Page 133 of What Fury Brings
Sanos was by Olerra’s side as the nobility found Glenaerys guilty of all charges. However, because she was royalty, she could not be killed. Just like Olerra could not when she’d demanded substitution on behalf of Sanos.
“I sentence you to a life of house arrest,” Queen Lemya declared. “If exiled, Glenaerys would only find supporters to help her steal the throne. She is to remain on Amarran soil, where I can keep an eye on her.”
Glenaerys met Olerra’s eye, and Olerra wanted to say something. Anything to her cousin, whom she still loved despite everything. But there were no words.
“You, however,” the queen said, turning to Glen’s mother, “are not royalty. You have aided your daughter every step of the way in her attempts to align with Brutus to secure the throne, and you have funded her treachery. I sentence you to death, Shaelwyn, and I am redistributing your wealth to the throne and its people. I’ll not have Glenaerys bribing her way out of house arrest.”
Shaelwyn, usually so beautiful and so put together, turned toward Olerra, her face a cruel sneer. “You have no right to sit on the Amarran throne. You are Giftless! Ordinary! In bed with Brutus!”
“Would you like to lose your tongue before you lose your head?” the queen asked.
“I have kept this country running,” Shaelwyn said. “It is my wealth that has funded your reign as queen. You are nothing without me.”
“I have brought peace to our people for many years, and my legacy will live on through Olerra, the only rightful choice as queen.”
Now Shaelwyn turned her venomous gaze on Olerra. “I should have killed you when I had the chance! Back when I killed your parents.”
Olerra and the queen both stilled.
“That’s right,” Shaelwyn said, smug now. “I killed your mother and blamed it on your father! Then I killed him before he could give testimony. I cleared the path for Glenaerys to take the throne.”
Olerra couldn’t move. She wanted to stop the words but knew she needed to hear the rest of it.
“You were four years old. Easy pickings. I only spared you for the love my daughter had for you. But I never should have been swayed by such a trifling thing. You are nothing!”
The warrior queen of Amarra drew her sword for the first time in years. The soldiers cleared her path as she approached a chained Shaelwyn.
“She was my sister!” Queen Lemya shouted, and then she swung.
Shaelwyn’s head fell from her shoulders and landed at Glenaerys’s feet.
Olerra nearly sank to the floor at what had been revealed. Sanos was there to hold her up. He put an arm around her and supported her weight. His lips went to her temple. “I love you. You’re safe. I’m so sorry.”
All this time, Olerra had felt that she had something to prove because her mother had died at the hands of her father. But it wasn’t true. It was what Shaelwyn had wanted her to believe. For all Olerra knew, her sire was a kind man who’d loved her and her mother.
Vengeance was already had. The queen had exacted it, so now Olerra was left with only her complicated feelings to sort through.
Olerra pushed free of Sanos gently and approached Glenaerys, who hadn’t moved, staring at her mother’s head.
“Did you know?” Olerra demanded. “Did you know she’d killed them?”
For the first time in her life, Olerra witnessed her cousin cry. She stroked the hair trailing behind her mother’s head. “I didn’t know,” Glen said, “but if I had, I wouldn’t have told you.”
Olerra slapped her cousin across the face.
Glenaerys looked horrified, having never had Olerra raise a single hand to her.
“You may be trapped within these walls,” Olerra said, “but I will not be visiting. From this day forward, you are dead to me.”
Olerra turned from her cousin as the guards hauled her away.
28
Olerra dressed in her finest armor and tunic. Glenaerys would have worn some fancy dress, but Olerra was a warrior first, and she would remind all the nobility of it. Her victory over Atalius happened only a few weeks ago, but her battle garb would be a perfect reminder of how she’d thwarted her cousin and their greatest enemy in a single night.
Ydra did her hair in battle braids. The strands were combed to impressive volume atop her head. Then every piece of hair was plaited down her back. The plaits were braided into one long thick braid that rested over one shoulder. She wondered if she resembled her mother at all.
All week the Amarrans had been celebrating. The five hundredth anniversary of the Goddess’s Gift deserved no less. Olerra had spent the week with Sanos, enjoying the foods and drink and dancing. They were both free to be themselves around each other for the first time, and it was glorious.
