“How many attacks have there been since we arrived?” Ivren asked under his breath, his head twisted so none of the king’s men could see it. “Five? Six?”
I shrugged. “Something like that.”
Ivren’s blue eyes turned to steel. “My mother told me that there have been attacks on Gotravik, too, the past weeks. Several of our guards have been injured. And with your?—”
I shot him a sharp look.
“Sorry,” Ivren rushed out. “I’m just…” He hardened his jaw. “It’s the king. It’s never enough for him. We have to go farther and farther, make more and more enemies. Now they’re here. Now they’re coming after us every day. How many of us should die before something changes?”
A cough stuck in my throat, and I moved even closer to Ivrenand Viljan when Geord turned our way, the curiosity on his face impossible to ignore.
“Ivren,” Viljan warned. “This is not the place.”
“The place for what?” I whispered. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m tired of this,” Ivren hissed at my guard. “I’m tired of worrying how many of my people will see the day tomorrow. I’m tired of following a king we haven’t elected—of us being the ones putting our lives at stake.” His hand flew out. “Adrion is dead. All of us were hurt somehow the past two days. Does that seem fair?”
“I…” I pulled at my jacket.
The king didn’t need to be elected by us because he was chosen by the gods. Only yesterday I would have told Ivren to mind his business, but now? After being in Darcke’s mind? After seeing what the king had done to him? I wasn’t so sure what I believed anymore.
“He’s right.” Rakkel strolled up from where she’d been speaking with her guard.
Stefen’s brows were drawn tight as he followed, and his hands fisted so hard his knuckles blanched.
“There have been attacks on our island as well,” Rakkel continued. “There… I think something needs to be done.” Her arm brushed mine as she leaned in. “It’s not like we can do what the king did to Darcke’s people and kill them all to stop the attacks.”
Viljan was suddenly very interested in the ground. As Rakkel said something else, I slipped past Ivren, coming so close Viljan was about to take a step back.
“No,” I hissed. “You stay right there.”
To my surprise, he did. My cheek nearly brushed his as I leaned in so I could ask him the question I’d had ever since being in Darcke’s mind and seeing the woman I suspected was my mother. “Did you know?”
He was quiet, but the air around us charged.
I shook my head, refusing to let him look away. “How long?”
He winced, and it sent my heart into free fall.
“The whole time?You’ve always known?”
“Since your father asked me to be your guard,” he admitted. “But Vara, I?—”
“No.” I raised my hands. “No. You’ve lied to me the whole time.”
“It’s not… I’m sorry.” Viljan reached for me for the first time since I met him when I was twelve, but I recoiled, my head shaking as violently as my hands trembled by my side.
“Let me explain,” Viljan begged as he followed. “Please.”
The others had gone quiet, but I didn’t care.
“What is there to explain?” I asked. “You were supposed to be my closest friend. You were supposed to be…”
“Yourguard.” My mother’s hands wrapped around my arm. “What is this dishonorable behavior?”
“She knows,” Viljan said quietly. “He told her.”
Seindra Sweengard’s face twisted with harsh lines. “I knew that man would be bad news. You need to switch your second. I don’t care what the implications are, but he cannot be next in line to rule our people.”
