The Traitor Queen

Aren rides with Lara’s sisters for ten minutes before they have to stop to address Bronwyn’s wound. Cresta worries that her sister will bleed to death. When Aren questions the plan, Cresta explains that they are following the river to a small cave where their sister, Sarhina, waits with the supplies Aren and Lara will need for their journey.

At the cave, Aren reunites with his Nana, but she is swiftly drawn away to help with Bronwyn’s wound. Lara arrives shortly after. She and Cresta help Nana while Aren remains outside. Sarhina finds Aren and urges him not to give up on his kingdom. When he speaks poorly of Lara, Sarhina draws a knife on him and reminds him that Lara is still fighting for Ithicana, which is more she can say for him. Sarhina explains how their father manipulated and poisoned them with lies about Ithicana for their entire lives. The fact that Lara is able to trust Aren at all is a miracle. Even knowing the truth herself, Sarhina still has nightmares and wakes convinced of Ithicana’s monstrousness.

Later, Lara emerges from the cave. They’ve stopped the bleeding, but Bronwyn is very weak and needs time to recover. Lara tells Aren that Ahnna is traveling to Harendell to fulfill the Fifteen-Year Treaty through marriage and to plead with Harendell to assist Ithicana in taking the bridge back. Meanwhile, Lara plans for Aren to join her in traveling to make amends between Ithicana and Valcotta, hoping to secure another ally.

After a night of restlessness in which Lara blames herself for Bronwyn’s injury and mourns the state of her relationship with Aren, she has a conversation with Sarhina. Though she did not expect forgiveness, she hoped to make some progress with Aren after the rescue. Sarhina admits that Aren might never forgive Lara but reassures her that, if it comes to it, she always has a place with her sisters. Lara shares a goodbye with her sisters before beginning her journey to Valcotta with Aren.

She shares her plan to skirt the edge of the Red Desert until they reach Valcotta, then ride the highway straight to Pyrinat. Aren claims that this plan is unnecessary because Zarrah has already promised Eranahl supplies, but Lara points out that they don’t know for sure if Zarrah has survived. She also points out that supplies buy them time but don’t solve the problem of defeating the Maridrinians. Aren informs Lara that Keris is her full brother, not half-brother as she’d originally thought, and that her mother is dead, strangled by Silas after trying to save her daughter. Aren pulls the letter from his pocket, soft from all the times he’s unfolded and read the details of Lara’s betrayal. He finally gives Lara the opportunity to explain. Lara explains that early in her arranged marriage to Aren, when she was still loyal to her father, she wrote the message in invisible ink on the back of every piece of Aren’s stationary, assuming he’d eventually write to her father. However, after she fell in love with Aren, she went back and destroyed all of the messages. Somehow, she missed a piece, which Aren used to send a letter to her father, accidentally setting the invasion into motion. Lara learns that though Aren is angry with her, he’s most upset with himself. He blames himself for Ithicana’s fall because he trusted her.

Eventually, Aren and Lara hear Silas’s men and their tracking dogs in the distance. They ride hard for two days, barely keeping ahead. They finally reach the edge of the Red Desert, but Silas’s men are nearly upon them and a sandstorm is headed their way. Lara decides to risk going into the Red Desert.

Aren struggles with the heat and dehydration as they travel for days in the desert. Meanwhile, a few of Silas’s men secure camels to chase them. When a sandstorm begins to form, Lara hopes it’ll dispatch the men for her and Aren.

As the sandstorm nears, Lara wraps scarves around her mouth and Aren’s. She blindfolds Aren to protect his eyes while risking her own to lead them to safety. Aren eventually collapses from dehydration, forcing Lara to drag him the rest of the way to the training compound where she grew up. Once safely inside, Lara inspects Aren and decides he won’t survive without water. The storm could last days, so Lara risks the outside to search for the water hole, where she fills their waterskins. Lara gives Aren the water, successfully bringing him back to consciousness.

Aren and Lara sleep, and when Aren wakes, he explores the compound where Serin trained Lara and her sisters. Eventually, the storm abates and he ventures outside to drink more water. All around him, strewn across the land, are the corpses of people long dead.

Emerging from the compound, Lara calls for Aren. Her eyes are blindfolded, and Aren realizes they’re injured from leading the way in the sandstorm after she’d protectively blindfolded his own. Aren brings her inside, where he boils water on the kitchen’s stove and filters it until it’s clean. Once it’s cooled, he uses it to flush her eyes. Recognizing Lara’s sacrifices to rescue and protect him, Aren feels less angry with her. He loves her, but he knows Ithicana will never forgive her; it would be an insult to keep her as his queen when his people have lost so much because of her. Aren burns the letter detailing Lara’s betrayal on the stove, destroying it.

Aren gathers what meager supplies the compound still holds. When they discuss how to find more supplies, Lara suggests they ambush any merchants they find and take what they have. Aren doesn’t approve of killing innocent merchants, even to save their own lives. Lara explains that leaving the merchants alive will give them an opportunity to alert Silas’s men to their whereabouts once they emerge from the desert. Aren condemns Lara’s ruthlessness, but Lara says she’ll do whatever it takes to save him because no one else can forge an alliance with Valcotta. Lara tells him that life is full of hard choices, some of which require sacrifice, and “just because a choice is hard doesn’t mean you don’t make it” (189). Despite this, Aren remains adamant that he will not kill innocents to save himself.

A camel arrives to drink from the water hole, one of Silas’s soldiers hanging dead from its back. Lara and Aren decide to leave that night and take the camel with them.

On their last night in the compound, Lara explores her childhood home while Aren sleeps. In the dormitories, she finds her stash of prized items: a bracelet from Bronwyn, a silver coin from Sarhina, notes from her sisters, and a silver necklace with a sapphire pendant that belonged to her mother. Lara cries when she finds her mother’s necklace, which is how Aren finds her. She explains it was her mother’s. When Aren pries about her childhood spent at the compound with Serin, Lara explains the torture she and her sisters endured in the form of training. Out of 20 daughters, only 12 survived. Lara asks Aren what Keris is like. He describes Keris as personally unlikeable—“a scheming smartass” who’s “quite taken with his own intelligence” (196)—but a useful ally. Aren states that Keris is not inclined to rule but willing to take the crown from Silas to save his own life. Lara decides they shouldn’t trust Keris. Aren pulls the last item from Lara’s box of belongings—the vial of poison she used on her sisters. She explains that more than a few drops cause death.