The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani (story reading .TXT) 📕

my bed while we were at an evening gathering. The snake would have bit me had it not been for the quick thinking of my attendants.”

“A snake?” the queen demands. “That is hardly an attempt on your life!”

Alyrra does not turn her head away from her mother as she says, “Kelari Amraeya.”

I take one limping step forward, my stomach clenched tight.

Alyrra gestures toward a basket tucked back between two sofas. “Show my mother what that contains.”

I look to the basket, recognizing its colorful weave, the thick cover strapped down over it.

As I cross to it, Alyrra says, “This is a saw-scaled viper, Mother. It is the single most deadly snake of the plains.”

I lift the basket as steadily as I can, my wounded arm aching. The viper within rasps its scales together, the distinctive rsss-rsss clearly audible. I turn and set it a few paces from where the queen stands.

“The cover, Amraeya,” the princess says.

I kneel beside it to undo the leather ties, my heart thudding. Last night, Mage Hedhrawy set a ward to keep the snake within the basket, but I don’t exactly want to test his work. Still, an order is an order, and clearly Alyrra chose me because I’ve already proven steady around snakes. I take hold of the edges and slowly lift away the cover, careful that it shields my hands.

The snake hisses, scales rasping and tongue flicking. The queen leans away, only her pride keeping her from a hasty retreat. It lifts its head to keep her in view, and perhaps it is only I who notices how its head stops at a level with the top of the basket, pressed against an invisible barrier there.

“Would you like to pick it up, Mother? Do you truly trust that it won’t bite you, that its venom can be counteracted in time by the mages who live in their own building separate from the palace?”

“This is all very dramatic, Alyrra, but there’s no need for it. Come, let us call your brother here and sort things out as family. There is no need for any of this.” She waves a hand to encompass both the snake and the row of attendants beyond it.

“I think not,” Alyrra says. “That has only ever worked for you, not for me. I am no longer that same daughter you abused, Mother.”

The queen’s eyes widen. “I never abused you, Alyrra! Everything I have done has been for your best interest.”

“Was it in my best interest when my brother first pushed me down the stairs of our hall and you laughed? Or was it in my best interest to allow him to beat me when he wished, year upon year? Or perhaps you think it was in my best interest when you sent the one woman most certain to betray me as my companion on my journey here?”

What sort of monster is this woman, to have allowed all that—to have turned her face from such violence, to have known the impostor was not to be trusted, and still sent her with Alyrra? I glance around and see a range of controlled emotions upon my fellow attendants’ faces, from the disbelief in the widening eyes of the man across from me to the hardening of Jasmine’s jaw in what can only be anger.

“Alyrra,” the queen says, her voice deepening with warning. She casts a single concerned glance toward Kestrin.

“Let us not bother with such lies right now, Mother. We both know whom you have protected. Make no mistake, this attempt on my life was an act of war, and this meeting is our parley. You have a choice now: you may exile Daerilin and my brother, or you may refuse. If you refuse, I will request the king’s support in raising what soldiers I require to march on Adania and take the hall from you. Of course, we will insist you remain here in safety until the matter is resolved.”

I press my hands against my thighs. I have always known that Alyrra is a princess, that she has an immense amount of power at her disposal. But somehow I managed to let that knowledge slip away from me. The reality of the princess’s words shock me. She will change the succession of her homeland’s throne, and she will go to war to do so, if she must.

“And,” Kestrin says, breaking his silence for the first time, “I guarantee that we will provide everything Zayyida Alyrra requires.”

Alyrra raises a hand. “To be clear, Adania’s crown will go to cousin Derin, as is his right. I have no interest in ruling over Adania, nor adding it to Menaiya’s lands.”

“You cannot do this,” the queen says, her voice tight with outrage.

“It is your decision how Derin comes to rule,” Alyrra says implacably. “Though it might be best not to involve the Menaiyan armies. What will you choose?”

A chill crawls up my spine. Alyrra is all princess right now, nothing like the girl who reminded me of my little sisters, the girl whom I thought might need my support.

The queen lifts her chin haughtily. “You cannot take away your brother’s throne over such a prank as this. The Council of Lords—”

“I am not concerned with how you deal with your Council of Lords. That is your worry. Let us be clear, Mother. I cannot trust my brother, the crown prince of Adania, to treat servants justly, to respect and protect high-ranked women, to prevent an attempt on my life—I, who am both his sister and a princess in my own right. Nor can I trust him to uphold and honor an alliance to which I have committed my life, and upon which Adania will be greatly dependent. If he cannot be trusted in any of these things, why should he be entrusted with the keeping of all of Adania?”

“You are overblowing—”

“He will not be king,” Alyrra snarls. “This snake may seem like a small thing, but it is the final act in the making of his downfall. He