The Wonder (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)(19)
Dinah jerked her head up. “Vittiore?”
“You must have fathomed that she would take yer place.”
Yes, Dinah had imagined it, but it was always a waking nightmare, her worst fear come true, something that she reasoned with herself would never happen. Vittiore, walking up the aisle of the Great Hall as her court bowed before her. Vittiore, her long golden curls pressed down as the beautiful twisting crown that Charles had made was lowered onto her head. My father has taken everything. In her mind, she saw Vittiore, sitting in the heart throne next to her father, ruling Wonderland when she was nothing better than a piece of rotten fruit from the mountain villages. Dinah let out a blunt, angry cry and kicked the rotting log below her into the fire.
“That whore will never truly be the Queen. She is a pawn in my father’s game, a tool that he used to push me out. She knew that my brother would be murdered and did nothing.”
Dinah saw the flicker of a smile pass over the Spade’s dark features. “Indeed. But she is beloved by the people. They are grateful that she survived the Rebel Queen’s murderous rampage. The talk amongst the common people is that you tried to murder sweet Vittiore but couldn’t get into her room.”
“That is a LIE,” whispered Dinah intensely. “I was never anywhere near her room that night. I only went to Charles’s room, where I saw my brother….” Her voice broke, a mix of anger and grief. “I saw his broken body lying on a slab of stone. The stars were as dark as his blood that night and his eyes looked at nothing.”
The Spade was silent, and for a few minutes there was nothing but the crackle of nightfire and the sounds of steam hissing out of Morte’s nostrils.
Finally, the Spade cleared his throat. “There’s nothing to be done now. Vittiore is Queen and sits beside your father. There is unrest in Wonderland because the King raised taxes to justify increasing the number of Cards and weapons. Many people in the kingdom are starving as he reinforces the Cards. When we left, turrets were being built around the perimeter of the iron walls.”
Dinah wiped her tears away and worked at keeping her voice steady. “The Iron Gates? Did we break them?” She vaguely remembered the sides of the gates clipping Morte’s shoulder before they were thrust open. The Spade laughed.
“Well, the King doesn’t feel that the Iron Gates were enough to keep his traitorous daughter in, so he is strengthening them to make sure he keeps her and everyone else out.”
Dinah gave a wry laugh. “To keep me out? What an idea. I have no intention of ever going back there. I’ll be killed the moment I appear in Wonderland proper! I will never see the palace again.” Or Wardley, she thought with sadness. Or Harris. Or Emily. Or the beautiful stained-glass heart that sits outside my mother’s room, the one that shades the world in red.
The Spade took a last inhale of his pipe before dumping its contents into the fire. “Perhaps. But I think the King fears more than just the return of the Princess.”
“The Yurkei?”
“This is the end of your answers for tonight.”
“There is nothing more to tell me of Wardley?”
“No. His shoulder still healing. He spends his days in the stables, wiping the dung off of his face that is thrown at him by orphans.”
But he is alive, thought Dinah, he is alive. She absently rubbed her hands together. More blood on my hands, she thought, more consequences because of my actions. And Harris, and Emily—what had happened to them? Had her father chopped them down as easily as he had Lucy and Quintrell?
She began to raise her voice when the Spade turned slightly, his ears pointed at the sky. “BE SILENT!” he whispered. Dinah froze in place. Without making a sound, the Spade ran over to his pack and withdrew a bow and arrow. Her heart thudded in her ears. What was he doing? Maybe he worked for her father. Perhaps he was an assassin sent her to kill her silently and bury her deep in the woods, where her body would simply disintegrate into the dusty ground. She looked around, taking in the moss-covered rocks and the thin white trees that ringed their nightfire. There are worse places to be laid to rest, she thought. At least I’m here under the bright stars, though… if he wanted to kill me, she reasoned, he would have killed me while I slept. He could have pulled that knife across my throat before I had even understood what was going on.
The Spade lifted the bow, his muscled arms quivering as he tracked something that Dinah couldn’t see across the dark sky. Finally, he exhaled and released the arrow. Dinah heard a thwap, followed by the sound of something falling through dried leaves. The Spade darted into the woods. Dinah stood. Now, she thought, now would be the time to run with Morte, her legs shaking. Go! she told herself, but her legs didn’t move. She stayed. There was something about this Spade, she reasoned, something different. Besides, the food was almost gone. And he was right—she didn’t have a plan. Defeated, she admitted to herself that she had been wandering aimlessly through the forest, and it was a miracle that she had survived. Now she had help, or at least someone who wanted something from her, which in some cases was as good as help. He wasn’t a friend, but she didn’t sense danger radiating from him either. She paused, thinking of the rage on her father’s face as she stood shadowed in the trees. “But you can’t trust that,” she whispered to herself. “You can’t trust that feeling.” She never would have dreamed that her father would try to murder her, or throw her brother out of a window. Feelings meant nothing. Whom could you trust when your own family turned against you?