Bloodleaf (Bloodleaf #1)(81)

“You and that Achlevan, Simon Silvis . . . you’re in this together. You’re trying to sabotage Achleva and Renalt. Your own mother—?”

“Is being held hostage by the Tribunal under your father’s direction!” Toris must have met Dedrick Corvalis through trade at the de Lena ports, just as Simon had been investigating. Toris recruited Dedrick, and then King Domhnall, into his plans. But even as the how was becoming clearer, the why was still a mystery. “All of this, every last detail, has been orchestrated by him, not me. Did you know, in the forest, he tried to kill me, too?”

“No. No. My father is a righteous man. None of this makes any sense—?”

I grabbed her by her shoulders and looked directly into her pretty face. “We were friends once, you and I. You could have sent me to the gallows years ago, but you didn’t. I think you knew, deep down inside, that I didn’t deserve it. That I’m a good person, despite being born with magic in my veins.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it again. I’d struck a nerve. “Think, Lisette. Think. If our friendship meant anything to you when we were little, I beg of you to listen to me now. Has there been nothing that your father has done over the last months . . . years! . . . that has given you pause? That has made you stop and question yourself, even just for a moment?” I let her go. “There has been, hasn’t there?”

“No,” she said quickly. “It’s just me. I have a very active imagination, and Father says—?”

“Your father is a liar and a traitor. You can’t believe anything he has told you. Did you think that all of this was just some big charade? That you’d come here, strut around with my name, just for . . . what? To catch me in some treasonous act? Prove my disloyalty? No, he brought you here to marry the prince, Lisette. So that you both could be married, and then murdered, and bring down the wall with your deaths. That’s what all of this is about. Everything. Toris de Lena will not stop until he’s destroyed Achlev’s wall, and the city with it.”

“No, no—?he would never! Why would he want that for me? I’m his daughter! Why not just let you marry the prince and then kill you instead?”

I took a step back. “Because I saw through him.” He’d said as much in the Ebonwilde, when I’d tried to negotiate for Conrad. Unlike you, he’s proven himself valuably malleable. “He didn’t want to use me because he couldn’t intimidate me. He couldn’t control me.” I’d never thought of it that way before. Toris removed me from his plans not because I was weak but because I was too strong to be controlled.

“And I’m a fool, is that it?”

“No,” I said. “It’s just as you said . . . you’re his daughter. He was counting on your love for him to overcome any of your doubts. And can’t you see? It worked.”

She sniffed and turned her back on me. “He wasn’t always like this, you know. When I was very little, he was affectionate, loving . . .”

“But the loss of your mother changed him. I know.” I hated mentioning Camilla; I didn’t want to remind Lisette whose fault her death was in the first place.

“What? No. They fought constantly before she died. She always said it was what he saw at the Assembly that changed him. He was there when it fell. He was the one who relayed the news back to Renalt.”

“What was he there for, Lisette?” I asked urgently. “What did he see? What did he find?”

“I don’t know!” she cried.

I placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. “I know you love Conrad. In many ways, you’re a better sister to him than I ever was. Ever could be. Thank you, truly. But look around you. The king of Achleva is dead! The water is red with algae and dangerous to drink. Anything green in the city has rotted away. Something terrible is about to happen, and I must get Conrad away from it as soon as I can.”

“All of this”—?she waved her hand at the dead terrace garden and the crimson fjord—?“is because of the wall? And for the wall to fall . . .”

It begins with three dead white ponies,

then a maid, a mother, a crone.

Then upon a bed of red rosies,

Bleed three fallen kings to leave three empty thrones . . .



“Three of Achlevan royalty will die.”

“King Domhnall, me, and . . .”

“Valentin,” I said, swallowing hard. “The prince.”

She took a step back. His name had unnerved her.

“You can judge me for going along with this, for taking your place, but”—?she gave a helpless shrug—?“I love him, Aurelia. I’ve loved him since I was a little girl, reading his letters. I kept writing to him, too. I paid one of the castle messengers to deliver the letters to me instead of you. After my mother died, they were the only thing that kept me going.” She dashed some tears from her eyes, sniffling. “I know it’s stupid. It couldn’t last forever, I knew that. But ever since we got here, he’s hardly spoken to me. And . . . and . . .”

I surprised myself and hugged her. Maybe it was Kate’s influence. Maybe it was that our long-lost friendship wasn’t so lost after all. Maybe it was because I knew what it was like to love Zan and have to let him go. She returned my hug softly, almost shyly.

“I’m leaving today,” I told her. “I want you and Conrad to come with me. We can all go back to Renalt and face the Tribunal together. Since the Tribunal is orchestrating the destruction of the wall, once the Tribunal is gone, Zan—?I mean, Valentin—?will have nothing more to fear.” I took down the black ribbon and gave it to her. “Give this to Conrad. He knows what it means.”