Page 27 of A Kingdom of Lies
“Gyah, I didn’t want this to happen. Believe me.” I spoke in hushed tones, aware of the many Hunters around us.
Gyah didn’t seem to care who heard. In fact, her voice rose in volume, alerting the few riding beside her to listen in. “I admit you never struck me as a pathetic, careless fool. I gave you the benefit of the doubt over and over. But now look at you. Tied up like cattle being taken to slaughter and still you do not see the reality of what is happening.”
Her words felt like a punch in the stomach.
I rested my head upon the iron bar behind me, pleading for some support but finding it lacking. “I did what I had to.”
“If that’s what gives you peace to believe, then you are more the fool than I think.”
She hated me. Not for any other reason than threatening Althea’s life. I could read that in her silence.
“I am doing this forhim,” I replied through gritted teeth.
“He’s dead, Robin.” Gyah’s features softened, her gaze dropping from mine for only a moment. “Do you truly believe your father would have wanted this? He kept you from the Hunters, turned his back on them himself, yet you have run straight into their arms. And for what?”
“An army,” I admitted, to the amusement of the Hunters around me, who laughed. In a way, I hoped Duncan would listen in. Maybe it would stir something in him, something that would help me get what I needed. “I need an army and no one north of the Wychwood border is willing to aid me against Doran. This is not a path I wished to go down, but the lack of support has placed me here. I’m desperate, Gyah.”
“That you are, Robin Icethorn. Desperate.”
More laughter echoed around us, turning my gut in on itself.
“You truly believe the Hand will aid you?” Gyah asked, although I could tell she already knew the answer. I did too.
“He prepares an army of powered humans. His stance on the fey is clear. If I can give him a reason to attack Oakstorm then he may embrace me. May let me live.”
Gyah stared at me with furrowed brows, judging me as clear as day. “You are forgetting something important. A piece of information that contradicts everything you have just explained to me.”
“Enlighten me.”
Gyah reached up to her ear and flickered it with a finger. “You are fey. We all are. If this Hand wants to go to war against us, that will include you.”
“Maybe it isn’t as simple as that. Erix would not have–” A lump formed suddenly in my throat. I covered my mouth, shocked at the response I had to saying his name.
“I understand it may be hard for you to see it, but Erix didn’t have control over what he did. Even now he is not the same person we have come to know. Erix is nothing but a vessel for Doran now. A puppet with gold strings.”
I’d not allowed myself more than a short moment to think of Erix. Even with my father’s murder replaying in my mind, I always tried to ignore the hands that took his life. The vacant look in Erix’s eyes as he followed the command his father had given him.
Turning my head, I gazed to a huddle of Hunters riding beside us. They could hear what we discussed, confirmed from their assumed laughter and chatter.
“Did you know what Erix was?”
Althea moaned, stealing my attention. Her eyes were cracked open, the whites bloodshot and skin pale around them. She struggled to push herself up to sitting, wincing with a hiss as she dragged her leg back towards her. “We did.”
Those two words sent a sharp chill up my spine. It confirmed what I’d already thought.
“Althea,” Gyah gasped, relief smoothing her features. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine.” Althea brushed Gyah’s concern away with a weak hand as she replied to me again. “Robin, I knew everything about Erix and his truth. What he was. What that meant. I should have told you, but it was not my story to tell. And for that, I’m sorry.”
The wind was knocked from me. “He begged me to ask him. I refused. Maybe if I’d just allowed him to reveal his truth, he would never have…”
Left me. Turned himself over. Gave up.
Althea scoffed and smiled grimly. “The truth hurts, Robin. For both the person saying it, and the person hearing it.” Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, losing her battle with consciousness. “I – I would know.”
“Althea, you need to stay awake.” Gyah spoke over me, stopping me from saying something I regretted. “Keep talking.”
A string of inaudible sounds flooded from her paling mouth. Then the Cedarfall princess fell silent once again.
