“I do not know for certain. I remember Terena screaming at me and the Imperial Guard taking me away. The Royal Physician gave me a sedative and I was left alone to sleep. When I awoke, we were on our way to Aurora. I wasn’t told of… I wasn’t told about Isher until after we’d arrived in Avonon.
“Daris said he’d had a man stationed near my rooms, to keep an eye on me. The man reported back to him of your arrival, and Daris became suspicious. He went to my rooms himself to investigate and found the guards slaughtered. Then he found us. Someone else was there, he said. He saw Isher… he saw someone hooded, standing over me and when he rushed toward me, the person fled over the balcony. I’m not sure how anyone could’vesurvived a fall from that height, but there was no word of anyone being found dead from a fall, so…” He sighed and looked over at her. “They snuck me out with the firstborns the morning of the… execution.”
Sonah inhaled raggedly, her throat clogged with emotion she tried to control.
After a long silence filled only with the sounds coming from the fire in the hearth, Sonah hugged her arms close to her body and looked into Lerek’s eyes.
“So here we are,” Sonah said with a sigh.
“Aye,” Lerek replied, shoulders slumping.
She narrowed her eyes. “The fact remains, both Duke and Duchess Ovenno are here and Altos has agreed to let them take me with them.”
“That’s good!” Lerek said, pouncing forward with a vicious smile. “Find a way to tell your father about me and?—”
“He’s not my father,” Sonah grumbled.
“What? What’s that mean?”
“He’s not my father, Lerek. He never was.” She heaved a sigh. In a lower voice, Sonah said, “I couldn’t tell you before. I couldn’t tellanyone. I’m an orphan. Duke and Duchess Ovenno found me at Lethe Monastery when I was an infant. They used me. Presented me to Emperor Solon as their own. I was to act as their daughter or the duke would have the abbot and monks at the monastery killed.”
“Oh, Sonah,” Lerek sighed, raking his hand through his hair as he turned away. He muttered curses, pacing before the window.
With a frustrated sound, he flew toward the curtains and yanked them across the window. “Damned cold, even here in Sparta!”
Long minutes passed in silence, thickening the longer it stretched.
“I can’t go with them, Lerek,” Sonah whispered. When he remained silent, she glanced up at him. He watched her with big brown eyes and she shook her head, dropping her gaze. “I can’t. I can… leave word with them about you if you’d like. But I cannot go. I need to find Terena. And she’s with the northern king.”
Lerek darted toward her, his mouth dropping open. “She is? Then I’m coming with you. We’ll go together. We’ll leave tonight!”
“Tonight?” she squeaked loudly. Clamping a hand over her mouth, she cast a look at the doorway again before moving closer to Lerek. “We cannot leave tonight! We need to prepare! We need food, supplies! Do you know how long the journey is?”
After a moment, Lerek nodded, stroking his chin as he paced away. “Aye, you’re right.”
“You’ve never been outside the empire,” she chided softly. “When we were on the run, we spent most of our time in the woods, sleeping on the ground with nothing in our bellies sometimes. And we had warriors with us! And Terena! I love you, Lerek, you know I do, but you are no warrior. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you wield a sword. You’d be even less useful than I am.”
“Fine,” Lerek said through gritted teeth as he glared at her. “What do you suggest, then?”
“I need to think,” she muttered. Sitting on her bed, she chewed on a fingernail.
“How long do we have?”
When Sonah cast him a sour look, Lerek gestured impatiently. “I mean, how long before you’re to leave with Ovenno?”
“Oh. Uh, Two days, I think.”
“We’ll need horses,” Lerek mumbled, pacing before her.
“Aye.”
“And food, of course.”
“Ugh! Stop! I said I’m thinking!”
Lerek’s eyes widened, and he stared at her as if she’d suddenly grown a second head. She spared him a glance.
“What?”
