Page 117 of A Reign of Embers

How much does she suspect? What are my chances of persuading them to help if she’s scrutinizing their movements even more warily than before?

Valerisse isn’t finished. Her lips curl with a trace of a sneer. “The discovery inspired me to conduct a more thorough assessment of my forces. You won’t be hearing from any of your spies again either. The people of Rodrige will be admiring their strung-up corpses until the birds pick clean their bones.”

The well of cool serenity inside me turns to ice. The chill spreads through my veins.

I only keep my horror from my voice through sheer force of effort. “All of this is treason, tribune. I’m acting in protection of the empire by the rights granted to me?—”

“Sabrelle has removed her favor,” Valerisse interrupts. “The empire wouldn’t exist without her support, and she wants you gone. I’m pleased to be her champion. And she’s given me such a gift to bolster my divine mission.”

She shoves up the sleeve of her jacket in a jerk. Her arm beneath is bare nearly to her shoulder—where, just below the short sleeve of her shirt, a steel armband grips her bicep.

A hound and a stallion bound across the metal ring. Their eyes flash with tiny rubies.

Beside me, Axius sucks in a hitch of breath. I can’t breathe at all.

This must be why Valerisse lingered in Rodrige despite sending some of her army onward. She was searching for the same relic Linus sent me on a hunt for months ago, the one I purposefully refused to find while giving him a replica instead.

The Sabrelle-blessed armband Elox felt was too dangerous to remain in mortal hands. The ornament designed to give the wearer all possible boldness in battle.

Now it encircles Valerisse’s arm like a divine mandate.

I open my mouth, but no sound comes out.

Valerisse scoffs and lets her sleeve drop. “We march on Vivencia with no further delays. Your days are numbered, false empress, and that number is dwindling faster than you can imagine.”

Before I can say a word, the image in the mirror wavers and snaps away.

I sway on my feet for a moment before my legs stiffen enough to catch my balance. My voice comes out hoarse. “Summon my other advisors. We need to meet at once.”

Less than an hour later, I rest my hands on the tabletop in the strategy room, needing all the steadiness I can gain from its cool, solid surface. “And how long will it take before Valerisse’s forces are at Vivencia’s walls?”

The scowl that’s marked Axius’s face since the tribunedelivered her announcement deepens. He motions to the map of Dariu expanded on the table’s surface. “Most of her followers are infantry, traveling on foot. Even if she sets a hard pace, we have about a week. And I doubt she wants them exhausted when they reach us.”

Counsel Etta speaks up. “But she’s using even that timeline against you. We’ve already gotten a report from one of the border towns her army passed by—they pillaged the place for supplies and declared it your fault for refusing to back down.”

Cleric Pierus winces. “She wants all the common people to blame the war and its hardships on you even though she initiated it.”

“If she can convince them that I’m holding on to the throne illegitimately, they’ll believe her.” I pinch the bridge of my nose as if that sensation will bring my frantic thoughts into better focus. The uncomfortable weight in my chest has only grown with the passing minutes, as if I’m carrying a boulder.

A boulder Valerisse and her patron godlen heaved at me. And I have no one I can hand it off to.

“We have no real choice, do we?” I say. “We need to face her and put all our power into shutting down this incursion.”

The high commander shifts uneasily on his feet. “By every report, her army far outnumbers the forces we’ve been able to gather—and some of our people are still recovering from the pox. We may be a little better off by the time she reaches Vivencia, but to order them to take up a strenuous march right now…”

I might be sending them to certain death, with plenty of discomfort along the way.

I swallow a sigh. “If the other kingdoms will contribute?—”

Etta frowns. “We can’t count on them. Gods only know how she’s threatened them after discovering the mirrors.”

Which could work in my favor, making the thought of her victory even less palatable… or very well work against it, making the risk of supporting me feel too great. And we have no way of knowing which it’ll be when I can’t get a message to them and a response back in the time it’ll take for Valerisse’s army to arrive at my doorstep.

“I’ve signaled my sister,” I say. “What support Accasy can supply will be on their way.”

But marching little faster than Valerisse’s people are capable of… We might already have fallen by the time Soreena reaches us if we’re otherwise left to our own devices.

Axius looks as if he’s carrying a boulder on his shoulders as well. “I’ve been scouring the last missives we received from our spies for any details that could indicate a weakness… Perhaps she missed one or two of them and we’ll hear more still.”

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