Page 143 of Scorched Earth

“And what am I supposed to do?” he snapped. “Be your shadow, guarding your back while you lead all these men into thinking you aren’t mine through and through?”

Lydia flinched, hearing the hurt in his voice. Feeling it in her own heart, because they’d fought their way to each other only to have yet another obstacle drag them apart.

“I think you’re getting ahead of yourself,” Dareena said. “All ofthis is speculation and theory, not a demand that anyone has made of you. I’d suggest we appease Hacken by playing along. We dress Lydia like the Falorn queen he wants her to be while working to achieve our own goals.”

Lydia turned around, latching onto Dareena’s words because at least they offered hope. And all at the cost of wearing certain clothes. “Do you have a dress I can borrow?”

“I don’t wear dresses.”

“Let me see what I can do.” Lady Calorian rose to her feet. “Excuse me.”

After she left, Lydia said, “Do you think Hacken can be persuaded to allow me to travel to Revat? If there is an answer to be had, itwillbe there.”

“I think that’s a task Malahi will have to manage,” Dareena said. “She’s learned enough to work with the librarians, and if what those paintings in Anukastre indicate is true, it’s her mark that will defeat the blight. Unless there is another reason you believe you’d be an asset in the search?”

Lydia hesitated, reluctant to put words to the hope in her heart. “I wanted to speak to the librarians to see what could be done for those who have succumbed to the blight,” she finally said. “Not just those infected, as Lena was, but… but those we’ve lost to it.”

Killian shifted behind her, his distress palpable. “Healers cannot bring back the dead, and it’s death to those who try.”

“I know that.” She rounded on him, her hands balled into fists. “And maybe Malahi is the answer for those who have fallen. Maybe in pulling it from the land, she’ll pull it from the infected as well, but I don’t think so. The body is Hegeria’s domain, so I truly do believe it needs to be a healer who saves them.”

“But their souls are gone,” he said. “Even if you remove the poison from their bodies and the Corrupter along with it, that doesn’t change that their souls are with the Six.”

“Then maybe that’s all I accomplish.” Lydia knew it was a long shot, but it still hurt that he wasn’t willing to support her attempt. “Maybe all I can do is give them peace, and in doing so, take away Rufina’s army.”

“Well, that’s not nothing given that they outnumber us four to one,” Dareena said. “I’ll think on it.”

A knock sounded on the door, and when Killian opened it, Lady Calorian stood outside with a large box in her arms. “This was mine, once,” she said, crossing the room to set the box on the bed. “WhenI was in service to Queen Camilla. I dare say, I could not fit into it now.”

Feeling uneasy for reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Lydia pushed her spectacles up her nose and then lifted the lid off the box. Inside was an elaborate corseted gown made of leather dyed green, the neck high and the sleeves long. A gown fit for a warrior and a queen.

“You’ll sweat like mad in that,” Dareena said. “That’s a gown for the north. Should we cut off the sleeves so your armpits can breathe?”

“You will do no such thing!” Lady Calorian snapped. “Put away that knife.”

Lydia drew Killian aside. “Will you go speak to Malahi and Agrippa? Explain the situation and have Seldrid make arrangements for passage to Revat? We have no time to lose.”

Killian nodded, then said to Dareena, “Don’t leave her side.”

She only grunted at him, her focus on the dress.

Lydia went back to the bed, then lifted the garment, the rich leather nothing more than beautifully made shackles. “Turn me into a queen worthy of Mudamora.”

But as Killian shut the door behind him, she heard him say, “You already are.”

51KILLIAN

He’d known trouble had been coming, but this… this was the last thing Killian had anticipated.

Striding through his family home, he fought to keep the rage burning in his heart in check. Killian was not one to hate, but gods help him, he hated his brother right now. Hated that despite Mudamora falling beneath the heels of an enemy that they had a minimal chance of beating, his brother was jockeying for power with a total disregard for who he hurt in the process.

His hands fisted, his body needing the physical release of a fight to ease the tension singing through him, because Lydia did not want to be queen. Did not want to embroil herself in the politics of rule, where the choices for the many always outweighed the needs of the few. Especiallygiven that Hacken and the rest of the High Lords were unlikely to give her any power, no doubt intending to use her as only a figurehead. A puppet queen, and it would be Hacken who held her strings.

“Killian?”

Finn’s voice caught his attention, and he lifted his head to see the boy waiting just outside the doors to the drawing room. Relief flooded Killian, but also guilt, because he’d not thought about his young friend once since they’d arrived at Teradale. He’d been too consumed with everything else, but seeing the boy was well was a weight lifted off his shoulders.

“I’m glad you’re back,” Finn said, pushing dark curls out of his eyes. “Everyone was worried. Not me, though. I knew you’d fight your way clear of anything Rufina threw at you.”