Page 127 of The Endless War

An empty hope, given that his family would’ve been Petra’s primary target, her desire to burn his bloodline from the face of the earth stripping her of mercy.

If she had any at all.

His eyes skipped over the still forms, not as many as had filledhis dreams, but somehow worse than anything his imagination had conjured. Men. Women. Children. Eyes gone, bodies bloated, skin rotten.

You were supposed to protect them!the voice screamed.For all his faults, at least your father did that much!

Icy sweat dribbling down his back, Keris stopped in front of the palace, his home, staring at the gaping opening where the silvered gate had once been, now twisted and stained with soot on the broken cobbles. It struck him then that this had been what he’d set upon Ithicana. Only the arrival of Lara and a storm had spared Eranahl from this fate.

Is this my punishment?he silently wondered as he stepped into the ruins, eyes skipping to the bodies of dead guards, to bloodstains, to a chest of silk dresses spilled across the courtyard.Have I finally reaped what I sowed?

The buildings had mostly collapsed, forcing him to climb the rubble to reach the inner sanctum, and then down into the gardens.

They’d been crushed by the collapse of the top half of the tower. The spread of rocks looked like the remains of a fallen giant, and across the ruins, a message was painted in blood.

Death to all Veliants.

Like a breaking dam, panic flooded his veins, chasing away the numbness of shock, and Keris threw himself at the harem’s house, pulling away rocks. Digging. Hunting for the family he’d forsaken.

“Sara!” Sharp edges split open his hands, bruised his fingers, but still he dug, screaming the names of his aunts, of his siblings, needing to find them. Needing to tell them how sorry he was.

“Keris?”

He froze at the sound of the voice, hand finding the hilt of his sword before recognition struck him. “Sarhina?”

His half sister stood alone on the remains of a building. Her black hair was pulled back in a long tail, body encased in the leather and steel armor favored by his people. Her face was drawn with exhaustion, eyes marked with dark circles, but she was alive.

“The family isn’t here,” she said, and Keris clenched his teeth as he waited to hear that they’d all been taken.

“They are in the mountains,” she said. “Along with the rest of the civilians who chose to evacuate.”

Evacuate.

The meaning of the word refused to register, and he stared at her, unable to speak.

“Regardless of what the Ithicanian intelligence said about a pending invasion,” Sarhina said, “I still knew it was a mistake to deplete the city guard. But no one would listen, given that the order was written in your cursed hand, so the soldiers marched south.”

Ithicanian intelligence?He blinked in confusion, unable to comprehend why Aren would abuse his trust by forging such an order. Unless something had happened to their ship? Unless it hadn’t been Aren at all, but rather Ahnna, in some form of retaliation? God help him, she had reason enough to do it.

“We learned of Petra’s plans to attack Vencia just before her fleet was spotted coming up the coast,” Sarhina said. “Too late to call back our soldiers, but we were able to evacuate the people into the mountains.”

“Sara?” It was a struggle to get her name out, but she, above anyone else, was his concern.

“She’s in our military camp outside the city. As is Lestara.” Sarhina’s voice soured slightly on the woman’s name, but even if it had not, Keris’s hackles would still have risen.

“Unfortunately, not everyone would abandon their homes to evacuate.” She looked away. “We tried to fight back but were forced into retreat. Petra’s army burned the city, wrote their messages, then got back on their ships.”

“The territory she wants is Nerastis,” he said. “She likely intended to use the attack on Vencia to lure our army back north, then take the city.”

“That’s what I thought as well, which is why I sent riders south with orders for them to hold their ground. If Petra attacks there, she’s in for a fight that won’t be easily won.”

Keris scrubbed his hands back through his hair, trying to think, but his mind was a mess. “If that was her intent, I should’ve seen her fleet on my way north. Even if they realized the gambit to lure ourarmy out of Nerastis hadn’t worked, they should still have been in proximity. But there was no sign of them.” Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried to work out the timeline, but he felt ten steps behind.

Zarrah’s prepared,he told himself.The rebels won’t be caught unaware.

It did nothing to calm the trepidation rising in his chest. All this time, he, and everyone else, had believed Petra’s goal was victory in the Endless War, defeating him, and annexing some or all of Maridrina. Had believed that the rebels were an obstacle she intended to remove first before setting her eyes north on her ancient enemy. It was logical. Strategic.

But wasn’t what she’d done.

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