The Traitor Queen

“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.

“There were eighteen of them now. Eighteen Ithicanians dead in the attempt to rescue their king. In the attempt to rescue him. He didn’t deserve it. Didn’t deserve their lives. Not when all that had befallen Ithicana was the result of the choices he’d made. Lara might have been the one who wrote the letter with all its damning details, but if he hadn’t trusted her, if he hadn’t loved her, she’d never have had the power to harm his people.”

Close third-person narration reveals Aren’s internal conflict as he wrestles with feelings of betrayal and guilt. He blames himself for allowing Lara to get close enough to him to betray him. This internal conflict spurs him on The Long Road to Redemption as he tries to find the best way to help his people.

“The Maridrinians were angry about Aren’s captivity because he’d earned their loyalty, and their friendship. And unlike their king, they didn’t take kindly to those who stabbed friends in the back. Aren had seen the behavior on countless occasions during his times in Maridrina—the unwillingness to profit from a friend’s hardship. They’d starve before taking a mouthful of ill-gotten bread. Understanding abruptly dawned on him, and Aren’s stomach flipped.”

This passage underscores Jensen’s theme of The Burden of Legacy and the Will to Change. Aren realizes that Maridrina’s common people operate under a moral code very different from their king’s. The moment signals a shift in Aren’s perspective: Silas’s cruelty does not reflect his entire nation, suggesting that alliances and change may be possible if his leadership can be overturned.

“‘How long will you keep your sanity when we skin her alive and then hang her on the wall to watch you?’ He was being crushed beneath the weight of the soldiers, but still Aren clawed at them, caring about nothing more than killing the man before him. ‘Like a feral dog trying to escape its cage,’ Silas said to the wives waiting behind him. ‘Willing to break its own bones on the bars despite the futility of its efforts. It’s the nature of his people, my dears. They aren’t anything like us.’”

This scene highlights both Silas’s cruelty and his dehumanizing worldview, as he employs a simile to reduce Ithicanians to “feral dogs.” Through witnessing it firsthand, Aren has a glimpse of the narrative that was fed to Lara and her sisters their entire lives. This understanding makes a small but important difference in Aren’s journey toward forgiving Lara.

“She had betrayed him. Stolen away his kingdom and caused the death of his people. Been the reason Silas had kept him locked up. Aren hated her like none other, yet in that moment, it was memories of tangling his fingers in her hair that assaulted his thoughts. The feel of her hands on his body, her legs wrapped around his waist, lips pressed against his. The smell of her filling his nostrils and the sound of her voice in his ears. It was all lies, he silently screamed at himself as she circled the table. She is your damnation. Yet there was no denying that she’d come here for him.”

This passage uses sentence fragments to convey the tension Aren experiences as he tries to understand his feelings toward Lara. Aren’s inner war between hatred and desire for Lara is a constant source of tension and drama in the novel. His insistence that “it was all lies” highlights his attempt to distance himself from his feelings, yet the undeniable truth of the hold she still has over him suggests that redemption may still be possible.

“‘Our people?’ It wasn’t the time. It wasn’t the place. But the months they’d been apart had done nothing to temper his fury over her betrayal. ‘Would those be the people who lost their homes? Their loved ones? Their lives? Because of you. They are not yours.’”

Lara identifies the Ithicanians as her people, Aren refuses to let her share in their identity after her betrayal. Lara’s insistence on “our people” reflects her earnest desire to align herself with Ithicana, but Aren’s cutting response proves he is not yet willing to offer anything beyond keeping her own life.

“But all she could think about was Aren’s eyes when he’d recognized her. When she’d seen them last on Midwatch, they’d been red-rimmed and filled with anger and hurt. But now…they were cold. As though she meant nothing to him and never had.”

This moment showcases the emotional divide between Lara and Aren. He was initially angry after her betrayal, but his anger has since shifted to cold detachment. This wounds Lara more deeply than open hostility. Anger implies passion and lingering attachment, but indifference implies a desire to erase or deny the bond they once shared.

“But in the darkness, the horses could only move at a slow pace up the river, hooves slipping on the slick rocks. Aren would’ve been able to go at twice the speed on foot, but not while carrying Bronwyn. He was exhausted, his body unused to such strenuous activity, and he hated it. Hated feeling weak when all his life he’d been strong.”

Aren’s frustration with his physical weakness mirrors his frustration with his political helplessness. Not only has Silas taken his kingdom and position from him, but captivity has also taken his physical strength from him. This further exacerbates Aren’s self-doubt and hatred.

“You mean nothing to me. You are nothing. The only reason that the rest of my sisters and I agreed to help you was because Lara loves you, and we love her. Never mind that we owe her our lives.”

Aren admires the strength of Sarhina’s loyalty to Lara. Sarhina’s statement that she and her sisters owe Lara their lives reinforces the theme of The Long Road to Redemption, suggesting that Lara is worthy of a second chance because she cares deeply for her loved ones. It also reminds Aren that his rescue wouldn’t have been possible without Lara.

“Why are you so stupid that you can’t understand that his lies were like poison? A poison we will never truly recover from. I know the truth. I have seen it with my own eyes, and yet more nights than not I wake up in a frenzy, my hatred for Ithicana back like it had never left at all.”

Sarhina lays bare the psychological scars of Silas’s manipulation. Aren interprets Lara’s betrayal as choice, while Sarhina reframes it as the lingering effect of childhood indoctrination, underscoring The Burden of Legacy and the Will to Change. Using a metaphor to compare their father’s teaching to a poison that has permanent effects, she conveys the magnitude of Lara’s trauma.

“Lara made a mistake […] If she’d trusted you with the whole truth, none of this would’ve come to pass. But please understand that her coming to trust you at all is nothing short of miraculous. She’s as much a victim of my father’s machinations as you and Ithicana. Though unlike you, she isn’t willing to let him win. Lara remains queen of Ithicana even if you’ve given up on being its king.”

Though Lara is known as the titular “Traitor Queen,” this moment reframes her as a survivor of Silas’s manipulation. Sarhina emphasizes that Lara’s capacity for trust is itself a miracle born of resilience. By declaring that Lara is doing more as the queen of Ithicana, than Aren is as its king, Sarhina criticizes Aren’s negative attitude and recent passivity.

“Guilt had been her constant companion since the night she’d been exiled from Ithicana, but it surged anew, making her stomach ache. She’d caused so much harm. Even if her plan worked, even if Ithicana secured alliances and took back the bridge, that harm would not be undone.”

Lara’s reflection emphasizes The Responsibility that Comes with Power—she continues forward not because she believes the harm can be undone, but because action is the only way to honor those losses. The personification of guilt as a “constant companion” positions Lara’s guilt here as both punishment and motivation, a driving force that keeps Lara committed to Ithicana despite knowing forgiveness may never fully come.

“She understood then, in that moment, what fueled the anger in his eyes. Not her. Not what she’d done. It was himself whom Aren truly blamed.”

This realization marks a turning point in Lara’s understanding of Aren’s hostility. His fury is less about her betrayal than his own perceived failure as king, reflecting The Burden of Legacy and the Will to Change as Aren blames himself for Ithicana’s fall. By shifting focus from her actions to his guilt, Jensen deepens the tragedy of their rift—Aren cannot forgive Lara until he first reconciles with himself.

“It was a secret place. A place she’d never intended to ever return. ‘This,’ she whispered, unbuttoning her sodden dress and pulling it over her head, ‘is where it all began.’”

This moment situates the Red Desert compound as Lara’s origin—the site of her indoctrination and trauma, the place that helped shape her ruthlessness and but also her capacity for sacrifice. By bringing Aren here, Jensen builds on the theme of The Long Road to Redemption—Lara must expose the darkest truths of her past if there is any hope of Aren understanding and eventually forgiving her.

“And all for that kiss. He shouldn’t have done it, Aren knew that much. He told himself that it was because he’d been terrified she was dying in his arms. That it was nothing more than a chaste brush of the lips. That it meant nothing. Except that it meant everything, for that one kiss had shattered the crumbling walls he’d built up against her in his heart, and he knew that if she wanted it, if she offered it, what came next would be anything but chaste.”

This moment captures the fragility of Aren’s emotional defenses against Lara. Though he tries to rationalize the kiss as meaningless, he admits it has undone the barriers he’s clung to since her betrayal.

“Morale is bad. Lots of talk about abandoning the city. Abandoning Ithicana. She’s holding everything together to buy you time, but […] As soon as storm season drives off the fleet, there will be an exodus north to Harendell, which has offered safe haven.”

This passage raises the tension of the narrative by emphasizing the precariousness of Ithicana’s survival and the limits of their endurance under siege. Ahnna’s leadership is the only thread keeping the people from desertion, but their willingness to abandon the kingdom reveals how fragile loyalty becomes in the face of hunger and fear.

“‘The heirs to the greatest enemies in the world are allies,’ Lara mused. ‘I wonder how they met.’

‘I’m sure it’s quite the story. And equally sure neither of them will tell us any of it.’”

In this passage, Jensen uses dramatic irony to hint at what is to come in the series. Aren and Lara wonder about Keris and Zarrah’s love story, which readers know will be explored in the next two installments, even though they will tell none of it to Aren and Lara. As heirs of rival nations, their partnership embodies the continued theme of The Burden of Legacy and the Will to Change.

“There hadn’t been a chance of him leaving her behind. Aren told himself it was because the beach had been swarming with soldiers, that he’d done it to keep her from being caught and killed. That he hadn’t had a choice. But the real reason was that when the moment had come to let her go, he hadn’t been able to do it.”

As hard as Aren tries to put his kingdom before Lara, he inwardly admits that love—not duty—guided his choice to bring her to Ithicana. Despite the precariousness of his position and of Ithicana’s survival, Aren cannot sever his bond with Lara when faced with the possibility of losing her forever.

“Her sob as he’d left had been worse than a knife to the gut, the anguish in it a thousand times greater than when he’d stitched up her leg. All he wanted was to go back. To scoop her up and lose himself in her. To keep her safe until she was strong. To never be away from her again. Except every time he closed his eyes, he saw the expressions that would cross his people’s faces if they discovered what he’d done. If they discovered that he, their king, had taken the woman who’d betrayed them back into his bed. Back into his heart.”

This moment captures Aren’s deepest conflict between personal desire and political duty. His longing to stay with Lara exemplifies the depth of his love, yet the fear of judgment from his people becomes an impenetrable barrier prompting Aren to finally leave Lara behind. The passage embodies the theme of The Responsibility that Comes with Power, showing how Aren denies himself happiness to preserve the fragile trust of his kingdom.

“Ithicana was free, liberated from Maridrina and her father. It was what she’d wanted, what she’d been fighting for. What she’d believed would finally lift the burden of guilt that she’d been carrying for so long and allow her to carry on with life. Except she felt the same. Felt worse, because at least before she’d had a goal. Something she’d been working toward. Now she had nothing left but her need for revenge against her father. But thinking about that only left her cold.”

This moment reveals the hollowness of victory for Lara, showcasing The Long Road to Redemption. Though Ithicana is freed, the liberation fails to absolve Lara’s guilt or restore her sense of belonging, leaving her unmoored. Lara’s struggle shifts from the need for external validation to the deeper, unresolved need for self-forgiveness.

“Her words were bluster, and both of them knew it. He was a skilled swordsman, with years of experience, and while Lara was likely a match for him in skill, her body was failing her. The stitches on her thigh had completely torn open, blood running down to pool in her boot, her leg barely holding her weight. Dizziness and exhaustion rolled over her in waves, and even keeping her balance on the rocking deck was pushing Lara to her limits. But she had to keep going. For the sake of everyone in Eranahl, she had to keep fighting.”

This passage emphasizes Lara’s relentless determination, even as her body betrays her. Her willingness to fight through injury and exhaustion reflects the theme of The Responsibility that Comes with Power, showing that her devotion to Ithicana transcends her own survival instincts.

“Sarhina had observed him from afar while in Vencia, and the similarities between Keris and Lara were striking, though he hid it well. But more than that, Sarhina had noticed Serin’s interest in Keris, and that was something worth delving into. ‘He’s no idle player.’”

This passage foreshadows that Keris will have greater involvement in the future installments. It also hints that there’s more to his character than it seems and that he’s been playing the game far longer than anyone realizes.