The Black Mage: Candidate (33 page)

“
HOW WOULD YOU EVEN KNOW?”
I roared. “You just nod your head at every little thing Commander Nyx tells you! She’s the rebel leader, isn’t she?”

“She is but—”

“But you claim it isn’t you!” I shoved him away. “Lucius was the rebel’s enemy and now he is dead.
How convenient
. Who were those ‘fake’ rebels, then? Another group of fugitives set against the first? Pythians who were willing to kill their king’s heir to the throne? If the Pythians wanted Jerar they could have just struck an alliance with Caltoth; they needn’t have bothered with the farce of their negotiations! The death of their crown princess!” The words were tearing at my throat. “And the Boreans? They are the weakest country of all! Emperor Liang stands to gain nothing from the attack! The only answer is the rebels or Caltoth!”

I advanced on my brother, anger giving me the strength to stand tall. “Don’t you see, Derrick? You’ve been played. King Horrace played all of you. He got the rebels to do his dirty work while he sat there laughing on his throne, sending his armies to weaken our border. Even if what you said about Lucius was true—which I might believe for some, King Horrace could have taken advantage. Maybe those men weren’t your own rebels in Montfort. Perhaps they were
soldiers of Jerar bought by the Caltothians
! Did you ever think of that?”

Derrick glowered. “The ambassador shouted, ‘For Caltoth.’ Someone was clearly trying to frame Horrace and the rebels in one.”

“Or perhaps,” I said through clenched teeth, “Horrace really was condoning the attack and didn’t care who knew. Or maybe the Caltothians aren’t working with you at all, and Nyx bought off the ambassador!”

“The north can barely afford to outfit its own infantry!” Derrick raged. “You are a mage! You know nothing of what it is like to be a lowborn soldier with nothing to gain. The Crown sends us nothing. Nyx have no idea what it’s like! Nyx would never betray us because she is one of us—
unlike you!”

I tried a calming breath to prevent the rage from making me say something I would regret. I didn’t know who the enemy was anymore, but whoever it was they were still out there. And I needed to convince my brother not to play right into the palm of their hand. “The enemy could be anyone, Derrick. Even your own.”

“There is someone you forgot.” My brother turned on me, twin storm clouds thrashing in his eyes. “Someone who was conveniently
not
injured in the Montfort attack.”

“There were a lot of people not—”

“Someone important.” Derrick took a step forward, backing me against the wall. His whole body was trembling. “Someone who stood to gain
everything
. Did you ever stop to wonder why?”

“Blayne?” I snorted. “Did you forget? He was
poisoned.
”

“No.” My brother’s eyes flashed. “Not Blayne. No one knows if King Lucius shared his schemes with his sons. But there is one who stood to gain the most out of the king and his heir’s deaths. Someone who could have decided it was time to take the throne—”

My brother stumbled back as my hand slapped across his face. Tears were stinging my eyes as I advanced on him, screaming,
“DARREN WOULD NEVER!”

“Wouldn’t he?” My brother caught my hand before I could hit him again. “You are blinded by love, Ry.
Did you forget Alex? Did you forget what you let happen to our own brother because you were too afraid to stand up to the Crown?”

“Darren never wanted that!” I yanked free of his grip. “His father was evil! Darren
hated
him! You have no idea—”

“Perhaps he killed him over hate.” My brother started to walk away.

“Derrick!” I chased after my brother. “We need to tell them what you told me. Darren and Blayne need to know the truth about their father!”

My brother turned around. “We aren’t telling them anything.
You
won’t tell them anything.”

“You were searching the palace for proof of Lucius’s orders, weren’t you?” I was pleading. “That’s what they told you to do, wasn’t it?”

My brother said nothing.

“Darren could help you. Even Blayne. If what you said was true—”

“The Crown can’t be trusted.” Derrick’s voice echoed across the stalls. “Even if the two princes weren’t involved in Lucius’s schemes, do you really think King Blayne would call off a war? With the Pythians’ support Jerar will win, and the Crown stands everything to gain.”

“Darren could help him see reason, Blayne trusts him—”

Derrick raised his hand. “Lucius raised Darren to be his brother’s right hand. He will serve Blayne above all else.”

“You don’t know him!”

“I don’t need to. They are the Crown. They will betray us.”

“Derrick!” I was on my knees, begging him not to go. “You have to stop. If they find out you are with the rebels after the attack at Montfort—”
They will kill him.

“You are going to have to tell them to stop me.” My brother’s jaw clenched, and I saw he was no longer just the boy I had helped raise, but a man. “I will keep searching. Because one of us has to. And if you turn me in—and I don’t think you will—you will have to deal with my blood on your hands. And you can live your life knowing you betrayed your own brother. And when Alex and our parents cripple in despair, you will know it was
you
who did it. It will be
you
who destroyed your life.”

****

I stumbled to my chambers—but before I did I made sure to dry my eyes. To clean my face. To brush the straw from my breeches. To hold my head up high and smile as I passed the regular patrol of guards.

As soon as I had reached my chamber I threw the door shut and fell to my bed, a muffled scream into the mattress beneath. I hated Derrick. I hated him for using my love against me. He knew I would never betray him to the Crown, and even if his tasks now were innocent enough, I would not be able to protect him if he got caught.

Why? Why does it have to be my brother who gets involved in this scheme?
I hated Commander Nyx. Ian.
HOW DARE HE TRY TO CONVERT ME!
Ray. All of those angry soldiers at the keep. Jacob. Myself.
Why
couldn’t Derrick have been more like Alex? Why did he have to be like me?

I hated every last one of them. I hated Derrick for asking me to choose. Because by asking me, he had known I would choose him. He
knew
I wouldn’t betray him to Darren. Because I couldn’t betray my brother, my own flesh and blood—the little boy who I had spent all those days chasing around a field, wrestling in the mud… Which meant Darren could never betray Blayne—the brother he had seen beaten and bruised, the one he had sworn to protect. And I couldn’t count on Blayne not to condemn Derrick.

My brother had made me a traitor. And I would never,
ever
forgive him.

A sob escaped my lips.

“Ryiah?” There was a concerned knock at the door.

My chest squeezed until it hurt, and I had to dig my nails down into the blankets to fight back a cry. I couldn’t talk to Darren. Not now. Not while everything I knew was falling apart. My brother had forced me to pick a side. And it wasn’t Darren’s.

I held my breath and waited until he left.

Derrick had implied the one I loved could be the traitor in our midst. But he was wrong.
Because deep down, I knew. If Darren had asked me to kill an evil tyrant and his brother? If he had begged? If he had told me it was all for Jerar?
I would have stood by his side.

The true traitors were the rebels. Or King Horrace of Caltoth. Or perhaps the Pythian king himself.

Had I known that this was how it would be? The life of a mage of Combat, betrothed to a prince? A kingdom in ruin. And with so many loose threads, something would tear.

And when it did, it would all fall apart.

Chapter Seventeen

I had picked a side. But it didn’t mean I was willing to embrace it. I was still determined to stop my brother any way I could.

Even if it meant becoming a traitor myself.

If I find him proof, he can go back to Commander Nyx
. And that was all I cared about. Because as long as he was in the palace, he was at risk. And some part of me really did want to believe what he said about King Lucius. Because after all the man had done to his sons, anything was possible.

On my three days off for each of the next two weeks, I scoured every inch of the old king’s rooms. Blayne hadn’t transitioned over to King Lucius’s chambers—after all, he was still in mourning—so nothing had yet been moved. The guards in the Crown hall only monitored its entrance, and since my chamber was a part of it, they never sought to check beyond.

I didn’t need a key. I broke the lock on the second try. Rusting the metal until it cracked with just the slightest casting necessary. No one would ever suspect a thing.

And they didn’t. Blayne was too busy in his war chambers, meeting with his board of advisors and Darren, whose counsel served to advise those in all of Combat with the other two Colored Robes following his lead. I didn’t even miss not being a part of it; it was like Derrick said, now that I had my own mission, the envy was gone. My time was too busy spent searching, silently thanking the gods for sparing my brother and me thus far.

And praying we found whatever it was we were searching for before they found us.

But I didn’t find a thing.

“The king would never keep the documents in his chambers!” Derrick admonished me one afternoon in the stables when I came to report my findings. “A man as underhanded as him? He probably burned them all.”

“Then why are you still searching?” I threw up my hands in frustration. “Why are you still here? Go back, Derrick. Go back to the keep before they catch you.” My voice broke, and I punched at the wall with my fist. “I can’t keep doing this.”

“No one is asking you to help,” was his cold reply.

I stormed off, hating my brother even more than before. When Darren came to sit beside me that evening I was too busy stabbing my venison to notice.

“Ryiah?” The prince’s hand slipped over my own. “What’s wrong? You haven’t touched your food in days.”

“Nothing.” I said the word bitterly, tearing off a forkful of roast and shoving it into my mouth.

“Did I do something to upset you?” The pain in his voice lanced at my heart. “I…” He lowered his voice so that his brother couldn’t hear us over the other advisors and Council at the table. “I had the servants deliver that potion, but I…” His neck tinged red. “If that’s w-what you are upset… I d-don’t expect… If you aren’t ready...”

My whole face flushed. “I-it’s not that.”

“Are you sure?” His eyes bore into mine until I was forced to look away, traitor that I was.

I fumbled for an excuse. “It’s Wren.” She was certainly a part of it. The lie flowed easily enough. “Every night your brother talks about Pythus, and I can’t help thinking of her.”

Darren’s gaze drew dark and his hand tightened on my own. “Soon, Ryiah, we will catch every last one of those rebels. Blayne has me scouring all Marius’s reports for something he might have missed. He was so thorough, but I’ve been talking with the other advisors, and I think he might have been going about everything wrong. What if they aren’t in the South?”

My breath caught in my throat as he continued: “We always thought that’s where they were. Because of all the attacks. But maybe that’s what they wanted us to think. Maybe their base is in the north.”

“YOUR MAJESTY, WE HAVE A TRAITOR IN OUR MIDST.”

I slammed back in my chair, wooden legs scraping against the floor.

Mage Mira barged into the dining hall, leading two of her favorite mages and
Derrick
. His head was hung and his arms were dripping blood, all of his weight shifted to one leg.

My heart slammed against my ribs so loud I couldn’t hear the next words she shouted.
NO. GODS, NO.

King Blayne shot out of his chair, his brother a second later. Blayne’s eyes flitted to mine and then Mira’s, and then back again. An inscrutable expression.

Darren staggered back, mirroring my movements only a moment before.

“We caught this one in the war chamber.” Mira had her men jerk my brother forward, and I heard the whimper as he was thrown to his knees, a sickening crack as his bad leg slammed against the marble tile.
DERRICK.
“He was making a list. Looking at the books. Keeping a count of each city’s regiment. Writing names.” She spat the words and a drop of saliva hit my brother’s shirt. He made no move to wipe it away—he couldn’t, his hands were bound behind his back.

Lists? Numbers?
My pulse stopped as the facts came into play. My brother had never been looking for proof. His whole story about King Lucius was a lie. He had been gathering information for the rebels on the Crown the entire time. And he had been using me to get it.

Betrayal cut across my chest like a knife. And what was worse? My heart still bled for him. Even when I knew the truth. Even when it was staring me in the face. “It has to be a mistake!”

“It’s not.” Mira’s eyes lobbed daggers at my own. “And for all we know
you
were helping him! He’s your brother, seems to me a traitor wouldn’t fly far from the nest.”

“I wasn’t—”

“If you ever accuse my betrothed of treachery again,”
Darren’s voice rang out low and ominous without a second glance my way. His fists were white on the back of his chair.
“You will be disrobed and tossed in a cell to rot. Do you understand, mage?”
He didn’t even address her by her name.

A hot flush of shame threatened to drown me in air.

“That’s enough, Darren.” Blayne’s eyes were glued to my face. “Mira, have your men take him to the dungeons. Ryiah, Darren, you will come with Mage Mira and me. To the war chambers.
Now
. The rest of you, continue your meal. You breathe a word of the rebel’s presence to anyone, and I will have you thrown in a cell right along side.”

****