Invidia frowned. “Then I see no value in keeping her—or her lover—alive.”

“Let us say that it is for the good of the Aleran people,” the Queen said.

Isana jerked her gaze from the treacherous High Lady to the Queen. “What?”

The Queen shrugged a shoulder, a gesture Isana found somehow familiar and intensely uncomfortable. “The Aleran people suffer because they fight. They will never surrender the fight so long as Gaius Octavian is alive. Gaius Attis might give them the ability to resist, for now—but he is a pretender, and your people know it. So long as the true heir to the House of Gaius walks the land, there will always be many who will fight. He must be dealt with.”

The Queen pointed a clawed fingertip at Isana. “Octavian’s mother is in my control. He will be forced to come to me in an attempt to preserve her life. However, by all accounts she has demonstrated irrational resolve in the past. She might destroy herself to prevent Octavian from coming after her—which is why I need the male alive and unharmed. So long as he remains so, she will retain the hope that both of them might escape this place together.”

Isana tried to prevent herself from shivering at the cold, detached calculation in the Queen’s voice, at the calm precision of her logic. She couldn’t.

“I have her,” the Queen said. “Having her will give me Octavian. When he is dead, the rest of Alera will crumble and yield. Better for me and my children. Better for them.”

“Kill them both,” Invidia suggested. “Revenge may draw him to you as surely as concern.”

The vord Queen bared her green-black teeth in a smile. “Ah. His progenitor’s progenitor waited nearly twenty-five years to take his vengeance when the time was right. That bloodline does not seek to redress such imbalances in... what is the phrase? In fire?”

“In hot blood,” Isana said quietly.

“Exactly,” said the vord Queen. She turned to Invidia. “Why are you not in the field?”

“Two reasons,” Invidia said. “First, our spies in Antillus report that Octavian and his Legions marched to the north nearly two days ago.”

“What?” the Queen said. “Where are they now?”

Invidia’s mouth curled into a chilly little smile. “We know nothing more. Your horde arrived at Antillus several hours ago. It has enfolded the city and is taking losses at more than triple the rate of any other besieged city.”

The Queen’s black-jewel eyes narrowed. “Canim conscripts fighting alone cannot put up such resistance.”

“Nasaug’s conscripts have an unusually high degree of training and experience. They are considerably more formidable than the conscripts in Canea,” Invidia said. After the slightest of pauses, she added, “As I warned you.”