Page 90 of The First Spark
Kalie’s legs trembled. “My grandmother had two daughters—Duchissa Calida and my mother. You’re lying.”
She wasn’t. Uncle Jerran’s face was proof.
“Before her parents forced her to marry that Renish prince, my mother fell madly in love. She eloped and conceived a child?—”
“There was no elopement?—”
A guard jabbed a pulser into Uncle Jerran’s back. He fell silent.
“As I was saying, she eloped with my father, but she trusted the wrong man with her secret.” Iliana’s sunken eyes shifted to Uncle Jerran. “Her parents arranged for my father to disappear. I don’t think anyone knew they’d been married except my uncle. I was regarded as illegitimate, so my birth was a quiet one. I was adopted out, and my mother’s first marriage never saw the light of day.”
The voices of the crowd surged.
Sweat dripped down Kalie’s face. It was no secret that Grandmother Madeleine had many affairs, but she’d never heard of another marriage, and certainly not another child.
“My uncle came to visit me occasionally. I didn’t know what he’d done, and I fell into the trap of trusting him. I idolized him.”
Kalie swallowed. She wasn’t the only one to idolize Uncle Jerran. They all had. Madeleine, Aunt Calida and Mother, her and Mylis.
Uncle Jerran’s face was so, so pale.
“When the civil war began, I stayed out of it. Towards the end, my mother summoned me. She broke down and told me the whole story. She was going to make me her heir.” Iliana glowered at Uncle Jerran. “Within the week, I received a message from my uncle, asking to meet. I was conflicted. I was to be named Heredem, and he was supporting the girl born with that title. But I was young and naive. Not much older than you, Kalista. My trust was misplaced.”
“Enough,” Uncle Jerran spat. The furor from the balconies and the tumult of the crowd below drowned him out.
Mylis shifted in front of Kalie. She inched closer to him, breathing in his sandalwood cologne. It didn’t calm her racing pulse.
“I went. My uncle was there, but so were his men. I was overpowered quickly.” Tears seeped from Iliana’s closed eyes. “They threw a hood over my head, tied my hands behind my back. I tried to resist, but they were too strong… I remember screaming for my mother to save me… then I woke up in a dark cell, completely alone.”
Kalie pressed her hand to her mouth.
As Uncle Jerran’s face flushed a livid shade of red, a murmur rippled through the crowd. On the balcony, the nobles gazed at Iliana with sympathy.
Mylis’s grip tightened on his pulser.
“It was many months,” Iliana mumbled, “until I found out I was on Titan. By then, I knew no one was coming. I was told my mother took her own life weeks after I was captured. The guard’s exact words were, ‘the bitch has finally offed herself.’”
“Enough!” Uncle Jerran roared, marching towards her. “You will leave, now, and never show your face here again. Lies! All lies!”
Kalie shivered. Judging by his initial reaction, they weren’t lies at all.
Iliana raised her nose high in the air, cold and imperious. Her resemblance to Mother was uncanny. “The day has passed when I listened to you, Uncle Jerran. I made that mistake once. It’ll never happen again.”
Kalie’s lip wobbled as Uncle Jerran limped towards her. His face was drawn, his posture stooped.
Mylis stepped away, taking his hand off his pulser.
The birds had stopped chirping. The nobles had stopped shouting, and the crowd below had gone utterly silent. Rays of golden sunlight crept over them, but Kalie couldn’t tear her gaze from Uncle Jerran long enough to see where they’d landed. She already knew they’d fallen on the emaciated woman standing behind her.
Her aunt, whom he’d betrayed.
“Is it true?”
His throat bobbed. “Not entirely. Kalista, I…” He reached for her, and she flinched away. “Please, there’s more to the story?—”
“I can’t believe it,” Kalie breathed.
The people imprisoned on the Dalian moon Titan were those so wicked they would never see the light of day. The prisoners faced the worst abuses imaginable, and Uncle Jerran had sent his innocent niece to rot there.
