Chapters (53)
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area- Western Half
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Eastern Half
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Full Map
- Important Trigger Warning
- Prologue
- PART I
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Interlude: The River of Life
- PART II
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Interlude: Fallow Fields
- PART III
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Interlude: Of Man and Monster
- PART IV
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- POSTLUDES
- Postlude 1: Lana Vica
- Postlude 2: Ludo Vica
- Postlude 3: Cainan
- Acknowledgments
- An excerpt from Heartsworn, Volume II in The Forsworn Oath, available for preorder now!
- PART I
Perfidy didn’t know what she was going on about talking about some unknown sister, but when she glanced in Jereb’s direction to get permission to ask the thousand and one questions she had on the tip of her tongue, he warned her off with a quick shake of his head. “Nuh, we wouldn’t want that?” Perfidy said. “Would we?”
“Of course not. And thank you for coming to apologize. That takes bravery. Even more brave will be me when I attempt to untangle the knots from your hair later today.”
“Ye’ll do whut now?” The thought of this woman’s fingers messing with her hair made her want to take a big step back, but she held her ground.
“Please,” Jereb whispered in her ear, making her flinch. Once again, he’d managed to sneak up on her. “She needs this.”
She turned back toward the woman garbed in more finery than Perfidy had seen in her entire life. She looked at her, really looked at her, and this time she saw through the haughty persona she’d erected. All the way through to the sadness behind her eyes. “I, er, I look forward to it?” she said.
“Of course you do, child. Now we simply must talk about your name.”
“Whut about it?”
“Why in the names of the Five did your mother see fit to name you “Perfidy” when you spill truth like water out of a leaky bucket? Rather ironic, don’t you think?”
For once, Perfidy was as silent as a clam.
“You do know what “Perfidy” means, don’t you?” Lady Brenner pressed.
“I do, ma’am.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Whut should bother me ’bout it?”
“Your own mother labeled you a liar, a deceiver, from the moment you arrived in this world.”
“She did no such thing…ma’am.” It took every bit of Perfidy’s thinning self-control to maintain a civil tongue under the woman’s scrutiny. What she really wanted to do was scream in her face and clamp her hands around her neck. And squeeze.
“Then do, pray tell, how she arrived at your name, Miss Perfidy Tress?”
Perfidy inhaled through her nose, trying to control the pace of her breathing. When she felt calm enough, she said, “It was fer her, ma’am. A reminder to her.”
“A reminder? Of what exactly?”
“To be honest with me in all things, ma’am. To always tell me the truth.”
“And was she honest with you in all things? Did she always tell you the truth?”