“Do you think I made a poor choice?” I whisper to Olive.
She passes me a cup of coffee with milk and honey and says nothing for a long moment. “I think my uncle terrorized these islands for a long time. I think Rian sees a chance to finallywin, and he’s going to take it.”
I accept the coffee, but I don’t take a sip. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
She looks at me. “You shouldn’t have to risk yourself, Tessa. You aren’t a part of this war.” She pauses. “This war shouldn’t be happening at all anymore. It was over.”
I swallow, thinking of the revolution in Kandala. The way Harristan and Corrick tried to keep the peace. “Was it really over, or was your uncle biding his time, waiting for another chance to take over?”
She doesn’t say anything to that.
“Was he gone fromthisisland,” I say carefully, “while he was terrorizing another one?”
Her eyes flick up. “The bridges are down. Communication is slow. I don’t know.”
“Rian took Oren’s daughter prisoner. Now he’s going to takeOrenprisoner.”
She sighs heavily.
So do I.
Erik appears in the doorway of my bedroom. He’s wearing the utilitarian parts of his guard uniform, and he clicks a bolt into acrossbow. “Maybe we can get them in the room together and I can shoot them both,” he says sourly.
“We need Rian to get ushome,” I say.
He grunts. “I still don’t trust him.”
“He made a bargain,” I said. “I’m going to hold him to it.”
But a little voice inside me whispers that I’m doing this while tricking someone else, the same way Rian tricked me and Corrick.
Oren is someone who did horrible things. And I’m doing this with good reason.
But is it justified? Were Corrick’s actions justified? Were Rian’s?
Ugh.Everything is all tangled up, and I’m still not sure about any of it.
“Do you still have your dagger?” Erik says.
I pat my hip, because I do, but Rian appears in the doorway. “She’s a prisoner. She wouldn’t have adagger.”
Erik steps between him and me. “No one should get close enough to know the difference.”
“You’re wrong,” Rian says. “Someonemight. I’m not risking this on a technicality. I wouldn’t have a hundred soldiers guarding one girl, especially if she’s supposedlyhidden. I’d barely have more thanone. Oren won’t come close if he’s spooked, and it’ll ruin this whole plan.”
Now I understand why there aren’t dozens of soldiers outside.
“So you didn’t bring . . .anyone?” I whisper.
He blinks, then gives me a wounded look. “Of course I brought my people,” he says. “I have a hundred men waiting in the road. But we need to draw him off the water. You don’t understand why he’s always been so hard to catch. Oren has always been behind his cannons. He has a dozen henchmen doing his bidding. I wouldn’tbe surprised if he sends someone to make sure you’re reallyherefirst.”
“So she’sbait,” Olive snaps. “Not a decoy.”
Gwyn Tagas pokes her head in the room. “Rian. A lookout spotted a ship on the water.”
My heart gives a lurch. None of this is what I expected at all. “I don’t look anything like Bella,” I say. “They’ll know I’m not her if they get close.”
“We’ll tie you up and put that over your head. I’ll guard you myself.” Rian tosses a cloth sack in my lap.
