DEDICATION
FOR MY BROTHER MATTHEW,
keeper of my left kidney. Without you,
I never would have written this trilogy.
MAP
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Map
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Kathryn Purdie
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Copyright
About the Publisher
CHAPTER ONE
DYING SUNLIGHT GUIDED MY STEPS FROM THE CONVENT porch to the locked gate. I breathed in deeply, trying to trap the scent of forest pine in my nostrils. The stench of sickness hung about me as I passed the hospital tent.
The soldiers’ coughs rang dimly on the evening air. Though I gradually outdistanced the sound, I couldn’t shake the vivid image of blood on their handkerchiefs and pillow slips. I’d scrubbed them with lye soap until my fingertips peeled, but some stains wouldn’t fade.
An outbreak of consumption shouldn’t strike at the cusp of autumn. Rampant illness was a marker of winter. “A bad omen,” a superstitious soldier had whispered to another across his cot. “We’re going to lose both wars.”
A basket of rye bread, hard cheese, and apples bumped against my hip as I quickened my steps. Over the last four months, our rations from Torchev had increased to feed the regiment Anton left to protect us here. The extra food hadn’t gone unnoticed by the peasants from Ormina, however. They often congregated at the convent gate to beg. I gave them what I could each day, hoping to prevent another full-scale mob from forming. Sestra Mirna, Nadia, and I couldn’t defend ourselves with only a few soldiers well enough to aid us.
I pressed forward. My heart pounded as I scanned the road beyond the gate. On days the courier came, this was the time he rode in. I was foolish to hope for letters. The ones that arrived were always for our regiment’s lieutenant or Sestra Mirna. Never me.
I reached into the pocket of my blue dress and felt the tattered flaps of the small, waxed envelopes inside. They once contained seeds, one for roses, one for lilacs, and one for violets. I’d found them at different times among our ration supply. The only messages I’d received from Anton over the past four months had been slipped inside. They were brief notes, not addressed to me or signed by him—nothing to give away the secret guarded by those left behind at the convent: I was alive. In fact, every note, written in Anton’s bold and long-sweeping hand, was the same: For the Auraseers.
Flower seeds were a romantic gesture, I’d told myself, a sign Anton still loved me after all my betrayals. But nine long weeks had passed since any seeds had made their way into our shipments. Their absence made my doubts creep in. Auraseers, the notes had said, not Auraseer. Not even a simple S to hint at Sonya. Perhaps I was wrong, and it wasn’t Anton’s handwriting, after all.
Maybe he’d never forgive me.
The convent door shut behind me. I glanced back. “Do you still keep those little envelopes in your pocket?” Nadia smirked, throwing a shawl around her shoulders. Her burn scars shimmered in the last rays of sunlight and trailed down half her face and neck, along with her swirling tattoos.
I withdrew my hand from my pocket. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really, Sonya?” Nadia took her time catching up to me. Sestra Mirna had insisted we walk together to the gate. Safety in numbers. “I don’t need any special power to interpret your lovelorn expressions. You wear your emotions like you’re at the front of a garish parade. How do you think I fooled you for so long?”
“I don’t know.” I tossed my dark blond braid behind my shoulder. “You’ll have to teach me the fine art of deception so I can think like a proper liar.” While we’d journeyed together over the summer, Nadia had pretended to have Auraseer abilities. The truth was she’d lost them during the trauma of the convent fire. A fire I had caused.
She swept nearer, her jade eyes leveling on me. “I can think of worse sins than lying.”
I knew full well she was baiting me. She laid these traps like clockwork, but I only saw them as opportunities to strike back. The two of us were like flint and steel, sparking whenever we came together. “Oh, yes? What?”
“Betrayal.” A strand of Nadia’s shoulder-length raven hair caught in the corner of her mouth, at the edge of her condescending smile. “Something we have in common. And you set the example, so you should stop acting so superior.”
“Betrayal?” I scoffed, though my gut needled. It was true I’d betrayed Anton. I’d overpowered his will and sided with Valko in a desperate attempt to halt the Shenglin invasion, but I’d been shot, proving my loyalty to the fledgling democracy. Was that enough to pay for my mistakes and earn back Anton’s love? “I was trying to save Riaznin. You were only grappling to become sovereign Auraseer.”
“At least I’ve never burned a convent to ashes.”
“That was an accident.”
“Everything is with you, isn’t it? Even slitting my mother’s throat.”
I flinched, recoiling from the slap of her words. Our brief conversations always ended at this breaking point—Nadia’s mother, Terezia Dyomin. The countess had been a supporter of Valko’s. When she’d threatened me, our argument escalated until my emotions bled into her and she killed herself. Not my intention, but my fault all the same. “That’s not how it happened,” I answered quietly, all the bite in my voice gone.
Nadia’s eyes glistened with a sheen of tears. She glanced away, setting her jaw with a little lift of her chin. “You know, I think you can handle a few peasants on your own today.” She spun back toward the convent. “It isn’t as if anything interesting happens around here, anyway.”
I sighed, letting her leave. Sestra Mirna didn’t need to know I went this once to the gate alone.
I walked the remaining thirty yards to where the gate stood near the edge of the forest. No one was here. Not even a single soldier stood guard. Even before many fell ill, they had been slacking off. Ormina was on the west coast of Riaznin, farther from the Shenglin invasion and the growing discord of the civil war. Perhaps our regiment thought we were safe here, despite the two wars. I could never feel safe. Not with Valko alive.
My stomach reflexively tightened where he’d shot me during the convent battle. The wound had healed, but I’d never forget the pain.
The wind keened through the branches, a wolf howled in the distance, the forest buried the last rays of sunlight deep within its clutches, and a rustle drew my gaze. A small noise. I expected to find a jackrabbit or a fox. Instead, a hooded figure stepped out from the shadows of the tree line, fifty yards away. A woman. The hem of her skirt caught the brambles, and she paused to tear it free. Then with a glance behind
her, she advanced closer, taking care with her footing so she didn’t make another sound.
I adjusted the basket of food on my arm. She must be ravenous to take such pains to go unnoticed, though no other peasants were anywhere to be seen. Clearly she didn’t want to share.
“Open the gate,” she said when she was fifteen feet away. She spoke quietly, just loud enough for me to hear. Her words lilted with a light accent.
“I can’t,” I replied. I’d welcomed a starving madman inside the convent last winter, and the tragedy that followed had taught me to temper my compassion with prudence. “But please take this.” The basket wouldn’t fit between the bars of the gate, so I stooped to pass each piece of food through to the other side.
The woman crept nearer, but didn’t crouch to receive my gift. Her autumn-brown eyes were large as they focused upon me. “Sovereign Auraseer?” she asked.
My heart stopped. None of the peasants knew who I was—who I’d been. If Feliks or Valko found out I was here . . . if they knew I was alive . . . I swallowed hard. Feliks and Anton used to be revolutionary allies, but once the democracy had been established, the two men had vastly different ideas of how it should operate. Feliks had taken control of the Duma ruling council and tried to blackmail me into using my power to prevent further uprisings. I’d ultimately refused. I’d also committed enough crimes to merit my own death sentence. Still, Valko was the greater threat. For all he knew, he’d already succeeded in killing me. He wouldn’t hesitate to do so again.
“Who are you?” I stood, retreating a step. I could see her face now in the twilight. She appeared to be a little older than my age of eighteen, and her haunted, deep-set eyes and fair complexion were vaguely familiar.
Her mouth twitched into a frown just as she was on the verge of smiling. She tilted her head, perplexed. “Où est ton aura?”
The nape of my neck prickled when she said aura. I had the unsettling sense she knew even more about me than I wished.
A dull sound rose above our voices. The shuffle of a tired horse. My gaze snapped to the road, anticipation zinging through my palms.
The girl gasped. The whites of her eyes rimmed her irises. “Laisse-moi entrer!” She grabbed the gate bars and shook them.
I didn’t understand. “It’s only the courier.” I pointed in the distance, watching for the rider to clear the bend. But before he could, another person emerged from the forest, following the girl’s path. The shadowy contours of his body loomed large and intimidating.
The girl reached through and seized my arm. “Aidez-moi!” Her fingers felt ice cold, though the evening was warm. “S’il te plaît, Sovereign Auraseer!”
Esten. She was speaking Esten. I recognized the nasally tone of her vowels and rolling Rs.
Her hood fell back, revealing her auburn hair. Its distinct shade, along with her nationality, finally jogged my memory. She was the Auraseer that the Esten emissary, Floquart de Bonpré, had claimed ownership of, the unfortunate girl he’d abused. I’d met her in the palace during the ball on Morva’s Eve. Somehow she’d escaped him.
I pulled the gate key from around my neck and ran to the lock. The girl raced beside me on the other side. Who was pursuing her? I couldn’t imagine a high-ranking nobleman like Floquart prowling about this forest for a girl. I stole a glance down the road, my doubts now heavy about the rider. Was he really the courier? His horse had turned the bend, but the rider wasn’t near enough to identify.
I turned the key in the lock. The shackle popped. I loosened the chains wrapped around the gate bars. The girl assisted me, hands fumbling.
“Arrêtez!” The man from the forest shouted. He was less than a dozen yards away. His hair hung in greasy blond locks. His matted beard didn’t grow along a scar cleaving his chin.
The girl whimpered, tugging on the chains. “Do not stop!” she rasped. “He will not kill me. He wants me alive.”
My stomach gave a sickening drop. Suddenly I understood. “Bounty hunter?”
“Oui.”
Fear and revulsion flooded my bloodstream. I’d had my own dealings with bounty hunters. Every encounter was as brutal and horrifying as the last. They were known to be merciless. Taking someone alive might just as well have meant taking them broken.
The bounty hunter sized me up with a quick, sweeping glance. I wasn’t fierce-looking like Nadia, and I didn’t have the build of a fighter. Unintimidated, he grinned.
“Help!” I cried at the top of my lungs, because what more could I do? I had no weapon, and he was bound to have several. “Help!” I shouted again, rattling the gate to pry it open from the chains. I’d failed this same Esten Auraseer before. I wouldn’t do it again. After Floquart had called off the hopeful alliance between Estengarde and Riaznin, he and his entourage left the palace in haste. I’d missed my chance to free the girl he’d treated like a slave.
Hooves pounded down the road as the horse and rider broke into a gallop. “Sonya? Is that you?” My frenzied mind couldn’t place the man’s voice. He couldn’t be the courier, who didn’t know my name. “What’s happening?” he asked, unable to see the bounty hunter with the forest blocking his view.
The Esten Auraseer squeezed one shoulder through the gap of the gate.
A horrible clang sounded.
She jumped back as a dagger bounced off the bars and thudded to the ground. The sharp blade had been a breath away from striking her—from striking me.
Panic lit my veins. “Kill him!” I shouted to the rider.
“Kill who?”
“Just—kill—him!”
The rider must have advanced far enough to spy the bounty hunter, for his horse whinnied, hooves skidding as it came to a stop. “You, there! What are you doing? Lower your weapon. Let’s—let’s talk this through, all right?”
Talk? I peered around the wedged girl to see who thought talking would help our situation.
Once I saw his elongated features, my mouth went slack. Tosya.
Tosya, my oldest friend. Tosya the pacifist. I hadn’t seen him since the night of the convent battle. He’d left with Anton, fast on Valko’s trail. I made a quick study of his lanky frame. I doubted he even had a whittling knife on him. He couldn’t save us. And I couldn’t protect him.
“Tosya, he’s a bounty hunter!”
Tosya froze in his saddle. He had suffered an arrow to the leg the last time he’d met a bounty hunter. “I have money,” he said frantically, bargaining with what this man must have valued most.
The Esten man broke into a deep chuckle, surveying Tosya’s patched clothing. Poets weren’t paid by the revolutionary governments they inspired. “Tu es un pauvre imbécile.”
Tosya swallowed and turned beseeching eyes on me. Why aren’t you doing something about him? the sharp look he gave me said. I didn’t have time to explain. The bounty hunter advanced toward the girl. She cried out as she desperately fought to push through the iron bars.
Shouts and coughing radiated behind me. Soldiers. At least two of them. I prayed their muskets were loaded and they wouldn’t collapse before they reached us.
The Esten Auraseer fully squeezed through the gate.
Rage lined every edge of the bounty hunter’s face. He barked a string of Esten words. The girl flinched, quaking beside me. With one hand, the bounty hunter cocked his arm back to fling his knife. With the other, he beckoned her forward.
“She belongs to Feya now,” I yelled at him, stalling for time. “She has sanctuary at this convent.” I wasn’t sure if he cared about the holy grounds of the Riaznian-worshipped goddess of Auraseers, or if he even understood a word I was saying.
Thirty yards behind me, the soldiers sprinted nearer. The bounty hunter was quickly losing his opportunity to seize the girl. He could throw his dagger, but unless his aim was perfect, his blade would ricochet against the bars again.
Running out of strategies, he turned on Tosya and raised his knife.
I sucked in a sharp breath. “No!”
The bounty hunt
er’s jaw went hard and inflexible. Again, he motioned for the Esten Auraseer, but his eyes were trained on me. He wanted me to give her up in exchange for Tosya’s life.
I gripped the girl’s arm, my instinct to protect her wavering. I scarcely knew her, but Tosya was like a brother to me.
She met my gaze, eyes wide. I didn’t try to hide my guilt. She couldn’t know what I was thinking.
She most certainly couldn’t know what I was feeling.
I didn’t soften my grip, but I couldn’t make myself drag her forward. I wouldn’t give the bounty hunter anyone, especially an Auraseer.
A crack of gunfire shuddered the air. One of the soldiers had fired. The lead ball managed to clear the gate, but it missed its target. Still, the bounty hunter hastened back and sheathed his knife.
“Voyante misérable!” he shouted at the girl. “Nous n’avons pas finis.”
He whistled with two fingers, a horse call. A few seconds later, his stallion galloped out of the forest. The bounty hunter deftly mounted him, then raced away into the cover of trees.
My tension released like the cork off a bottle of wine. The Esten girl burst into sobs of relief. I cast away the last of the gate’s chains. Tosya rode onto the grounds. He leapt off his horse just in time to catch me in his arms. I squeezed his torso with all my strength, my body shaking, my head pressed tightly against his chest.
He gave a jittery laugh and patted me on the back. “Never a dull moment at the convent, is there?” he said, a total contradiction of Nadia’s earlier claim.
As if the thought of Nadia called her forward, I heard her cry, “Tosya!”
She raced across the convent grounds to meet us, quickly assessing the guards locking the gate and the quivering girl in our midst. She panted to catch her breath, her gaze anchoring back on Tosya. “Are you all right?”
His jaw muscle flexed, and he gave a stiff nod. Tosya and Nadia had developed feelings for each other over the summer while the three of us journeyed together. But if he still held any sentiment for her, he didn’t show it. He’d saved her life during the battle at the convent, but that was before he learned she’d betrayed me to Valko. Directing his attention to me, Tosya asked, “Would you care to introduce me to your friend?” He regained enough composure to offer a kind smile to the Esten Auraseer.
Frozen Reign Page 1
