visit Lara.”
“You think that wise, all things considered?”
He opened his mouth to retort, then closed it. She didn’t mean wise in the sense of how Ithicana might respond to his arrival. She meant wise in the sense of how Maridrina would fare without him.
Which gave him an idea, the rightness of it sinking into his soul. “Lestara was correct that everything Father blackened both my eyes before burning the book I’d quoted from in front of the whole harem to will go to shit in my absence. No one to keep the harem from pursuing their own goals, no one to keep our half brothers from stealing the crown, and no one to keep the nobility who long supported our father from reaching out their greedy fingers to take more power. Which means I need a someone. ”
Sarhina blinked; then her eyes widened even as she scoffed. “You’ve lost your mind. Absolutely not.”
She’s the clever one of the lot, Coralyn had told him while they were planning the escape. That she wasn’t the one chosen to go to Ithicana was undoubtedly by design. Backbone of steel, will not behind his back. Reaching the table, which was stacked high with books, he turned up the lamp sitting be pushed into anything, and she keeps all your half sisters in line despite them all having Veliant personalities. Tongue like an alehouse bar wench, but I suppose you’d like that about her.
With shocking speed, she moved the knife from his throat and pulled loose his belt. Keris yelped as At the time, he hadn’t cared about Sarhina’s qualities, as long as she and the rest did their part. But his trousers nearly dropped, but as he reached to catch hold of them with his free hand, she lashed the now …
“As regent, you’d have the power to begin the process of healing Maridrina.” He rested his elbows on the table. “To reform it in a better and brighter way, then release it to thrive under a better form of rule. Why would you run from the opportunity?”
Sarhina’s jaw worked back and forth, and Keris could tell that she wanted to say yes. That she’d dreamed about the things she would do, the changes that she’d make, if only Maridrina would accept a woman on the throne. Then she said, “You don’t even know me. Why would you trust your assassin half sister with such power when I could just as easily take your crown?”