Last Stand (The Black Mage #4)(14)

“I swear, every word was the truth!”

“I know that now.” My words were bitter and low. “But I didn’t then. I didn’t because you never gave me the chance. You used my new position to fund your regiment, you had one of my best friends return just to test my loyalty to the keep, you sent my own brother to abuse my ties to the Crown, you made me lie to my husband—” my lips started to tremble, but I made myself carry on, “—but never once did you ask.”

“Ryiah.” Nyx’s whisper was apologetic.

“You can understand why I doubted your cause.” The rage rose and boiled in the center of my chest. It was back, and however misdirected, I couldn’t keep from relaying it to her in an angry hiss. “I lost him, Commander! I lost my own brother because you never gave me the chance to understand. I lost him because I was overwhelmed and blind and I couldn’t see the truth until it was too late.”

“King Lucius was a tyrant.” Nyx stood a little straighter, arms folding across her chest. “I couldn’t risk the chance you’d run to the Crown and destroy all those years of planning. There was too much at stake. Derrick was never supposed to tell you. That was never a part of the plan—”

“But he did.” I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to send the anger away before things got too heated. It would be too easy to yell, to raise my voice and forget why I was here. “I just didn’t believe him.”

“I am sorry for your loss.” The woman paused; she seemed to have difficulty speaking. “He was a great soldier, one of the brightest I’ve seen.”

“He was.”

“Derrick reminded me of Raphael.” One of the dead lords who had tried to poison Lucius. “He kept begging me to recruit you against the others’ advice, telling me I was making a mistake.” She paused. “I suppose he was right after all.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then she asked, “What changed? If you didn’t believe him while he was…?” She averted her gaze.

“Alive?” I took a deep breath and braced myself against the wall. This was it. What I was about to say now, I could never take it back. But if I didn’t, we would go to war. And so I told her, leaving nothing out, sharing every detail from my mission during the apprenticeship to the girl in the Candidacy stands, and especially the king.

When I was done, the commander was silent. She kept parting her lips and then swallowing, unwilling or unable to speak. When she finally cleared her throat, her words were hoarse. “I thought the worst of it was over… I-I’ll admit, a small part of me considered that Lucius had passed down his secret to his sons, but I thought it was Pythus.”

The rebels thought King Joren had orchestrated the murders the night of the Victors’ Ceremony in Montfort.

“Darren is innocent.” I needed her to understand what I was about to say. “All of this, it was Blayne.”

“And yet it is the Black Mage who is investigating our keep.”

“Because his brother asked him to!” My whisper came out a defensive shout, and I made myself lower it. “Darren risked his life to save your soldiers that day of our apprenticeship. If he had known the attack was planned, he wouldn’t—”

“Perhaps Darren wanted to look the hero.” She was unconvinced.

My nails dug into my palm. “He lost his best friend that day, the daughter of Commander Audric, Eve. He would never sacrifice her.”

“Perhaps—”

“Perhaps nothing!” I took a menacing step forward. “I watched the prince cry for the apprentices who died during the attacks in Mahj, the attacks you initiated.”

“Salt is a precious commodity. Cutting off the Crown’s primary resource would have forced Lucius to cut back his army—”

“I watched Darren sacrifice, again and again, for his country. He is nothing like his brother, nothing.”

Nyx wore a frown plastered to her mouth, but said nothing. She had spent over twenty years nursing a distrust of the Crown. She didn’t know Darren the way I did. The commander might not have been there in Mahj the day the rebels tried to kill the prince, but it was her cause that had been willing to sacrifice the boy I loved.

I needed her to understand that could not be the case.

“I will help you,” I said softly. “I will finish what my brother could not. I will find the proof we need and convince the Pythians not to honor the New Alliance. But I need your assurance Darren will be safe from the others. What we are planning, however it plays out, Darren will not be charged with his family’s crimes.”

“He is a prince of the realm. When the Crown’s secrets are exposed, no one will trust him on the throne. Even if I were to believe you, that Darren is innocent, you can see that the others will not. They will never trust a prince of tainted lineage to lead.”

“He doesn’t need a crown.” I had already made up my mind. “When this is over, you can put someone else on the throne, but Darren is free.”

“Any acts he commits under his brother’s orders—”

“He will not be accountable.” My words came out a growl. “Darren is not responsible for whatever the king requests of his Black Mage.”

“He is hunting rebels.” Her voice was hard. “You expect my men to stand by as—”