The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1)(5)

Sufficiently frightened, the boys shuddered and turned toward creating a paste from the powdered herbs I’d brought. While they were engaged with treating cuts and bruises, Melanie and I wrote a quick report to Patrick, the leader of the Ospreys.

When we got to the glowmen, Melanie paused. “What was Black Knife doing there?” Her voice was low.

“Hunting the glowmen, I assume.” I turned a pen in my hands. “He doesn’t know what we were doing, and he didn’t follow us. That’s all I care about.” I glanced back at Connor, who was helping Theresa put away the last of the medical supplies. Hard to believe I was grateful to Black Knife for something. “Did the boys realize who he was?”

“Oh yes.” Melanie hunched, hiding a smile. “Ezra made fun of Connor for getting rescued by Black Knife, of all people. Connor made fun of Ezra for getting knocked unconscious almost before the fight began. Then they punched each other.”

“Clearly, they’ve made up,” I muttered. The boys now wore matching bandages around their heads and on their necks.

“Clearly.” Melanie smiled and shook her head. “Maybe you were right about him being a problem. At least he was more interested in the glowmen than us.”

This time. “We see him too often,” I muttered. “Maybe he’ll trip and fall on his knife.”

“Say it again.” She glanced at the others, all engaged with their tasks throughout the room. “Hopefully, we can stay clear of him for a while. We have a lot more work to do before our masquerade begins.”

I covered a shiver by folding our report. “Now that we have the right paper and ink, our masquerade may actually happen.”

She grinned and poured a glob of melted wax onto the folded paper, and I pressed my thumb into it as it cooled. “You’ll make a lovely refugee duchess,” she said, making room between us as Quinn approached.

“As long as I’m a convincing refugee duchess.”

“I wonder if you’ll meet the crown prince,” Quinn mused. “I hear he’s very handsome.”

“I won’t be there to admire the royal scenery.” I dropped our report into the bag with the stolen ink and paper. “I’ll be there to learn about the occupation of Aecor so we can reclaim the land and go home.”

“I know.” Quinn’s mutter hardly carried. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun while you’re working. Admiring the royal scenery might do you some good.”

The room grew quiet, everyone looking between Quinn and me.

“In case you forgot,” Melanie said, voice roughening, “the royal scenery is why we’re trapped in a crumbling old castle in the Indigo Kingdom, scraping for food and stealing all the time. If it wasn’t for the royal scenery, we’d be in Sandcliff Castle overlooking the Red Bay. We’d be with our parents.”

There was a long pause. Melanie had seen her parents murdered in their beds, the fate of so many of Aecor’s high nobility. My mother and father had been dragged into a courtyard and beheaded in front of everyone; their deaths meant the kingdom had been conquered. Afterward, King Terrell sent one of his younger brothers to rule the puppet state.

My kingdom. In their hands.

I couldn’t allow those murderers to continue ruling my land. Reports from our Aecorian contacts indicated my people were suffering hunger, oppression, and crippling taxes, not to mention the sudden disappearances of all known flashers. It wasn’t right. I had been born with the responsibility to lead the people of Aecor, and I could not fail them.

“I know.” Quinn dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” I stood and handed her the bag. “It’s hard to remember sometimes.” Quinn was fifteen; she’d been only five during the One-Night War and could barely recall it.

My memories of that night were crystalline, and sharp. I would never forget the horror of blood and fire and steel, or that King Terrell and his family were why I was left without a home, and my kingdom was a handful of orphans. With only them and a few rebel groups in Aecor who opposed the foreign military presence, I was expected to resurrect an entire kingdom.

Queen Wilhelmina Korte. It sounded a little ridiculous.

“Why don’t you take these back to Patrick? Melanie and I will stay the night in Skyvale to gather more supplies.” Food, clothes, and other necessities were hard to come by in the old palace, and it was already autumn. With winter coming, and Melanie and me leaving soon, the rest of the Ospreys needed everything we could bring them.

Quinn apologized again, saluted, and then took Theresa and the boys from the inn. Their footsteps thudded on the floorboards and stairs, all traces of their training vanished like they didn’t even know the word stealth.

Melanie rolled her eyes. “Ready to get back to work?”

“As long as Black Knife doesn’t show up.”

“Say it again.” She tossed me a backpack, and a minute later, we were out the window.





THREE


BLACK KNIFE DIDN’T make another appearance, but we saw evidence of him all over Skyvale. On balconies and in yards, we found discarded hoods and masks, left over from children’s games. Everywhere, there were knives carved into fences and walls, smeared with pitch or black mud.

Ugh. Eventually, he’d do something horrible enough that the city would stop worshipping him.