Page 65 of The Prince's Captive

Oh. Her pathetic, weak heart was giving her away.

She wasn’t going to be able to keep anything from them.

“Tell truth. Know how?”

“Hypatia had a vision,” Marcella murmured, closing her eyes. “Not important enough to know more. I do as I’m told.”

Another exchange.

“Hope that serves you well here. Vision. What is vision?”

Did they not know about seers? They were rare, but not unheard of.

Commander Gavril’s confused expression when she’d first mentioned the vision flickered through her mind. Maybe they didn’t.

Marcella should keep her mouth shut. Hypatia was the most valuable weapon against the Inimicus and anything they didn’t know about her was good for her people.

But her side still burned, and they could tell when she lied, and they weren’t going to let her off unless she talked… A good soldier would shut her mouth and die holding onto any scrap of information she had that could help her people.

What did she care more about? Her life or her people? Getting off the table or protecting Hypatia’s secrets?

Marcella had always been a mediocre soldier at best.

“Hypatia’s a seer. She… She can tell the future.”

There was another exchange.

“—demon—”

Then, “What did your clan gain from deal?”

“Don’t know details…” Her heartbeat was steady against the lines as she told the truth. “Montis has good mages, more mountains, easier to defend.”

“What did your clan give them?”

“Hypatia.”

The vitae burned her side, and she wasn’t able to stifle the cry that fell out. Her welled up eyes spilled over. If they couldn’t even accurately tell when she was lying, then what was the point?

“Supplies, resources, did your clan give Montis?”

“Hypatia.”

Hypatia’s mind was resource enough. Her skill in magic would be worth a great deal to any clan and that didn’t even include her blessings as a seer. And even without all of that, she was everything anyone could pray for in a clan heir. Montis was getting the better deal.

Hypatia and the Heart delivered to the temple to be guarded in their lands where it would be easier to defend. That had been the deal, at least, not anticipating the Heart would be captured with Marcella. With Chief Eustathios dead, Hypatia was also now not just clan heir, but chiefess of Desero. Even next to Konstantin, who was the heir acting as regent for Montis and was generally regarded as an above average mage, there was no comparison.

The exact politics were beyond her, what was going to happen with Eustathios dead and how Hypatia’s marriage would work since there was no chance she was going to give up being chiefess to anyone else and Konstantin was practically already chief of Montis. Marcella probably wasn’t going to live long enough to find out.

The vitae burned her again, but they didn’t return to that question. The woman said something, and Marcella could see her hands flying through the air as the rune above her kept glowing.

Instead, “The rock? Dowry?”

Of a sort. If there was anything she had to hide, it was any information about the Heart. Hypatia’s secrets could burn, but Marcella had to be strong enough to choose her faith over her life.

“Yes. Heirloom. Pretty. Hypatia’s idea.”

The woman said something. “—heart spike—lie—”

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