I glance at S?ren. I did not drag him out here and make him watch his own people be slaughtered just so he can be put back into chains. Artemisia’s words echo in my mind.

“By not agreeing to an arranged marriage yet, you have something my mother wants and so you have some measure of control.” I feel sick, but I know what I have to do.

“S?ren isn’t going back to the brig,” I tell Dragonsbane, swallowing down my doubts and meeting her surprised gaze. “I don’t know much about the world outside of Astrea, and I will need S?ren’s assistance in selecting the most suitable husband when we reach Sta’Crivero.”

Dragonsbane stares at me in shock. “You have me for that, Theo, and Anders. There is no need to trust a traitor Prinz.”

“I trust S?ren,” I insist. “If you want me to go through with this plot of yours, I want him out of the brig and treated as my advisor.”

She considers my words, her lips pursing. “Very well,” she says after a moment, her voice dangerously low. “I suppose he has proven some measure of loyalty today, though I’ve always found the loyalty of men to be a fickle thing. He is your responsibility, Theo, and at the first sign of treason, his life is forfeit, am I understood?”

“At the first sign of treason, I will kill him myself,” I say.

Dragonsbane’s expression is sour, but she nods.

“Was there any other information?” I ask Anders.

He clears his throat, looking like he would rather step on rusted nails than intrude on our conversation. “There was only one other thing we could verify,” he admits. “About the Kaiser.”

Even the thought of the Kaiser makes my whole body seize up, though I try to keep my expression level and distant. I’m an ocean away, I remind myself. He can’t touch me, not even for five million gold pieces.

It’s another rare word that S?ren recognizes and he stiffens beside me, glancing back and forth between Anders and me with a guarded expression.

“He took a wife after you fled—a rushed marriage that’s been plagued by some unkind rumors.”

For a second, my breath leaves me.

“Who?” I finally manage to ask.

“The Theyn’s daughter,” Anders says. “Lady Crescentia.”

S?REN IS SILENT AT MY side as we walk down the hallway that leads to my cabin. I barely notice him. My mind is a whirlpool, spiraling my thoughts until they’re jumbled and senseless.

“He said Crescentia,” S?ren says finally, when we’re close to my room. “And the color drained from your face. Is she…” He trails off.

“She’s not dead,” I tell him, and his face relaxes. I don’t tell him that I think death would be a preferable fate.

“I’m glad,” he says. “When I got back to court, my father had laid my whole life out for me, including Crescentia. I resented her for that, but it was never about her. You truly care about her, don’t you?”

I think of Cress as I last saw her on the other side of my cell bars, wild-eyed and brittle, with singed skin and white hair and a touch that turned the cell bars scalding hot. My friend, once, my heart’s sister. But not anymore.

“One day, when I am Kaiserin, I will have your country and all the people in it burned to the ground,” she said to me in her raw, pained voice. Now she is Kaiserin, and there is nothing to stop her from fulfilling that vow.

“I don’t know her,” I tell S?ren. “And she doesn’t know me.”

I open the door to my cabin only to find Blaise, Heron, and Artemisia already waiting for me. As soon as they see me, Blaise jumps up from where he’s sitting on my bed.

“Are you all right?” he asks in Astrean. “We were belowdecks handling other interviews, but we heard that a hostage attacked—”

“We’re fine,” I assure him, switching to Kalovaxian so that S?ren can understand as well. “He killed Pavlos and tried to kill Dragonsbane, but S?ren stopped him.”

All three sets of eyes go to S?ren, who is standing just behind my shoulder. None of them speaks, but I can hear a dozen unspoken questions.

“He saved Dragonsbane’s life and proved his loyalty to us,” I say.

Artemisia isn’t fooled. Her eyes narrow, making her look frighteningly like her mother. “And?” she prompts.

I glance away. “And I pointed out that S?ren’s diplomatic experience would make him a necessary asset to me if I were to agree to marry one of these suitors in Sta’Crivero,” I say, though the words come out pinched.

Blaise’s expression is a rolling thundercloud. “You’re a queen, you can’t marry a stranger.”

“It would have happened anyway,” I point out, sitting down on the edge of my bed. “Dragonsbane would have goaded me into it, pushed me and pushed me until I was backed into a corner without another choice. It would look like she controlled me.” I draw my blanket around my shivering shoulders. “But by offering it up like that, I did it on my terms.”

Blaise makes a disapproving noise in the back of his throat but doesn’t say anything. I look at S?ren, still lingering in the doorway. The healing Heron did on him, though only superficial, was enough to make it look like he was a guest among us and not a prisoner, but away from the audience it’s clear he’s still in pain. He favors his right leg and grimaces whenever he moves either arm.

“This hostage, he didn’t try to go after you?” Artemisia asks me, drawing my attention away from S?ren.

I can’t help but snort. “Thank you for that, Art, but no.”

She rolls her eyes. “I just mean that it’s surprising, considering the Kalovaxian I interrogated said there’s a bounty on your head.”

“I can’t imagine what thoughts were going through his mind. I suppose he must have known that he wasn’t going to survive, but if he could kill Dragonsbane, he would at least die a hero. I don’t think the reward even crossed his mind,” I say, though something about that explanation nags at me.

“Mattin always had fantasies of heroics, but never the brains to see them through,” S?ren says, shaking his head. It’s a plausible explanation, but S?ren’s an easy liar to read, and sure enough, there’s the tell—his nostrils flare.

“So there are bounties on both of our heads,” I say, turning away from S?ren. “And there are Kalovaxian forces searching for us in Timmoree. And the Kaiser married Crescentia. Is that everything we learned?”

“He what?” S?ren asks, face twisting in disgust.

“They were married two days after we left Astrea, and she was crowned the day after that,” Blaise confirms. “Each of the prisoners we interrogated said the same thing.”

“But…he was trying to betroth her to me,” S?ren says, looking nauseous.

“You’re a lost cause,” I tell him. Even though my own stomach is twisting, I push my feelings down and try to stay logical. “The Theyn was growing more popular with the people than the Kaiser was. Being murdered would have added to that, turned him into a folk hero. That popularity would have even touched his daughter—Cress will be seen as sympathetic at court and that sympathy will now also spread to the Kaiser, who could sorely use some of it.”

“Not to mention she’s beautiful,” S?ren adds. “There were dozens of men trying for her hand. My father likes to take what everyone else wants.”

She isn’t beautiful anymore, though, I want to say. Not in a way the Kaiser would appreciate, at least. Though maybe he finds her power frightening. Maybe that horror is its own kind of beauty, a kind the Kaiser would want to take ownership of. I don’t let myself say any of that out loud. Even thinking it makes me feel sick.

“Why would she do it, though?” S?ren asks, horror still clear in his voice.

Because of me, I think, though again, I keep that to myself.

“Cress was raised to be Kaiserin,” I say instead. “I’m sure she would have rather married you, but that wasn’t an option anymore. She did what she had to, to get what she wanted.”

“You can’t pity her,” Art says, though I can’t tell if she’s saying it in disbelief or as a command.

“She was my friend,” I say. It’s the first time I’ve admitted that to them, though they must have known it to be true. “And as someone who came perilously close to being married to the Kaiser myself, of course I pity her.”

“You came close to what?” Blaise asks, eyes widening until they nearly bug out of his head.

I wince. I forgot that I hadn’t shared that bit of information with my Shadows.

“If you knew, you would have insisted on pulling me out of the palace too soon,” I say, keeping my voice level. “I didn’t tell you and we still got out before anything happened.”

It’s true enough, though I can’t help but think of that last banquet and the Kaiser’s hand on my thigh, his breath on me. I suppress a shudder and look to S?ren. I think he’s remembering that night, too. If we’d left even a day later…no, I won’t think about that. The Kaiser will never touch me again.

But he’s touching Cress, I remind myself. She’s his wife now, and though I’m sure she married him willingly, I can’t imagine that she was too willing about what followed.