Kassia's voice woke me up, but it wasn't until hands roughly pulled me to my feet that I realized she had been talking about me. It took my mind a moment to catch up with what was going on—the knights in the cell around me, a Deoran guard holding my arm, Kassia at the cell door surrounded by other guards.

"I can walk on my own," I muttered, slipping my arm from the guard's grasp. I quickly looked at Acen, hoping to assure him that I would be all right, before stalking over to the door to stand in front of Kassia. "What is it?"

"You're lucky my men don't speak Teltish, Finn, or they would take offence to how you just spoke to me." Kassia smiled and reached out to pay my cheek condescendingly. "You should watch the tone, though. No need to sound so aggressive, we're just going to talk." She said something to her guards before turning to walk away. The guards eyed me but seemed to relax when I started to follow her.

She was dressed differently than the last time I'd seen her, dark pants and a fancy red tunic. She wasn't wearing jewellery, her hair was tied back simply. She almost looked like she had back in Zianna. I wondered if the dress and jewellery had just been for show, to look nice for Kalvahi, maybe. Or to shock Tannix.

She led me to a small, plain room. It was square with a high ceiling, and only one window near the top. Two torches sat in brackets on the walls, lighting up a bulky wooden table and two chairs. I flinched when the door slammed behind me, and spun around to see that the guards hadn't joined us. It was just me and Kassia. I turned back around. The guards leaving meant they weren't worried about me attacking her. It also meant she might be willing to talk more openly.

She gestured at one of the chairs. I sat down and crossed my arms. She settled down across from me and clasped her hands together on the tabletop.

"I know what you're doing."

I doubted she knew about me sneaking around. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me. You might have Kalvahi fooled, but I know you better than that. I know what you're trying to do with him. You think you can charm him the way you charmed Lord West Draulin. It isn't going to work. Kalvahi will see that soon enough."

"I'm not trying to charm anyone." I knew she wouldn't believe me, but it was worth a try. "I'm trying to save myself. You just said you know me. If I can see an easy way to keep myself safe, then I'll go for it. I don't care if that means switching sides and joining Prince Kalvahi. I was almost killed because I stopped you from killing the last King Zianna. I don't owe Zianna anything."

"Maybe not Zianna."

She was just as good at this as I was. I wasn't surprised. "You saw how the Telts treated me. You rubbed salve on my back after they whipped me. How could you think I would help the people who did that to me?"

"I saw the way Tandrix treated you."

I winced involuntarily at hearing her use his name. She didn't deserve to use his name after what she had done to him. "One good Telt doesn't make up for the rest of them."

"You think he's going to change things." Kassia leaned back in her chair and elegantly crossed one leg over the other. "You think his brother is going to change things. And that's why you want to help them."

I forced myself to meet her gaze. Her pretty eyes, with a hint of golden orange mixed in with the brown. There had been a time, before I understood my feelings for Tannix, when I almost thought I liked her. Not anymore.

"You know waging war on Zianna is not for the good of the people," I said. "Prince Kalvahi talked about restoring the kingdom to what it once was, and having three great kingdoms again. But it won't happen. Zianna will become part of Deorun and then what? Will you move on Navire as well? King Deorun doesn't want to help my people; he wants to help himself. Tannix and King Tandrin aren't like other Telts. I care about my people, and I trust Tannix and his brother to treat them better than your king will."

Kassia stared at me, and didn't say anything. I was uncomfortable but I refused to look away from her. The time drew out, until finally, she sat forward and rested her arms on the table again.

"There you are. Aren't you tired of simpering and treating Kalvahi like he's Deor's gift to the world? Ah, you would probably say, Zianesa's gift to the world."

Her tone confused me. "Aren't you marrying him?"

"Haven't you ever heard of an arranged marriage?" Kassia rolled her pretty eyes. "Let's be honest with each other, Finn. I don't have any patience for your act, and you aren't going to convince me that it's real. Everything you just said is very admirable, and you're right. King Idavari will not treat your people any better than the Telts have. But don't expect Lord West Draulin or King Zianna to change anything. Change is difficult, and if they don't have the support of the other noble Telts they won't be able to do anything."

I shrugged. "I still trust them. According to Tannix, not even your people like the Deoran noble family, so why would mine?"

"He was only partially right. The people dislike the king. It's treasonous to say, but everyone knows it's true. They like Kalvahi."

"Why?"

She didn't immediately reply, and I guessed the reason for her pause.

"Do you think telling me is going to help me somehow?"

She scoffed. "No. I just think your curiosity is interesting. It isn't a secret; your knights could probably explain it to you just as easily. King Idavari was the younger son of our previous king. When his father died, his older brother should have inherited the throne, but he died just a few days later from the same sickness. His brother's son, Kalvahi, was a child. King Idavari took control as Kalvahi's regent, and was expected to hand over the kingdom when Kalvahi become of age, but when the time came he refused. The people accept the king because they don't think there's anything they can do about it, but they prefer Kalvahi. At least King Idavari doesn't have any heirs. When he dies Kalvahi will take his throne back. And I'll be his queen."

"If you all hate him so much, why don't you do something about it?" I asked. "You're an assassin."

Kassia laughed lightly. "You're much more fun when you're being honest. Don't think I haven't considered it. But just because I don't like him doesn't mean I'm a traitor."

I nodded. "I guess it wouldn't be good for Deorun's queen to also be the person who murdered the previous king."

Kassia smirked. "Where did this boldness come from?"

It came from the knowledge that whoever Kassia was, and whatever she was capable of, she liked me. She also hated her king and didn't seem very fond of Kalvahi. "Not everyone gets to claim that they kissed Queen Deorun."

"Queen Deorun kissed you," she corrected. "And was I the first one to do it?"

"What?"

"Kiss you."

I dropped my gaze. There was a deep cut in the table in front of me, like someone had slammed an axe into it. I ran my fingers along the cut. "Yes... is that—why do you care? It was a trick. It didn't mean anything."

"So I kissed you before he did?"

"What?" I glanced up, unable to completely disguise my surprise. "Before who did?"

"You know exactly who. Why are you lying again? I thought we moved past this."

I couldn't confirm it. Not to protect myself, I didn't care if she knew that I liked men. But if she knew how Tannix felt about me, I would become a tool. A way to force his hand.

Kassia sighed. "Some years ago, King Idavari started paying very close attention to... a young man. Do you know how people now refer to that man?"

I remembered what she had said to Kalvahi about me on the pier. "The king's pet?"

She nodded. "I think you're more than a pet. Va—the young man doesn't return the king's feelings. Not that King Idavari cares about how he feels. But you and Tandrix are different. You love him, don't you?"

"No. I—"

"Finn, we're done lying. I saw how the two of you treated each other in Zianna."

"No, but—"

"Are you really going to try convince me that you don't love him?"

"No," I shook my head, my thoughts racing. I needed a way out of this. A way to lessen my value. "I mean, yes. I love him. I do. But he doesn't feel the same way. I'm just another one of his companions, like the knights. We're friends and I have useful skills."

Kassia nodded slowly. "You're good at this." Then the door started to open and she got to her feet. "Kalvahi. You're late."

"Terribly sorry, my dear. I was having a talk with our prisoner." He added a few more things in Deoran before taking Kassia's chair. He scratched his short beard and stared at me. "I hope you're feeling more talkative than your lord was."

Kassia said something in Deoran, and I desperately wished I knew what she was saying. They could both speak Teltish so well, I suspected part of the reason they always switched between the languages was to confuse us. After some time Kalvahi turned back to me and rested his forearms on the table.

"I'm glad you decided to wait until I arrived to share your news. So what do you have to tell me?"

I shot Kassia a glance. She wasn't on my side, but she was familiar, and that fact alone led to some small amount of trust. Maybe she hadn't told him about our conversation. I crossed my arms again, like doing so would protect me somehow.

"There isn't much to report, your highness. The knights are trying to come up with an escape plan but they aren't sure how to get out of the cell in the first place." It was true, of course, but vague enough that it wasn't helpful. Saying the knights wanted to escape wouldn't come as a surprise. "And they want to know where Lord West Draulin is. Aside from some talking, they haven't done much. Um... your highness? How is Lord West Draulin? Has he told you anything useful?"

Kalvahi shook his head. "No, not yet. He's stubborn."

I resisted the urge to smile. "What is it you want him to tell you? Maybe I can help?"

"I want general information about the nobles of Zianna. Who controls what, the relationships between different families, who gets along well and who doesn't, what resources they have. I want to know what I can exploit. I doubt you can help me with any of that."

"Oh. No. I'm sorry."

Kassia cleared her throat, and Kalvahi glanced over his shoulder at her. "I know how to get Lord West Draulin to talk." She switched to Deoran, and she stared at me the entire time.

After a moment Kalvahi looked at me, and in Teltish, said, "So maybe you will be useful, after all."

Struggling against the guards was next to useless. I was tossed into a dim room that instantly brought to mind the one I'd been tortured in the year before. I got to my feet as soon as the door slammed shut, instinctively looking for a way out. Instead, my eyes fell upon the chair in the middle of the room.

Tannix looked awful.

His arms were pulled back, and his ankles were strapped to the legs of the chair. The left half of his face was bruised from the punch he had earned himself on the pier by taunting Kalvahi. There was a cut under his right eye and his lip was split, probably because he'd been hit again. He was wearing the same clothing he'd be caught in, but now they were stained with sweat and blood. His tunic had clearly been sliced through multiple times, showing thin slices on his chest. Something about his right shoulder looked wrong.

And despite it all, he smiled at me. "They've been treating you well."

"Kassia likes me." I stepped closer. There was a single torch flickering on the wall, and the shadows it cast made Tannix's injuries look more gruesome than they probably were. "Acen told me they wouldn't hurt you."

Tannix let his head drop to rest on the back of the chair. "I don't think Kalvahi cares too much about the etiquette of it all."

"You've been goading him, haven't you."

"Well... there's that, too. I guess."

I steeled my nerves and moved close enough to touch him. As gently as possible, I put my hand on his cheek. Then I couldn't help myself, and I leaned in to kiss him.

Tannix kissed me back. I ignored the taste of blood on his lips. I tried to pretend there was nothing wrong, at least for a moment. But then he groaned and I realized I was hurting him. I drew back guiltily.

"I'm sorry. I just... I needed..."

"Shh, Finn. It's all right," Tannix said.

I shook my head, trying to hold back the panic. I had been so hopeful that things were going well for us, but seeing him like this filled me with cold fear. "You have to... you have to stop goading him."

"If I stop goading him, he won't be distracted. And if he isn't distracted, he'll realize that hurting—" He stopped abruptly, and his voice hardened. "Finn. Why are you here?"

"I don't..." But I did know. "Kassia said that I'd—"

"Finn, look at me."

I looked at him. His bruised face. The smeared blood on his lower lip. For a second I thought my heart had stopped beating. "Tannix. They're going to kill me. Aren't they?"

"No." He shook his head. "No. I won't let them."

"You won't be able to stop them. I need to..." It was getting harder to think. "The knights need me, so we can escape, and we can rescue you. But if they kill me..."

"Finn." Tannix's voice cut through and I tried to focus on it. "Finagale. Relax. Think about this. Kassia isn't going to let Kalvahi kill you."

I didn't realize that I had sat down on the floor in front of him until I buried my face in my hands. I tried to listen to him. Kassia. There was something about Kassia that he didn't know. "Kassia, she..." I couldn't bring myself to tell him, and I changed the ending of the sentence. "She doesn't like him. Kalvahi. There's something there, maybe I could get between them."

"Yes," Tannix said. "Think about that. Think about plans. You're good at seeing solutions."

The panic slowly subsided. I thought about the knights. I took a deep breath. "Ender's starting to walk."

"All right. That's good."

"But I don't know how we're supposed to get out." I raised my head, and took in his rough appearance again. "I don't know what we're supposed to do. Acen thinks I'm some sort of escape expert, but you got me out both times. And Kassia... she sees through every lie. I don't know what to do."

"I think..." Tannix paused thoughtfully. "I think we should pray to Zianesa, and who else? Lukk, maybe, we could use some good luck, couldn't we?"

I blinked at him, caught by surprise, impressed, and touched all at the same time. "You want to pray?"

"I would like to try."

I nodded slowly. "All right. But the prayers are all in Old Ziannan, so you won't know what to say. Well, they'll listen in Teltish too, that's fine. So.. Um..." I faltered.

"I'd also like to thank Lovi, for making sure we met," Tannix said. "Because I love you."

"I love you too."Saying it felt oddly final, like we both expected we might not get another chance. "Close your eyes." I watched him do it, then closed my own. Once I gave myself a moment to think, I started to whisper one of the tradition prayers to Zianesa.