The Traitor's Game (The Traitor's Game 1)

Simon groaned softly, then climbed in after me. I took a seat opposite Tenger, who was in the center of his bench, the same spots Celia and I had occupied only minutes ago. Simon sat beside me, gripping my arm again.

I shook it free. "Where will I run in here, you imbecile?"

Meanwhile, Tenger brushed his hands over the clearstone, warming the gem enough to raise its light. The clearstone's glow did little more than set his and Simon's faces into sharp, menacing shadows. I took the opposite tack, giving the impression of the least threatening girl in Antora, slouching so low in my seat that every governess from my past would have simultaneously shuddered in horror. But underplaying the moment would be Darrow's recommendation.

Tenger clasped his hands together. I hoped that with the grip glove on, he'd accidentally squeeze his left hand off. No such luck there. Instead, he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs. "It's been three years since you were in Highwyn. Why were you sent away?"

My mouth opened, long enough to consider hurling an insult at him. But in the end, I figured that even if it made me feel better, it wouldn't improve my situation.

"Surely you know," I said. "I was kidnapped by the Banished."

"They are the Halderians."

My jaw tightened. "They are the Banished. They lost the war and lost the right to their name."

"You will refer to them as Halderians or I will have your heart banished from your chest."

"I'd prefer to keep my heart where it is, thanks." I drew in a slow breath to cool my temper, then said, "After escaping from the Halderians, I was sent away for my own protection."

In appearance, there was little to distinguish the Halderian clan from my family, or from other Antorans, though Darrow used to claim he could "just tell." Most Dallisors believed the Halderians were soft and feckless. The Halderians accused my family of brutality and paranoia. I figured the truth was somewhere in the middle. The Dallisors were cruel because Lord Endrick required it. And the Halderians were hardly weak. I knew that firsthand.

My kidnapping was their first major strike against the Dallisors since the War of Devastation, so called because of its utter brutality. Months into the war, the Halderians, led by King Gareth, seemed certain to win. As a final effort to reclaim the throne, the Dallisors chose the unthinkable, to unite with the Endreans, a people who'd rarely emerged from the Watchman Mountains before then. The Endreans were few in number but had something that would change the course of the war: magic. Most powerful among them was Endrick, who, unbeknownst to everyone, planned to do more than help the Dallisors win the war. By the time the war ended, he intended to rule all of Antora, my family included. Once the Endreans joined the fight, the Halderians were crushed, their King Gareth disappeared, and his few surviving subjects were scattered across the land or lived in exile in the farthest reaches of Antora, hence their name, the Banished. To be a Halderian now was a death sentence. Or, at least, that was the price paid by those who had kidnapped me three years ago. My father made sure of that.

"Why did they target you?" Tenger's question was an absurd waste of time.

And it deserved an equally ridiculous answer. "The pleasure of my company. I'm a lot of fun at parties."

"No doubt." Tenger's smile reeked of insincerity. Or maybe Tenger just reeked. "Perhaps that's why we're here as well."

"It's after the party that people regret kidnapping me. Forty Halderians were executed for the crime."

"Forty people were executed," Simon said. "Some of them were Halderians, some were rebels or rebel sympathizers. Some were innocent citizens who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"There were no innocents," I insisted. "That's a Corack lie."

"How do you know?"

"My father told me--"

"How do you know?" Simon raised his voice. "Did you gaze into the faces of those who hung from the gallows? Did you hear their stories, their defenses? You know nothing about it, because by the time the executions happened, you had already disappeared."

I lowered my eyes. That much was true.

The kidnapping had happened in the days after my mother's death, at her wake, during which hundreds of people had filtered through Woodcourt Manor to gaze upon her body. After I escaped from the Banished, my father barely looked at me. He blamed me for the disruption to her mourning rites and told me I'd have to leave Woodcourt immediately. The deaths of those forty people would be my fault, since I had been "careless enough to be taken."

My father also claimed the reason I was sent to the Lava Fields was for protection from any remaining Halderians, or from rebels who would view the kidnapping as a sign of Dallisor weakness. But I knew it wasn't that. He wanted me out of his home. For my mother's sake, he'd always tolerated my presence, but little more. Now he resented me for surviving a kidnapping when my mother hadn't even survived a winter flu.

Tenger continued, "Why is your father bringing you home again now?"

"He misses me." Which wasn't even close to the truth, but if what I suspected was true, then the real reason was worse. Marriage. A marriage of alliance, undoubtedly to some scaly old man, all to improve my father's standing in the kingdom. What could be more repulsive than that?

My words brought on a bitter chuckle from Simon, who said, "I told you she wouldn't cooperate."

"She will." Tenger leaned forward. "She's going to do everything we want."

"And what is it you want?" I asked. "Because one day you'll be discovered, and then Lord Endrick will crush you just as he has thousands of others in this land. Once we destroy all of you Coracks, we'll finally have peace again."

"Crushing a people into submission is not peace, my lady." Tenger's nostrils flared. "Lord Endrick's days upon the Scarlet Throne are numbered."