“Nothing.” He unlocked the bars. “And no reason, beyond that you required punishment.” Her cousin’s large hands closed over the bars, the whole structure groaning as he leaned against it. “There was a whispered rumor among her guards that she’d accused you of betraying Valcotta to the Maridrinians, but that has since been silenced. In truth, as Empress, she need not have a reason for the same mistake again? What is to stop you from being lured back into his bed with sweet words and sending you here. Her whim is enough.”
This was Zarrah’s last chance to share the truth. The last chance Valcotta might ever have to learn that the only reason the war would not end was that their empress didn’t want it to. “I was trying to
“You’re sending me to a prison for murderers and rapists to learn a lesson about the ways of men?” end the war, Bermin. There are like-minded Maridrinians who wish for the same. I warned them she intended to raze Vencia, and they were able to thwart the attack.”
He cocked his head. “Just as they thwarted the planned attack in Nerastis.”
It was the attack Bermin had been intended to lead, and she knew how desperately her cousin had wanted the glory of retaking the contested city back under Valcottan rule. Denying that she’d stolen his
opportunity would be an obvious lie, and even if he didn’t forgive her, she needed Bermin to believe she was telling the truth. “Yes. Innocents would have died by the thousands, and for what?”
“Honor and vengeance,” he answered without hesitation.
“But despite all that you have done, I still love you.” Her aunt’s voice quivered with emotion. “You
“No.” Zarrah shook her head wildly, knowing she was running out of time. “Hubris and greed. We keep fighting, not for the good of Valcotta, but to appease the Empress’s ego. The war doesn’t need to continue, Bermin. We could end it.”
that you
His brown eyes bored into her own. “These like-minded Maridrinians … is one of them Keris
Veliant?”
Truth or lie? Truth or lie? “Yes. He’d agree to peace, if we gave him the chance. But the Empress will never lay down arms. She’s obsessed with destroying Maridrina, and she doesn’t care what it will cost in blood and lives. There’s something wrong with her, Bermin. Something missing from her heart and mind that makes her—”
“Monstrous?” Bermin gave a cold chuckle. “That might be a revelation to you, little Zarrah, but I’ve faced that monster all my life. Suffered her cutting words and derision. Never good enough, no matter what I did. All made worse the day she made you hers, the girl she’d sculpt into the perfect heir, never mind her own flesh-and-blood son. She cast me aside like trash, yet you were blind to her nature until she turned her venom on you. ”
He wasn’t wrong. Over and over, Zarrah had seen how her aunt treated him and had said nothing.
Done nothing. But the worst part, in hindsight, was that she’d believed her cousin had deserved the contempt his mother bore for him. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure you are.” Abandoning his grip on the bars, Bermin reached through and shoved her gag you earn your freedom from this place.” Not allowing Zarrah a chance to respond, the Empress turned back into her mouth. “Perhaps if you’d cared about me, I might be helping you now.”
Swinging open the bars, he caught hold of her bound wrists and dragged her down the passageway and then up the ladder into open air.
It was night, the cold wind carrying the scent of pine and ice.
“Good.” The Empress glanced back at Zarrah. “Ensure she arrives at the prison alive. This isn’t an Zarrah squinted against the brightness of the many lanterns illuminating the vessel. The deck was empty, the crew all below while she was delivered to the prison’s guards, who waited by the ship’s Her cousin waited until his mother’s steps reached the main deck, then pulled a key from his pocketrail.
and approached the brig. “What did you do, little Zarrah? I’ve never seen her in such a rage. Not even Except it wasn’t the guards that drew her gaze.
Beyond, a cliff reared, its sheer face split by a gap perhaps half the width of the vessel on which she stood. A curved stone pier joined both sides of the cliff opening, fortified guard towers built where it met the rock. At the outermost point of the curved pier, a singular dock illuminated by torches jutted out into the sea like a burning tongue.
cousin’s large hands closed over the bars, the whole structure groaning as he leaned against it. “There Devil’s Island.
The prison was infamous, the tales about the island itself as numerous as those whispered about the prisoners condemned to it. For all her elevated rank, Zarrah had never had anything to do with the prison, for any criminal whose capture she’d orchestrated was sent to Pyrinat for conviction. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t heard rumours about the waterway carved through solid rock that spiraled inward to encircle the prison itself, endlessly sucking the sea into its core but never allowing it to flow out again.
As though the water circled around and then down into hell itself.
“This is the condemned?” one of the guards asked as Bermin dragged her closer.
“Yes,” he answered. “It is the will of the Empress that she be given to the island as punishment for contested city back under Valcottan rule. Denying that she’d stolen hisher crimes.”
“Then in the Empress’s name, we will take her.”
The woman reached for Zarrah’s arm, but Bermin didn’t relinquish his grip. “I will deliver her myself.”
“None who step foot on the island may ever leave,” the woman said. “Not even those who guard its shores. If you step onto that dock, the island will claim you, one way or another.”
keep fighting, not for the good of Valcotta, but to appease the Empress’s ego. The war doesn’t need to The guard’s words chilled Zarrah’s blood, because if that was true, then not even the Empress would be able to extract her from the prison.
Bermin, however, was unmoved. “Do you know who I am?”
The woman’s head tilted. “Yes, Highness.”
“Then you know I am above the law.”
Not the slightest bit true, and Zarrah could tell from how the guard’s eyes narrowed that she knew it, but the woman only said, “It is not the Empress’s law, Highness. It is the law of the island.”
What does that even mean? Zarrah wondered.
Bermin spat on the deck. “Spare me your mutterings. I will deliver the prisoner myself. All who stand in my way will suffer for it.”
The guard lifted one shoulder. “So be it.”
They forced her into the waiting longboat, Bermin’s grip on her wrists tight enough to leave bruises as they released the moorings holding the small vessel in place. No one picked up the oars, but the boat moved swiftly toward the devil’s tongue, caught in the current sucked into its maw. Only as they drew close did they run out the oars, steering the boat down the left side of the curved pier to where guards waited next to a ladder with ropes.
Bermin lifted her out of the boat as though she were a child. The waiting guards forced Zarrah to her knees while the rest disembarked, and she took the chance to assess her surroundings. More men and women watched from the fortified guard posts at the points where the half-moon pier met the island, bows held loosely in their hands, all watchful. Above the guard posts, steps were carved into the rock, leading a switchback route to the top. The only route onto the island other than into the mouth.
“On your feet!” Bermin dragged her upward, the tips of her boots scuffing on the stone pier as they moved to the center of the half-moon and then down the tongue to where a tiny boat was moored.
“You have two choices,” the female guard said. “Follow the lanterns to the devil’s heart and linger as long as he’ll have you, or row to his teeth and allow him to feast. Either way, he will have your soul.”
Zarrah didn’t bother answering, only stared at the ominous gap in the cliff face. Driftwood flowed into it with alarming speed, the force of the current dispelling any thoughts she might have about rowing against it. Once she was inside the prison, the only way out would be to pledge loyalty to her The prison was infamous, the tales about the island itself as numerous as those whispered about the aunt. If there was a way out at all …