Free A Heart So Fierce and Broken (The Cursebreaker Series) by Brigid Kemmerer Page B

but I can’t meet his gaze. “Would you have done it?”
    I watch the shorn backs of the sheep as they bleat their way past. “Done what?”
    “Would you have killed him?” He swallows. “When you were a guardsman?”
    I think back to my service to King Broderick, before the curse. I consider my near-eternity with Prince Rhen, when we were trapped in the halls of Ironrose. I would like to think he’d never give orders that would lead to this kind of action.
    I know better. It would have cost him something, but Rhen would do it if he believed it was the only way to protect his people.
    I look at Tycho. “I would have followed orders, Tycho. Whatever that meant.”
    He stares up at me. I can read nothing in his gaze.
    The last sheep passes, and I step out of the doorway without waiting to see if he follows.

 
    CHAPTER SEVEN
    LIA MARA
    We make camp long before nightfall.
    Nolla Verin’s temper is a force to be reckoned with. She snaps at the guards about building the fire hotter, and even snaps at our mother about revealing too much information before we had the alliance assured. Despite her words earlier, she has never been rejected, and I can tell the prince’s words stung.
    My sister sits beside me, staring into the fire, driving her needle into her embroidery again. “Did you see the way he clutched at that crippled princess? As if her people have given any sign that their alliance is valid.” She snorts. “They allowed the king to be slaughtered! The prince is such a fool.”
    “You’ve said.”
    “He will regret this, Lia Mara.”
    “You’ve said that, too.”
    She turns those fierce eyes on me. “Do you believe otherwise?”
    “I believe the prince cares for his people.”
    “I care for my people, too.”
    Maybe, but Prince Rhen has never invaded Syhl Shallow. He did not wantonly slaughter our people. I look away from her, back at the fire.
    The silence between us thickens, turning to uncertainty.
    “Do you believe I failed?” she whispers.
    I look at her in surprise. “No. I believe you both seek different outcomes for your countries.”
    “We could be unified!”
    I swallow. They did not approach Prince Rhen as if they truly sought unity .
    “Will Mother attack?” I say softly. “Now that he has refused?”
    Nolla Verin relaxes. She enjoys discussing strategy. “She will wait until the prince’s people are well and truly divided over the nonsense regarding this heir. The seeds are already sown. We will capture his cities and finally have access to the open sea.”
    “What of this Commander Grey?” I say.
    “Dead or alive, it does not matter.” She knots her thread and pulls a dagger to cut the string. “You saw the prince’s face when Mother said his name.”
    I did see Rhen’s face. Harper’s too. Both filled with a wash of panic and loss and fear.
    Nolla Verin shakes her head. “Mother was right to reveal what we know. The gossip that a former guardsman—a defector , if he lives—carries this knowledge will spread quickly.”
    She is right. A magesmith? An heir? A rogue guardsman? The gossip will be too juicy to control, and Rhen’s people are already divided.
    Nolla Verin shrugs. “What we do know is what’s most important: this prince’s reign will soon come to an end, one way or another. Look. What do you think?”
    It takes me a moment to realize she’s drawing my attention to her embroidery. I’ve hardly looked at it since we left Syhl Shallow, but now I see she’s added words in the center, the letters curved and winding through the stitched adornments throughout.
    Two sisters. One heart.
    The words should fill me with light and happiness. They don’t. I can’t scrub the memory of the slaughtered man and his daughter from my thoughts. That girl had a sister—a sister who fled because I refused to raise the alarm about her presence.
    “You don’t like it,” says Nolla Verin.
    “No, I do.” I reach to take the fabric from her. My finger traces over the