Page 112 of The Flame and the Forsaken

“What did you say about Mariel?” Remy sat back.

“She’s with child.” Erran glanced away. “Are you a father?”

Remy shook his head, as much in response to the simple question as to make sense of the far less simple emotion Erran’s words had prompted. He hadn’t even accepted Mariel’s fondness for the princeling, and she was already having his child?

“My mate, Hamish, he told me all the colors of the world change when you become a parent. Nothing has been the same in my head since Mariel told me last night. Nothing. Not a single feckin’ thing. Before, I loved her enough to come here and risk my neck, but now I come to you as a man hoping not only to protect his wife but also his child.” Erran leaned in, stretching across the table. “You and me, we can end this. Tell me your price, Remy, and I’ll see it done.”

The man in Remy wanted to send the princeling soaring through his window and into the road. The tactician in him appreciated the opportunity the offer presented. A way out. A way to save them all. A way to help others beyond anything they could accomplish as vigilantes.

Hecouldtrack down whoever was responsible for the attack on the Spires. Secrets were rarely so for long, and for the right price, they didn’t exist at all.

“My price...” Remy rubbed his chin. “You already named one. The ransom letter named the other.”

“The land returned. Immunity.” Erran nodded. “Anything else?”

Remy would have laughed at how simple Erran’s words made the whole thing sound if there’d been any humor left in his heart. “Aye, there’s one more.”

Erran nodded for him to continue.

“It’s not enough for him to reverse what he’s done. He needs toseeit. With his own eyes. Not send his men, so he can hide behind ignorance. He needs tofacewhat he’s done. I want Rylahn Rutland himself to ride through the remnants of his tyranny, and if he refuses, then you’re on your own.”

Chapter25

A Never-Ending Conundrum

Erran laid out the terms to his father, speeding through the parts he sensed wouldn’t be received well, which was, to be fair, most of them. He’d expected a fight, but all he got was a turgid silence and a stare so rigorous, he wondered if his father had even been listening.

“You went to Obsidian Sky,” Rylahn said at last. He drew each word out with exaggerated emphasis. “So youdoknow. Youdohave names.You’ve known all along.” He wedged his tongue between his teeth and clamped down. “Your wife’s imprisonment is on you.You.You had the power to free her, and you didn’t.”

“She wouldn’t have wanted me to free her if it meant you executing her friends.” Erran’s defense of his choice wasn’t as strong as it sounded. He’d made the same argument to himself, every single day of Mariel’s confinement. Those weeks had been unbearable, but he could not have faced her if he’d given into the urge. “I’m still not telling you. I’m sorry, Father.”

“Are you?” One of his father’s eyes twitched.

“Mariel wasn’t the woman I wanted to marry. Yet when you told me to, I did, out of loyalty to you. And now she’s my wife, and I love her, and my loyalty belongs first to her. As it should. As yours is to Mother. As youraisedme to act.”

Rylahn’s eyes rolled. “Do not hurl my teachings in my face as twisted lies. Your loyalty to her should have ended themomentshe told you who she was.”

“Aye, perhaps,” Erran said, nodding. “Instead I listened. It wasn’t easy to hear. Was even harder to see. But that isn’t the man I want to be, blind to the results of my own accounting, my own choices. When we were on the island, everything she told me was so hard to accept because the man she spoke of was not the man I know. My father is an honorable steward, I told her, a man who loves his people. Loves his wife, his children. It just doesn’t reconcile with my own experiences, and yet...” He cast his eyes aside, finding his words through the twisting discomfort of a life slowly crumbling. “I believed her. I opened my eyes to what she was telling me, and I am not...” His mouth tightened with a surge of sadness, an awful gut-punching of grief that held just as much guilt as anything else. He’d never needed to rely on his words for anything so crucial, and he had no confidence in his capability, only his sincere desire to help. “I cannot return to the person I was before she showed me the man I want to be. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll find I’m becoming the man you raised me to be as well.”

Rylahn shook his head at his desk.

“I need you to hear me this time when I tell you what she means to me.Father.” Erran waited for his father to look up. “This isn’t lust. She’s nay Yesenia. She is the realest thing I’ve ever felt, held, touched. She’s the most incredible woman I have ever known. Without her, there is no sunset, no sunrise. No color in this world. Not for me. And Ibelievein her. If you make me choose, I will choose her.” He tapped his chest. “But I’m asking you not to, because it doesn’t have to be this way. You’re not like Yesenia’s in-laws, those feckin’ bootlicking tree-dwellers who conspire with the crown against their own people, but that’s where this has all led us. Starvation. Homelessness. Death. You’re better than this. The Southerlands is better than this. So many times I’ve told Mariel and the others that you’re a good man, and this is your chance to make me an honest man.”

“I don’t even know what to say to you anymore, Erran,” Rylahn said. His eyes were so red and heavy, Erran doubted he’d slept at all. No matter how tough he was acting, he was terrified. He loved Sessaly. He was the singular reason she’d become a spoiled brat, because he’d overindulged her, given her everything she’d ever asked for. When he’d been tough on Erran, because he felt he had to be, for his daughter, he only had tender kindness. There were times it made Erran jealous, but his mother reminded him that Sessaly would become a woman and be offered in marriage to the most strategic match their father could find, and it wouldn’t matter if she loved him or even liked him. Her life would become the property of her husband, and her choices as well. Until then, Rylahn would give her the world to make up for it.

“I propose,” Erran said cautiously, “you start with one of Obsidian Sky’s asks. Just one. It will cost you nothing except your time.”

Rylahn threaded his hands and waited.

“Ride with me through the lake district.”

“Erran—”

“You’re the steward, and you should do this anyway. It’s part of the job. And if you find that what you see is the image of the province you intended to build, then there’s nothing more I can say.”

“You want me to ride through lands I’ve ridden through a thousand times?”

“I remember when the visits stopped, the same time the taxes went up and the land seizures began.” Erran shook his head. “Set aside for a moment that others want you to do this. Don’tyou?”

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