The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)

Lara struggles with her newfound knowledge about Ithicana and her growing love for Aren, but she still decides to provide her father and Serin with the information they will need to conquer the kingdom. When she arrives for a planned dinner with Aren, she learns that he has been called away to patrol. A horn sounds, announcing raiders. As she waits, she is given another letter from her father and Serin; they secretly tell her that with the Valcottans’ blockade, famine is on the rise in Maridrina.

Lara goes to the barracks and waits for Aren in his room, fearing for his life. When he returns, he has an arrow in his shoulder. With Jor’s help, Lara treats his wound. She watches as someone Taryn cares about dies. The scene is too much for her, and she flees, realizing that she can no longer see the Ithicanians as enemies. Aren runs after her. When he entreats her to stay and help him end the bloodshed, cold reality hits Lara. She tells him that his dream will never happen and runs away. She returns to Midwatch and writes out the invasion plan in invisible ink on all 26 blank, official missives that Aren has in his room.

The War Tides season has ended, and Aren is still avoiding Lara. Aren never sends a missive to her father, and Lara decides to leave. She goes to high ground to enact her escape, but Aren finds her and demands that she fulfill her duties as queen by supervising the evacuees’ return to Midwatch. They go to Serrith, where life has returned to the village, then pass by Snake Island, where monstrous snakes abound. Aren decides to run across the beach, risking the wrath of the snakes as he did when he was a child. Everyone tries to convince him not to, but he insists. Before he leaves, he orders his guards not to shoot any snakes to help him. He runs across the beach, and when an enormous snake attacks him, Lara shoots an arrow and kills it, revealing her familiarity with weapons. Aren returns and argues with her, dropping her into the water. Jor kicks Aren after her and tells them both to resolve their marital issues. Lara accuses Aren of starving Maridrina, but Aren tells her to blame her father, who buys Harendellian steel through Ithicana’s markets, not food. When Jor returns, Aren orders them to sail to Maridrina.

Lara argues against this plan, but Aren brings them to a hidden cove where a merchant vessel from Harendell waits. They board, and Aren orders Lara to disguise herself as a boy and pose as his cousin. As they sail, Aren reveals that he has visited many kingdoms, including Maridrina, to gain a better understanding of the world. Fearing that her whole life has been based on a lie, Lara swabs the deck and squabbles with Aren until they arrive in Vencia. There, Aren is warmly greeted and goes by the name of John. She overhears the harbormaster talking about her father’s imports, which are all weapons. The harbormaster also reveals that Silas paid to have beggars in the street when he paraded her through the city before her marriage. A storm sets in, so they go to an inn called The Songbird, where Aren’s former lover, a spy named Marisol, greets them. Marisol relates the state of affairs in Maridrina, stating that famine is on the rise, farmers are forced to become soldiers, and civil discontent is rising against Ithicana for allowing the blockade. Lara realizes the full extent of her father’s lies and finally accepts the fact that Silas, not Aren, is the oppressor of her people.

Lara abruptly goes to their rooms at the inn, and Aren reflects on his knowledge that she has been a spy all along. When one of his guards tells him that Lara has left the inn, he and Jor follow her as she makes her way to the palace. When she encounters the palace guards, Aren is prepared to kill her with an arrow, but at the last moment, she turns away. Aren sends Jor to follow her to the inn, then privately vomits in his horror over what he almost had to do.

At the bar at the inn, Lara gets drunk. Marisol joins her and reveals her awareness that Lara is Aren’s wife. Marisol tells Lara that matters in Maridrina have only worsened since Lara’s marriage. After Marisol leaves, Lara privately reflects on her actions from earlier in the evening. She went to the palace intending to kill her father but decided against it because she realized that her 26 copies of her invasion plans are still in Aren’s room, waiting to be sent. She wants to destroy them before she attempts to kill her father so that Ithicana will not suffer for her actions. As she is about to leave, she discovers that Aren has been sitting behind her. He gathers her up to bring her to her room, and although they bicker, she tells him that he deserves someone better than her.

The next morning, Aren reflects that the trip to Vencia, while risky, has been worth it. The city is one of his favorites, and he likes its people. Suddenly, Serin appears in the inn and immediately identifies Aren as the king of Ithicana. Jor and the rest of Aren’s guards collect their group. Serin asks after Lara and demands that she write to her father. He then demands that Aren cut ties with Valcotta and show proof of Ithicana’s alliance. When Serin leaves, Aren signals to Jor that they need to escape.

As Lara recalls the last night’s events, Taryn comes to retrieve her. When they get to the common room, Aren tells them that the group has been compromised. At the harbor, Serin sees Lara and understands that she now knows the truth about her father and understands what she has been raised to do. As they race to leave the harbor, Lara attempts to die by suicide so that her father will never know the secrets that she has learned, but Aren stops her. Despite the soldiers, navy vessels, and the chains in the harbor, their ship reaches the sea and races to Southwatch.

Their pursuers give up halfway to Southwatch. When the ship docks, Aren orders it to be destroyed. They hurry through Southwatch market to the bridge to get to Midwatch, and Lara feels that the Ithicanians are as much her people as the Maridrinians. She plots her father’s demise, knowing she will never see Aren after she implements her plan. After two days in the bridge, Aren brings Lara topside and confronts her about being her father’s spy. She tells him that she is no longer Silas’s spy and promises that she has given her father no information, but she doesn’t mention the papers bearing the invasion plan in invisible ink.

She explains that Serin and her teachers convinced her that she was saving Maridrina by serving as a spy. She also admits that her father threatened to hunt her down if she ever betrayed him. Ahnna arrives and yells at Aren for taking Lara to Maridrina. As Lara tries to mediate, Ahnna accidentally pushes her, and Lara falls into the shark-infested sea. Aren jumps after her. Lara wants to offer herself up to the sharks so that Aren can escape, but he won’t let her. They manage to escape as soldiers kill off the sharks, and they climb onto the nearest pier. Ahnna drops down with a rope from above, and they are pulled back onto the bridge. Ahnna attempts to apologize, but Aren orders her back to Southwatch.

A terrible storm hits Midwatch as they arrive. Aren considers Serin’s political ultimatum to either oust Valcotta or face war and a blockade from Maridrina. He unknowingly takes one of the papers that Lara has written on and uses it to write a missive to Silas. He declares that Ithicana will not cease trade with Valcotta, but should Silas act against Lara, their alliance will be annulled. He gives the letter to Eli so that Jor can send it out immediately.