Fane smacked his lips after taking a drink. “That your sister was heading to Ovenno.”
“Oh, thank the gods! Wait, why Ovenno?”
“The message did not say, although I wonder if she’d heard you were going back there with Duke Ovenno. You know, before you decided to leave on your own.” Fane arched an eyebrow at Sonah.
“Perfect,” Sonah mumbled. “If I’d known Terena would be there I wouldn’t have left in the first place. I knew she’d come for me, but I thought she’d go to Sparta. I was so afraid of leaving with the duke, and since King Altos would not help me, I helped myself. That’s when I left with Prince Lerek.”
Fane’s head whipped around to her so fast his ale sloshed over his hand. “What? What do mean? Prince Lerek is dead!”
“No,” Sonah sighed. “He was in Arestia Castle, a guest of the king’s. Long story, the prince wanted to fake his death, but it didn’t go to plan. Now his twin is dead and everyone thinks Prince Lerek is really Prince Isher.”
“And how is Sparta involved?” Melanos asked, his voice a low growl as he cast a narrowed gaze at Fane and the Spartan soldiers sitting with them.
“All I know is, we were sent to Metilai to rescue the firstborns,” Fane said, holding up a hand placatingly. “When we arrived, Daris— Commander Antonius—went with his second toPrince Lerek’s rooms. Something about repaying a debt. Next thing we knew, the commander and Jason returned and all hells broke loose. The prince was dead, and we had to abort our mission. We hid in an old apartment outside the palace for days. I recall the commander being very agitated. He would leave and come back without telling us anything. We heard someone was arrested for the prince’s murder and was to be executed a few days later.”
“Aye,” Sonah laughed mirthlessly. After she took a drink of her wine, she grimaced. “They arrested me and Terena.Wewere the ones to be executed.”
Fane nodded, hanging his head as he stared at his tankard. The other Spartans looked from him to Sonah to Melanos. By the looks on their faces, she knew this was the first time they were hearing any of this. The Liodari was an elite branch of the Spartan military, and these soldiers were not privy to the missions the Liodari carried out.
“Aye, Sonah. I know that now. At the time, however, you were a nameless, faceless assassin.”
“But I wasn’t,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “We were tortured, and scared, and about to be murdered ourselves.”
“We knew nothing of that at the time,” Fane said, exasperated. He reached out a hand, laying it on the scarred table close enough to her fingers to barely touch. “I wish we had. It makes sense now why the commander was so angry those days. He kept cursing Prince Lerek. I still don’t know what went wrong. We were there to get the firstborns and Prince Lerek out, but we needed a distraction. Someone was to slip a sedative into Prince Isher’s drink and change his clothes to make him look like his twin. The sedative only feigned death, though, so while everyone was preoccupied with the crown prince’s demise, the funeral would provide a way for us to escape with the real Prince Lerek and the firstborns.”
“So the plan was to have Prince Isher buried alive?” Sonah glared at Fane.
“No, of course not. The effects would’ve worn off before that ever happened. We needed the distraction to buy us enough time to stage our rescue.
“We were to wait until the day of the funeral to enter the palace grounds, where the firstborns and Prince Lerek would meet us and we’d escape undetected.
“It was genius, really, and the sort of thing the Liodari excel in. None of us had any doubts until we received word that the crown prince was murdered. The commander changed our plan so he could rescue you and Terena before the execution. Commander Antonius took a few men with him while the rest of us were to proceed with the original aim of getting to the firstborns. I don’t know what went wrong, but obviously, you escaped without his help.”
“Aye,” Sonah whispered, lost in the memory.
The table was silent for a long time before Sonah sat back and glared again at Fane.
“Why did you say Daris killed Prince Lerek?”
Fane blanched. “What? When? I never said that!”
“Aye,” Sonah nodded, jabbing a finger at him. “You did. I heard you. That night we all went drinking before everything went to shit! I heard you and Jason and Michael talking. You didn’t know I was there, but I heard you. You said Daris was cold for killing Terena’s lover.”
Fane’s face turned ashen, and his mouth fell open. For painfully long seconds, he said nothing. “Gods. You… heard that? That wasyou?”
“Aye,” Sonah confirmed, waving her hand. “Do not deflect, please. Why did you say that? He clearly didn’t, and yet you said that and then I went and told Ren. And everything just… fell apart.”
Fane scrubbed his hand down his face, looking haggard and much older than his years. He stared at the table long enough for the silence to become uncomfortable. Sonah flicked a glance at the other soldiers, noting their eyes were pointedly on their tankards. Only Melanos stared back at Fane, his features cold.
“We knew he’d gone to the prince’s rooms, but we didn’t know why. Only what he’d said, something about a debt.” Fane shrugged and sighed. “Commander Antonius handpicked all of us for that mission. Before we even left Sparta he swore us to secrecy. After we learned of the prince’s death, the commander told us no one outside our group was ever to know anything we’d done. I assumed it was a confirmation of his crime.”
“Where did you go after you got the firstborns out?” Melanos asked in his gruff voice. Sonah was grateful for his interjection because she was feeling so ill. Fane’s revelations matched so much of what Lerek had shared. But she still felt guilt over her part in it.
The part that had blown up in her face.
“Aurora,” Fane answered. “The commander had an understanding with Duke Aurora, who took responsibility for the firstborns. When we arrived, the commander lost his shit on the duke. We didn’t hear much, but what we did led us to believe the commander blamed Duke Aurora for the mess. I’d never seen a royal so terrified before. Michael thought the commander might actually kill the duke but, despite his fury, Commander Antonius didn’t so much as touch the man.
“We were supposed to stay the night, but the commander wanted to leave right after he had it out with the duke. We delivered the firstborns and left. One of them rode back with us to Sparta.”
