Lady Calorian brought horses with them. Fast horses. And Killian didn’t take them all.”
Lydia’s breath was coming in fast little pants, her ribs aching from the violence of her beating heart.
“The Royal Army will be expecting messengers from us. It will be easy to give you one, which will allow you access to my father. Then you’ll kill him.”
The light seemed too bright. Too intense. And because the alternative was to cry, Lydia laughed, the sound wild and manic in her own ears. “You want to use me as an assassin? I can barely unsheathe a sword without risking my own foot, whereas your father is surrounded by trained soldiers.”
“I don’t want you to kill him with a blade.” Malahi’s face was steady, though the throbbing vein in her forehead remained. “I want you to kill him and make it look like the enemy is responsible.”
Bile rose in Lydia’s throat, and she swallowed it down. “How could I possibly do that?”
Silence.
“I didn’t send you to stand watch with Bercola in that tunnel because I wanted you dead,” Malahi finally said. “I sent you because I knew your mark would make you more likely to survive anything that came at you. I didn’t realize how right I was.”
It hurt to breathe.
“I saw what you did to that corrupted.” Malahi leaned forward, her face intent. “Everyone else was too busy trying to protect me to notice, but I saw. I saw when he took life from you. And when you took it back.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You can do what they do.”
Lydia shook her head wildly. “I’m not corrupted.”
The curtains sailed inward on a gust of wind, and both of them jumped. Rising, Malahi went to the window and pulled it shut, the curtains settling back into place, making the room still. Silent.
“No. But you could be.” Malahi remained staring out the window. “The same power, but turned to a different purpose. Two sides of the same coin.” She turned back around. “Do you think, if Killian hadn’t arrived and removed his head, that you’d have killed that man?”
Yes. Lydia kept the thought to herself, straining against the ropes binding her wrists, feeling blood trickle down her skin, the arms of the heavy wooden chair groaning. Her body screamed with the strain, sweat breaking out on her brow, but whoever had tied the ropes had known her business.
“You’re my only hope. Mudamora’s only hope.”
I am Teriana’s only hope. My father’s only hope. The only person who knows the truth about what Lucius has done. “I can’t help you.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“Both.”
The other girl was across the room in an instant, Lydia’s head cracking sideways as Malahi slapped her with surprising strength. “You selfish bitch! People are going to die, and you don’t even care.”
The accusation couldn’t be further from the truth, because the Six knew, she cared too much. The plight of this city, of its people—it was her plight. She’d felt the same hunger. The same exhaustion. The same fear. And she’d risked everyone she loved in order to help them. Night after night after night she’d braved the darkness and the filth, giving up her life to those who needed it most, aging and nearly dying over and over and over. Yet never had she felt more alive. Never had Lydia felt more like she was in the place she needed to be. And to abandon them now cut her to the core. But not only was the cost of staying more than she wished to pay, what Malahi was asking her to do … “I’m not a murderer.”
“He’s not a good man.” Malahi hissed the words. “And even if he was, what’s one life compared to the lives of thousands?”
Nothing. And everything. “There are other people who need me, too. Who are depending on me. Even if I was willing to steal life like one of the corrupted, doing so would mean abandoning those I care about.”
“What about Killian? Don’t you care about him? He’s going to die if we don’t enable the Royal Army to march to his aid; don’t you understand that?”
Lydia’s eyes burned, and she looked away, unable to meet Malahi’s gaze. She knew. Knew the guilt he felt about not fighting to the death to hold the wall. That he blamed himself for every life that had been lost since. That he’d fight back the approaching enemy until they cut him down.
You could save him, a voice whispered inside her head.
I’d be sacrificing Teriana