A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,13
And if there had been love between them, might my childhood memories be wrong? Maybe there never was any love between her and my father and that was why Mother was so determined to use his death to cloak her own ambition.
I made no effort to hide my survey of Isadore, just as she made no attempt to acknowledge it. She never did. Even on our walks she remained quiet. Isa had requested the exercise through Aketo—“Unless my sister intends to let my muscles atrophy so that I will be weak when she works up the courage to kill me”—assuming I would let him take her rather than endure her silence. Right now I half wished I had.
Typical of Isadore to find the only way to exert control over a situation in which she had none.
The last time we had spoken at any length was the first night we made camp after leaving Ternain. We’d ridden nearly seven hours straight, heading west to the Silvern Coast. Simply because I knew my mother would not anticipate such a move and, if we did have a tail, I did not want to lead them directly to Papa’s family.
That night as the guards set up camp, I pulled Isa aside. I’d brandished the stoppered bottle—milk of the poppy—Mirabel had procured for me.
“You decide how this will go. If you can refrain from using your magick, I will allow you to walk freely among us.”
Before we left the capital, I told Aketo and Mirabel of my plan: offer Isa the choice we’d never been given. If she could set aside what the Rival Heir laws intended, I would grant her freedom, bit by bit. Though they’d both cautioned against it, I wanted—needed—to try. I had to give us a chance at something other than death. If we could learn to trust each other, maybe we could be sisters again. Or at least something other than enemies.
If Isa couldn’t set our rivalry aside, then at least I could keep my mother from crowning her for as long as we stayed on the run.
At my words, Isa had snorted and rolled her eyes. “How kind of you, sister.” She held up her wrists, grimace darkening her gaze. “And what of these?”
I swallowed, throat dry as the southern sands. “If I have your word that you won’t make an attempt at escape, I will remove the irons from your arms.”
“And my legs?” she asked, voice deceptively light.
“No,” I said, jaw set. Isadore would take advantage of any weakness I offered and she hadn’t rescinded her threat of revenge. However naïve Mirabel thought I was being, I would not let her roam free. “Well?”
“You have my word. I promise.”
I waited, eyes narrowed.
A long moment passed, during which I worried the glares passing between us would set one of us aflame. Finally Isa loosed a sigh. “I swear by my title not to use magick or attempt escape should the opportunity present itself.”
I hoped then, as the old stories said, the Gods would frown upon her if she broke that promise.
But if any God heard my request, they must have laughed. Two weeks later, when Isadore broke her oath, she did so in spectacular fashion.
We were a short ride from Soli Port, where we would catch a boat sailing north. For days I’d smelled the salt of the sea, reminding me, unhappily, of my mother’s perfume. At dawn we broke camp. I’d been about to climb into Bird’s saddle as Isadore slipped a knife from my belt, as deft as a cutpurse in Ternain. Before I noticed its absence, she’d buried the blade in my stomach to the hilt. She tore the pouch where I kept the key to her chains from around my neck.
I had no time to release even a grunt as Isa’s magick attacked on the heels of pain. She had my mind in her grip. I could do nothing as blood soaked my tunic and pants. None of the guards even noticed Isadore until she mounted Bird and galloped from our camp.
She didn’t make it very far. As shouts of warning went off, Falun was nocking an arrow. He loosed two before she’d gotten a hundred paces.
The first punched through her shoulder.
The second struck the back of her neck, but the arrow that would have killed her didn’t even pierce her skin. And only seemed to stun her. Her magick broke as she slumped in the saddle.