The papers I’d signed were still laid out across the desk. I picked them up with the intent to burn them, but a creak on the floorboards behind me warned of someone else in the room. I turned around and saw Vargan poised with a dagger held over his head. With my leg in its current state, I couldn’t outrun him, and no other weapons were nearby. There weren’t many options if he decided to attack, and he clearly would be attacking.
“With my pirates in this battle, you’re going to lose,” I said. “But there is still time to save yourself. Surrender to me and you will live.”
“Never.”
Clearly, this man had no talent for negotiating. To be fair, I wasn’t particularly good at it either.
“You intended for that thief to bring the message to me.” Vargan’s voice trembled with rage. “You wanted this to end at Farthenwood.”
Of course I did. I knew this place as well as my own castle, and if one of these homes had to be destroyed, it wasn’t going to be mine. At the time I arranged for the pirates to come here, there were still a few unresolved details in my mind. But I had known the pirates would be needed.
“It had to end here,” I said. “Otherwise the pirates would’ve stayed hidden in the secret passages until they rotted. They’d have ended up smelling like you, and that would’ve been a shame.”
Vargan cried out and rushed toward me. I started to duck, but he grabbed my shirt and shoved me onto the table, then pinned my legs with his weight.
He raised the dagger again, but was distracted by a loud cry. Conner was running toward us. I never saw him enter the room.
Vargan turned and with the dagger he had intended for me, slashed Conner across his chest. Everything froze in that moment, except for the fine white silks of Conner’s vest that turned a horrible color of red. He patted at the blood and then raised his hand to look at it more closely, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. Once he accepted it, he lowered his hand and tumbled to the floor. By then, I had squirmed free and knelt beside Conner, who took my hand in his. With gasping words, he said, “I always was a patriot, Jaron. I never lied when I said that you are my king. Forgive me.”
He moved to kiss my fingers, but instead drew in a gurgled breath and slumped to the floor, dead.
“He was a traitor to us both,” Vargan said.
Maybe he was, but he had also just saved my life. Conner had died much as he lived, in the grayest shadow between right and wrong.
By then, I had put some distance between Vargan’s dagger and myself, but now Kippenger and several other soldiers from both Avenia and Mendenwal had heard Conner’s cry and entered the office. I rolled my eyes and sighed, more irritated than afraid. Was it too much to hope for someone on my side to enter? Even one burly, angry pirate would’ve been nice.
I turned back to Vargan. “Why did Mendenwal join you? They’ve never been our enemy.”
Vargan laughed. “When you disappeared four years ago, your father lied to all of us, a political game to keep us away from his borders. I thought it was a rather clever trick, but Mendenwal did not. So when you returned to the throne, it wasn’t hard to stir up their anger. I reminded Humfrey of that time you challenged him as a child, how dangerous you could become if we allowed you to keep your crown. Then I promised him half of Carthya as his spoils of victory.”
My eyes narrowed. “He can’t possibly believe you’ll allow that.”
Vargan shrugged. “Humfrey is far too trusting. I alone am the emperor of Carthya now. That fool king sitting on Mendenwal’s throne doesn’t realize I’m coming for him next.”
“Avenia has no power over Mendenwal,” a voice boomed. We all turned to the hidden passage door opening behind Conner’s desk. The man who emerged was advanced in his years, but his voice betrayed nothing of his age. He was King Humfrey of Mendenwal, and Lord Kerwyn stood at his side.