The Lost Princess Returns by Jeffe Kennedy

Author:Jeffe Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Brightlynx Publishing
Published: 2020-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

~ 10 ~

I took a breath, steadying myself to find the words to speak of something I hadn’t in so long. “When Kaja found me, I was so broken. I knew nothing about the outside world—not even stupid little things like that I could open the portholes in my cabin or light the lantern, so I sat in the dark.”

“How could you know?” he asked.

“I know I couldn’t have, but I was so helpless, on top of being injured. Kaja taught me how to defend myself. Remember that little dagger you gave me?”

“An eating knife,” he agreed. “So many times over the years I wished I’d thought to give you more weapons, spent more time teaching you to use them.”

“I wasn’t ready. Remember that I slept most of the time, with all the blood loss, and other damage. And we never imagined I’d be going alone.”

“No. You shouldn’t have had to.” He looked over the sea and I knew he’d never forgive himself that Kral found us.

“None of us can change the past,” I said softly, giving his back one last pat and turning to look out to sea beside him, adding my hand to the stack over his.

“True words,” he agreed. “So, Kaja taught you what I didn’t.”

“Yes. And she helped me create… a veneer, I guess. I layered Priestess Ivariel over broken Jenna, sealing up all those cracks. I colored my hair, darkened my skin, took vows of silence and celibacy, so no one would hear my accent or trip over how very messed up I was sexually.”

He made a snorting sound, but didn’t comment.

“And it mostly worked. But when Ivariel learned to wield a sword and blades, so did Jenna, and she… Jenna is not rational.” I paused, but he didn’t argue with me that we were the same person, as many people might attempt to do. “On the caravan road, a man tried to rob me. I don’t remember it, but I came back to myself with him in ribbons.”

“He deserved it.”

“Did he? I meted out vengeance, not justice.”

“Sometimes they’re the same.”

“Sometimes they aren’t. With Rodolf… I don’t remember much of that night either. I went to him, to keep him away from Ochieng and the D’tiembos.”

“He let you go alone?”

“I snuck out without telling him,” I confessed, “because he wouldn’t have sanctioned it. But I couldn’t bear to see them hurt. They would have defended me, those kind people who’d opened their home to me. They didn’t deserve being attacked by the beetle men.”

Harlan breathed a laugh at that, which gave me the heart to go on. “Rodolf, he attempted to assert his marital rights, and Jenna… Well, she awakened and she took him apart. Many of his men, too. I don’t know how many men I killed that night.”

“All of them, apparently,” Harlan noted, no reproach in his voice.

“No, because Ochieng and the D’tiembos brought the elephants. They were the ones to finish what crazed Jenna started. They cleaned up the mess. I woke

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