The Deceiver's Heart

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  My back stiffened. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Something pulled you under the water. Then something … or someone … pushed you up. Can you tell me more?”

  “Only that it never happened.” That was a lie, but telling her the truth would have required an explanation I couldn’t provide.

  When I didn’t answer further, she reached out to touch the gray pearl necklace I still wore. “What is this?”

  “A gift.” I tried to push her hand down, but she kept hold of it.

  “From Lord Endrick?” Loelle moved the necklace aside, then pressed her palm over my heart. After several beats, she gave Tenger a distinct frown, wordlessly communicating a concern I did not understand.

  He cursed, then walked over to examine the necklace closer. “What do you know about this so-called gift?”

  I shrugged, feeling a strange pinch in my chest, like a warning to be careful with my words. “It’s a wedding gift, nothing more.”

  Eyeing Loelle, Tenger said, “We can’t take the risk. She must go to the caves.”

  “What caves?” I asked.

  When he saw my curious, widened eyes, Tenger patted my hand, then released it. “Don’t let that concern you now.” With his nod, Loelle dismissed herself, and Tenger added, “You must have questions for me.”

  I had a thousand questions, though none of them mattered more than my first. “Whatever I ask, will you promise to answer honestly?”

  “As honestly as I can. Please, my lady, sit down.” Tenger gestured to a chair in front of him and offered me a tray of sliced bread and apples. “Are you hungry?”

  I reached for a slice of bread. Maybe it would dull the effects of the tea, for Loelle had to have tricked me. What was the point of absorbing the effects of magic if no magic had been used on me?

  While I ate, Tenger gestured at the table showing the countries surrounding Antora. He pointed to Reddengrad, which lined the entire southern border of Antora.

  “Sir Basil’s country is under threat of war,” he said.

  He hadn’t mentioned anything about war to me. “From whom?”

  He frowned. “From your king, my lady.”

  My eyes widened. “Lord Endrick intends to attack Reddengrad?”

  “Yes. Basil asked us to help him protect his home, and we’ve agreed.”

  “Then you’ve agreed to die. Lord Endrick is immortal and has exceptionally powerful magic. Any fight against him will ultimately fail.”

  “We’re working on that problem.” Tenger briefly studied me. “I hoped you might know of a way to stop him.”

  I shook my head. “There is no way. And even if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you. I remain loyal to the Dominion.” My chest tightened again. “Why am I here?”

  His fingers clasped. “For now, you are here only because Basil is your betrothed. He had to leave Highwyn to seek us out and didn’t want you left behind.”

  I smiled, though my irritation with Basil was rapidly growing. “How very thoughtful of him.” A beat passed, then I added, “Is Simon on your side, or is he a Loyalist?”

  “He’s no Loyalist, that’s certain.” A corner of Tenger’s mouth lifted. “Simon and I are on the same side, but I’m no longer sure what his true goals are.”

  “Your goal is to kill Lord Endrick.” I stood, hoping to relieve the increasing pressure in my chest. “And as such, you may as well hang yourself tonight and save my father the trouble. You’ve taken me captive, and for that, he will come for you with a particular vengeance.”

  “A thoughtful suggestion, thank you.” Tenger dipped his head, mocking me, but I had been sincerely trying to warn him. “All I ask is that you stay here for now, as our guest. No harm will come to you as long as you promise to obey our rules.”

  “Locked in that cell, do I have any other choice?”

  “You are a guest, my lady. I am not returning you to the cells.” Tenger opened the door for me, and Basil was waiting on the other side with Trina. His smile was tentative, but it faded when he saw my cool expression.

  If Trina noticed, she didn’t care. “I’ll take you both to your rooms,” she offered.

  I accepted Basil’s hand as he led me into the corridor. “Did Tenger explain?” he asked.

  He explained in carefully worded sentences meant to tell me nothing more than they had to. I’d gotten little from them and worried they’d gotten far more from me.

  “They explained.” The less I said, the better.

  Basil breathed a noticeable sigh of relief. He reached for me, but we were forced apart when Simon entered, roughly pushing between us with an elbow thrown out particularly wide for Basil. Gabe followed him, chuckling loudly until Tenger hushed him.

  Inside the room, Simon stood with his arms folded and legs spread apart, facing Tenger like he was ready to defend himself from an attack. “You summoned me, sir?”

  Tenger nodded at Basil. “Take your betrothed to her room.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Basil said, wrapping his arm tight around me.

  And Simon definitely noticed. Before the door shut, he had turned around and was staring at me again.

  For the first time since seeing Kestra again, she wasn’t at the forefront of my thoughts. I saw Basil’s hold on her, the expression of victory in his eyes when he knew I’d seen it, but I’d also seen Kestra squirm. She knew she was being used as a tool to bolster his bargaining power. Or I hoped she did.

  But no matter how I wanted to see Kestra continue to resist him, for now, Tenger was standing in front of me, relishing this moment.

  Did he think I’d beg? That I’d do anything he asked to get back into his good graces? I was here only because I had to be, and he’d be a fool not to know that.

  Tenger tsked. “I had to hit you that night, Simon. It wasn’t personal.”

  “Yes, sir.” If I said what I really thought, he’d make me regret my words, probably with that grip glove on his right hand. He had taken that from Kestra the night we captured her carriage. I wondered if she had recognized it, or even known what it was.

  Tenger continued, “I admit it, I thought Trina would be the Infidante. Indeed, I still believe she would have been chosen had Kestra not claimed the dagger first. And yes, if Trina had been chosen, she would have named me king over the Halderians, and future king of Antora, once Endrick was defeated.”

  “Yes, sir.” I noticed a small knife on the floor at the corner of his desk, three steps ahead of me. It must have fallen without him noticing.

  Tenger nodded toward Gabe, who’d been standing watch at the back of the room. “Wait in the corridor.” When he’d left, Tenger sighed like the disappointed parent he believed himself to be. “We were friends, Simon. I had your respect, your loyalty.”

  “You crashed a rock down on my head … sir.”

  “I did what had to be done, based on what I knew at the time. We needed a king among the Coracks, some way of controlling the future of Antora.”

  I remained silent while Tenger leaned down behind his desk. I used the distraction to walk forward until I could place my foot over the knife. Tenger sat up with my sword in his hands, which he laid out across the desk. He said, “Little did I know then that the Halderians already have a king.”

  My muscles tensed, but I kept my head down, unwilling to risk any betrayal of my thoughts.

  “Did you think I’d miss the look exchanged between you and Kestra when she was asked to name the next king? I’m embarrassed that she figured you out before I did.”

  “It’s not what—”

  “I knew you carried a Halderian sword. But it never occurred to me that you have the sword. Then Trina informed me she saw King Gareth’s ring in your satchel. Did he name you his successor?”

  “I’m not Halderian.”

  Tenger grinned. “That wasn’t my question.” When I remained silent, he added, “Never mind the answer—with these two items, you have enough claim on the crown. So I suppose my real question is: Why haven’t you
claimed it?”

  “I already gave you an answer.”

  “Because you’re not Halderian? Thrones have been claimed over thinner justifications than that. Nor do I believe that’s your true reason.”

  I shifted my stance. “You didn’t summon me here to understand the way I think. What do you want from me … sir?”

  “Obviously, I want you to claim the Halderian crown.”

  That hadn’t been obvious at all. I’d expected to receive some sort of punishment, or to be assigned to a district as far from Kestra as possible, or to be forced into begging for his mercy. This possibility had never occurred to me.

  “Claim the crown? Why?”

  Tenger gestured to the area of the table where Reddengrad’s border with Antora had been carved into the wood. Tucked in a little pocket immediately to the west of both countries was an unclaimed and largely unwanted area known as the Hiplands, the refuge where most Halderians had gathered.

  Tenger tapped a knuckle on the Hiplands. “If Endrick takes Reddengrad, the Halderians will be trapped. One day, Endrick will figure out how numerous they’ve become, and how prosperous. The Halderians must defend Reddengrad if they also expect to survive.”

  The fact that the Halderians had survived the last several years was a miracle in itself. The Dominion referred to them as the Banished and believed that only small colonies of that clan remained, struggling for survival. But they were wrong. The Halderians had far greater numbers than the Dominion knew, and had built a thriving city in the Hiplands due to their trade with Reddengrad. Once Endrick discovered them, he’d slaughter every last Halderian before they had any hope of mounting a defense.

  And suddenly the pieces fit together in my mind. Basil wanted the Coracks to help defend Reddengrad. And Tenger wanted my help in getting the Halderians to join that fight.

  “No,” I said.

  Tenger arched a brow. “No?”

  “No, sir, I will not claim the throne. And if I did, my first order would not be to send Halderian armies into a hopeless battle. Because as long as Endrick reigns, the battle is hopeless, and you know it!”

  “Everyone knows it,” Tenger snapped. “But I had to make an agreement with Basil, and those were his terms.”

  “Because otherwise, he won’t say where the Olden Blade is.”

  “Even if Kestra’s memory came back, he claims that she doesn’t know where it is. She instructed him to hide it so that if things went badly with Endrick in that final meeting—which they clearly did—he wouldn’t get the information from her. But Basil won’t reveal where it is until we’re fully committed to Reddengrad’s defense. That’s why I need you, Simon. To get the Halderians involved until Basil reveals to us the Olden Blade.”

  “Which does us no good while Kestra’s memories are gone. As she is now, I doubt she even knows which end of the dagger to aim at Endrick.”

  “Loelle gave her a medicinal tea that may help to recover some memories. And she’s got an Endrean mind, which we hope will heal quickly against Endrick’s magic. But that’s only part of the problem.” He drew in a deep breath. “What do you know about that necklace Kestra is wearing?”

  I’d seen it, but it looked like nothing more than Dominion jewelry. The way Tenger asked the question concerned me though, and probably for good reason.

  “Endrick gave it to her?”

  “The stone set into the pendant isn’t natural. He must have created it. Endrick doesn’t give gifts—it’s there for a reason.”

  I agreed, but with Endrick, anything was possible. Did the necklace affect her memories, or control her behavior? Could it read her thoughts or did it have some other malicious intent? I said, “We’ve got to get rid of it.”

  “Unless that harms her,” Tenger said. “We can’t touch the necklace until we understand it.”

  “And we won’t understand if we can’t touch it,” I mused, batting a fist against my thigh.

  Tenger continued, “Loelle confirmed something else to me: Kestra is an Ironheart now.”

  My gut twisted, and I took a slow breath to absorb that before mumbling, “He’s controlling her?”

  “Not exactly. But he has some awareness of her and can kill her if he senses any disloyalty in her words or actions. But he hasn’t yet, so he still has a use for her.”

  I knew what the Ironhearts were, but when we fought them, it was always them or us to fall in battle. We’d never tried reclaiming an Ironheart. I didn’t even know if it was possible.

  Tenger must have sensed my thoughts. “An Ironheart is created through magic. You cannot heal her with anything less.”

  The tension in my muscles worsened, as if I’d been kicking against a brick wall for weeks, and in some ways, I obviously had. “What are we supposed to do? Endrick will never give up control of her, and we have no means to force him.”

  “No, we don’t. Nor can we fully restore her memories. Endrick has corrupted them too much for Loelle to rebuild everything.” Tenger clasped his hands together and lowered his voice. “But we have a plan.”

  My eyes narrowed, sensing the cure was worse than the cause. “No, Tenger.”

  “We think the only way to fully heal her is to give her magic. We’ve got to take her to the Blue Caves.”

  The anger that had been festering beneath the surface now exploded. “Are you insane?”

  Tenger arched a brow. “What was that?”

  I straightened my posture and took a deep breath to calm myself. “Are you insane … sir? You’ll risk her whole future simply because you think it will help?”

  “We know that nothing else will, and maybe magic will be good for her.” Tenger’s voice remained calmer than I could pretend to be. “Loelle has magic. That’s how she’s healed hundreds of Coracks over the years.”

  This wasn’t a surprise, but I also knew that over time, any Endrean with magic would turn bad. Loelle was no different. The instant she began to show signs of corruption, her fate was already decided.

  “What about your orders to kill any living Endreans?” I asked.

  “Obviously Kestra must be an exception.” Tenger hesitated again, longer than he should have. “At least until she completes her quest.”

  I did a double take, certain I could not have heard him correctly. “And after Endrick is dead? Then what?”

  Tenger sank back into his chair. If he wanted to appear a reasonable leader who acted solely for the good of the country, he wouldn’t get far with me. He couldn’t justify such thoughts in his mind without being every bit the villain that Endrick was.

  Tenger clasped his hands together and said, “I know you have feelings for Kestra, and perhaps she used to like you too, before Endrick got to her. But she is part of his army now, an Infidante who is fully loyal to him. Magic is the only way to restore her.”

  My hands balled into fists. “It will corrupt her!”

  “Yes, over time it will. She’ll eventually become a girl as foreign to you as she is now. But there’s no other way for her to complete her quest, and despite your feelings, that is the purpose of her life now. Nothing else.”

  “She is more than the Infidante!”

  Tenger stood, barking out, “No, Simon, she is only the Infidante! Nothing else matters but that. And when she completes her quest, she will be a highly powerful Endrean with magic. We will have to put her down before she becomes as dangerous as Endrick!”

  “No!” Angrily, I swiped my arm, knocking papers from his desk, then muttered an apology under my breath. As if I knew I’d gone too far, when in reality, I was only beginning to overstep my bounds with him. I leaned down to pick up the knife, now hidden in my hand when I returned Tenger’s papers.

  By then, his temper had calmed. In a quieter voice, he said, “Once you see how the magic affects her, you’ll agree with me.”

  I shook my head. “No, sir, I will not.”

  “Do you think I want this to happen to her? I don’t! I’d much rather find a way to let her live.”

/>   “If that’s true, then give me time to—”

  “Time will only entrench her false memories and set her true memories farther from her reach. Every passing hour, she will get worse, not better.” He took a breath and lowered his voice. “I know you think I’m cruel, but I’m simply speaking the truth. Although she may recover some memories on her own without magic, she’ll never get them all back, and only magic can save her heart from Endrick’s grip. Nothing you can do will change this.”

  I couldn’t let myself believe that, I wouldn’t believe it. But even if Tenger was wrong, I had no idea how to find the right solution.

  Tenger tapped my sword again. “My decision about Kestra has been made. Now give me your answer.”

  Still angry for a number of reasons, I shook my head. “I won’t claim the throne.”

  Tenger sighed, then rang a bell on the table and Gabe opened the door. “Take him back to his cell. He doesn’t eat until he’s ready to obey me.”

  I kept my focus on Tenger. “If I am the person you believe me to be, then you have no right to order me to do anything.”

  Like he’d shoo a fly, Tenger waved me away. “If you will not be that person, then you have no rights at all.”

  Without another word, I twisted the knife to hide it in my hand and followed Gabe out the door.

  I waited until we had rounded a corner of the cave tunnels before I grabbed Gabe’s arm and pressed the knife against his side.

  He looked down at it, unimpressed, then rolled his eyes at me. “Really, Hatch?”

  “Where is she?”

  “You won’t hurt me.”

  “I won’t kill you, but I will hurt you if I have to.” And I meant it.

  “How long have we been friends?”

  “Long enough that you should know why I have to do this.” I released his arm and turned to face him. “Please, Gabe.”

  “It isn’t me you have to get through. There’s over a hundred Coracks here in camp and they’ll all obey Tenger.”

  “Not if they don’t see us.”

  “Then have you considered why she’s here? Simon, from the moment she became the Infidante, she ceased to have any future with you.” His words hit me hard, and he must have sensed that because in a gentler voice, he added, “She can never be yours.”