Page 7 of Earth Dragon
“Oh, don’t be so naïve,” she exclaimed. “We all lie.”
“Yes, apparently so,” he agreed. “If you’re telling the truth when you say you’ve left those old convictions behind, then why is it you didn’t cooperate with Malcolm’s inquisition? You did not see fit to answer a single one of his questions?”
“Only because I don’t know who is part of the conspiracy,” she replied. “They’re everywhere. I might give away the handful of names I have, only to get murdered in the following breath.”
“And why are you telling me this?”
“It’s important to me that you know that I’m not just one thing,” she said. “Can’t I be a traitor willing to admit to her flaws? To examine them and learn from them so that she may never repeat her mistakes?”
“And yet all you are telling me is that you’d rather protect your own hide than take down the people who are plotting against the four kingdoms.”
“And you think that’s wrong of me?” she asked, actually taken aback by how petty he was being. Who was he? He was not the same as the man she had met in Fawha. “Those five names I have wouldn’t make even a dent when there are hundreds of them.”
“How do you know it’s not just the five?” he asked.
“Because I’ve been told there’s more,” she said.
“And you trust the people in charge of this thing to tell you the absolute truth?” he asked.
She hesitated.
“No,” she finally admitted. “I don’t.”
“Why don’t you give me those five names? I promise that you will be kept safe here.”
She smiled, a trace of bitterness there, and couldn’t help but remark, “You didn’t know Leon was working behind your back for nearly a century. I don’t believe anyone’s very safe here.”
His gaze hardened again, and he turned from her to head back down the stairs. She watched him go, feeling a stab of regret but knowing there was nothing she could do to make him trust her. There was nothing she could say. And giving up the names she knew was an impossibility. Not only would she be dead within a day, but she would be betraying the only family she had left.
Because she would be naming her own father.
What she should do was drift back to her rooms and remain there. No matter what the sight of the elemental magics working through Malcolm had stirred in her, she had to accept the fact that she was never going to make amends. However shifted her perspective was, no matter how little affection was left in her heart for her father, she could hardly even think of betraying him.
The mere implication made her mouth dry up and her hands begin to shake.
And even if she were to think it, wouldn’t the admittance of what he had done and what he had led her to do mark her for life as someone who had treason in her veins? Treason inherited from a corrupted parent, therefore all the more difficult to get rid of.
It was something she had grappled with for the past year, and she still did not know how to bear it.
Chapter 3 - Ewan
Ewan sat back down at the dinner table, pulled his chair closer, its legs scratching against the floor. He reached for the wine and had a deep mouthful. His jaws were working, teeth gnashing.
The lady was impossible.
She also was not wrong.
He hadn’t felt safe since his return to Rogoros. He had convinced his father to triple the guard; they were considering digging out the mote to make it deeper and broader; he had gone over the castle drawings a hundred times to make certain there were no hidden entrances or missed weak spots. And now his father had still insisted on bringing thiswomaninside the castle walls.
“She vexes you,” his father observed.
“Is that a surprise?” he asked, eyebrows raised. “We should have sent her to Lord Poros. He offered.”
“You know why I could not put her under anyone else’s protection,” the king remarked.
“Yes, but under the circumstances, surely her father would have been grateful simply to know that she was within a kingdom where any harm befalling her would not be taken kindly?” Ewan asked.
“We’ve had this discussion,” the king said, tone firm, letting Ewan know that they were not going to have it again. “I should like to speak with you about something else.”
