The Traitor Queen

When Aren wakes, he discovers what Lara planned. He waits patiently with the camel for her to return, but when she’s gone too long, he follows the path to town.

Lara is stripped naked and put in a pillory to die slowly from sun exposure and dehydration. Eventually, she sees Aren in the distance. He arrives in town, stumbling as if drunk, and makes quick friends with the men. Lara wonders if it is a ploy at first, but when Aren makes a deal with her captor, Timin, to receive escort out of the desert, she wonders if he’ll leave her to die now that he no longer needs her.

Hours pass without sign of Aren, who disappears inside with the men. Eventually he comes outside, and Lara asks him for her bottle of poison. He draws it from his pocket but doesn’t give it to her and instead goes back inside. A bigger man visits Lara, leaning on the pole of her pillory as he speaks crudely to her. When he leaves, she smiles, noticing that his weight has loosened the pillory’s foundations.

Aren leaves town with Timin and his men, pretending to be drunk so they will underestimate him. Not far from town, Timin turns on Aren, but he’s prepared, killing Timin and his men quickly. He ties up the remaining child so he can’t run for help and returns to town to save Lara, who has just loosened the pillory from the ground.

Lara escapes the pillory while the ladies of the town scream that several men have been poisoned, likely by the vial in Aren’s possession. When Aren arrives, he drags Lara to the nearby body of water, correctly assuming that the townspeople, like Lara, won’t know how to swim. Lara clings to him, nearly crying in relief, and admits that she thought he’d left her. Aren admits that he will always come for her, no matter where she is, and he kisses her. Soon after, Lara loses consciousness due to her injuries.

Aren carries Lara back to the site where he left his camel and the tied-up boy. He dresses Lara in the boy’s spare set of clothes from his saddle bags, then releases the boy. Aren places Lara on the camel’s back, and they continue heading south. She spends the next several days sick and slowly recovering until she is able to walk beside Aren.

Aren spends this time reminiscing over their kiss, knowing he shouldn’t have done it because they have no hope at a future together. He can’t bring himself to make a decision his people won’t agree with, but desperately hopes she’ll make the decision for him. Lara admits she loves him but also confirms that his people hate her deeply. She tells Aren that after their journey, she will part ways with him. Though it is an honorable decision, Aren knows he will never love anyone as he loves Lara—and that she will always be his queen.

Lara and Aren exit the desert and take a riverboat to Pyrinat, the capital city of Valcotta, while posing as Harendellians. In Pyrinat, Lara marvels at the city’s musicians and artisans, all motivated more by the desire to entertain their patrons than by the need for money as in Maridrina. They visit the Nastryan Hotel, where the owner is rumored to be an Ithicanian spy.

Jor sits in the corner of the hotel’s coffeehouse. He and Aren share an emotional reunion before all three retreat upstairs to Jor’s rooms. Jor informs them that a mysterious benefactor has brought supplies to the islands, confirming that Zarrah and Keris delivered on their promise.

After learning of Keris’s plans to usurp Silas’s throne and return the bridge, Jor agrees with Lara’s reluctance to trust the prince. Aren doesn’t necessarily agree, believing Keris isn’t self-motivated but in love with Zarrah. Jor hypothesizes that Zarrah has returned to her command of Valcotta’s garrison in Nerastis and reveals that Keris has also returned to Nerastis to resume command of the Maridrinian forces on the border. Jor tells Lara that Sarhina has given birth, Bronwyn is recovering, and the rest of her sisters are safe. Coralyn, however, has not been seen; her status is unknown.

Jor admits that morale is bad in Eranahl and tells Lara and Aren that the people plan to escape to Harendell for safe haven when storm season begins. King Edward agreed to an alliance with Ahnna with conditions: trade terms and Ahnna’s promise to return to Harendell and wed Crown Prince William after the war.

Lara and Aren travel to the Valcottan palace. Aren announces their identities, gaining immediate entrance. Zarrah greets them first, informing them that Silas has spread rumors of Aren’s death.

The Empress speaks with Aren in private, requesting that he kill Lara in exchange for an alliance with Valcotta, which Aren refuses. The Empress views Aren as a fool for believing that friendships can be forged between all kingdoms and that peace with Maridrina is possible. Aren simply states that she will not rule forever and neither will Silas, implying that Zarrah and Keris might bring them closer to peace someday.

Aren and Lara leave the palace. She correctly guesses that the Empress required Lara’s death to forge an alliance. Lara insists they cannot leave without an alliance because Harendell’s support is not enough. She is willing to sacrifice her life for this, but Zarrah soon arrives to negotiate an alliance between the kingdoms behind her aunt’s back.

Zarrah explains Valcotta’s history of war with Maridrina, fighting over the same stretch of coastline on Nerastis for hundreds of years. The Empress knows that if she can block trade through the bridge, Silas will run out of money to employ the Maridrinian navy. He will have to pull his soldiers from Valcotta to reinforce the fight against Ithicana, leaving Maridrina more vulnerable to attack. The Empress seeks to conquer Maridrina at the expense of Ithicana.

Zarrah admits that she and Keris are aligned in their goal to end the conflict between their nations, but Valcotta cannot risk blatantly helping Ithicana. Therefore, Zarrah plans to discreetly help Aren by manning stolen Maridrinian vessels with her soldiers and taking back Southwatch, leaving no survivors to spread word of her involvement.