The Wonder (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)(17)
“Yer asking a bit more, and I believe yeh know that.”
“I believe that is what you believe.” Dinah continued smiling. She watched his features change through the flickering onyx flame. Dinah didn’t know much about the Spades—of all the Cards, they were the ones most shrouded in secrecy—but she did know that Spades loved to tell a good tale with their comrades, bloody tales of wars fought, of limbs lost, and of battle fever, tales that would make any other Wonderlander squirm. Dinah was baiting him—she could tell by the way his mouth twitched and the grinding of his filthy teeth. Sir Gorrann longed to tell her everything. Dinah began her push.
“That’s my question. I didn’t try to flee today, though I think we both know that I could outrun your horse quite easily.”
“Yeh wouldn’t have made it to yer horse,” replied Sir Gorrann with absolute certainty. “I can throw a knife into yer back faster than yeh can mount him. I’m not as skilled with a dagger as the Diamonds, but I can throw one. I can see easily that yer greatest weakness, Princess, is that yer impulsive, just like yer father. I can teach yeh to be better. Yer will training will begin tomorrow.”
Dinah hated the way he so casually insulted her, and how he assumed that he knew her the way Wardley or Harris did. Once upon a time, she could have sent him to the Black Towers for such insolence. She instantly regretted her thought; thinking of the Black Towers made her stomach churn uneasily around the rabbit she had eaten. She would never send anyone there, not after seeing Faina Baker, not after feeling the black roots twist into her nostril. She trembled.
“Something bothering yeh, Princess?”
Dinah gave a haughty toss of her head, assuming a confidence she did not feel. “No. Answer my question, Spade.”
The Spade stood up in the clear night, the black flames of the fire kissing the tip of his boots. A thin trail of smoke curled out of the side of his mouth and he began. “Well, if yeh must know, Wardley Ghane is alive.” Dinah felt a sweet wave of relief wash over her, sweeter than anything she had ever tasted. The tremendous weight of worry broke from her shoulders and poured down her body and she wished that this feeling of clarity and respite would remain forever unblemished. A sob escaped her throat.
Sir Gorrann watched her closely. “I’ll tell yeh what I know, what I saw that day. On the day that you fled—Wonderlanders now call it ‘The Morning of Sorrows’—all of the Cards were woken by their commanders in the early morning with the surprising news that the Princess had murdered her own brother in cold blood, his servants, and two Heart Cards.”
Two lies and a single truth, Dinah thought. I did kill two Heart Cards. I lanced one through the heart from behind, like a coward, and hit the other in the head. Wardley killed another in the stable. That was three Cards. The blood on her hands was growing thicker. The Spade continued, ignorant to her whirling guilt. “As the sun rose outside, we were instructed to put on our armor and march out to meet the Princess in front of the gates and to capture her, eh you, dead or alive.” He gave a cough. “Our Commander, the great Spade Starey Belft, made it clear to us that dead was completely acceptable, due to the nature of yer crimes.” The Spade cleared his throat. “I knew it to be a lie. The scar on my cheek said otherwise. The passion which yeh had defended that silly wooden toy for yer brother had shown me that yeh could never do such a thing. I asked myself in those seconds, as I pulled on my armor, what did yeh have to gain from the unspeakable crime of fratricide? Yer brother was never a threat to yer crown—it was yers for the taking, or so I thought. No, the only person who stood to gain from yer brother’s murder was yer father. This all raced through my head yeh see, as I strapped on my armor and headed out to secure the gates. None of the other men seemed to question it—they were hungry for conflict, for battle, for something. The Spades have been dormant too long.
“We marched outside to take position by the gates, while most of our battalion followed the Heart Cards into the castle. We waited. The army of Cards returned and began to sniff around the stables. Then I saw yeh, a terrifying vision if there ever was one.”
Dinah tilted her face, confused. The nightfire reflected off of the Spade’s face, making his eyes glimmer like coins in the darkness. “What?”
“Aye! A terrifying vision. I saw yeh, Yer Highness, straddled across that massive black steed of yours, tearing out of the stable labyrinth like the devil himself was chasing yeh. I saw the wood exploding out from yer steed’s body, a sword in yer hand, yer other hand clutching his mane, the cloak trailing behind yeh. I watched in awe as yeh plowed over helpless men without blinking, bent on revenge. I couldn’t begin to fathom what yeh were doing, but yeh were terrifying. As yeh were sprinting to the gate, the other two Hornhooves came out behind you, killing and maiming any man they came across. Do you know they killed at least ten men?”
More blood, thought Dinah, more death because of me. The Spade gave a light laugh. It bounced off the rocky land around them.
“Wonderlanders are still talking about it—they are calling you the ‘Red Queen.’”
“But I’m not the Red Queen. That’s not me,” blurted Dinah. “I was terrified. I was fleeing for my life. I didn’t even fully understand what was happening. Wardley put me on Morte and sent him running for the gates.”
“Yes, but the townspeople don’t know that. They only know what the King tells them and that’s very little. Because of The Morning of Sorrows, they hate yeh, but more importantly, they fear yeh. To everyone in the kingdom, it seemed like an attack, a last vengeance on Wonderland after killing your brother—a wild act, filled with fury. They believe yeh wanted to kill as many Heart Cards as you could before deserting the castle and leaving yer father to mourn his only son.”