‘Maybe,’ I snap, ‘but I know right from wrong. Killing Benny is wrong, and it won’t stop a rebellion. If anything, it will just make more people rise up. But being lenient, being compassionate … Please, Kyor, if not for your soul, then for me. Spare him for me.’
Kyor’s chest is rising and falling rapidly, his eyes fixed on mine, and I can see the battle raging within.
‘Please choose me,’ I beg him. ‘Choose me. Let him live. Please. Chooseme, Kyor!’
Kyor looks at me, the moment drawing out so long that I can scarcely breathe. Finally, after what feels like a millennium, he shifts his gaze to Benny.
‘We worked together. I fucking helped to keep you in the Retterheld.’
‘I’m grateful for that,’ Benny says evenly. He takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders. ‘But I wouldn’t have needed to be in the Retterheld if it weren’t for your father. None of my people would have needed to be if it weren’t for him.’
Kyor’s brow pinches. ‘Bullshit,’ he snaps.
‘It’s not,’ Benny says, eyes unblinking. ‘Your father has killed thousands of my people. He has ripped our lands to shreds and drained them dry. Ask yourself why there are rebels at all. You don’t get rebellions when people are happy. You don’t get protests when no one is starving. You’re a fucking prince, Kyor. Kill me if you want to, but open your eyes and see the suffering of my people—Godsdamn it,yourpeople.See us.’
Benny’s chest is heaving from passion, his hands opening and closing into fists, ready to die if that’s what it takes to open Kyor’s eyes.
I can hardly see Benny now for the tears, and I feel Kyor’s rage, even from here.
Four forks of lightning fly down simultaneously, yet none of them strike Benny.
‘Kyor,’ I whisper. ‘Please.’
A single tear falls down Kyor’s cheek, yet his mouth is set in a grim, determined line. ‘He needs to pay for what he did. What he cost me.’
‘We have all cost someone something, Kyor. I cost Oke’s parents. Zara’s. You cost mine. Remember?’ I tell him desperately. ‘Benny has paid a price you can’t imagine. He’s paid with Llinos’s life. With Jai’s and Saun’s. With Coulter’s freedom. With Loch’s sanity. Every Rettling who came from the Eastern Isles came for the same reason: to free the Isles from your father. And now they’re all gone. Benny’s suffering just as much as you are, believe me. You’re not alone in your grief. We’re all burdened with it. But all we can try to do is the right thing.’
For the first time, Kyor’s face flickers away from anger into something different. Not forgiveness. Not mercy. Something rawer.
‘That’s what all of you entered for?’ he asks Benny, tone tinged with disbelief. ‘All of you were going to ask for the same gift?’
Benny nods. ‘Yes,’ he says simply.
Kyor’s forehead crumples into lines as he shakes his head. ‘You risked all those lives … because of a couple of mines?’
‘A couple of mines?’ Benny lets out a disbelieving laugh. ‘Have you even seen it? Do you have any idea what your father’s done to my land?’
Kyor’s jaw clicks and a muscle twitches along the side of his neck. ‘My father may not be the greatest king, but there are pressures on a ruler. Things that even I can’t fathom.’
‘Not the greatest?’ Benny scoffs and his anger spikes. ‘He’s the worst thing to happen to Morathka since the plague, and you know it. Grow a fucking backbone, Kyor! Do you think he has your interests at heart? Because if he did, he’d want you to be happy. He’d want you with Rose! Instead, you may have lost the love of your life because of his orders.’
Kyor flinches.
‘Why do you refuse to admit what you know is true? He is a dictator who cares only for his own power. People in the Isles are done being bound by his laws, and I know we’re not alone. If we were, the rebellion wouldn’t have people coming together from all around the country.’
‘You’re lying,’ Kyor argues.
‘No, I’m not. I don’t need to. The raw, unvarnished truth stands for itself. And deep down, you know it too.’ Benny continues, a sad smile rising on his lips, ‘When we found out you were in the Retterheld, Llin thought it might be a good thing. She thought that maybe we’d discover that you weren’t like your father. That we’d be able to come up with some sort of arrangement. But then you were as arrogant and abrasive as he was. We were losing people, slipping further away from winning the gifting, so I made the call.’
I consider the enormity of what he’s telling us. They came for the gifting, yes, but also to try to broker peace between the two future leaders. And yet Benny never said a word of that to me.
I drop to my knees in front of Kyor. On my knees, like he once said I’d never need to do. ‘Please,’ I beg. ‘Please believe him. He’s paid enough.’
‘For what it’s worth, I regret it,’ Benny adds. ‘I do. But you know what’s ridiculous about all this? You’re angry because of Zelle’s death, but you’re also standing here defending your father. Your father, who was only too happy to let people dance over the ground where your friend and mentor died, mere minutes after his death. Pick a side, Kyor. And pick the fucking right one for once.’
Kyor stares at Benny for a long moment.
Then he looks at me, kneeling on the ground as tears roll down my cheeks, and something breaks across his face. Not mercy, not forgiveness, but agony.
