As if my movements have thawed his own body, Rylan steps forward, his voice booming, filled with anger. “What kind of sick joke is this? Captain Corvane isnotKyros Valen!”
Valynia turns to him, her eyes sparkling with satisfaction. “Oh, but he is, Your Highness. Every source I have points to him. Imagine my surprise to discover that our most trusted friend was the very leader of the Nir’ath Darin.” She circles Mathis slowly, her gaze cold. “He was always such a charmer. Seems he charmed you, Rylan.”
Rylan’s fury is palpable as he takes another step forward, pointing to Mathis. “Release him.Now.”
The king’s voice crashes through the hall like a hammer. “You will stand down, Prince Rylan!” He reaches down and tears the gag from Mathis’s mouth. Mathis sags forward, coughing violently, his face contorted in agony. “Answer me,Captain Corvane,” the king demands, his voice as cold as the steel of a blade. “Are you Kyros Valen?”
Mathis chokes, the words barely forming as his body trembles with the effort to speak. All he manages is a groan, his eyes glazed with pain.
Valynia steps forward, her tone mockingly gentle. “Your Majesty, as you know, I inherited my mother’s sentience strength. And we had a lovely talk earlier, my old friend Captain Corvane and I, during which he admitted to me that he is indeed Kyros Valen.” She lays a hand on Mathis’s shoulder and leans over as if whispering something in his ear, and he screams and falls to the ground, clutching at his temples. “Tell them. Tell them who you really are.”
Mathis shouts again, fighting to get to his knees, his eyes squeezed shut in pain as he finally says, “Kyros. Valen. Leader… of… Nir’ath… Darin…”
Valynia looks up at everyone, shrugging as if to say,I told you so.
No. No, I can’t… Iwon’tbelieve it. But…
It also… makes… perfect sense.
His combat skills, his proximity to the crown… his unexplained disappearances…
But. I would know. We’re close enough friends that… surely I would know?
Rylan’s disbelief flares into fury as he turns to the crowd, his voice rising with fierce conviction. “This is a lie! Mathis has been loyal to me, a protector of our people—he’d never betray Celador!”
Valynia’s gaze hardens as she stares at him. “Oh? And yet here we are. If you’re so certain, Rylan, perhaps I should provide you with even more proof?” Her tone is biting, smug. “Shall I show you who I ran across just wandering the streets of Narathia?”
With a flick of her wrist, another man is dragged into the hall, tossed at Rylan’s feet. I gasp as I recognize him—it’s the prisoner Mathis had brought to the dungeons. He’s thinner, his face gaunt with fear, but he’s very much alive. How can that be? Rylan had at least alluded to this prisoner being taken to the dungeons and killed for his betrayal to the crown. What was he doing wandering around free, let alone alive?
Rylan’s face drains of colour. “Maren?”
Valynia tilts her head, watching Rylan with an almost pitying expression. “Yes. Oh, I’m sorry, did you think him dead? Well, that makes it twice now you’ve been wrong on that count. Your judgement’s obviously failing you, Rylan. It turns out, your loyal friend Mathis released him and lied to you about it.” She circles Maren, her voice low and dangerous. “Tell the king what you told me, Maren. And I suggest you do so honestly. I think you remember what happened the last time you lied to me.”
The king’s voice is cold steel. “You,” he says, circling Maren, looking at him as if he sees something of less value than the gunk under his shoe. “Tell me, who released you?”
Maren’s eyes flicker with terror, his lips pressed shut in defiance. But Valynia’s fingers twitch, and he convulses, clutching his head as if an invisible force were squeezing his very brain, his mouth gasping for air.
Holy gods, her sentience strength must be exceptional.
“It was Kyros,” Maren finally chokes out, his voice strained, raw with pain. “He led me out of the dungeons himself.”
The king’s face turns bright red, and I half expect him to tear the ballroom down with his anger. But then he takes a long, deep breath and says, his voice as cool as ice, “Guards. Take Captain Corvane—no, takeKyros Valento the torture chambers. Strip him and tie him to the rack. We’ll uncover the truth soonenough.”
“No!” I shout, trying to fight against Caelum, but he holds me tight, his face just as pale as mine feels. “Rylan! Stop them! Help him!” I shout.
But I needn’t have bothered. He’s already moving.
With a wave of his hand, a wall of fire explodes, surrounding Mathis and separating him from the guards. I flinch back from the heat, a gasp escaping my lips. Rylan steps forward, his voice cutting through the chaos like a blade.
“Do not lay a fucking hand on him,” Rylan’s voice cuts through the tense silence, each word thick with a deadly threat to anyone who dares to disobey. “Mathis Corvane is innocent. He’snotKyros Valen.”
Valynia’s voice drips with accusation. “And how, exactly, would you know that?”
Rylan turns towards her, his eyes like ancient steel, impenetrable and cold. They exchange a look—a dark, knowing glance that feels as though it’s been a hundred years in the making, as if they’re two players in a game only they understand. And then he turns to face the king, to the gathered court, and takes a slow, deliberate breath.
“BecauseIam Kyros Valen.”
The hall plunges into stunned silence, the shock so potent it nearly knocks the breath from me. I stumble back, my heart hammering, my mind scrambling to piece together any thread of disbelief that could make this untrue.
