Ellina attempted to calm her racing heart. She turned a slow circle, pretending to study the room’s contents while she worked up the breath it would take to say, clearly: “I want you to call back your forces.”
Farah’s razor smile went stiff. “That,” she said, “is not what you suggested in your letter. You said you wanted to discuss surrender.”
“Yes,” Ellina replied. “Yours.”
Farah flung a finger towards the door. “If you only came here to waste my time—”
“You are losing the war,” Ellina interrupted. “Running an army is like running a city. Your elves need food and clothing and shelter, yet you have lost your base, and your supplies are dangerously low. Your conjurors are all but dead, your warriors weary. Many of them are beginning to wonder if they made the right decision by coming west with you. The elflands are massive enough as they are. Why must you conquer the mainlands, too?” This last bit was a guess, yet Ellina saw her sister’s eyes narrow with her words, and knew them to be true.
“You cannot win,” Ellina continued, “and I think you know it. But you still have a choice. You can surrender. Call off your army. Give up your title as queen.”
“Why?” Farah snapped. “So that you may step into my place?”
Ellina shook her head. “I do not want the crown.”
Farah spat, the glob skating across the floor. It was tinged red, and when Ellina looked up, she saw blood on her sister’s lips. Her pointed teeth were cutting her own mouth.
Farah said, “You are a liar.”
“Not this time.”
“If you do not want the throne, then what is your purpose?”
Ellina spoke deliberately. “To end this war.”
“To save the human race,” Farah corrected, wiping her mouth with the side of her palm. “You shame me, sister. The way you care for humans as if they were your kin, choosing them over your own country. How has it come to this? I thought you would have learned better, if not from me, then at least from our mother. She hated humans.”
“That is not true.”
“Of course it is. Why else do you think she created the border?”
“Because,” Ellina replied, her pulse beginning to rise once more, “she was afraid of what would happen if anyone discovered that she loved a human.”
Farah’s expression closed. “This discussion is over.”
“Rishiana never wanted the border,” Ellina pressed. “It was not even her idea. Her sister, our Aunt Ara, was the one who pushed Rishiana to divide our races. She knew the truth of Rishiana’s affair with a human. It was dangerous. The scandal alone could have cost her queenship. When rumors began to spread that the elven queen had abandoned her bondmate to court a human male in secret, Ara stepped in. She insisted that Rishiana create the border, and therefore distance herself from humans in the most public way. From then on, our mother acted as though she believed humans were beneath us. But it was a lie.”
“Our mother was the queen. She would not have allowed herself to be pushed around by her younger sister.”
“Maybe not,” Ellina agreed, “except that Rishiana had another secret, which Ara knew and threatened to reveal. You have heard the story, I am sure. Shortly after Queen Rishiana became pregnant with Miria, a huge fight broke out between the two sisters. It caused Ara to leave the court for good. Yet have you never wondered what they fought about?”
Farah had begun to look slightly pale. Her upper lip glistened with sweat. “That is all ancient history,” she said. “I cannot see why it matters.”
Ellina did not feel well, either. A cold hand seemed to come down on her shoulder, fingers digging into the muscle. “It matters,” she said, “because we were wrong about our mother. We were wrong about humans.”
“Enough of this.” Farah lifted an angry fist. “How dare you come to me with more lies. I thought I was being merciful when I silenced you, but now that your voicelessness has been undone, I see my mercy was wasted. I should have silenced you for good.”
“Silence,” Ellina said darkly, “was no mercy.”
“It was for me.” Farah raised her chin. “I will hear no more.”
“But you—”
“I said,I will hear no more.”
The study door—which Ellina had watched Farah lock—swung open, and through it, eight elven guards rushed in with swords drawn. Ellina reacted, hurling herself over the desk and out of range, but there was nowhere else to go, no widow by which to escape, no weapon to use in defense.
The truth poured icy over her skin, like the breath of death herself. Ellina was trapped, defenseless, and surrounded.
