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It’s her parents’ deaths Klaudia wants to avenge, her sister she wants to see take the throne. Our struggle is far more personal for her than it could ever be for me.
All the same, I can understand Petra’s refusal.
There’s a rough exhalation, and the future queen says, “You can contribute without putting yourself face to face with the enemy. You could help me clean these?—”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” Klaudia snaps. She barges out of the room with a rustle of skirts.
When the princess sees me, her steps falter for just a moment, the angry flush in her cheeks darkening with embarrassment. At least she doesn’t flinch. Then she marches on past me without a word.
She certainly has the Melchiorek pride.
I venture to the doorway and poke my head inside. At the movement, Petra’s gaze jerks up where she’s standing by one of the tables, wiping down a sword with a cloth.
A flicker of disappointment crosses her face before she schools her expression into her usual stoic calm, although a little tightness lingers at the corners of her mouth. She was probably hoping her sister had reconsidered and come back.
“How much of that argument did you overhear?” she asks in a resigned tone.
I ease into the room, taking in its contents. It’s one of the temple’s smaller spaces, with only two narrow tables for furniture. But every wall is set with racks holding an assortment of swords, daggers, spears, bows, shields, and helms.
I draw my gaze back to Petra. “Enough to know she wants to fight and you’re not letting her. Which I don’t blame you for, by the way.”
Petra sighs. “Word came in from one of the people from Pima who’ve been scouting around for us. He thinks he’s found the site of the facility where the scourge sorcerers are creating their clay figures to trap the daimon. I made the mistake of mentioning it to Klaudia before we’ve set a plan in motion.”
Her head droops, her hand stilling against the sword. “I don’t like that I have to send anyone off to fight my battles for me. The facility must have all kinds of protections, guards—that’s partly how the scout identified it. Klaudia’s never experienced combat outside of self-defence classes.”
“She shouldn’t be there,” I agree. “But it does her credit that she wants to help. Maybe we can find another job for her that isn’t quite so dangerous but also a little more thrilling than…” I glance around the room again. “…polishing weaponry. I have to say, even though Delfis told me you’d gone to the armory, I hadn’t pictured anything quite like this. Isn’t Elox the godlen of peace?”
Petra manages a short laugh. “I said something like that when he showed me to the room. He said that in desperate times, a little warfare can be required to restore peace.”
She tips her head toward the weapons around her. “It’s clearly been quite a while since this temple needed to put that philosophy into practice. I don’t think these arms have been taken off the racks in decades.”
I grab a cloth for myself from the bin in the corner and pick out a sword I could see Stavros happily brandishing. The blade is coated with a layer of dust.
As I set the sword on the table across from Petra, I study her stance. Tension shows all through the set of her shoulders and the clench of her hand around the scrap of fabric. But like the droop of her head, something about her posture looks deflated as well.
My stomach knots. “Have you gotten any other news? More challenges ahead of us?”
Petra shakes her head and resumes her cleaning. “What we do have is good news, isn’t it? If we can stop the scourge sorcerers from capturing more daimon and turning them into soldiers, we’ll have fewer opponents to worry about. Those are the most ‘loyal’ subjects Lothar has. And there must be at least a few of the sacrificial accomplices there lending power to the process—we’ll be freeing them as well.”
“It’s definitely good news.” So why does she seem so unsettled by it?
We work in silence for a few minutes before I speak up again. “You know that the rest of us will be happy to go out there and tackle the scourge sorcerers, right? I want to destroy that facility. I’ll go up against Lothar and his asshole followers as many times as it takes.”
Petra’s mouth twists. Her voice comes out so quiet I could almost miss the words. “But should you have to?”
I pause. “I don’t have to. I’m choosing to.”
“Because you want to see Silana restored. But what if… what if I can’t do that after all?”
I stare at the woman I’ve seen as my future queen for a few thuds of my heart before I can manage to reply. “Why would you think that?”
Petra drops her cloth and swipes the back of her hand across her face. She looks at the table rather than me. “It isn’t just Florian… The people in Tupno were frustrated with my family too. I’ve never ruled anything. I wasn’t even acting as a Melchiorek for the last seven years of my life. I couldn’t save my own parents when the threat was obvious and right in front of us. How can I be sure I’m worthy of the trust we’re asking of them?”
My stomach sinks. We won’t be conquering any enemies at all if the woman meant to lead us loses her confidence.
She’s seemed so unshakeable through all the troubles we’ve faced so far. I’ve never caught more than brief hints of vulnerability.
Maybe I should have guessed there had to be more going on beneath the surface.
