Page 14 of A Monsoon Rising

Jie blew daintily into a silk kerchief. “I’ll …”—she hiccupped, eyes watery and red—“I’ll try, Harlikaan.”

Talasyn would have taken umbrage at how callously her grandmother had written off the Allfold’s struggle to reclaim their homeland, but she was having difficulty feeling much of anything. She was dimly aware that she was in shock. Everything sounded a bit muffled to her ears, and she couldn’t stop fixating on her hands, couldn’t stop thinking about what those hands had done earlier. All the people they had killed.

“Lady Jie is not far off the mark,” Elagbi pointed out. “We must set sail for the Dominion as soon as possible. We can’t stay here. Who knows when more fighting will erupt?”

“I fully intend on us leaving within the hour,” said Urduja. “While I do believe that the rebels risked everything for a gamble that didn’t pay off, there’s no telling what else can happen on these strange shores. However, thereisone upside to this dreadful situation—it lays to rest any Kesathese concerns over whether there is any lingering fellowship between Alunsina and the Allfold.”

That’s not my name,Talasyn thought with a faded ember of mutiny. Alunsina Ivralis was the Night Empress, the traitor. She didn’t want to be her. She wanted to go back to the days when Hiras was telling jokes around forest campfires.

Gods, Hiras … They’d dragged him away once the dust had settled. He was probably in the bowels of the Citadel’s prison now, awaiting his fate along with the other surviving rebels. He wasn’t much older than Jie.

Hearing voices behind the door and the sound of unbolting, the Lachis-dalo stationed inside the room reached for their weapons, relaxing only marginally when Alaric entered.

“Ah, Your Majesty, there you are,” said Urduja. “If you would be so good as to clear us to sail, we’d like to leave posthaste. I’m sure you understand, given the situation—”

“Which has been contained,” Alaric tersely interrupted. “The coronation gala has been postponed to later tonight, but itwillbe held, and I need Talasyn in attendance. You may leave in the morning.”

“Preposterous!” Elagbi thundered. “Have my daughter be paraded around only hours after a deadly attack took place? I won’t allow it.”

“The alternative,” Alaric retorted, “is formy wifeto make her way to the docks when our interrogators have yet to extract any useful information on rebel movement and our sky patrols haven’t finished their search for more enemy ships. I would much rather not give the Sardovians the opportunity to ambush your convoy. There is currently no safer place in Kesath than the Citadel.”

“Then I must have been mistaken,” said Elagbi, “and it is someothercity with a center lying in ruins.”

At this display of cutting sarcasm, Alaric shot Talasyn a pointed look. “Now I know where you get it from.”

He didn’t bother explaining what he meant to the other people in the room. Instead, he went on to counter the Dominion prince’s argument. “Only the plaza complex was destroyed, and you saw how efficiently we dealt with those who destroyed it. You saw my father’s power. There is no reason to cancel the gala.”

“So that’s the plan, is it?” Urduja huffed, guessing his intent, seeing ahead and through as always. “You wish to celebrate not only your new empress but also your victory over the rebels and the fall of a Sardovian stormship?”

“It rather takes away from the message, having the guest of honor turn tail and flee back home,” Alaric said by way ofconfirmation. “It is also in Nenavar’s best interests to show the Continent that she and Kesath are united in the face of all dangers.”

He approached Talasyn where she sat. It was only then that she noticed that he was holding her crown, dangling from one black-gloved hand at his side. The platinum surface was slightly scuffed, and one of the rubies had a barely perceptible crack. When he held it out to her, she stared blankly at him. With a frown, he placed it on her lap with care.

Then he knelt before her so that they were almost eye level, his gaze lingering on her bruised cheek with an intensity that was both wrathful and startlingly possessive. His lips were set in a stern line, and his fingers clutched the chair’s armrest, grazing her elbow. The lips that she had kissed, the fingers that had been inside her …

The Sardovians she had killed to save herself.

The Sardovian she had killed to savehim.

I am the Night Emperor’s whore,she thought bleakly. Her former comrade had called her that, before he died, and it was true. She was a traitor.

“Why did you run to them?” Alaric asked quietly. “Nisene said she saw you.”

Think.She had to think. Talasyn forced her sluggish mind to come up with a passable excuse, and it felt too long—it felt like ages before she spoke. “There wasn’t anything logical about it. I just—I knew them. From before. And I wanted to get them to stop. I couldn’t believe it when they started attacking me. I wasn’t being rational.”

A maze of half-truths, which all amounted to a lie. She could have taken a page from Jie’s book and wept with uneasy relief when Alaric seemed to accept her explanation.

“And now we know,” he said, “that Sardovia will stop at nothing to destroy us both. But you have my hand and thereforemy protection, and there is no need to fear. Come to the gala tonight. You will be safe.”

Talasyn nodded slowly. What else could she do? It helped with her cover.

“Was this what you were hiding from us?” she asked. “A rebellion?”

A muscle worked in his jaw. “Yes. There have been a few small uprisings scattered throughout the Continent, but all quickly contained. We didn’t know until today, though, that they had organized. Or that they had a stormship.”

What would the Nenavarene Lachis’ka say? The one who’d been born to rule, who had no need to allay her husband’s suspicions? “This was a security threat.” She forced the words out through a throat clogged with thorny bramble. “And you kept it a secret from my delegation because …”

“My father didn’t trust you.” Alaric looked away briefly. “Ididn’t trust you. But you saved my life today.” He met her gaze again, and this time his own was open. “Everyone saw you use light magic to kill your attackers, as well as the rebel sneaking up on me.”

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