The Cursed Queen (The Impostor Queen #2)(63)

I glance toward the third hooded figure and arch an eyebrow. “And . . . ?”

The third figure pushes back her hood with pale fingers. My breath catches in my throat and I stagger back as Thyra turns to me, looking worried and thin and anxious. “We won’t hurt you, Ansa,” she says quickly. “You must stay calm. These people mean no harm.”

“What are you doing?” I whisper.

Her blue eyes are deep and sorrowful. “Whatever I have to, like I always do.”

Her words send a pang straight through me. Today Nisse told me of a Thyra different from the one I thought I knew, one who framed him as an assassin after he caught her plotting to poison her own father. A clever, ruthless Thyra.

Exactly the kind of person who could use someone’s love and trust against them. “I’ve heard a bit about what you have had to do.”

Her lip curls. “I know who’s been whispering lies in your ears.” She looks up at Halina and says a few words in halting Vasterutian before adding, “For bringing us here.”

“You’re welcome.” Halina pulls an offered cloak over her own shoulders. “But I didn’t do it for your benefit alone. Now I want to talk about how we help each other.”

Thyra gives me a sidelong glance. “Give us a moment?”

Halina’s nostrils flare, but she says something in Vasterutian to Efren and Ligaya, who step away from us. The three of them turn to the corner where the children are, talking in low, round tones. When I look back at Thyra, she is nearer to the fire, staring into the flames. “You’re too skinny,” she says quietly.

“Weeks lying flat on one’s back with a cracked skull does cause a person to shrivel.”

She bows her head. “I had to do it, Ansa. You know that, don’t you?”

“Do what?” I ask lightly, even as the curse-fire awakens in my chest, cinders glowing and stinging. “Try to kill me?”

She presses her forehead to her clasped hands. “If our positions were reversed, I’d hope you would do the same.”

I look at her in shock. “I would never hurt you.” I leave the rest unsaid, but it hangs ugly between us—she hurt me. So badly I can barely breathe now that she is so near. I was in her arms. I thought she loved me. And her heart was cold as stone as she slammed her hilt into my skull.

The fire in the hearth swells with my resentment, snaking tentative tendrils over the stones as if waiting for my command. Thyra scoots back. “Our warriors are in danger,” she says. “A great number of them fled the tower the night I was challenged. They were joined by the warriors outside the walls and have barricaded themselves in a group of shelters at the eastern edge of the city.”

“Displacing a good number of our people in the process,” Efren growls from the corner.

Thyra gives him a troubled look. “I am working to correct all that has gone wrong.”

Ligaya tosses her hair and makes a skeptical clucking noise with her tongue, but then the Vasterutians return to muttering among themselves.

I frown as I consider the plight of our tribe. Nisse did not mention any of this when we met this afternoon. “Nisse values warrior lives.”

“He values his army.” Thyra scoffs. “If he valued their hearts and souls, he would let me speak to them. Instead he keeps me locked away for my own protection.”

“And yet, here you are. Free within the city.”

Thyra smiles and glances toward the three Vasterutians in the corner. “There is help within the tower, offered at great risk.”

“For those who defy Nisse,” I guess. “What are you doing? If he finds out—”

She jabs a finger toward Halina’s back. “If he finds out, they will be gutted in the square, and their children left to starve, assuming they aren’t killed as well,” she whispers harshly. “Is that what you want?”

“I don’t want more warriors killed. I want our tribe to be strong again.” But I can’t help glancing toward the little boy in the corner. I can’t help thinking I was about his age when my family was destroyed.

Thyra’s fingers tighten over her knees. “You sound like Sander. Does it matter what the price is, Ansa? Will you follow anyone?”

My throat constricts. “I followed you until I realized what you were capable of. You cast me aside and almost ended my life, and still you demand my loyalty?”

Thyra gives the fire a nervous glance. Its tendrils are growing like a vine straight out of the hearth, fingers of flame seeking someone to embrace. “I didn’t want to hurt you, Ansa. I had to stop you, though. Can’t you understand that? Do you remember anything about that night?”

“I remember Jaspar trying to stop the archers and you . . .” Pretending to care about me so you could sneak inside my guard.

“You saved me,” she says, reaching to touch my cheek.

I lean back out of her reach, unwilling to be snared yet again.

Her hand falls back to her side. “I was trying to do the same for you.”

“Jaspar definitely was,” I say. “He stood between me and the danger.”

“You were the danger.” Her expression turns hard. “Has it occurred to you that he was trying to save them? You were about to kill those archers.”

“You didn’t have to hit me!”