A Country Falls (Greatest Thief 3)

Chapter Thirty

I felt like a proper spy as I climbed down the wall in the dark. The multitude of tapestries and paintings made some parts of the climb tricky, but I made it down pretty quietly, all things considered. Not that it mattered.

She had seen me right from the start and watched my whole descent.

Kassia lounged on the throne, legs carelessly draped over the right armrest. Her left arm rested on the other armrest, holding a large glass of golden liquid that looked like the ovaisi I had once served Queen Navire. Her clothes were stained brown with dried blood, but I doubted any of it was hers.

On the steps near the throne, Vali sat with his head buried in his arms. Despite all the death around the throne room, he looked untouched. Exhausted and frightened, but not harmed.

Kassia tutted as I stepped up onto the first stair. "Finagale." She stressed every syllable in my name. "I would say I was surprised, but that would be a lie. The gods favour you." She held up her glass, somehow making the action look mocking. "Praise to—who do you worship? It doesn't matter." She muttered a prayer in Deoran, then lowered the glass to her lips to take a sip. "Where's Lord West Draulin?"

"What?"

"Don't play dumb. You're wearing new clothes and you look less ragged. You obviously escaped and came back. With your lord and knights in tow, I expect. And for what? To kill Kalvahi? Well, you're too late."

"He's dead?" Hope and relief bubbled up inside me.

Kassia laughed. "Dead? That would have been noble. No, he fled. The moment the king died. Like a coward. And so nobody's here to run Deorun. Or to care about it."

The hope and relief deflated, but only for a moment. Kalvahi scared me more than Kassia, and she was the one sitting on Deorun's throne. "What about you?"

"Ah." She sipped more of her drink. "Three problems with that. One." She held up a single finger. "I'm not Deoran. Two." A second finger. "I'm not part of the royal family. And three." A third. "I'm a woman. Even if I was a princess, even if I had married Kalvahi, it wouldn't matter. Not in Deorun."

Over the course of her list, her voice had changed subtly. It was like the moment in Zianna when she had dropped her Zian accent to reveal her Deorun one. But even that had been fake. It felt like I was finally hearing her true voice.

"Who else is there?" Without looking, I gestured towards the bodies behind me. "It doesn't seem like there are many people left. Why are you still here if you aren't going to take charge?"

Her gaze flickered to Vali's back, then back to me. "You mean why didn't I run away like a coward?"

"No." Whether intentional or not, her glance had given me the answer I needed. She was here because Vali wouldn't have been able to keep up with her. She wasn't going to leave him to take the fall. Not like she had left me in Zianna two years ago. "You're not a coward, that's why you didn't run away. For all your talk of how bad ties are, you do care about people."

"Hmm."

"You were going to save me from Kalvahi's torture."

"I was going to kill you," she snapped.

I nodded. "Exactly. You care. I think you're still here because you still want to protect Deorun."

Kassia shrugged carelessly. "Is Deorun going to exist? Once you report back and your armies break through the gate, what happens to Deorun?"

"I don't know."

"What's going to happen to the people?"

"I don't know," I repeated, but I had been in enough meetings to have some sort of answer for her. "Queen Navire talked about joining the war to help free Navire's desert brothers from cruel leaders. Tandrin wants to avoid more bloodshed on both sides. They have good intentions."