The Traitor Queen

Lara takes a stimulant from Nana’s supply and runs to Snake Island, where she hopes their former boats are still tethered. She jumps into the water from the cliff and swims to the nearest boat.

Aren’s forces find Eranahl surrounded by a hundred of Silas’s ships. Though he’s successfully managed to smash the shipbreaker weapons that formerly kept his forces back, it wasn’t without cost. His forces have begun climbing the cliffs with grappling hooks. They gain entrance through a cave guarded by Eranahl’s soldiers, and the portcullis drops closed behind them. Inside, Ahnna informs Aren that their forces are low on arrows and won’t be able to hold Silas’s forces off for much longer. In the distance, they notice a storm brewing on the horizon. Aren begins to develop a strategy to buy them time until the storm hits. He orders Ahnna to leave him two boats and their crews but take everyone else to defend the cliffs.

Lara arrives at Eranahl, finding it close to falling. Though her grief tempts her to give up, Lara steels herself to keep fighting alongside the Ithicanians. Lara sails for the cliffs, jumping up and climbing the wall as her boat shatters against it. The Ithicanians drop boulders down the cliffside, knocking Silas’s soldiers into the water below, which Lara barely escapes. Near the top, a rock comes loose beneath Lara’s hand, and she begins to fall.

Aren and his men defend the cave’s portcullis, but eventually Silas’s soldiers manage to attach a metal chain to the bars. They connect it to their boats and begin pulling at the gate.

Lara’s arm is caught by Ahnna, who pulls Lara over the edge. In the distance, they hear the sound of creaking metal. Ahnna sprints in its direction with Lara following behind. They eventually arrive to witness the portcullis warping under the pressure of being pulled by the Maridrinians’ boats. As the storm draws closer to the island, the Maridrinian ships begin to retreat, but Silas’s boats stay, intent on destroying the portcullis so the soldiers can gain entrance to the island. Using a spyglass, Lara searches the ships in the distance, finding her father on one of the ships’ decks. She asks Ahnna to get her to Silas’s ship.

Ahnna tells Lara they can’t get a vessel out, nor would Lara make it to that ship alive. Lara convinces her it is the only way to save Aren and the kingdom. Ahnna fires a bolt attached to line, embedding it into the deck of the ship far out, but warns Lara that there’s no way for her to return. Lara takes the risk, attaches a hook to the line, and sails over water to confront her father.

Lara goads her father into a fight. Though she is injured and at a disadvantage, Lara fights desperately for Ithicana. When Silas’s men free the portcullis and he gives the order for his men to attack, Lara feigns a stumble, tricking her father into lunging for the killing blow. Instead, he’s met with her blade in his chest. Silas dies, and his soldiers give the order to retreat, more eager to escape the coming storm than continue to fight for a cause they don’t believe is worth losing their lives over.

When Lara’s father’s trusted cadre stalk toward her with hate in their eyes, she hasn’t the strength to fight them off. Instead, she throws herself over the ship’s railing, into the shark-infested waters. On the cliffs above, hundreds of Ithicanians call her name, urging her to swim, Ahnna and Taryn among them. Lara swims as sharks circle her but do not bite. Eventually, she reaches the cliffs, but the storm’s violent waves throw her into the twisted metal of the portcullis.

The Maridrinians give the call to retreat, and the soldiers within the cave try to exit, but the portcullis becomes wedged in a narrower part of the tunnel, blocking it completely. Rather than kill those trapped inside, Aren allows them to surrender and remain safely inside during the storm. He extends this offer to all the Maridrinian soldiers trapped on the island as their ships flee. Lia runs into the cave, demanding Aren cut the gate open because Lara is trapped outside. She informs him that Lara killed her own father to force the troops to retreat. Aren believes she’s on the ship but spots her in the water right as she’s slammed into the portcullis.

Aren dives into the water and grabs Lara through the bars, supporting her long enough for her to find her grip on the portcullis. Lara begins to say her goodbyes, believing that the storm will either drag her away or drown her before the bars are cut.

Aren dives below the surface to inspect the portcullis. He emerges to tell Lara of a small space at the bottom big enough for her to squeeze through. Though it terrifies Lara to dive deeper into the water when she is a weak swimmer, she does so for Aren. They reach the bottom as Lara is running out of air. Aren pulls her through, but her belt snags on the portcullis. Lara inhales.

Aren saws off the belt with his knife and drags a limp Lara to the surface. His people pull him into a boat, but Lara’s eyes are open and unseeing. Aren begins frantically giving Lara chest compressions, continuing even when Jor states that she’s beyond saving.

Lara climbs out of the darkness of death and gasps to life.

Lara wakes in the bedroom she once shared with Aren in Eranahl. Aren informs Lara that she’s been asleep for three days. The war is over, and most of the soldiers have returned to their respective ports.

Rather than hope anything has changed about their situation, Lara assures Aren that she will leave as soon as she’s well enough to do so. Aren states that he wants her to remain with him. Aren tells Lara of how Ithicana deals with traitors. They suspend traitors in the sea and chum the waters. If the sharks kill the person, they are found guilty. If they leave them be, they are found innocent. The sharks have always killed the traitors, but they left Lara alone. Hundreds of his people and commanders saw the sharks circle Lara but never attack. They no longer call her the traitor queen.

Aren claims there’s still atonement to do if she wants the people to truly forgive her, but he invites her to stay and try. Lara accepts the offer. Ahnna arrives to inform Aren that everyone has assembled to hear his plans. Though Aren urges her to rest, Lara plans to attend by his side.

Nestled in the Kresteck Mountains, Sarhina cradles her child in her arms while she reads the latest news of Silas’s war, brought to her by spies. Bronwyn, still recovering from her arrow wound, asks if there’s mention of Lara, but there is not. Sarhina focuses on baby Oriana and still questions whether she’ll make a good mother or whether Silas and Serin have stripped that ability from her.

Reading the report again, Sarhina questions why Keris rushed back to Vencia after his encounter with Lara and Aren in Nerastis. While Bronwyn underestimates Keris, Sarhina sees the same determination and alarming intelligence in him that she sees in Lara. She knows he was involved with Coralyn and is emotionally invested in Zarrah. Sarhina believes that Keris will do anything to keep Zarrah safe, and she surmises that Keris’s return to Vencia has something to do with Zarrah’s fleet heading north toward Ithicana.

Her pondering is interrupted by the arrival of two men at the cottage, sent to assassinate the sisters and child. Sarhina and Bronwyn kill the first man but interrogate the second. He reveals that Silas has set siege to Eranahl. An ax embeds itself in his head, thrown by Athena, who has traveled far to deliver up-to-date news of the war. She tells them that Lara has killed Silas, Ithicana is liberated, and Keris is heir apparent. While this is good news, Sarhina believes the war is far from over. Rulers everywhere will continue to shed innocent blood to pursue their own ambitions. And Serin still lives.

While her sisters are content to live without another thought toward politics, Sarhina profoundly mistrusts Keris. She hopes he won’t end up like their father and seeks to keep a close eye on him. Though she holds dreams of seeing a fairer ruler on the throne, she doesn’t share this with her sisters. Bronwyn criticizes Sarhina, telling her that she can’t be a recluse and play the game at the same time. Sarhina realizes that her sister’s words are true, and she decides to become more invested in the future of her family and her kingdom.

Sarhina and Ensel have a conversation about their future in which they decide to move to Vencia, where Sarhina will be able to involve herself in politics to reach her dreams. In Vencia, Sarhina visits Marisol’s inn, where she plans to buy information until she can establish her own spy network. Marisol gives Sarhina a letter. The information, though not disclosed, involves Keris and Zarrah and stokes Sarhina’s worries about future conflict.