Page 61 of The Endless War

Keris?

Her chest tightened, and Zarrah looked away from the message. Why would he? Not only had she told him that if she ever saw him again, she’d kill him, but the information her aunt’s spies had provided more than proved he’d moved on. To Lestara. Zarrah’s stomach twisted, her hands balling into fists as she envisioned the beautiful harem wife, though in truth, there were probably others. Keris was the king. He was rich, charming, and more beautiful than any man had a right to be, so women would be clamoring to warm his bed. Why would he risk all of that for her? Besides, the letter’s prose was terrible, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Keris hadn’t written it.

This wasn’t his scheme, because it was over between them, what love they’d shared now ash on the wind.

The reminder was a punch to the gut, and she hated herself for caring so much. For having wished that he’d come, despite all that he’d done, because it proved her aunt’s words. Proved that she was still under his spell. How could she dream of leading an army to overthrow the Empress if the King of Maridrina held so much sway over her? If every time she faced an obstacle, she needed him to provide a solution? A solution that would inevitably be to his benefit.

“Focus,” she snarled softly to herself. “It’s not him, so who sent it?”

Ithicana? She wouldn’t precisely call Aren a friend, but she believed he respected her, as she did him. There was a chance he’d attempt to repay the aid she’d given him, but her heart told her that was a dream. Ithicana had liberated itself, which meant Aren owed hernothing. Even if he felt otherwise, making a deal with murderers and rapists did not strike her as something someone of his morals would do.

The rebels hadn’t written the letter. Keris hadn’t written it. Neither had Aren.

So who? Who had the desire and means to get a letter into the prison supplies?

Zarrah abruptly went still.

Maybe she’d been thinking about this the wrong way. Maybe the letter hadn’t been written by an individual who believed she was worth rescue.

Maybe it had been written by someone who believed she was worth something as bait.

“ATOUCH FORMAL,but I’ll take it,” Keris answered, eyeing the warriors who surrounded them. Aren had pulled his knife and appeared ready to single-handedly fight them all himself, and to his credit, not one of them appeared keen to take him on.

Daria rolled her eyes, then sat down on a stump. “Relax, we’re on the same side. If things had gone according to plan, we’d currently be keeping her safe while we waited for rescue, but Zarrah didn’t take well to learning of our diet and hightailed it over to the enemy’s camp.” She sighed. “In fairness, it might have been better if I’d been forthright, but I was afraid she’d react as she did.”

“How did you know we were coming?” Aren asked, blade still held as though he anticipated one of them would try to take a bite out of his leg at any minute.

“We didn’t.”

Keris frowned. “Then how do you know who I am?”

“Zarrah told me about you.” When he tensed, she said, “Not byname, of course. But enough detail that, in combination with what I’d heard about her time in Vencia, I was able to put two and two together. Especially when daylight revealed those eyes of yours.” She leaned forward and scrutinized his face. “The rumors about the color don’t lie. Is it true that every Veliant has eyes that hue?”

Before Keris could answer, her attention moved to Aren. “Who’s your combative comrade?”

“Family,” Aren answered, and Keris glanced sideways at the other man. Though it was technically true, it still surprised him that Aren would refer to him as such.

“Good-looking family.” Daria stretched her legs out in front of her. “My name is Daria Retta, and I’m a captain in the True Empress’s army. Devil’s Island might have once been a prison for convicts, but now it’s a place the Usurper sends her prisoners of the Silent War, the rebellion against Petra Anaphora’s unlawful rule.”

True Empress. Unlawful rule.Yet more proof that the rumor Aster remembered was no rumor, nor Serin’s final words that Aryana was the true and rightful ruler a lie. Zarrah should be empress, but Petra had stolen her crown.

Daria was watching him with knowing eyes. “Yes. Emperor Ephraim named Princess Aryana as his heir and successor. Rather than bending the knee to her younger sister, Petra destroyed the proclamation and assassinated nearly everyone who knew the truth, using her power in the military to spread the lie that she was named heir. Aryana bent the knee to Petra to protect herself and her young daughter, but secretly spent years gathering support in the south to eventually overthrow Petra’s rule. Unfortunately your father murdered Aryana before her plans could come to fruition, but the cause didn’t die with her. We kept up the fight in the name of her daughter and heir even as Petra twisted Zarrah into her own creature.”

Daria was quiet for a long moment, and then she continued, “I was captured and imprisoned two years ago. But information comes to me every time Petra imprisons one of my comrades, so I learned that Zarrah came back from Vencia …changed. Which meant little to me until I received direct word from the commander that Petra had turned on her heir and was sending her to her prison. The idea that Zarrah wasno longer Petra’s pet gave us hope that she might become the empress we needed her to be. Yet that hope stood on a knife’s blade because it resided in this place.” She gestured outward. “I was given orders to secure her at all costs and protect her until the commander was able to organize a rescue. In that, I have surely failed.”

“How do you communicate with your commander?” Aren asked.

“The commander was able to get one of ours a position as a guard,” she answered. “He communicates information to me by signing short messages while I cuss him, and every other guard, out each morning.”

“How much of this does Zarrah know?” Keris asked, because if she knew the rebels had concrete plans to rescue her, even the revelation of cannibalism wouldn’t have been enough to make her run.

“Some.” Daria looked away. “Most of us know Zarrah as Petra’s creature, her tool for violence and a proponent of the Endless War, so we were not quick to trust that she hadn’t been sent here as an agent to infiltrate the rebellion.”

Aren scoffed. “A foolish thought. Why in the hell would Petra risk her heir to discover information about a rebellion that she seems to have well in hand?”

Daria’s jaw worked back and forth. “Because Zarrah is unique bait for the commander, and Petra hates him at least as much as she hatesyou.” She jerked her chin at Keris.

Keris’s eyes narrowed. “Who is this commander?”

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