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The soldier lowered his voice. “We think they have taken her to the Fringe.”

Karl was not convinced. “Impossible. No point in doin’ that. They can’t use her as a bargaining piece if she’s dead. Even if they did decide to kill her, why go to the trouble of takin’ her out there to do it?”

“Don’t think they took her to bargain. Besides,” he lowered his voice more, making it necessary for Simon to lean forward in order to hear him, “her mother died at sea, and you know the old stories of that place. People were dropped there, banished, with nothing but the dinghy under them, the oar in their hand, and their hopes against all the bad luck of the place and the ones who had been left there before. The Southerners aren’t negotiators, they’re monsters. They meant her abduction as a slap in the face, a call to come out and fight, before they come in. They’re just playing with us.”

“She could have survived, even the Fringe. Why doesn’t the king send soldiers after her, then? Why the useless searching?”

“The chances are slim. People have gotten close enough to the shoal to see it, but none who tried to approach the island has ever returned. Besides, the king must know that he’d just be sacrificing his men to send them—that might have been another of the South’s motives in taking her there. I know I wouldn’t go. The place is nothing more than a dead end, a death trap. I think he just keeps us looking to maintain the appearance of hope, so that even if he feels the slap on the face and the inevitable threat the South poses, he doesn’t want his people to feel it. If the kingdom knows Princess Ivy is dead, they will have lost not only their hope but what they see as their tie to the crown and their willingness to fight. As Lyrians, we connect with Ivy, like we did with her mother. The Southerners knew what they were doing when they took her.”