He began, "How are you feeling, Kestra? Your neck?"

"Did it bother you to watch him do that to me?"

"Of course it did. Though it wouldn't have happened if you had been wiser."

"Well, I am much wiser now." In ways he could not anticipate.

My father had been walking a circle around me, surveying my appearance. But now he stopped in front of me. "It could have been worse. The Lord of the Dominion has always been powerful, but by the end of the war, he had the power of all Endreans. You know that he placed all that magic within the Olden Blade, made of a metal that could neither rust nor rot, and left him immortal. What most don't know is that this act weakened his remaining abilities, requiring constant replenishment in the Blue Caves. What power he does have left, he uses to its full effects, even on a Dallisor, if necessary."

The question I had in mind was risky, but it might be my only chance to ask him. "So there is an Olden Blade? It's not a myth?"

"Of course there is a Blade, though it's been lost for so long, I doubt it'll ever be found." He retreated to his desk. "All of Woodcourt has been searched for it, beyond even the places Risha Halderian had access to."

"What about her servant? The Endrean?"

"Whatever magic she might have had was depleted by the time she was arrested. When I executed her, it was a life that ended in a flash of nothingness, just as Risha's did." His nostrils flared. "I hope you understand that if you disobey Lord Endrick, he will order your death too."

My answer came before I could think better of it. "If I wanted to die, I could just get married. Isn't that right?"

He looked up, eyes widened, but he quickly pasted over any expression of guilt with the same sternness I used to see when he ordered me to finish my supper or to stop digging in the gardens. How could he feel so little for me? This was worse than indifference. This was ...

The answer came to me like a stab wound in the heart. It was exactly what Trina had said. This was evil.

When he spoke, there was no emotion whatsoever. "You will agree to the marriage for tomorrow night, I trust?"

I swallowed the swell of pain within me, and said, "I will, on one condition."

The relief in his eyes was immediately replaced with disgust. "The Lord of the Dominion does not make bargains. He's ordered you to marry this boy and you will."

"I will, if you agree to my terms. Otherwise, I will stand up with that boy beneath the marriage arch and when I'm asked if I accept him, I will publicly denounce Lord Endrick, and you."

"You would betray us?"

"I would tell everyone the real reason for my marriage. If

that's a betrayal, then so be it!"

"Hateful child!" he spat at me. "What your mother ever saw in you is a mystery. What are your terms?"

"Several prisoners were brought into the dungeons just now."

"A proper response to those who attacked you at the inn the other night."

"Not one of them is responsible for that. They are innocent." At least, of that particular crime. I couldn't claim anything more for Tenger's innocence.

"They are enemies of the Dallisors. That is enough. They will be executed at midnight."

I stepped forward. "Release them, as a wedding gift to me. It's the only thing I will ask of you before I'm married."

"I will not free them, Kestra, nor will it be the only thing you ask of me today."

Something in his tone worried me, but I held my voice steady. "Oh? What else do you think I'll ask?"

"Forgiveness." He reached into a drawer of his desk and withdrew my mother's diary, letting it drop on the desk with a harsh thud. "Because if I don't forgive you, then I must execute my own daughter. How dare you break into my library and steal this?"

My heart crashed against my chest, all pretenses of indifference gone. No doubt, behind me, Gerald had stopped breathing too.

"When I was in here this morning, it had fallen to the floor." He'd know I was lying, but this was the best I had. "I assumed it had fallen from the shelves, so I replaced it. The book is locked anyway."

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen The Traitor's Game Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net