Page 61 of Warrior Princess Assassin (Braided Fate #1)

In a flash, I remember all the terrifying stories about Maddox Kyronan—and the horrors he visits on his citizens.

It was one of the very first things I challenged him about.

As I’ve come to know him, I couldn’t imagine any of it was true.

..but then we faced the Suross, and he didn’t tell them who he was.

And then I saw these burned fields, which are clearly growing no food.

And now we’re facing his people, who are armed and ready to fight.

“Tell me what you need,” I say again. I hope my voice sounds strong, but I’m worried that dismay has begun to creep into my tone. “I have come from Astranza to help you. Please. Tell me how.”

The women exchange glances. The men are still glaring. The oldest girl looks fierce, like she’s desperate to throw her stones at someone .

But no one is talking, and the air still rides a knife’s edge of tension.

So I take a step toward that little girl, and her fingers tighten on the rocks.

“We were heading to Lastalorre,” I say. “I’ve never been here.

Perhaps you could show me the rest of the way.

” I glance up, past her, at the rest of the people who are dubiously watching this exchange.

“And maybe you could tell me why everyone is so angry at your king.”

Her face twists, like she can’t decide whether to help me—or to scowl. But she doesn’t move.

A younger girl with dark blond pigtails steps forward and drops one of her stones to take my hand. “I’ll show you,” she says, and I’m captivated to hear that lyrical accent in her tiny voice. “It’s not far.”

“Thank you,” I say.

That spurs the older girl into motion. “I’ll come, too.” She drops both her rocks.

A little boy of about seven walks up beside her. “Me too.”

I give him a nod. “You have my gratitude.”

The girl with the pigtails gives my hand a tug, and I begin to follow, but then I worry that I’ll simply be leading the children away while the adults finish trying to kill each other.

I look to my left. Callum still has weapons in hand. From the corner of my eye, I can see that the others still have arrows nocked. Ready for war, I suppose.

“Put up your weapons,” I say sharply, trying to fill my voice with the same effortless authority the king always seems to have.

I remember the way his men hesitated last night, then looked to him.

I don’t know if they’ll listen now. “They came with grievances first, not violence. If Astranza is to ally with Incendar, I will hear from these people.”

Ky’s citizens shift and exchange glances uncertainly, as if they’re not sure what to make of this. I hear a few muttered comments, but I can’t catch their words.

Callum hasn’t moved. He’s looking back at me. Weighing this.

He’s not going to yield to me. I can feel it. None of them are. Rage at their defiance and admiration for their loyalty go to war in my gut.

But then Ky says, “You heard the princess. Stand down.”

Callum slams the weapons home. So do the others.

“Good,” I say. “Charlotte, come along. The rest of you will follow at a distance.”

Charlotte swings down from her horse, but I don’t wait. I simply turn to obey the child tugging at my fingers. We stride into the sunlight, dried grass crunching underfoot.

The boy looks up and over my shoulder. “What about him?”

“I follow the princess,” says Asher, and he says it so simply that it makes something in my heart sing. Despite everything that’s changed between us during the journey to Incendar, we aren’t broken.

“Is he a guard?” says the older girl.

“He doesn’t have any weapons,” says the younger one, squinting at Asher in the sunshine.

“He’s a Hunter,” I say, thinking it will be the simplest answer to give children.

But of course the boy immediately says, “What does he hunt without weapons?”

“Whatever the princess wants,” says Asher, and my heart gives another tug.

“Maybe it’s rabbits,” whispers the littlest girl. She drops her other stone, then reaches back to take Asher’s hand, too.

“Did you mean that?” says a woman to my left.

When I glance over, I realize it’s the one who looks ready to give birth at any given moment.

Her hair is thick and full, twisted into two braids that hang down over her shoulders, but plenty of tendrils have escaped to frame her face. “That you care to hear our grievances?”

“Yes,” I say. “I did.”

She glances at some of the others. They aren’t all armed, but the ones who are have put their weapons away. “The king’s magic has destroyed most of our crops,” she says, gesturing at the grounds surrounding us. “Now he’s turned on the grazing lands.”

I remember the rumors I used to hear in Astranza—the ones that made me fear Maddox Kyronan before I ever met him. But then the king sat in my chambers and spoke so passionately about how badly he wanted to protect his people. How desperately he wanted to feed them.

“I’ve heard this before,” I say to her. “But when your king first came to me, he was desperate to help you. Why would he turn his magic against you?”

“We don’t know,” says a man. He casts a dark glare over his shoulder toward the king and his soldiers. “They say he’s lost control of it.”

“We all know that once a fire begins, he cannot stop it,” says another man.

“What good is his magic on the battlefield,” says an older woman, “if it just kills us more slowly at home?”

I hear the pain in their voices, and it tugs at me. It reminds me of Asher’s voice when he finally told me the truth about everything that had been done to him—the truth about Astranza.

But I heard the same pain in Ky’s voice when he spoke of Incendar.

“I hear your suffering,” I say. I glance at Asher, then back at them. “I see your pain. I saw it when you first approached. But your king risked his life to come to Astranza. He spoke passionately about caring for his people—”

“He was just going to kill us!” a man near the edge cries.

“You did come at him with weapons drawn,” I respond, my voice dry. “He could have summoned fire, and he didn’t.”

That makes them all go silent, and I see glances exchanged.

I have their attention now, but I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing. The king and his men have fallen back to follow at a distance. Ky was ready to let his soldiers kill them all. I think of the child clutching my fingers, and I have to shake off a shudder.

The king just risked himself to save those girls at the Suross settlement.

But they didn’t know who he was. Would they have attacked him similarly, if they’d known?

And would Ky have killed the children here, just because the tradesmen came at him with tools brandished like weapons? I don’t want to consider it.

I remember a conversation I had with Asher ages ago, about his duties as an assassin.

So your brother and his soldiers can be killers on the battlefield, but you save your contempt for me, just because I’m not in uniform?

This isn’t a battlefield.

Has Maddox Kyronan spent so long at war that everything has begun to look like one?

These people were furious, and they did come running down the hill, but even I can see that they’re simple farmers and tradesmen and their families.

Yet the king and his soldiers responded so swiftly—bracing for violence as if we’d walked right onto the front lines.

I’ve been marveling at Ky’s hidden kindness for days, but maybe I should have been paying closer attention to this side of him: the ruthless, brutal, practical man who dragged Asher through the snow and threatened my brother with Incendrian justice.

I can’t look back at him. I’m terrified to consider what I might find.

“I cannot speak to the past,” I say to his people. “But I am here to help, if you’ll allow it. My father, King Theodore, has magic that allows him to control the weather, and it helps keep our farmland prosperous. Once the alliance is struck, it will help restore your fields as well.”

As I say the words, a twinge of guilt tugs at my heart.

“And if the king’s magic brings more fire?” says one of the women.

“My father will summon rain to put it out,” I say simply. “We have no droughts in Astranza.”

That makes them fall silent again.

“Are you to marry our king?” says the pregnant woman.

If she’d asked me an hour ago, I would have said yes. I was ready to seal this alliance, because I know how desperately Astranza needs Ky’s abilities on the battlefield—and I know how desperately they need my father’s magic, despite the fact that his health is waning.

But I think of everything I’ve learned in the last fifteen minutes, and I glance over my shoulder at the king, who has obeyed, and is riding about twenty feet behind us.

He’s too far, and I can’t read his expression. I don’t know if I want him to see mine.

I glance at Asher, and his expression is just as blank. He’s waiting for my answer, too.

Oh, this is too complicated. Especially now. I turn my eyes forward and swing the little girl’s arm playfully. “Marriage?” I say. “We’ll see.”