Fugitive by Kate Avery Ellison Page A

wasn’t smirking, smiling, or scowling. His expression was serious, thoughtful.
    “Why did you do it?” The words tore themselves from me before I could stop them.
    “I didn’t want to get involved in this village squabble, but your Lia Weaver had something I needed very much, and—”
    “No. Why did you have me arrested?”
    Korr stilled. “I did not have you arrested.”
    I stared at him.
    “I swear it,” he said, and his voice was low and earnest. “Upon my dead father’s grave, I promise you.”
    He sounded so sincere I almost believed him. But he always was a good liar. Still, I wanted to see what explanation he might possibly give. “Then who did?” How creative could his lies be?
    “I don’t know.”
    I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting a ruthless finger-pointing, if nothing else.
    “If I did,” Korr continued, “he or she would be rotting in prison now.”
    I lost patience for the charade quickly. “We’ve gone through enough together. I think you can tell me the truth.”
    “It is the truth.” He paused. “If I had wanted you ruined, I could have done much, much more. I could have exposed your involvement with the plot to depose the Dictator, along with that note. And I certainly wouldn’t have given information to the Thorns about the prison wagon you would be on, and your description, so they could rescue you. Nor would I have convinced the operative to do it even though they said they hadn’t run a rescue operation for months, that the contacts in the Frost who had taken prisoners to safety were no longer responding to messages. Nor would I have smuggled our sister and your parents to safety beyond Aeralis, out of the hands of those who could harm them. Lakin, too. I only asked her to marry me so I could send her away. She was a member of the Restorationists in the early days. She believed in what I was doing. Neither of us wanted you involved, but obviously we weren’t successful in stopping you.”
    I stared at him. How could he know these things about the Thorns, about Lia’s parents’ death and their specific connection within the Thorns? If this was a lie, it was a cunning one indeed.
    “I’ll need proof,” I said. It was a whisper.
    “The agent I spoke to was a woman, working as a soldier in Astralux. I helped her obtain the transfer to the prison wagon so she could free you.”
    My mouth dried. It had been a woman soldier who had helped me. Female soldiers were rare, but not unheard of, in Aeralis. How could he have known?
    “I cannot believe you, not yet.”
    He nodded once. “You should be able to obtain all the proof you need by speaking to the Thorns agents in Astralux. They will confirm what I’m telling you.”
    “I will speak to them,” I said.
    His eyes were unreadable. “Does that mean you’ll return to Aeralis with me?”
    Something in my chest knotted like a rope pulled too tight and too fast. Lia. Her face filled my mind, with her sharp, flashing eyes and fierce mouth. Her confidence, her strength, her unacknowledged gentleness, her loyalty.
    I would ask her to go with me, and hope with every hair, bone, and sinew of my body that she would tell me yes.
    Either way, though, I needed to see to my family.
    “I will go with you,” I told him. “I’ll confirm what you’re saying, and I’ll see if you are telling me the truth. And if you are, I will join your cause.”
    Korr dipped his head, an indication of assent. After a moment’s hesitation, he yanked something from his finger and extended it to me. The ring he’d taken so many months ago.
    “I kept it for you,” he said. “I feared it would be taken if you were arrested. It’s yours again now.”
    I accepted the ring numbly as Korr turned to go. “Meet me at the river in an hour,” he said over his shoulder. “We leave for Astralux immediately.”
    “So soon?”
    Half of his mouth curled in a grim smile.
    “We have a dictator to depose.”
    With that, he vanished into the