The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom #1)(111)

She’d never said it before. Never told him she loved him. Why had she never said it before?

“You love me.” His voice was hollow. “Or were you only pretending to?”

“How tragic this is.” The clock chimed, punctuating Marylyn’s words. “Though I suspect it is about to get so much worse given that Keris’s party of courtiers has crossed paths with a weapons shipment from Harendell.”

A horn sounded. A call for aid. Then another and another until the notes were nothing more than a garbled mix of noise.

“Those courtiers exited piers on Aela and Gamire Islands and attacked your guard posts from the rear, disabling their shipbreakers so that Amaridian vessels loaded with hundreds of our soldiers could land unmolested. Even now, many of them are moving on to Northwatch and Southwatch to attack them from behind. And we have men using Ithicana’s own signal horns to ensure no one will come to their aid. That’s only the beginning, of course. Lara’s instructions were quite detailed. Especially in how we might take Midwatch.”

Panic flared in Aren’s eyes, and she knew what he was thinking: All his soldiers—all his friends—were sitting in the barracks, their guard down.

Marylyn continued to prattle, but Lara’s mind raced. If they could get down to the barracks, maybe they could get the chain closed in time. Send a signal to Southwatch warning them. But that was impossible unless she disarmed Marylyn.

“Don’t do this. Don’t be our father’s pawn any longer.”

Her sister’s face darkened. “I’m no one’s pawn.”

“Aren’t you? You do his bidding, and for what? Everything we were told as children was a lie intended to fuel an irrational hatred of Ithicana. To turn us into fanatics who’d stop at nothing to bring our enemy down. But Father was the villain. He is the oppressor Maridrina needs to rid itself of. We were deceived, Marylyn. Why can’t you see that?”

“No, Lara. You were deceived.” Marylyn gave a pitying shake of her head, the back of her leg knocking against the bed. “I’ve always seen clearly. You ask what I have to gain? I bring your heads back to Vencia, and Father has promised to shower me with riches. If I hunt down our other wayward sisters, he will make me heir. I will be Queen of Maridrina and master of the bridge.” She smiled. “Ithicana will be no longer.”

Rage consumed Lara like a sentient beast, prowling through muscle and tendon, making her fingers flex on the knife in her hand. Master Erik had always warned her that anger would make her sloppy. Cause her to make mistakes. But he was a liar. Rage gave her focus. And it was that focus that caught the faint shifting of the sheets on the bed behind Marylyn. That allowed her to hear the faint hiss over the rapid beat of her heart. Aren, born and bred to this wild kingdom, heard it, too.

“You’re deluding yourself.” Lara watched the shifting shape. “Father knows that you’re a mad dog. And once you’ve done his dirty work for him, he will have you put down. Or I could do it for him.”

She threw the knife.

The blade sliced through the air, missing Marylyn, but sinking deep into the bed, the sheets now a flurry of motion.

“Lost your touch.” Her sister cackled even as Aren leaned back, shoving his weight against her. They toppled against the bed and the injured snake struck. Marylyn screamed as its teeth sank into her shoulder. Twisting, she released Aren and stabbed her blade into the snake, pinning its body to the mattress.

Lara was already across the room. She slammed into Marylyn, sending them both rolling. They grappled, fists and feet flying with the intent to injure. Maim. Kill. Blow after blow, both of them equally well trained. Yet when it came to this one thing, to violence, Lara had always been better.

Catching Marylyn’s head in a lock, Lara whispered, “You are queen of nothing,” then jerked her arms and snapped her sister’s neck.

The light went out of the other woman’s eyes, and time seemed to stand still.

How had it come to this? It seemed a lifetime ago that she’d made the decision to sacrifice herself in order to save her sisters. To be Maridrina’s champion. To break the Bridge Kingdom. Everything had changed since then. Her beliefs. Her allegiance. Her dreams. Yet now one of her sisters lay dead at her hands, and Ithicana was on the brink of falling beneath Maridrina’s yoke.

Despite everything, her father had still won.

“What have you done?”

The horror in Aren’s voice made her teeth clench. “I didn’t intend for this to happen.”

He had a machete in his hand, but his arm shook as he leveled it at her. “Who are you? What are you?”

“You know who I am.”

His breathing was ragged. Eyes never leaving her, he reached to retrieve the piece of paper that was Ithicana’s damnation, rereading the lines, his thoughts scorched across his face. They couldn’t fight this.

There was a commotion outside. The sounds of men shouting.

“I’m not leaving you behind to damn me further,” Aren hissed.

Lara didn’t fight as he bound her wrists with the tie for one of the drapes. Or when he pulled a pillowcase over her head and dragged her out of the room, even as soldiers spilled into the house. Ithicanian voices, at first. Then Maridrinian. Then chaos.

Screams cut the air, blades against blades, and she was jerked this way and that. Horns still sounded, filling the air with the call for aid that would never come. Night air filled her nose, and she was falling, knees banging painfully against the steps. Arms pulling her upright, then they were running.