Alena didn’t know how to broach the subject politely, so she jumped in instead. “Why are you here, Jace?”
A flicker of annoyance passed over his face. She had asked this question before. “Because of you.”
She persisted. His rote answer didn’t satisfy her curiosity. “But really, why? I can understand escorting me to the Etari border, and maybe even all the way to Cardon, but I don’t understand why you persist even into Falar. You’re leaving so much behind. Don’t you worry that nothing will be there for you when you return? That your reputation will have diminished and you won’t have the opportunities that you worked so hard for?”
He smiled. “Do you worry about these things?”
“Of course I do! I love you, and I’m grateful for your escort, but you have so much to lose. I don’t want you to lose even more on my account.”
Jace shrugged again, and for a moment Alena felt her own annoyance. How could her younger brother be so flippant about these things? He may act a fool, but he had to realize what was at stake. He was an intelligent young man, despite all the evidence he created to contradict that fact.
That thought led to another. Her brother was indifferent, but her mistake was in thinking that his indifference was born from a lack of consideration.
She should know him better than that. Her brother was intelligent, and he did think through his decisions. If there was a lack of understanding, it was on her part.
“Will you tell me what you’re thinking?” When he still appeared hesitant, she went further. “I don’t understand your choice, and I want to understand.”
He considered, nodded, then took a moment to gather his thoughts. “Your concerns about the future are not mine. Opportunities will come and go. Reputation grows and fades. But some relationships matter more. Keeping you safe matters more to me than my own rise in the ranks or the lieutenant governorship.”
“I can protect myself,” Alena pointed out. She didn’t need her younger brother to keep her safe.
Jace smiled at that. “Yes, you can. I don’t dispute that. But,” he gestured to the small mountain trail they were following, rising higher and higher into a foreign land, “you do have a tendency to put yourself in situations in which some extra company could be helpful.”
She conceded the point and he continued.
“Protecting you is the reason I’m here, but there’s more.” He paused. “I believe that all of this is far more serious than anything happening in Landow. These gates of yours are tied to everything, and I believe that if I truly wish to serve the empire, the place where I can do the best is by your side. Remember, I have some glimpse of what the Lolani want. Kye showed me.”
Truthfully, Alena had forgotten. Her brother had been carefully misled by Kye while she had been in Etar. Kye’s misdirection hadn’t been compulsion, at least not through the use of a mental affinity, but Jace had willingly served in the first attempt to bring the Lolani armies into the empire.
It raised another, more uncomfortable question. She also believed that her brother was a good man and yet had almost done unspeakable evil. In all their years reunited she had never asked the question. Perhaps she’d been too scared of the answer. “Why did you help him?”
“I was angry,” he began. “I had learned that you were a criminal, and because of that I believed that criminals and the weak were a rot destroying the empire. Kye convinced me. He believed in strength and the power it bestows. It is, as near as I can tell, the Lolani way. The weak are winnowed out and the strong survive to create a society that is far superior to what the empire offers. Kye believed, and I believed him.”
Alena heard the shame in his voice, but also acceptance. He knew that he had made a mistake.
“Are you doing this because you feel guilty?”
Jace pursed his lips. “I cannot say that guilt isn’t a part of it, but I do not think it is what compels me.”
Alena stepped closer to her brother until their arms were practically bumping. She reached out and grabbed his hand. “For what it’s worth, thank you.”
He gripped her hand more tightly, then let it go. They walked on in silence for a time. Then, he suddenly stopped, reaching out to hold her back.
“What?” Alena asked.
“The Falari,” Jace said. “I think they found us.”
29
After a full day of introductions, tours, and welcomes, Brandt decided that if Hanns ever again invited him to become an imperial guard, he would run the other way. Guarding Regar mixed mind-numbing tedium with bursts of sheer panic.
The tedium grew because even in Falar, official greetings took too long, involved too many conversations, and meant absolutely nothing. But because those greetings involved too many people in spaces with too many dark corners, Brandt feared constantly for Regar’s safety. He couldn’t imagine a life filled with days like today. Guarding royalty might be an honor, but it also seemed like a shortcut to madness.
Beside him, Ana’s demeanor reflected similar thoughts. Only when they stuffed Regar safe into quarters that would require an army to breach did either of them relax. They went to their own quarters, not far from Regar’s, and collapsed into the bed, staring up at the ceiling, exhausted but unable to sleep.
Shortly thereafter, a knock on their door brought them again to their feet. They relaxed when they saw who it was.
Leana stood at their door and invited them for a drink with her and Ren. Brandt accepted. Ana begged off, claiming that the only company she wanted tonight was that of a soft bed.
