wave of something ripples from my body, and I swear the ground rumbles beneath us, but I know I must be imagining it. My wrist glows as I glare at the leader of the mountain tribes, my aunt. “Will someone explain what is going on and stop talking in circles?” Everyone is watching me with wide eyes, most of which are focused on my wrist, some even a little fearfully, all except Revna, who looks pleased. Have I just passed some sort of test? Anger stirs in my blood again as I open my mouth.
“Your mother, my sister, was the Queen of Arhaven.”
Her words hit me like a physical blow. “No.” Stumbling back, I fall into my chair, horrified by her words but knowing their truth.
“The king saw her on one of her trips to Arhaven and instantly desired her,” Revna explains, ignoring the shaking of my head. “He killed her husband, your father, ripped the memories from you and her with dark magic, put you into slavery, and married her.” There is no kindness in her voice, no delicacy in how she informs me how my father was murdered and my family was torn apart, but her eyes grieve. They grieve for the life I should have had with her in the mountains.
“No,” I whisper, remembering the evening where the two of us met in the dark courtyard. My mother. It felt like we had known each other, and she warned me. Did she know? Did some part of her know deep down that I was her daughter?
Why didn’t the king just have me killed? Why put me into slavery? Was it some sick power trip, knowing that his wife’s child from a previous marriage, who she doesn’t remember, is a slave? Did he know it was me when I was blessed by the Great Mother? Or was I just another nameless slave at that point? He always kept an eye on me, but I thought that was because Jacob had an interest in an ex-slave.
Jacob. Jacob is my half-brother… No, that can’t be right, he’s older than me, or at least around the same age as me, and the other princes are older than him. So unless my mother had been seeing the king while she had still been married to my father… Could that explain why she kept disappearing for long periods of time like Revna said? And how did he manage to wipe our memories?
I know more about who I am, yet I feel more lost than I ever have before.
Something moves in front of me, and as I focus back on the present, I see that Revna is now standing just a few paces from me. “We tried to find you. We have been trying to find you for years,” she assures me, and I see her hand flicker at her side like she wants to reach out and grasp mine. Her voice is low, so I know she’s talking just to me. “When he took my sister…I tried so hard to get you back.” A tremor of emotion enters her voice, her dark eyes looking into mine in earnest. “Do you believe me?”
Yes, I want to answer, and I’m about to when a tribesman runs into the tent, out of breath, and quickly makes a symbol over his chest. “Chief,” he says, but Revna is already moving, following him out of the tent with several of the other tribesmen on her heels. Frowning, I look at Vaeril, who is also now standing, staring into the distance with an odd look on his face. Naril is also wearing a strange expression, which makes me nervous.
“Clarissa,” Tor calls, and I spin to see him standing just behind me. He looks like he’s expecting me to punch him, which I’m half tempted to do with everything he kept from me, but I know he wasn’t able to tell me. However, I remember the comment I overheard before I entered the tent, and my body stiffens.
“You were searching for me, you’ll be made chief,” I state, waiting for him to contradict me, to tell me that I’m wrong, that I misunderstood. Except he doesn’t, he winces. I hate it when he winces.
“Possibly, but—” he starts, but that’s when Revna storms back into the tent. She looks furious, her eyes glowing, and I can hear the sound of running feet against stone.
“Everyone, get to your stations!” she orders, before her eyes land on me. There’s a sadness within her