Amarande could not picture any of this. “And he just let her go? Why? People accused him of her murder… she was already doing terrible things to maintain and grow her power. And yet he walked away? Let her cut him? I just… why did it take him so long to mount a war? He had Luca; he knew her identity; he had his army, you…”
Koldo sighed, heavily. “It’s hard to believe now, but this road started when Geneva acted to save your father’s life.”
Amarande pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. “You have to be kidding me.”
“Your mother has done many terrible things in her life, but your father lived and so did you because of a brave choice she made.”
“And just when I was beginning to wish she were dead.”
Koldo placed a hand on Amarande’s cheek. “The story is this. King Domingu had long had designs to make all of the Sand and Sky his. He’d tried many times, in various ways.” The princess lifted her head. “This is part of the reason your father decided to build such an army. The goal was to protect the continent in general, but behind closed doors it was to protect it from Domingu.”
This did not surprise the princess. It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone on the continent old enough to name their kingdoms.
“And so the old king found a way—using his extensive web of family connections.” Koldo took a deep breath. She was never one for lengthy speeches, in any capacity. “The plan was to install a family member in each castle. And, when everyone was in place, commit coordinated regicide in every palace but the Aragonesti. Every king, queen, child—gone. No one left standing except Domingu and his family.”
“Wait. My mother—?”
“Yes. She was assigned to kill your father.”
Amarande’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. “And he still married her?”
“He did not know until the wedding night. He thought choosing a bride from Basilica would provide cover for Ardenia from Domingu’s clear greed. He was wrong—and lucky Geneva still felt guilt and shame at sixteen. She told him the whole plan—who had been assigned to what castle, the timeline, the endgame.”
This plan was indeed pure Domingu—more diplomatic than stabbing your brother in the back, but no less diabolical. “Inés, too?”
Koldo nodded. “Yes. She is a very distant cousin, and was part of the plot, too. Your father was sure she went through with it years later when King Louis-David fell ill and lingered in poor health for so long. She always had the means, and a decade after the plan was foiled she went through with it anyway.”
Inés’s words in the bath chamber in the hours before the wedding hammered through Amarande’s brain.So many opportunities to push a new regime into motion with one forgettable, yet fatal, interaction.Inés had been speaking of her father’s death, but perhaps that thought had driven everything she’d done for nearly twenty years.
Amarande’s mind pulled back to her father’s actions. “What does that have to do with the Torrent?”
Koldo nodded. “When his efforts to warn the other monarchs did not work, and no one warmed to the idea of starting a war with Basilica, King Sendoa determined a more radical approach: revolution.”
“But… why Torrence? Why not Basilica itself? Cut off at the head?”
“The Kingdom of Torrence had been suffering of late, drought and tariffs destroying the economy. The people were not pleased, and the king was distracted by his new wife and a baby on the way. In a word, it was weak. Something that could be made an example without much effort.”
“Sendoa set up the revolution.” They both looked up to find Ula. The pirate was empty-handed save for her dagger. No Taillefer then. “The resistance told us that your king started it. Supported the leader, and then let him reign. It is true, then?”
Koldo nodded. “Yes. He sent me to find the right leader to support, someone who could make all the right noises, instigate enough instability to create a template for all rebels in each kingdom, to both freeze Domingu’s plan and also develop enough natural fissures that it would be impossible for one ruler to take hold. I found him a man named Jericho Talmage.”
Amarande squeezed her eyes closed. “The first Warlord.”
“There have been four if you count the one who is ash,” Ula said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder to the pit.
“Yes. But several things went wrong.” Koldo’s voice was strong but low. “Talmage was only supposed to create opposition; instead, hebuilt a coup. He was never supposed to kill the royal family, burn the castle, install his own government. We gave him power and he went too far. This is what I mean about not following Sendoa’s plans.”
Amarande’s breath caught—of all her father’s tenets, there was none that fit this. All the pithy quotes of striking first, and preparing, and not underestimating your opponent did not matter at all if those who stood with you had their own agenda.
Ula made to move. “Perhaps we should retire from the open for this discussion? They’ve got an officers’ tent set up; I am supposed to take you there and work on your arm. Luca will meet us.”
CHAPTER54
NEARLYseventeen years of planning and the first major battle in the effort to restore the Kingdom of Torrence was over within a handful of hours. A combination of events had gone in favor of the rebels.
The element of surprise.
The Warlord’s very public death.
