Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(102)

Emilia urges her horse past them all, jumping the dead and dodging the living, on her way to the clearing where Jules lies. When she reaches her, she pulls the reins so hard that her poor mare skids.

‘Jules!’ She takes Jules’s face in her hands as Jules swivels bloodred eyes toward her. She does not need to look at Jules’s leg to know it is ruined. Her trousers are soaked with blood and lie too flat on the calf. The leg is turned the wrong way below the knee.

‘Jules, you fool. What have you done?’

‘I did what I had to do,’ Jules says through clenched teeth. She reaches up and touches Emilia’s face. ‘And I’m all right.’ She smiles. ‘I’m all right. The curse, it’s—’ Her eyes flutter, and she loses consciousness.

Emilia pulls her onto her lap.

‘Help us! I need help for the queen!’

Rebels come. They bind Jules’s wounds tightly and load her and her cougar gently onto horses. As Emilia weeps, Mathilde comes limping to her side.

‘What did we do?’ Emilia asks. ‘What did we make her do?’

Mathilde looks sadly after Jules and Camden, borne away on the rocking backs of the horses. Her eyes cloud. And then, she smiles.

‘Only what she was meant to do.’

The healers take Jules’s leg while she sleeps. Emilia was right: there could be no saving it. And Emilia remains with her until she wakes.

‘What happened?’ Jules asks as her eyes crack open.

‘You saved so many,’ Emilia replies. ‘You made yourself a legend. A legend, and a queen.’

Jules slips back to sleep, and Emilia leans down to kiss her on the forehead.

‘Don’t worry, Jules. I will be here when you wake. And forever after.’

Arsinoe and Pietyr emerge from the Volroy in a daze. Inside, the castle is still quiet, nearly deserted. But outside is carnage everywhere they look. As they stand blinking before the outer gates, Arsinoe is surprised by the warm nudge of a muzzle against her arm. It is her good brown horse, returned, his white socks splattered with red.

‘Hey, boy.’ She reaches up underneath his forelock and scratches his forehead as Pietyr calls to a nearby rebel soldier.

‘Where are the commanders?’ he asks. ‘Where have they taken the Legion Queen?’

‘They’ve taken her to the city. Healers have gathered in the square to help the wounded.’

Arsinoe nods to Pietyr, and they quickly mount the horse and ride at a canter for Indrid Down Square. As they go, they pass reunions of all sorts. Some joyous. Many with tears as news of the fallen spreads among the survivors.

‘Where is she?’ Arsinoe asks, turning the horse in all directions. ‘Where—?’

Someone waves to her from the crowd. Luke. Good Luke, with his face bloodied and a bandage wrapped around his shoulder. He smiles when she looks at him and points across the square to a hastily assembled tent.

They ride to it, and Arsinoe jumps off the horse. Jules and Camden lie inside, with Emilia seated between them.

‘Is she—?’ Arsinoe asks, and Camden chirrups softly. Arsinoe’s eyes catch on Jules’s missing leg, and she swallows.

‘She will be all right,’ Emilia says. ‘She did it. And you did it.’

Arsinoe bends and takes Jules’s hand. ‘How? How did she stand against Rho?’

‘She cut the legion curse free,’ Emilia says. ‘But she is fine. It is gone.’

‘Gone?’

Emilia shrugs. ‘Perhaps the curse was never a curse. Ask Mathilde. She has many strange seer thoughts on the matter. But look there.’ Emilia gestures over Arsinoe’s shoulder.

Billy stands on the outskirts of the makeshift camp, his shirt in tatters and a large swath of bandage wrapped around his abdomen. But he is alive.

And so is Arsinoe. She sees the relief and gladness wash over his face as she holds tight to Jules. But when she stands up to go to him, he steps back.

He is leaving, like he said he would. And if he touches her again, he will not have the strength to go. So she smiles, eyes wet from exhausted tears. He smiles, too, and raises his hand.

‘So long, Junior,’ she whispers.





THE LEGION QUEEN




In the days and weeks that followed the end of the Queens’ War, as it would come to be called, many changes took place in the capital and across the island. Jules recovered, with help from Arsinoe and Emilia, and learned to walk with a crutch. The legion curse had indeed disappeared, and she was herself again, while both of her gifts were allowed to flourish. She as yet wore no crown, but everyone called her the Legion Queen.

Neither she nor her council took up immediate residence at the Volroy. The grand towers seemed too representative of the queens gone by, and Jules and the rebellion had no interest in repeating the mistakes and corruption of the past. The line of the triplet queens had strayed too far off course, and now the time of triplet queens had ended.

Shortly after the battle, Paola Vend and Renata Hargrove were found and placed under temporary arrest, along with Genevieve Arron. Of Antonin and Lucian Arron, no trace was found. Rumors swirled that they are in hiding somewhere in Prynn or that they have fled the island entirely now that the mist is clear and the way is open.

Slowly, the rebellion disbanded. Soldiers returned to their homes to rebuild. The naturalists, and Cait and Ellis Milone, left the stronghold of Sunpool for Wolf Spring as the elementals returned to Rolanth. But not all abandoned the city they had helped to rebuild, and these days, Sunpool is a vibrant place of varied gifts.