But I don’t get any further than that because Violet tackles me with a hug. “Fox! You’re alive!”
Some of the consuls’ guards move forward to remove her, but I lift a hand. “It’s all right. Violet, what are you doing here?”
“We’ve been hiding! They keep sending the night patrol through, so we haven’t been able to leave. We go out at night sometimes to scrounge for food, but no one searches the cellar, so we’ve been staying down there. It sure wasdark, I tell you. But we’ve got candles now, and Wolf taught me all the card games he knows—”
“Wolf!” I say in shock.
And then I realize more people are coming up from the cellar, just as dusty and worn as Violet and Nook. Alice, too. Then Thorin, his chest bound up in bandages. His entire frame sags in relief when he sees me. “Your Majesty,” he says.
I’m so relieved to seehimthat I nearly give him the same greeting that Violet gave me. “Wolf,” I say, extending a hand, and he smiles, reaching out to clasp it.
But then another man follows him out of the cellar, and I remember the reason we came to the cellar at all: Sommer.
He’s not bound anymore, and he looks from me to Thorin to the guards like he wonders if he should flee back down the steps.
Thorin grabs hold of his sleeve and drags him forward before he can. “The night we had to run, I knewIcouldn’t go far—and I knew Sommer was trapped down here anyway. I figured I’d wait it out and see what happened. Alice wouldn’t leave me, so she hid down here, too. We could hear the soldiers and the fighting overhead, and I told him what was going on.” He pauses, and his voice grows softer. “It became obvious when people were caught. Sommer told me to cut him loose. He said he’d help.” He pauses again. “So I did. And he did.”
I study them both. They look back at me, but it’s Sommer who looks beseeching.
Eventually, I turn to Nook, and I remember the way the men had him participate in retaliating against Sommer for his role in what happened. His father was one of the men who was killed. He was just as affected as I was.
“Sommer is guilty of treason, Nook. Should we bring him back with us? Has he earned his freedom? Or should I leave him in the cellar?”
Nook’s eyes widen, and he glances between me and Sommer. “You’re leaving it up tome?” he says.
As soon as I hear him say it, I almost take it back. He’s barely sixteen years old, if he’s even that.
But then I realize Corrick was even younger when I named him as King’s Justice, and he had to do a lot worse.
I nod. “Yes. I’m leaving it up to you.”
Nook looks at Sommer. “He stabbed a soldier that was about to shoot me.” He pauses. “And he saved Violet, too. We’re even.”
“Also,” Violet says, “Chickenseed isreallybad at cards.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Chickenseed?”
Sommer heaves a sigh and looks at Nook. “Thank you for my lifeandmy nickname.”
Alice giggles.
Thorin looks past me, seeming to realize for the first time that Consul Beeching is by my side, and we’re backed by men who aren’t palace guards. “Have you reclaimed the Royal Sector?”
“Not yet,” I say.
On our ride back, Jonas indicates that he wants to speak privately with me, so we ride ahead of the group, leaving enough distance that we won’t be overheard.
“That girl adores you,” he says to me. “That’s part of why I agreed to help you, you know.”
I look at him. Jonas is older, older than my parents were, and he was never particularly close to them—so he’s never been particularly close to us either. We’ve never had a strained relationship, but of all the consuls, I know him the least well. He’s granted me a lot of assistance. Quite a bit more than I expected. He even sent food and sundries to the homes of my guards when I asked, when I fully expected him to balk at something that would so openly defy restrictions that have been put in place by others. I’ve been keenly aware that his helpnowwill likely have ramificationslater, like a debt to be repaid. So I’m not sure what to make of that comment.
“You just met her,” I say.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve seen the way the people from the Wilds look at you when you walk among them. I think they wouldallhug you like that if they could.” He pauses. “We’ve all seen Arella’s proof, and it’s rather convincing. I do believe your parents had devised quite the plan to fleece silver from the people, and they were working with Nathaniel Sallister and Lissa Marpetta to do it.” He studies me in the sunlight. “I do not, however, think that you or Prince Corrick had anything to do with it. In all honesty, I don’t believe there’s anything Allisander Sallister can say to convince me otherwise. Unfortunately, he and some of the others refuse to yield intheirclaims that you did. I’m worried about what that might mean for the future of Kandala.”
My spine goes cold when he says that.
Because he’s ultimately talking about civil war.
