Wariness flashed across his face before he turned toward me and grabbed my hands.
“When you were taken from us, and so suddenly, so inexplicably, our lives were thrown into turmoil.Nay, Zaraga itself was in turmoil.Its crown princess, stolen.It was an assault not just on the royal family on a personal level, but on all our subjects.”
“So now it’soursubjects,” Rafaela said.
Alonso frowned but continued: “It took us a long time to recover from your abduction.Though truly, we never fully did.How could we?There are some things one never completely comes back from.Teo, well, he couldn’t move past it.Up until his death, he never did.But I had no choice.I had a kingdom to run.Thousands upon thousands who depended on me.On us.”
He glanced at Rafaela.“Wehad a kingdom to run.”
The stern purse of her lips softened.
“We did our best to rebuild our strength, to show the world we were the same force to be reckoned with as before you were taken.”
“But it wasn’t enough,” Rafaela said.
“No.It proved not to be.Such a terrible shame too.Zaraga was in the midst of a renaissance of its culture.The arts, the sciences, and faithum, especially the faithum.We were on the cusp of significant breakthroughs in the magical arts.Everything would have changed.”
“It changed anyway,” Rafaela said.“Just not in the way we wanted.”
“Right.Not in the way any of us wanted.Save the Domdurrons.”
“What happened?”I said.“When I asked Cosette?—”
“Cosette?”
“The parvnit who arrested me and was doing her damnedest to get me executed.I asked her to come find either of you, but she wouldn’t.”
“I see.And where is she now?”
I looked at Rafaela.
“Thrown out.Unwelcome.She was an officer.If I had her killed, it would have gotten back to Junot.”
“Hm,” Alonso said.
“When I asked about the crown prince,” I said, “she thought I meant Alobaz.Then when I asked about Teo, she refused to tell me anything.She said he was in exile, but then wouldn’t tell me where he was.”
“Alobaz isn’t the crown prince,” Rafaela said.“He’s not the heir, not anymore he isn’t.The emperor rebirthed him and set him up as his heir.But then he got himself a new bride and they had a child of the blood all their own.Now the boy’s the crown prince, destined to inherit the entire empire.”
“Which includes Zaraga,” I said softly.
Rafaelahmmphed.Alonso stiffened.
“For now,” he said.“Now that you’ve returned to us, we may have a chance to get back what’s ours.”
“Go on,” I said.
“A mere three years after you were taken, Domdurro invaded.”
I knew it had to be coming.The breath stuck in my throat on its way out anyway.
“They saw your absence as a weakness,” Rafaela said, like the fact was a personal affront.
Alonso nodded as if it were simple fact.“They invaded us first.When you were with us, Zaraga was the strongest.Without you, we were still strong, but not strong enough to withstand an assault—so long as it caught us by surprise.”
“And oh, how it did,” Rafaela said.
“They came at noontime,” Alonso recounted, “when I, Rafi, and Teo slept.They brutalized and killed everyone in their path.”
