Page 70 of The Endless War

Keris made no response, and Zarrah wished she could see his face so that she might know what he was thinking. What he was planning.

This is your plan,she silently chastised herself.Quit waiting for Keris to lead.

She took a step closer, then froze as Bermin said, “Stay where you are, or your lover dies.”

Her cousin was stalling; she knew that. Just as she knew that Daria’s warriors could not defeat so many heavily armed soldiers, especially if reinforcements arrived. She needed to disarm Bermin and get Keris up that rope while there was still time for flight.

“You afraid to fight me?” she asked, hoping to bait him, but Bermin only laughed. “Fool me once, shame on you, little Zarrah. But fool me twice—”

She threw her spear.

Her aim was true. The weapon shot toward her cousin’s face, but for all his failings, Bermin was a warrior through and through. With a snarl, he lifted his blade and knocked the spear from the air before cutting downward at Keris’s neck.

To find empty air.

Keris kept rolling as Zarrah charged, snatching up Kian’s fallensword. Her blade met Bermin’s with a clash, the strength of his blow making her arm shudder, but she held her ground.

Her cousin did not.

Cursing, he backed away, eyes flicking to the cliff tops. Zarrah barked out a laugh, driving him away from Keris, who was furiously sawing at the rope using a dead man’s knife wedged between two rocks. “For all your talk about taking your mother’s crown, you’re afraid of her,” she sneered. “That’s why you don’t just kill me and be done with that. That’s why you need to resort to dishonorable trickery to try to undermine me.”

“You undermine yourself,” her cousin retorted. “You’re a silly little woman who betrayed her Empress and nation for a man. My mother might think you redeemable, but I know better. Destroying him won’t change anything because you are weak. Because you are a pawn. Because you were made to be used by others, not to lead.”

Zarrah’s arm trembled, fury rising in her chest. Except it was being lifted by the fear that he was right.

Silence him,her rage demanded.Put him in the ground.

“You never change, little Zarrah.” Bermin’s eyes flicked to the cliff tops, then back to her. “So high on your own ideals, with no realization that every one of them has been planted in your mind by another.”

Something in her mind snapped, and Zarrah attacked.

To fight while she was so angry was the path to an early grave, but Zarrah could no more rein in her sword arm than she could the emotions in her chest.Silence him!her wrath shrieked, the intensity of her need giving her strength.

And speed.

Before Bermin could react, she slashed at his ribs, blade cutting deep into the leather of his armor. He hissed but instead of recoiling, swung at her unarmored chest.

But Zarrah was already twisting away.

He stumbled when his blade found empty air, and she stepped past him, the tip of her blade scoring deep into his thigh.

Bermin howled, his toe catching on a rock and sending himsprawling, weapon flying out of his grip. He rolled, reaching for it, but her sword was already cutting down at his exposed spine.

A hand closed around her wrist, stopping the blow. “If you kill him, she’ll use him as a martyr,” Keris said softly, his breath brushing her ear and making her chest tighten. “He can do more damage dead than alive, and I know that you know that.”

“Giving her instructions already?” Bermin laughed, blood trickling from where the tip of her sword pressed into his throat. “Little Zarrah never has a thought for herself. What, pray tell, does the King of Maridrina want her to do?”

Kill him. Kill him kill him kill him.

“Ignore him,” Keris said, and she shivered as his unshaven cheek touched hers. “He knows she’ll never forgive this. That she’ll name a dog her heir before him. That his only chance to be remembered as anything other than a failure is martyrdom.”

“So obedient,” Bermin said. “That was what she always said about you, little Zarrah. That you listened. That you did as you were told. My mother wanted someone who would follow her instructions even when she was in the grave. Her puppet. His puppet. The rebels’ puppet.”

Tears ran down her cheeks, her sword arm shaking.

“Zarrah, we need to go. Reinforcements will come.”

“Shut up,” she snarled. And though she knew it made her sound like a child, she added, “Don’t tell me what to do!”

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