Page 74 of Betraying Korth

“Release her,” Odette spat. “She isn’t worth the trouble.”

The guard did as she said. I fell forward and Korth immediately bent to help me up.

“This isn’t over,” Father said, stepping to the front of our group and addressing Odette. “You know you can’t win.” He lifted his gaze to the opposing guards. “We will set up a new government. One in which your voice will be heard. But in order to do that, you need the courage to think for yourselves and not let her command you.”

The guards stayed where they were.

“You have to decide,” I urged them. “Now.”

“If you betray me, I’ll have you killed,” Odette shrieked at the men, holding them back.

“But if you join us, you can finally be free,” Father solemnly promised. “Freedom is something I am willing to fight to the death for.”

Grips tightened on sword hilts all around and the frenzy of the exchanged glances increased. A rumbling came from behind us as Ebora’s citizens—men and women with hollowed faces and sunken eyes—came to back us up, facing Odette and her soldiers.

“We will stand with you,” rasped one of the men, clutching his pitchfork.

“As will I,” added a woman brandishing a butcher’s knife. “I want my children to grow up in a free kingdom.”

“Me too.”

“And me!”

The citizens of Ebora began emerging from their homes, swelling our ranks. The hesitation on the faces of Odette’s guards soon gave way to shame, and one by one, they began dropping their sword points and moving away from Odette.

“No!” Odette looked frantically around for any last semblance of support and found only a dwindling number of supporters, who pulled her back, urging her to retreat.

“It’s time for us, the people, to have a stronger voice!” Father cried, and a rallying cheer responded. “For Ebora!”

“For Ebora!”

In a wave, the citizens rushed forward to grab Odette as the sun’s first rays of light broke up the night’s velvety darkness, finally prepared to seize control of their own fates and fight for what they believed in as we ushered in a new dawn in our kingdom.

CHAPTER 33

“You don’t have to come back with me, you know,” Korth told me after I boarded his ship. “You have a home here now.”

“I also have a sentence to serve, and I will answer for my crimes. I won’t hide my true identity anymore. Besides, Father told me it would be safer for me in Haven Harbor. Odette still has followers out there; an entire regime doesn’t fall in just one night.”

“It was just like you said,” Korth sighed, burying his head into his hands as we set sail back to Haven Harbor. “The people there…they were starving and mistreated, and I didn’t do anything.”

I longed to pull him into an embrace but refrained. Familiarity with the crown prince of Haven Harbor was a privilege I no longer had, and that loss cut my soul to my core. The only sound was the gentle slosh of the waves against the boat as it glided gracefully through the water, out of the harbor and toward the distant sun.

“You didn’t know about it. Besides, you aren’t engaged to Odette anymore; Ebora’s problems aren’t yours to handle.”

“But we’re all human,” he protested. “I can’t stand idly by knowing that injustices are being dealt.”

The ghost of a smile flickered across my mouth. “I know the feeling. There’s a fine line between heroism and villainy.”

Korth pulled his hand down his face and stared at me. “What have we done to each other?”

I stared at the endless ocean that stretched out as far as the eye could see. “I’d like to think we improved each other.”

“They’ll make you stand trial,” he groaned. “Once we get back.”

I shrugged. “I’m ready to accept my punishment. I did some time engaged to this honorable prince I know, and it seems to have instilled a vague sense of morality into me. Besides, life in a tiny prison cell there will be a jolly holiday compared to what life was like for most people back home.” I gestured at the fading coastline as the ship sailed away. “I did everything I could; I can’t help them anymore, not in the way they need.”

“But I could,” Korth murmured, so quietly that the words were nearly lost over the flapping of the sails.

---