THE FOREST KING . . . black bandanas . . . royal hobbies . . . favors from criminals
“Forgive me for all this artifice,” Elysander said, motioning to her black bandana mask around her neck. “I had to know if we could trust you.”
Bryn found herself staring at her sister in shock. Bryn and Elysander had been close in early childhood, playing hide-and-seek around the castle and stealing tarts from the kitchen, but over the last decade, they’d grown apart. Elysander had been trundled off to science classes, taught how to dance and entertain, all the traits she would need as the future duke’s wife. And to Bryn’s young eyes, Elysander had readily embraced the expectations placed upon her. She’d appeared to adore dancing and dresses, education and etiquette.
But now Bryn wondered if she perhaps hadn’t known her sister at all.
“You joined a group ofbandits?” Bryn cried.
Elysander raised an eyebrow. “Who said anything about joining? I thought it was clear Iformedthe group.”
Bryn pressed a hand to her head. An ache had begun there, spurred by her confusion over seeing her prim sister dressed in men’s trousers with her golden locks hidden in a messy knot.
Elysander rested a hand on Bryn’s shoulder, and suddenly the older sister she’d always known was back. “Bryn, there is much you don’t know.”
“Lord and ladies,” Bryn muttered darkly. “Youthink?”
“Mars and I knew about what was happening in the Mirien since we were around your age. He found out from a small group of soldiers who were trying to turn him against our parents. He didn’t believe the soldiers at first until they showed him proof of our parents’ crimes. A few years ago, he confided the truth to me. He’d been gathering information and meeting with informants who painted a very different picture of what was happening in our kingdom than we’d been led to believe. Captain Carr was feeding Mars a lot of the information—but I swear, neither Mars nor I knew about the uprising. We would have warned you if we had. Carr kept that to himself, hoping our whole family would be slaughtered and he could usurp the throne.”
Bryn’s mouth had gone dry. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were our little sister,” Elysander confessed with sympathy. “We intended to tell you one day, but you were always different from the rest of the family, Bryn. You had such tenderness to you, and you saw the best in everyone. We didn’t want to shatter that sweetness.”
“It wasn’t sweetness,” Bryn said in a hardened voice. “It was naivety. There was nothing kind or innocent about it; I was kept in the dark, told everything was fine in the kingdom, so I believed it. I was never taught to think for myself. I made a lot of mistakes, yes. But you and Mars should have told me the truth.”
“You’re right. I see that now. It was our error.” Elysander’s hand squeezed her shoulder.
Bryn wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. She was grieving Trei, worried about Rangar—and now Valenden, too. She had an entire kingdom’s future resting on her shoulders. And now she’d discovered her sister was cavorting around as a bandit.
“Andthis?” Bryn said, motioning to her sister’s masculine clothes. “I thought you escaped to Dresel and married Duke Dryden.”
“I did,” Elysander said, then gave a little half-smile. “That’s Jon.”
Bryn turned in disbelief to the older man who still wore his mask. Grinning, he took it off. Bryn had met Duke Dryden when she was much younger but hadn’t seen him in five or six years and would never have recognized him now. He hadn’t had a limp when she’d known him before.
The duke wrapped his arm around Elysander’s waist.
“Dresel is a peaceful kingdom,” he explained. “And I’m a lesser duke. It isn’t a highly important title, so I have few responsibilities there and no family or relatives to look after. I was bored in my younger years, dabbled in activities that could be considered . . . less than lawful.”
“Banditry, you mean. Even as a duke, you were a criminal.”
He shrugged guiltily.
Elysander explained, “I escaped the siege on Castle Mir with the help of loyal soldiers who knew Mars and I weren’t sympathetic to our parents’ rule. They took me to an inn, where Jon had sent some of his men to find me.”
“Some of his bandits, you mean.”
Elysander took a deep breath. “It wasn’t the ideal way to learn my betrothed spent half his time as a criminal, true, but at least that fact saved my life. It took a while for me to get usedto the idea of marrying a fugitive, fully knowing how much he’d robbed from other royal families.”
“Elysander has an open mind,” Jon said, looking at Bryn’s sister fondly. “And for that, I was very grateful. I hadn’t intended for her to find out about my side activities, but given the siege, it was the only way to get her safely to Dresel. At first, she tried to convince me to stop robbing travelers; over time, she instead convinced me to let women into the ranks and work toward liberating the Mir people instead of stealing. Then, with my blessing, she took over completely as leader.”
Everything they said made Bryn’s head spin. While she had been searching for lost lambs and learning magic in the Baersladen, she’d imagined that Elysander had been hiding out in her duke’s mansion sipping expensive tea. Yet her sister had been usingcrimeto help their people.
“But these lands are still technically in the Baersladen,” Bryn pointed out. “What brought you so far north of Dresel and the Mirien?”
Elysander said, “You did. We heard rumors that you’d fled Barendur Hold. We’ve been looking for you.” She touched Bryn’s hair. “I didn’t expect that you’d dye your hair. It took us a while to track you down, as we were looking for a blonde.”
“It was Val’s idea,” Bryn said, examining her dark locks. “Prince Valenden, I mean.”
