Asteria has no monarchy. We worshiped Hala, and looked to the Mother for guidance. To the Maiden, and the Crone.
And yet thisPetyrsits on a throne in my home.
“Not at first.” Merrick’s mouth twists. “He inherited the crown on the day of the Shift.”
Slowly, I turn to him. “I don’t understand.”
Merrick eyes me. “How much do you know about the Shift, Selene?”
My brows draw together. “I was there at the beginning, when it started. And I got away that day. I did not see what happened after that.”
He nods. “And you did not hear anything from Terrosa, I suppose.”
I shake my head. Memories tighten my throat. “I was not in a position where I could easily learn news.”
I had always thought it strange, that nobody knew. I had pressed, occasionally, when I was certain that Boralas would not find out and punish my curiosity. But all had said the same thing.
There is no news from Asteria.
Asteria is silent.
Clients shook their heads when I asked, touching the copper talismans they often wore to ward off what they called island witchcraft and refusing to speak of it.
Ten years of silence, until a ship arrived in the harbor made from the wood of Asterian trees and even I heard the whispers that those with the maegis had arrived.
I look over at Merrick’s silence. He’s not moving, his eyes on the floor. His words surprise me. “Was it a good position? Were you safe? Cared for?”
The silence stretches on a moment too long.
“I was fed,” I say at last. “I was warm. There were worse positions to be in.”
He says nothing for at least a minute. “I see.”
His tone suggests that he does see. Merrick swallows. His ruddy cheeks look a little ashen, but he starts talking again. “On the day of the Shift, we evacuated Boreas. There was nothing left. Our crops had died, our animals starved and what was left of them eaten. Our home was dying. Had already died, and we had to leave or die with it.”
I sit still. Listening. “We heard rumors, but I had not known Boreas was so uninhabitable.”
He nods. “Every man, woman and child packed up what little they could and left. Thankfully, we had ships. We were ordered to sail at full speed for Asteria, to plead for sanctuary. The military ships left first, to lead the way, and the others followed behind us.”
Sanctuary. A strange word for an invasion, for the spilling of blood, the slaughter of children. “A strange sort of sanctuary.”
Merrick looks grim. “Once we were at sea, we were told that our orders had changed. That Asteria had refused to help, and so we would need to invade, or our families would starve.”
Outrage burns my veins, steals the air from my lungs. “We wouldnever—”
“Iknow,” he says abruptly. A warm hand reaches for mine, squeezes. “I know, Selene. Many of us knew. There were arguments. Heated discussion. Many of us pushed to change course, to make way for Terrosa instead. But many of the soldiers had families behind us, and they only knew what they had been told. That they were fighting for their lives. And our superiors—they were well aware of the plan from the beginning. They whipped up desperate, half-starved men into a frenzy. By the time we landed on the shore, they had named the faeytes as villains. Been told that Hala’s maegis would end us, if we did not act first and harshly. Those of us who knew better begged and pleaded, but there were so few who had ever traveled to Asteria that our voices were drowned out.”
Warmth falls across my back, heating the ice that covers me. A different voice echoes, low and deep. “And so the slaughter began.”
The quiet, sorrowful words have me twisting. Callan meets my eyes. “May I join you?”
When I nod, he steps around me, settling opposite Merrick. Ropes abandoned, I push them aside and pull up my knees. “They killed children.”
At my words, Merrick bows his head. “It was a bloodlust. I do not know how else to describe it. Men I had known all my lives, men with children the same age, raised their weapons without thought and cut down anything in their path.”
“And you?” I feel Callan’s gaze on my face, but I don’t look at him. My voice turns sharp and jagged. “What did you do? Did you stand by and watch?”
Merrick’s eyes close. “We did what we could. We warned who we could, tried to get ahead of the wave. Itried—”
