Page 1 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

Chapter1

Ilya

They conquered my city, but not me.

Our people lay dying. Sorrena burned. The once salt-tinged breeze, turned putrid with the scent of smoke and death, ruffled my hair. Surrender was the only way to cease the carnage, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Not when I’d be taken from the city I was born to lead and made the hostage of a tyrant.

My sandaled foot clicked against the marble floor, sharp staccato beats in time with the fury pumping through my veins.

“Stop that, Ilya,” Mother said from her high-backed seat at my side. She cut a hard glance up to me where I stood next to her on the dais, her dark eyes carefully devoid of emotion.

I pressed my lips together but nodded in return. The heiress of Sorrena couldn’t appear nervous, furious, vengeful, or any of the other racing emotions churning within me. No, I must be just as severe and resolute as my mother. Her back sat as straight and stiff as the cliffs that plunged into the sea. I tightened my fist, blocked from her view, in a vain attempt to keep my emotions in check.

Thunder rumbled, echoing through the room. The wall across from the throne was open, clinging to the top of the cliffs and providing a view of the sea beyond. Only a handful of marble columns obstructed the sight. Dark clouds hovered low on the horizon, dropping a sheet of rain into the turbulent waters below. We could no more halt the storm than the vastly more threatening and terrible fate we waited for.

Any moment now, Emperor Ryszard’s dogs would be shown into the throne room to demand our surrender. To refuse would mean death—a long, bloody, terrible one.

Lightning flashed over the sea. Its light reflected in the twisting silver of Mother’s crown, so similar to the streaks painted by age in her brown hair that it was hard to tell where one stopped and the other began. The central sapphire was unmistakable in its brilliance though. My hand found the smaller twin stone around my neck, the Mark of Sorrena, the symbol of the heir of the city.

I swallowed the humorless laugh trying to break free. A failure of an heir who’d been forced to watch from the high tower as our troops were slaughtered. We’d never been fighters. Our small military were more peacekeepers maintaining order in our coastal trading city, the farthest east before the Ocean of Storms, but we’d had to try.

The double doors groaned open. Rain and sea spray splattered onto the polished floors across the room. Men and women in crimson and grey—the emperor’s colors—filed in. Blood and dirt marred their uniforms, but otherwise, many looked none the worse for wear. I wish I could have said the same about my people.

Lieutenant Barbarous led the procession of our enemy. It should have been Nyke, our captain of the guard, but he was lost among the dead or dying. Word of his loss still cut me deep. My chest tightened at the lack of his reassuring presence. I’d seen him almost every day of my life, discussing plans with Mother, instructing our troops, or providing me with weapons lessons that I never could quite master. No more.

“Perhaps they’ll all slip and fall into the sea,” I muttered as they crossed the wet marble to ring the room.

For once, Mother didn’t rebuke me.

Terror gripped my limbs as the first of the emperor’s captains entered the room. Then another. And another. It was easy to spot the captains with the armor that covered them head to toe, all gleaming metal and polished leather. Five in all, each lethal with both blade and magic. The emperor sent only a handful of hischildrento drive us into submission. Each bore a different helm resembling an animal. No one truly knew the faces of men and women who led the emperor’s armies and carried out his every whim.

Mother rose as they came to stand before us.

I glanced at the side of the throne room where my father stood with my little sister and a cluster of nobles and advisors. He nodded to me, offering a tight smile that pulled at the laugh lines around his mouth. The best support he could give, I supposed. He was always the bright spot in our family, calm and soothing in contrast to my mother’s sharpness. A small circlet graced his head, the only sign of position that separated him from the other well-dressed courtiers he stood with.

My sister chewed her bottom lip, her attention far away on the stormy horizon. The High Priest of Soliel, God of Light, had kept watch over my sister during the battle, but she was wise for her cycles—she knew far more of what happened than anyone wanted.

My attention fixed on the captain in the center, the one who advanced nearer than the others—Lucien, they called him, with a helm like the great stags of the northern wood. Everyone knew of the emperor’s first-in-command. Blessed by Erabus, the God of Darkness, he could craft masterful illusions, force someone to see their worst fear, their greatest desire, or their doom staring them in the face. He didn’t use it now, but he didn’t need to. His presence struck a horror all its own. My throat dried. I notched my chin higher as I stared him down, infusing my eyes with all the fury simmering under my skin.

We’d lost, but I’d never let them conquer me.

“Lady Astraea Valerious.” Captain Lucien’s voice rang with power, deep and fluid as the churning seas.

“Captain.” Mother gave the briefest of nods in return.

My back stiffened as another captain, one with a helmet resembling a bear, snickered. A glance from Lucien silenced him. Perhaps our pitiful defense was humorous to him, or he enjoyed the thought of my proud mother submitting to them. If I’d been blessed by The Four with magical gifts like each of the emperor’s prized captains, I’d have used them at that moment. Burnt them to ash. Stolen the air from their lungs. Graced them with the kiss of death. But no, I wasn’t so blessed. Few in our city were. Nor had the Gods and Goddesses heeded my prayers as I’d kneeled in each of their four temples in turn to beg their protection and grace. Perhaps if I’d been more devout, they would have listened.

“In the name of our emperor, I ask you to pardon your people from further death and destruction and kneel. In return, Emperor Ryszard is prepared to let you and all your people”—he gestured to those assembled—“live as long as they follow his edict.”

He paused, but Mother did not respond. There would be more. We’d heard enough about the fate of our neighboring city-states to know. The emperor would demand a hostage as a show of our submission to his rule. Anhonored guesthe called it—such a joke. Everyone knew one step out of line by the city-state would mean the hostage’s head. And it wouldn’t be my father’s, nor my little sister Justina’s. He’d take the person my mother would least want to lose.

Me.

Not because of any great love, but because I was her prized heir. The child she’d trained from birth to follow in her footsteps.All for Sorrena.Our motto. I swallowed the bitterness on my tongue. I’d have given my life to ensure Sorrena’s future if it would have saved us from this moment.

Lucien’s attention slid to me and held.

A shiver rolled across my skin, raising gooseflesh in its wake. I fought the urge to squirm and stared him down, our gazes locking across the space between us. What I wouldn’t give to rake my nails across his face or hurl him off the cliffs. His death wouldn’t save us, but it might spare the next city-state the emperor eyed.

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