Page 57 of What Fury Brings
“I pretend nothing. I’ve told you my desires from the start. I want out of these chains. I want to go home.”
She leaned back in her seat. “And what is so great about home? What would you be doing if you were in Brutus?”
With his birthday over, he’d be on his way back to the border to fight the Ephennans. He’d be alone on the road, with his mind free to wander. He’d worry about his family.
Gods, his family.
Sanos turned to Olerra.
His heart pounded as urgency surged through him, but there was nothing he could do to be free. He would be stuck here until an opportunity for escape presented itself. There was only one thing he could do.
“I would ask something of you,” he said.
He could tell she was surprised by the topic change. “Today is meant to be disciplinary, yet you would ask for a favor?”
He pressed on. “I have come to realize that I will be in your country for quite some time, despite my best efforts. I know that you cannot tell my family where I am, but could you deliver a message to my mother, telling her I am well? I don’t want her to worry any more than she needs to.”
His request was met with a beat of silence.
“Why would she worry?” Olerra said at last. “Are you not prone to leaving the palace from time to time?”
He reminded himself she thought him his younger brother. Andrastus was more free to go where he wished.
“Hardly ever,” he said. “Only on brief outings with my brothers. She will think the worst has happened. This is not some ploy to get a secret message to her. Anyone can write it. I just want her to know that I’m alive and I’m all right.”
Olerra sat back in her seat, keeping her eyes on him. “And what will you give me in return if I do this for you?”
He swallowed his pride, though it nearly killed him. “I will behave. No more fighting you in public.”
The princess thought it over carefully. “All right, Prince. I will send word to your mother the moment we return.”
“Thank you.”
It felt wrong to thank her after everything she’d done, but she needed to know he was sincere in his request and promise.
The city swept past them slowly. The traffic was horrible, causing the carriage to jolt to a stop many times. Sanos looked out the window, taking in businesses and neighborhoods. The common people of Amarra seemed happy enough. Sanos didn’t see any homeless or destitute among them.
He must have voiced that aloud, for Olerra said proudly, “We have programs in place to care for the mentally ill and those who need help finding their way.” Her voice lowered. “Despite Glenaerys’s best efforts.”
He brought his head back inside the carriage. “What do you mean?”
“She wants to cut off the money for such programs. They’re funded by the richest among us. She would give that money back to the nobles. Just another reason why she’s so popular among them.”
He returned his attention outside. Compared to the palace, the common people looked so normal. The men didn’t wear makeup or obscene amounts of jewelry. They wore simple armbands out of common materials. They weren’t paraded about. They were doing chores like everyone else. It would seem that only the nobility made spectacles of their men, showing them off like trophies.
He watched a father bend down to pick up his daughter and hoist her high on his shoulders. She wrapped her thin arms around his head and laughed. Another man leaned down and kissed his wife on the cheek before resting his head on her shoulder as she bargained for something at one of the vendors.
He’d never seen peasants looking so pleased with their lot. In Brutus, there were homeless on every street. In Ephenna, he saw urchins fleeing in droves away from his soldiers as they marched on each city.
The Amarrans may have had a fucked-up society, but they were doing something right with their common people, at least.
Sanos scowled as he realized he’d thought something complimentary about this place. He turned away from the streets again.
Olerra was watching him. “What are you thinking?”
“Nothing.”
She smiled as though she’d guessed his thoughts. “You never answered my question from earlier. What would you be doing if you were back in Brutus right now?”
