Page 113 of The Flame and the Forsaken

Rylahn rubbed his temple with his fingers. His heavy breathing sliced through the quiet. “Go check on your mother, please. She’s not handling this well.”

Erran’s heart sank. “Will you not even consider what I’m saying?”

“Please,” Rylahn said. He stood with an old man’s energy, slow and creaky. “I have somewhere I need to be.”

“Mariel,”Destin pleaded, “I know how you feel about him, but it’s notsafefor us here. Either of us. There’s naught he can do about it, and you know it.”

Mariel wasn’t sure how to tell him he was wrong, because she didn’t actually believe he was.

They were sitting on a bench in the center of the maze that had been sculpted upon one of the lower cliffs on the Rutland estate. It sat at the outer barrier of where they were allowed to wander during their lockdown, house arrest with more legroom. But at least now she could see Erran... draw strength from him, which was not an easy thing for Mariel to admit, but her marriage had been a series of self-challenges that had made her stronger than she’d been since her parents had left her and Destin to fend for themselves.

But it didn’t mean she was strong enough to fight the Rutlands.

“You’re going to have a baby,” Destin said. He pulled her hands into his with the urgency of a child.

“That’s what keeps me safe,” Mariel replied. She withdrew her hands, folding them into her dress. “Butyou’renot safe. When Erran returns, we’ll talk to him about getting you out of here. He’ll know a way to sneak you past the guards.”

“You’re only safe until you deliver!” Destin spun on her in frustration that said,You’re not getting it,but she was. She was an incubator, at least to Rylahn. Maybe to Hestia as well. Certainly to the men and women whose salaries they paid. But she was, at most, a couple of months along. There was time to figure out what to do about her predicament. Destin’s required a more immediate answer. “Mariel!”

“I won’t leave without my husband,” she said stoically, stubbornly. Erran had been gone when she’d woken that morning, and while he hadn’t left a note, she suspected where he’d went. He should have been back already, and the fact that he wasn’t left a dark crevasse of fear and uncertainty in her belly. Remy and Augustine wouldn’t hurt someone Mariel loved, but Magnur and Alessia were less predictable. Their short fuses were rarely lit with reason. They’d lose no sleep over taking a life if they deemed it necessary. “And he would never let them hurt me, Des. I know you think he’s weak?—”

“I think he would die to protect you, and if you stay, he might get the chance.” Destin groaned softly under his breath. “Is that what you want? To force a conflict?”

“Force a...” Mariel scoffed and gestured around. “We are already in conflict, Des.Someonetried to burn the keep down. They kidnapped Sessaly. Don’t forget we weren’t on the side with the torches. We were the ones being torched.”

“The steward is convinced it was our people behind it. You won’t sway him otherwise.”

“Maybe I won’t have to.”

“How so?”

“I ken Erran went to see Remy today.”

Destin did a double take. “Pardon me,what?”

Mariel sighed. “I didn’t ask him to, but he knows they can help. They might be the only ones who can help.”

“What would help is if the steward gave the feckin’ lands back to their rightful owners. It’s not an unreasonable ransom demand, Mar, and he won’t. Not even for his own daughter...”

Rylahn was beyond reason. One day, Erran would be the steward, and he would right the wrongs done, but how many years would it take? How many more would die before then?

She couldn’t say the words aloud because they truly frightened her, but for the first time in her life, Mariel didn’t have a plan, nor did she have any power. The one card she’d thought to play was beyond her ability because she wouldn’t get ten steps beyond the perimeter before the guards dragged her back. Erran had played it for her, but he was even less likely to win with it than she would have been. Even if Remy agreed to hear him out, it wasn’t the same as listening.

And as much as she wanted to continue helping her people, she wouldn’t do anything that risked the safety of her child.

How could she tell Destin she’d given up though? Even in his pleading, he was looking to her to say what came next. To givesomesort of direction. But the only fight she had left in her was the one needed to protect her own.

“You won’t leave without him?” Destin crossed his arms. “And I won’t leave without you. Seems we have a conundrum.”

Mariel laughed. “When have we not had a conundrum, Desi, eh? Our whole lives have been one never-ending conundrum.”

Crunching steps in the maze had them exchanging wary looks. None of the guards had followed them in. She’d heard one of them whispering about how easy it was to get lost inside.

But it was Rylahn who emerged from the path. Alone.

“Mariel, might we speak? Just us?”

Destin stood, making himself big with his stance. “So you can interrogate her more? Nay. You’ve something to speak about? Speak to me.”

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