The Traitor Queen

“Let me tell you a story. A story about a girl raised in the desert with her beloved sisters. A girl who, upon hearing that her own father intended to kill her and ten of her sisters, chose not to save herself but to risk herself to save their lives. Chose not to flee into a certain future but to condemn herself to a dark fate. All to save those precious lives.”

Silas’s story about Lara makes her a sympathetic person whom Aren worries for even while trying to hate her for her betrayal. By painting her as a person who cares deeply for others and will sacrifice herself to ensure their safety, Silas also partly convinces Aren that she might care for him more than he believes.

“Where has she gone? Is she even still alive? And worst of all: the question of whether she’d take Silas’s bait and come for him. Of course she won’t, he told himself. She doesn’t give a shit about you. It was all lies. But if they were lies, why was Silas hunting her? Why, if she’d given him everything his heart desired, did he want her dead?”

This passage illustrates Aren’s internal conflict since Lara’s betrayal. He struggles with how to feel because while he believes her feelings for him are genuine, this belief doesn’t align with the devastating betrayal she orchestrated. His ambivalence forces her to journey down The Long Road to Redemption.

“Lara’s heart beat an uneven staccato in her chest, her breath coming in fast little gasps that didn’t seem to fill her lungs. There was no pride in Sarhina’s voice over what Lara had done, but rather condemnation. They knew. Knew that they’d been fed lies most of their lives—that Ithicana was no more the power-hungry oppressor than Maridrina was the starving victim. Knew that Lara was no hero for having saved her nation, but rather a bloodstained conqueror who’d captured a war prize.”

The repetition of “Knew that…” in this passage emphasizes the crisis of identity that Lara undergoes as she and her sisters grapple with the realization that their father is a tyrant. While she feels afraid in this moment, Lara also feels hopeful. Previously, she worried that her sisters would not ally with her or that their hatred for Ithicana would be too great to overcome, but this passage gives Lara hope that her sisters might aid her.