Daughters of Ruin Read Free Page A

the carriage and somehow manage to snap the breaking lever, to drop the reins, and spook the horses.”
    Cadis and Rhea looked at their boots, unwilling to start. Iren finally spoke. “They didn’t spook the horses. The fire in the baggage rack did, which we started.”
    â€œWhy?” said Hiram.
    â€œTo spook the horses,” said Iren, as if it were obvious.
    â€œSo your plan was to create havoc and hope that it would all come to rights?”
    â€œWe didn’t have a plan,” said Rhea.
    â€œYes, we did,” said Cadis. “ We did.” She gestured at herself and Iren. “ You wouldn’t listen.”
    â€œWhy should I listen?” shouted Rhea, shrugging off Marta’s hand from her shoulder. “You keep acting like the boss, and you’re not. You’re a cheating Findainer.”
    â€œRhea!” shouted the tutor.
    But Rhea was already weeping. She whirled back on Marta, a whole world of confusion and pain darkening her expression. “Why are you defending her? She threw me from the carriage.”
    â€œWait, what?” said Cadis.
    â€œDon’t lie! You stomped on my fingers.”
    â€œI didn’t,” said Cadis. “I swear.”
    â€œAnd you cut me!”
    She held up her forearm, covered in a blood-soaked bandage.
    â€œBut you attacked me first,” said Cadis to no avail.
    Nothing would stem Rhea’s fury when she felt small and weak. Even if they believed her, Rhea knew her father would say she was begging for pity.
    Hiram scribbled notes onto the sheet of parchment in the palm of his hand. Marta reached out to calm Rhea, but the young queen pulled her arm away. “Don’t,” she grumbled. “We all know what the dirty Findish did.”
    For the first time that morning, Cadis’s composure broke, her face reddened, and she took a step toward Rhea. Iren, who had been shaving the fine hairs on her arm with her exhibition dagger, snapped a hand out and held Cadis back with the flat of the blade.
    From the ground came Suki’s entreaty. “ I don’t know what the dirty Findish did.”
    Hiram looked down at the queen sitting at his feet, fiddling with his bootlaces, and smiled. “Very well,” he said. “You’re old enough for the truth.”
    He reached down and picked up Suki so she’d pay attention and so she wouldn’t cut herself on the pincer sheathed in his boot.
    â€œThe war began when the treacherous Findish assassinated our own good King Kendrick and Queen Valda.”
    â€œOf Meridan,” corrected Suki.
    â€œYes, the king and queen of Meridan. Our king and queen.”
    â€œI’m a queen too,” said Suki.
    â€œOf course, and we’ll get to that,” said Hiram. “King Kendrick was my friend. He was a good man. And those gold nobles, jumped-up merchants, had him slaughtered for commercial gain.”
    â€œThat’s not true!” said Cadis, her whole body trembling.
    â€œI’m sorry, but I was there,” said Hiram. He seemed genuinely torn at the idea and took no joy in hurting Cadis. All the wounds were fresh for everyone. Perhaps it was still too early for such ugly history.
    â€œFighting alongside the traitors were the Tasanese.”
    â€œI’m Tasanese,” said Suki.
    Hiram continued. “They seized the opportunity to rise up and steal the crops of the lowlands, belonging to Meridan, and the hill-country ranches belonging to Corent.”
    â€œMy daddy doesn’t steal. He’s king of the world,” said Suki.
    Hiram laughed. “Ah, but he does invade and annex and put farmers who disagree into the trees.”
    Suki didn’t understand what execution by hanging meant.
    â€œBut the Corentine—” continued Hiram, rounding on Iren, “were the most devious. The ever-aloof Corentine, Meridan’s only true allies, refused to honor our treaties and enter the fray. They holed themselves