Page 42 of War Hour

When he looks up, bright blue eyes meeting my own, I freeze, caught examining him. But he gives me a small curl of his lips before gesturing to his own sleeves. He motions for me to roll up mine. I can’t stop the confused arch of my brows.

Torryn brings his hands down on the table, standing to match Lord Bralas. “Drytas has found a way around it. He forcedLysta to Trial, and the door opened at her forced agreement with a knife to her throat.”

The focus of the table moves to me again, their gazes searching me as if looking for evidence of Torryn’s claim. I straighten my shoulders and head, trying to project any air but of a victim. My fingers intertwine and twist as if able to unknot my anxiety. Doing as the stranger suggests, I roll up my sleeve, revealing my Trial tattoo to the room.

“This is ridiculous. Having a Trial tattoo means nothing.” Bralas starts again, but Torryn silences him with a deadly look.

“I have not finished!”

At the loud statement, the table goes silent.

“Following her Trialing, the tunnel collapsed.” Torryn meets the eyes of each person in the room. “The door cracked into dozens of pieces.”

For the first time since I’ve arrived, it is completely silent. No one speaks, each seeming to process the news with paling faces.

Torryn lets the information sink in. “There is currently no viable way to Trial in the Court of Valor, and I’m unsure if there ever will be again.”

Of course, the one thing to break through and make the Crowns listen: a risk to their precious Trials.

Lord Gennady breaks the silence, his words but a whisper. “This is very alarming. I’ve never heard an event like this happening before. Do you know why?” He looks to Torryn.

“No, I don’t,” Torryn answers, leaning back in his chair now that the screaming interrogation has quieted. “Only guesses, but in our last days there, Lysta was able to reveal Lord Drytas’s end game.”

“And?”

Torryn looks to me, and I stare back with question in my eyes. He nods as if knowing the curiosity rooted in my mind.

Is this the best way?

My body shakes under the intense gazes of the room. If I tell them what I know, it would be my first real step of treason. My escape of Falland could be played easily as being coerced by Torryn, but in this moment, providing information against my court, I could never take it back.

When Drytas arrives, in what could be only days, he will have every reason to want my head. And depending on if these rulers believe me, they might let him.

Lord Gennady says softly into the room, “Lysta, you have no cause for fear from us. We only seek the truth.”

I nod shakily, blinking away the mist smothering my eyes.

Even if telling them what I know makes it so I can never return home, it would still be worth it. To fix Falland. I have only spent a day outside the walls of the city, and I can easily say now—Falland is broken. But maybe these people would care enough to fix it.

Taking a deep breath, I focus on the center of the table. “He plans to bring all the Untrialed to invade the other courts.” I pause, waiting for someone to question me. When no one does, I continue. “If he can’t Trial them in Falland, then he said he’ll Trial them all. In every court. Building an army to destroy any who stand in his way. He said he’d be the wielder of all courts’ power.”

The news goes over much as I expected, but I still flinch when the table stands in outrage. Even Torryn whips around to look at me with wide eyes, like I’ve said something he didn’t expect.

Bralas lurches across its surface, hands pressed down as he snarls at me. “And why would he reveal this to you? Freshly Trialed, and he trusted you already? Drytas is no fool.”

My gaze flickers to Torryn again, but I can’t see him around the standing lords.

I hesitate before revealing, “He believed me an essential part of the plan. He wanted to use me to force the Untrialed—”

Bralas throws his hands in the air. Turning to Lord Gennady while pointing at me, he says, “Are we really believing this? Trusting the word of a barely Trialed girl over a lord? It’s an outrage!”

“What would I gain from lying about this?!” I yell.

Bralas snarls as he stomps across the room to me before pressing his finger into my face. “You dare speak to a lord like that, you pitiful excuse of a Trialed.”

The anger surges under my skin, and I feel the initial signs of my power emerging. He could not touch me. Not if I let the shield come out.

Not the time, fighter.

---