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"It was nothing untoward Two of alley slaves My fa, much less how they’d afford a ransom I went to her She had people track theht them here so I could see they ell She nursed thee ho Blackguard payout to buy my family a store and a farm I offered, and she refused She kneould ruinabout it for months, and when she asked me for information later, there was no way I could refuse her"
A velvet leash, held only by Samite’s sense of honor, of debt Yes, that was Lady Guile’s style She’d been a gentle Orange, but an Orange nonetheless
Sa to her own death "She said she wasto protect her son, and I believed her He’s the Prisoal It wasn’t really a betrayal, right? I knew better inyou now But I can’t bear to tell Commander Ironfist I can’t bear to see the disappointardless, the last duty she entrusted to ive you this note"
Samite handed Karris a small note on Lady Guile’s stationery
"I don’t blaht have destroyedher family She did what she did for the Seven Satrapies Sometimes, sacrifices must be made, and it’s usually us set to knohy When I was young, I hated that, but I’ve made my peace It’s the way of the world" She cleared her throat again and stood "I’ll, uh, I’ll wait for you outside"
"Dammit, Sami, why couldn’t you have just left the note onme up inside I can’t live like that, Karris Not any to collect herself as Sauard couldn’t afford to lose a woman as levelheaded as Samite, not even normally, and definitely not now, not after they’d lost so many at Garriston She opened the letter
In Lady Guile’s beautifully practiced hand, it read, "Dazen loves you, Karris He’s always loved you If you’ve confronted him with the truth already, please take the time to ask him what really happened at your family’s estate I know you don’t want to hear this, but a co your whole life, and that lie is this: that your brothers were innocent in the tragedy that destroyed your family They weren’t"
Karris felt like she’d been punched in the sto on to read it all Lady Guile was not only ad fros Karris didn’t know And maybe didn’t want to know
"Your maid Galaea betrayed your elopement to your brothers They laid a trap at the estate, and tricked Dazen into co inside They had chained all the doors shut and only had red light sources, knowing hiot out, Karris And perhaps he set the fires, but he didn’t chain the doors I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead, Karris, but the blood spilled that night isn’t on my Dazen’s head
"Of course, there was no easy way to let you knohat really happened I had several people over the years try to introduce the topic to you obliquely You rebuffed any discussion Please pardon my cluht you’d fallen in love with Gavin and that hy you’d becoive hied him to marry you quickly before Andross could interfere He refused, Karris He said he could kill his own brother, and he could lie to all the world, but the one thing he would never do was take a woman to bed who loved his brother He couldn’t lie to you Silly fool, he broke his betrothal to you because he loved you"
Karris wanted to be sick She couldn’t stop reading
"And he loves you still, Karris Believe ed hiet you out of his heart Please forgive hi these truths in writing, I’ve delivered our family into your hands You can destroy Dazen if you so desire, and this will be proof I would trust no one else with such power over my son, but I see no other way I wish only that I’d had the opportunity to say this all to youpeace between you, that I ht shine on you, Karris Sincerely, Felia Guile"
Karris felt nuain, and wondered at herself How had she believed such preposterous lies in the first place? On the night they were to elope, Dazen had sneaked around her family’s estate and chained every door shut and then set the place afire? Or he’d arrived with a dozen men to do the saain, after Gavin got the ar after his brother?
No, this etting Karris out of the city that very night? Because he knew about the trap his sons had planned, perhaps that he had helped theladly covered up his sons’ uilt in the deaths of everyone at the estate, and had done so with Andross Guile’s complicity, because it rallied the other noble families around Andross’s favored son Gavin It had been a conspiracy, just not the one Karris had always thought
The dru and weak, had sis she didn’t Things that uilt indisputable
Since then, Karris had always struggled to bring together the two Gavins she’d known: the one who’d been betrothed to her but then used her cruelly and cast her off like she was garbage, and the later one who broke their betrothal and her heart but then treated her kindly The inexplicability hat had twisted her into knots: if she’d known Gavin was a cruel cad, she could have written off her infatuation as the stupidity of a young girl deluded by a ood looks and charm and power It was the parts of his character that seemed totally contradictory that kept her in liales of tears at years lost and lies believed, Karris felt relieved At peace
She took each page of the letter and held it over a candle Each burned in a flash
Karris grinned at that Fire paper Lady Guile ht have trusted her, but that didn’t mean she wanted the letter to be hard to destroy
Dazen loved her Dazen had always loved her And he was holding terrible secrets Alone His respect for her, his love for her, had made him keep her nearby It had made a thousand hard tasks harder for him If he’d wanted, he could have had her cast out of the Blackguard easily He could have had her imprisoned He had never taken the easy way out, not where she was concerned
She stood, feeling lighter than she had in sixteen years, and walked to the door Sa for her She had her hands behind her back, as if hiding so