Long May She Reign(60)

“It is my throne,” I said quietly. “I will not move for you.”

Sten stepped forward, sword held before him. Dagny hissed at him. He glanced at the necklace again. “Do you think you can rule?” he said. “Do you think you can hide in this fortress and really be queen? No one will support you. Half of them have already joined me. You’ll rot in here.”

“And if she does,” Madeleine said, her voice still all politeness, “she will rot as queen.”

Shouts and running feet. Someone called “Your Majesty!” and then Fitzroy’s voice, “Freya!”

He’d found the guards. It was enough to make me sit straighter, to meet Sten’s gaze.

“My guards are coming,” I said. “If you plan to kill me, you’d better be quick.”

He glanced down at the necklace again. Then he reached forward with his free hand, snatching for my arm. Dagny spat and struck with her claws, leaving streaks of gleaming red blood on his wrist. Sten flinched, and in his moment of hesitation, guards crashed through the doors.

“Stop!” one of them shouted. “In the name of the queen.”

Sten spun around, sword raised. Another group of guards surged into the room, some wearing their usual jackets, some in loose shirts and breeches, a few holding swords, others wielding only fierce expressions.

“Step away from the queen.”

“This girl,” Sten spat, “is a murderer. She must be brought to justice.”

“Stand down, Sten.” That was Fitzroy. My heart pounded. He didn’t have a weapon, but he stepped forward, as the new guards moved around the walls, surrounding Sten’s men. Several stepped in front of me, blocking me partially from view. But they didn’t have any weapons. I could taste blood at the back of my throat, that metallic tang of fear.

No one moved to attack. For a long moment, everyone stared at one another.

Then one of my guards grabbed for Sten’s arm. Sten swung his sword. Not enough to actually collide with the guard, but enough to make him flinch back. Enough to break the tension in the room, to make his men pull out their swords, too, to turn the standoff into a fight.

I couldn’t follow what happened next. Two of the guards stood so close to me that they were practically on my toes, and there were too many voices, too many men wearing the same shirts and coats on either side. I could smell blood on the air, hear the shouts, the clangs of metal, the thuds of flesh on bone.

But my men outnumbered his now, and they were on the outside, pressing the enemy in. We had to win.

Sten must have reached the same conclusion. “All right, Queen Freya,” he said, and his voice seemed to cast a spell over the room, freezing the fighting men in place. “I’ll leave you to your throne.” He spat onto the floor. Behind him, a few of his men were bleeding, and a few of mine, but no one was dead, not yet. “But you’ll wish you surrendered. I promise you that.”





NINETEEN


STEN MARCHED AWAY. HIS MEN SURGED FORWARD again, protecting him, clearing the way. One of my guards tried to block the door, but Sten shoved her aside, and then he was gone.

I clutched the pendant around my neck, and I stared at the door, listening to the fading footsteps. Fitzroy and my guards chased after him. I held my breath, waiting for more shouts, the sound of another fight.

A man yelled, and I leaped to my feet, forcing Dagny to bound to the floor. Madeleine grabbed my shoulder, holding me back. “Wait here,” she said. “They’re leaving.”

“But the guards—” Fitzroy.

“If he wanted to kill your guards, he would have done this in a very different way. He thinks he’s being noble, Freya. He thinks he’s right. He won’t want to kill anyone he doesn’t have to.”

“And when my guards attack him?”

“He’ll defend himself,” she said. “But then he’ll leave.”

“Until when?”

“Until he thinks he’s stronger. But it gives you time.”

My guards had captured a couple of Sten’s men, but most of them had escaped. I’d barely stopped anybody.

I stepped away, twisting the necklace in my hand. I pressed my feet firmly against the stone. The cold helped me to focus. No time to panic now.

More shouting down the hall. I jumped, my grip tightening on the necklace.

“What is that?” Naomi said, nodding at the chain. “Sten kept looking at it.”

“The Star of Valanthe,” Madeleine said.

I stared down at the jewel with dawning realization. Valanthe had been one of the Forgotten, or so legend claimed, known for her justice and kindness. She had been the last to leave Epria, the most reluctant to abandon the kingdom, and had left a jewel to remind us mortals of her desire to return. Or so the legends said. “I wanted him to think twice about the possibility of crossing the Forgotten,” said Madeleine. “To remember that you are the anointed queen.”

“Does that matter, if he thinks I’m a murderer?”

“Probably not in the end. But it made him reluctant enough to do anything in that moment, didn’t it?”

Dagny rubbed against Madeleine’s ankles, and Madeleine bent down to stroke her.

More footsteps echoed from outside the door. I stood ramrod straight, my stomach twisted. Please let them be my men. Please let Fitzroy be all right.