Had it been days or hours since they had locked her in here? Valdr's Nati standing guard outside. Some hours ago they'd sent a mouse-quiet maid with food and a jug of sweet wine. Wine she was sure had been laced with something, for not long after a cup she had fallen asleep, despite her mind being afire with all that had happened.

When she awoke, it was dark. A hot bath waited for her, a new gown of sumptuous silk laid out flat on the bed. The colour a rich golden yellow, a colour Valdr liked on her. It would do no one good to defy him now, she thought, and so after bathing - she'd found spatters of dried blood between her fingers, on her throat, in her hair - she stepped into the gown and pulled it on, doing the laces as best she could on her own.

When the maids came again to carry away the bath, they also aided her to dress. While they did, she asked if they had any news of the Leoth, of Lord Dacian, even the Lady Dura - but no one spoke a word to her.

Had that been Valdr's instruction?

Or was it the wound inflicted by Torrik's carefully chosen words? His insinuation that she was a Leoth whore. No doubt the news of all that had happened at the war council had spread to the castle and beyond. She cared not what damage his words had done because deep down she knew the truth of it: she would be a Leoth whore before she would be a Zybar's female and she cared not who knew it.

As fury simmered, she let herself enjoy the ripple of satisfaction at the memory of Torrik's blood arcing in great red waves from his gaping throat. The sound of his desperate, drowning struggle. The end of his bloody reign.

He was dead, surely? There was no healer alive that could stitch a head back to a body, and Elyon had torn a hole through his neck so thoroughly that there was barely a scrap of flesh left to hold it.

Gods, Elyon. Do you live, still?

What had they done to him? Elyon who was afraid of nothing and lived as though he were invincible. Had they taken his head yet? If not, she would do whatever she could to save him. She thought of how she might get a message to Theodan to warn him. If only she knew more of these Leoth messengers dotted across the realm. If she could speak with Elyon, then she could force him to tell her all he knew so she could save him from this.

She stood from the chair and went again to the door to bang her fist against it.

'I demand this door be unlocked at once! I demand an audience with my brother! I am a princess of the blood, not some mad woman!' She pulled at the handle and rocked it in its frame. 'I know you stand out there - open this door, I command it!' When her demands went unanswered, she kick at it angrily before storming back across the room.

From the window she saw that Zybar's ships still sat in the harbour. The port still bustled with activity. No headless Leoth had been impaled upon the castle wall she could see. It all served to heighten the feeling of dread and unease which lurched and pulled within her. For surely it meant plans were being redrawn, pacts being solidified once more - decisions being made which she had absolutely no influence upon.

Startling her from her frantic thoughts, she heard a key turning in the lock. She turned and braced herself for Valdr's rage.

Lord Ravol entered much the way he always entered a room, as though he might find its occupants up to mischief, something he could scurry back and tell his regent about.

'Princess,' he bowed, before drawing a careful eye over her gown. A small smile lifted one corner of his thin mouth. 'The king will see you now.'

'And which king might that be, Lord Ravol?'

'I am sure it will please you to learn that King Torrik of Zybar succumbed to the Leoth's violence, so your brother is the only king alive in Ethis as we stand here.'

'I am pleased, you are right. I can only pray that now the Gods find somewhere for his vile soul to rot in the immortal realm.'

He took a deep breath. 'For years I tried to warn him about you, of what poison lived in you, of your cursed female ways and how they would ruin him. But of course you had blinded him to all reason. But this day, he has seen it.'

She took a step closer to him and fixed him with an icy stare, 'If you see anything in me, Lord Ravol then know it is also inside your king, for we are the same he and I. We are both the blood of Gods, you are nothing but a shadow that lurks in the corners of this realm.'

Ravol frowned. 'Oh, but you are not the same. He is greatness, where you are insignificance. He is glory, where you are ruin. For you have ruined any and all who succumbed to your poison: Galyn of Azura, the lives of countless Azurians themselves who opened their arms to you, the immutable and esteemed Lord Dacian,' he lowered his voice. 'Even your poor sister. All knew that you loved her more than anything in this world, and for it she suffered unimaginably. Your love destroys, princess. Surely you see that now?'

She would not strike him again, would not give him another scrap of what he tried to steal from her with his words. She gripped both hands together in front of her, trembling.

'What of Lord Dacian?' She asked. 'He is innocent of any crime.'

'The king's mercy has held. So far.' It was a warning. He turned his back to her and marched toward the door.

She did not speak another word to him as they moved through the quiet corridors of Alathy castle. Why was it so silent? A Leoth had executed a king before a council of lords only this morning. It should be chaos. Instead, it was as quiet as the grave.

Two Nati guarded Valdr's chamber, and they stood to attention before moving to open the door. With a deep breath and a silent prayer to the Goddess who had rarely failed her yet, she followed Ravol inside.

The room was four times as large as the one they'd locked her in, with tall windowed doors leading out to a verandah on one side. He stood by one of them now, his back to her as she entered. His feet were bare and he wore a long robe of dark silk while he drank from a jewelled goblet.

Ravol said nothing before bowing and backing out of the room. As soon as the door closed she saw him let out a breath, saw his shoulders drop into a more relaxed stance.

'A locked room and guards, brother? Am I truly so dangerous to you?'

He sighed. 'I had you guarded for your own safety, Fara. Zybar is angry. Some of our Lords are too.'

'Because Torrik is dead?'

'Of course, because Torrik is dead.'

'But I didn't kill him. You have some foolish lords, Valdr, but surely none so foolish to have missed the Leothine tear open his throat before their eyes?'

He turned to look at her, took a leisurely sip of his wine. 'The Leothine you brought into the council, and into the castle.'

'Still, I did not kill him and neither am I sorry he's dead.'

'I am,' he said. 'For I had long planned the moment I would thrust my dagger into his throat.' She blinked in shock. 'The Leoth took that from me and for that alone I should take his head.'

She frowned. 'You'd planned to kill Torrik?' Then Panos spoke true in the meadow when he'd suggested the same.

He shrugged. 'In some form of another, when he was no longer of use to me, yes. Though today, as he sat there telling me lie after lie after lie - I could not get the image of it from my mind. My blade protruding from his thick neck, the look on his face as I pushed it up into his skull. His ignoble blood pouring to the floor.' He sipped his wine again and sighed as though recalling a lovely memory.

'Then you believe me? That he wanted me dead? That he had no intention of returning me to you alive?'

'Had he found you in Azura, I am certain, yes, that he would not have returned you to me alive. But it changes little. Now there are some on the council who believe what happened to Torrik this day was by your design. With Dacian's help. For he allowed the beast into the castle.'

'Because I commanded him to.' She went toward him. 'Valdr, Dacian is loyal to you: to his king and to this realm.'

In fact, it had been his idea that she appeal to council one last time. That she lay all of Torrik's crimes before them, that she spared no detail when she reminded them of who they had allied themselves with. Would it have been enough? If Elyon had not acted? She would likely never know.

'Zybar want retribution, Fara. Just as I did when I thought you taken from me. You threatened to gloat over their king's dead body and then only moments later the Leoth delivers you the opportunity to do it. Surely you see how this looks?'

'I do not care how it looks, Valdr!'

'You once cared very much how things looked, my love.'

She flinched. 'This is different. I am different.'

When he took a step toward her, the perfume of his skin washed over her; that darkberry and oakenwood scent which haunted her memories and tainted her soul. His chest was bare beneath his robe and the sight of his smooth, unmarred flesh kindled some unwelcome notion in her. She took a step backward, away from him.

There was a look of longing in his eyes now when she lifted hers. The weight of silence thickened as he stared at her. While the dress she wore for him pulled and chafed at her clammy skin.

'They say I should give you to Torrik's pup Zhoron as a peace offering; a gesture to demonstrate your innocence, and our alliance.'

Horror slammed into her chest. 'What? No. You would not...' she shook her head. 'You would not give me to him? Valdr, tell me you refused them.'

His eyes took on a strange, lost look before he dragged a hand over his mouth and turned from her.

'Valdr, if you have agreed to such a thing then I promise you - you will have to drag me to him in chains.  I will never lie with that dog while there's an ounce of strength left in my body!'

She would run. Far from here. Ensure he never found her, that no one ever found her. Would Theodan find her?  Her child. Gods, she would not allow Zhoron of Zybar near the precious life that lived within her.

Perhaps he would not accept her if he knew.

Valdr rounded on her suddenly, angry.

'Yet you went willingly to that mindless princeling's bed, did you not?' He spat. 'I assumed it mattered little to you who you lay with, Fara, as long as it was not I!'

She slapped him, hard.

'Take that back at once,' she hissed.

When he looked back at her, furious tears shone in his eyes.

'Do you know how much it wounded me to imagine it? To imagine you beneath him night after night?' His voice was raw. He took a step closer to her again, his scent overpowering her again. 'I wanted his body broken and bloodied and his realm destroyed, but I also wanted to tear out my own heart you had wrought so much damage upon it. I hated you as fiercely as I longed for you to return to me.'

She weighed her words carefully before speaking. Kept her voice soft as a whisper.

'And so now you wish to punish me? After thanking the gods for my return, you will feed me to a Zybar dog like a scrap of meat? As though I mean nothing to you?'

She closed her eyes and turned from him, hugging her arms about herself.

A moment later she felt him press against her from behind, his arms enfolding her own, his face buried in her hair.

'You are everything to me, you know this,' he breathed.'Gods, the thought of it. The thought of you with him tears at my soul anew.'

'Then do not agree to this,' she pleaded, numb. 'Refuse them. You are their king.'

He made a soft noise and slid his hand up over her breast to her throat, his placement gentle but possessive. Instinctive, she tilted her head to one side to open her neck, and he moved his lips across the skin of her shoulder, biting softly. When she felt him push his need into her behind, she squeezed closed her eyes. How many lives depend on what happens now? You must only survive a while longer. I will come for you.

Obey. Survive. Avenge.

She turned to face him and he took it as an invitation. He brought his lips to hers, kissing her hard. As always, his mouth felt indecent against her own, profane. When she pulled back to look at him, his gaze swam with a dark, familiar hunger.

She reached a hand up to place it against his cheek. 'You will not do it. You will not give me to another.'

A spark of rage flared once more. 'No. I will not.'

She let out a silent breath.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head into her palm, turning his mouth to kiss the scar on her wrist.

'You will stay with me, tonight?' He asked, opening his eyes.

'If it is what you wish.'

He nodded, appeased.

She dropped her hand from his cheek and moved toward a small trestle table, where she poured a large goblet of wine for herself. Then she carried the jug to where his own sat, and refilled it. She carried it over to him. All the while he watched her, his dark gaze still hungry and hot.

'Is Elyon of Lethane still alive?' She asked carefully.

'For now.'

'And what shall you do with him?'

'Nothing until Zybar return.' She gave him a look. 'They sail at dawn for The Bay of Uzroth. They must bury their king beneath a mountain before the turn of the moon.' He shrugged and lifted his wine. 'Then they will choose a new one —though it is almost certain they will choose Zhoron. I have vowed to keep the Leoth alive until then. We will return to Prissia and wait. It will yet give us time to learn Panos' fate.'

Relief flooded her. It yet gave her time to save him. To get a message to Theodan. To perhaps even convince Valdr to mercy.

'And if Panos is alive and they agree to your trade?'

He considered this. 'Then I will decide what shall be done with the Leoth.'

She nodded. It was good enough for her. 'You have not arrested Dacian?'

'He waits for my summons aboard his ship. Under guard.'

'Valdr, you must release him. He has committed no crime.' Then, because she heard the command in her voice, she changed tact. Softened her words, counselled his thoughts. 'You need his men and his ships too much to linger upon it, you know this.'

'I know it and I despise it.' He took an angry sip of his wine. 'Why are my sea captains not loyal to me, first? Why are Dacians men not my men? I am their king.'

'They are loyal to you, of course they are, but Dacian is more than their lord, he is their brother. The Isles have always seen themselves as a realm apart. To them you are a ruler who sits far from them and demands only loyalty and taxes with little in return. Have you yet set foot upon their shores?'

'I am aware of this too, sister. It is why father wanted to give you to him was it not? To invoke their loyalty to his crown.' His lips curled with disdain. 'As though you would not rot and fade to nothingness on that gods forsaken place.'

In fact, most considered the Dacian Isles the most beautiful place on Ethis. Emerald green lands surrounded by nothing but endless sky and sea. She wondered if those who said it had ever visited Leoth, for she was sure no other place could surpass its magnificence. Had she really flown through the sky on a Varveh's wing as Theodan pointed out to her each beauty that passed below? It felt like a dream. One she wished she could return to and never leave.

'Lord Dacian had no part in what happened, Valdr. His loyalty is with you.'

'He is against this war,' he mused.

'As am I, but we are both loyal to you.'

He looked at her intensely before lifting his cup again. As he watched her wordless for a few moments she could almost guess what would come from his mouth next.

'What Torrik said, before the Leoth killed him, was it true?'

'Which part?' Of course, she knew which part.

'That a Leoth commander claimed you as his whore.'

'I have never been anyone's whore, Valdr.'

'But he claimed you as his spoil, then bartered you as though you were?'

'Torrik sought to barter me. Because he wanted me dead. The Leoth commander saved me from that fate— I was not treated unkindly by any Leothine.' Her whipping at the hands of Iaria of Assala was not worth mentioning now. Had Valdr not committed worse upon her body - far worse? 'Torrik sought only to enrage you again, to harness it for his own ends again. Leoth are not Calate's enemy, Valdr.' She was tired of repeating this.

He said nothing, watching her with that same studious gaze. Then he turned and strode across the chamber to a tall chest, atop which sat an ornamental box of polished dark wood. She watched as he opened it and retrieved something, before turning back to her.

Her heart froze.

In his hands, he held the black steel collar bearing Theodan's name. They'd searched her chamber while they locked her in another. Had Ravol been the one to find it? What had they been looking for?

'Tell me of the Leoth who put this around your neck. Then tell me again that he is not my enemy. Tell me how I should seek peace with a beast who makes my sister his spoil and sends his soldier into my realm to slaughter my sworn ally?'

Her breath came quick. 'It was not as you think...' she tried to explain. 'The collar was to protect me...'

'Theodan of Teredia,' Valdr said. The sound of Theodan's name spoken by Valdr's tongue echoed thunderously inside her. Sent a strange sensation pulling at her, like two opposing and powerful forces tearing at the very fabric of her soul. 'He is the valorous Leoth you spoke to me of? The one I am to thank for your return?'

'Yes,' she said. 'He is.. an honorable soldier.'

'Honorable enough to send another to do his bidding?'

She frowned. 'I don't.. understand?'

'I spoke with the Leoth, Elyon of Lethane,' said Valdr. 'Before we had him... bound... and sent by ship to Prissia to await his fate. He relayed a message to me from his commander. He wanted me to know that it was he alone who took Galyn of Azura's life in the battle for Azura, he alone who took you as his spoil after the sacking of the city, and he alone who dealt death to the dog king of Zybar: promise he says he made to one far more powerful than he.'

She could not breathe. Could not countenance that all of this had been Theodan's plan. That he'd sent Elyon here to carry out the execution he had promised her.

A promise made to one far more powerful than he.

Valdr moved to sit on a low chaise, his legs stretched out casually. He still held the collar loosely in his right hand, studied it leisurely.

'Tell me of this Theodan of Teredia,' he said. 'This Leoth who killed the boy you called husband yet who you bear no ill will towards. This beast who collared my sister, a princess of the blood, and yet who speaks of him as though he were a most trusted friend. This warrior who commands the loyalty of his soldiers from a thousand leagues away, even unto the death.'

She kept her gaze steady and unflinching. 'What is it you wish to know about him?'

'His strengths, his weaknesses. Torrik spoke to me of him, this beast who purportedly killed my sister - he despised him fiercely - but more than that, he feared him. That much was clear. He told me he was the most formidable warrior he'd ever seen. Cold, untamed, lethal. A true weapon of Leoth. His men followed him blindly, he said, as though he were a God. Even the Zybarians shrank from the sound of his name.' He sat up and fixed her with a piercing stare. 'Don't you see? You just may be the one to help me defeat him, Fara. For you know him better than any human on Ethis.'

Sweat licked her palms, the back of her neck.

'You have always despised this alliance with Zybar. Well perhaps this —your knowledge of the monster who leads their army —means that I do not need Zybar? Perhaps it means I need make them no peace offering... that I may cast Torrik's daughter aside. That you and I can rule these four realms together as I always dreamed we might?'

She felt the air in the chamber disappear, the loud cacophony of wailing rise up once more. She searched her soul for a way out of this, prayed silently to the Goddess to save her once more as she had done so many times before.

Run.

Run as far away as you can. Run to the ends of Ethis where he can never find you.

Run to Theodan.

But reveal his weaknesses? Help Valdr destroy him? Destroy Leoth? Never. Never again would she be the cause of destruction to that which she cared for. Which she loved...

You have ruined any and all who succumbed to your poison. Galyn of Azura, the lives of countless Azurians themselves who opened their arms to you, the immutable and esteemed Lord Dacian. Even your poor sister....

She drank down the last of her wine then she stood and reached out her hand to him.

'I do not wish to talk of wars or Leothine or Torrik any longer this night, Valdr,' she said, softly 'Can we not pretend that we are who we used to be for a while? Before any of this happened?'

This she could offer him, again. She had borne it before and she could bear it again. This time for a cause far greater than herself; this time for Theodan. For Ethis. For some pretence of peace for a time.

Valdr took her hand and stood, bringing it to his lips, kissing her fingers tenderly. Gazing down at her with adoration, he placed her palm against the hot skin of his chest. His heart beating wildly beneath her touch. 'It is all I have longed for, love.'

She smiled, though behind it she felt the crack over her heart splice open once more, the pain of it numbing her. Moving away from him she went to sit on the end of the large canopied bed and waited. Valdr went again to the small wooden box and placed Theodan's collar inside, then drew out his ornate dagger and crossed the chamber toward her. Every scar on her body sang and burned with anticipation.

Obey. Survive. Avenge.

Obey. Survive. Avenge.

Obey. Survive. Avenge.

She lay back on the bed and spread her legs.