Page 69 of The Crown's Awakening
I let that settle.
“The Lights are more dangerous,” he adds. “The Opens need you alive. The Lights do not.”
“And everyone else?”
“Royalists,” he says with a shrug. “In theory. Our family has been followed for generations. Royalists are those who support whatever choice the Crown makes. In practice, most people pretend to be loyal and act otherwise. Be careful who claims to stand with you.”
“So there are three,” I say. “Lights, Opens, and Royalists.”
He glances at me. “Maybe you are not as stupid as your mother after all.”
“She wasn’t?—”
“You did not know her,” he cuts in. “She was intelligent until she fell in love and made choices that did not serve her. The fact that you are standing here without a husband tells me you may have learned something she did not.”
I do not respond to that.
He watches me a little longer, then asks, “Why did you leave?”
Syle stands beside him, so quiet I had nearly forgotten he was there.
“My husband went to the Shalvar Mountains to deal with the undead,” I say. “While he was gone, my brother tried to kill me.I asked the king for protection. He could not give it. Teorin told me Alarna would be safer.”
Uralish huffs a laugh. “And you believed him?"
“I did not realize until I was already on the ship that it was a plan to bring me here for the bond.”
“Then why is he not here?”
“I told him I would rather die than complete it,” I say. “If he followed me here, he would be bringing a corpse with him.”
Uralish looks at me in a way that is difficult to read.
“Have you had a good life, Asharanis?” he asks.
“Not really,” I answer. The words come more easily than I expect. “My father, the baron, hated me. He starved me. Beat me. I was little more than a servant in his house. He gave me to the crown to advance himself, so I was forced to marry Prince Colsar.”
His expression darkens. “That bastard?—”
“But it was not all bad,” I say, before he can continue. “We fell in love. He was not treated well either. He spent most of his life in Shalvar. We understood each other.” My hand moves unconsciously to my stomach. “This child was wanted.”
“And now?”
“I do not know where he is,” I admit. “Someone was sent to retrieve him once my situation at Rathmor Palace became more...serious. But I do not know if they reached him.”
“Rathmor palace?” Uralish asks. “I thought it was your brother who hurt you.”
“My brother tried to kill me,” I say. “But King Sevrin…” I hesitate. “He had an interest in me.”
Uralish’s expression shifts into something colder.
“He did not force me in the way you are thinking,” I add. “But he confined me. Controlled what I ate. Where I went. I met Teorin when I was trying to find food in the forest after the King forbid it.”
“What a piece of shit.”
The voice is not Uralish’s. I start, the sound of it too close, too clear.
“Sorry,” it says quickly, softer now. “I was trying not to interrupt. I did not want to be…intrusive.”
