Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(24)

‘You must be tired as well,’ Mathilde says. ‘You, too, are far from home in a strange place. You must care for your exiled queen a great deal.’

‘Yes. A great deal.’

Down below, a cart of young rebels leaves, five of them packed in behind the driver and clutching their small sacks of belongings.

‘Oh, would you look at that,’ Billy says, and throws up a hand. ‘They’re taking one of the best mules!’

Mathilde smiles. ‘It was probably their mule to begin with.’ But her eyes follow the cart sadly. ‘Let a few of them go. The true-hearted will stay, and it will cause the crown to underestimate us when their spies report how easily we fall apart.’

‘Spies?’

She nods, and Billy looks around as if he might see one right there in the empty room with them.

‘How many? How long have you known?’

‘So far we have identified three. There are undoubtedly more. It is not unexpected.’

‘What will you do with them?’ he asks warily.

‘Better to know your spies than to kill them and have to search for new ones sent to take their place.’ She nods toward the gate. ‘Another mule leaving.’

‘Another mule?’ Billy leans out the window. ‘Go on, then,’ he half shouts. ‘Go on with the lot of you! Who needs you, anyway?’ He turns his back on them and crosses his arms until he hears shouts as both mules and both carts come clattering back through the gate. ‘What, they’re coming back?’

‘No,’ Mathilde says as they crowd the sill together. ‘She is back.’ She points to the crowd quickly gathering in the square below. At the people racing through the streets to join it. And at the head of them all, Camden leaps through the air and swats with her good paw. She roars and hisses and lashes her tail back and forth. Behind her stands Jules, flanked by Arsinoe and Emilia.

Emilia places an arm around each and raises her voice to the people.

‘Our two queens return,’ she declares, triumphant. ‘Queen Jules! The Legion Queen! Queen Arsinoe!’ It does not take long for the crowd to take up the chant.

‘Our two queens,’ says Billy, looking down. ‘As in, against their two queens.’ He shakes his head. ‘Emilia is so clever.’

‘She is,’ says Mathilde. ‘And she is determined to win this, one way or another.’





THE FOUR QUEENS





THE VOLROY




Up on the topmost battlements of the West Tower, Mirabella takes some air with Bree and Elizabeth.

‘Not even Pepper likes to be up this high,’ Elizabeth says. Inside her hood, the woodpecker chirps with agreement, and she edges away from the cutout in the stone.

‘He flies across mountains to ferry messages,’ says Bree, ‘yet he is afraid of the height of the tower?’

‘He flies across mountains, true, but never so far from the ground!’

Mirabella smiles as her friends talk. She leans back, lets the wind ruffle her black dress and whip through her hair. This is her favorite place in the capital by far. Or at least her favorite of what she has seen. She has been allowed only in the Volroy and the most secluded of its gardens, always flanked by armed queensguard soldiers. Up here on the battlements, though, the soldiers wait on the stairs just inside. Perhaps they do not care for heights either.

‘Come here.’ She holds her left hand out for Elizabeth to take. ‘I will not let you fly away.’

‘But will you let me?’ Bree asks, spinning, her elemental gift also delighting in the cold gusts and clouds. ‘You could call a gale to carry me out to sea and back again! Then set me down gently in the courtyard.’

‘Could I?’ Mirabella laughs.

‘It is so good to have you back again, Mira,’ says Elizabeth, grasping her hand tightly. ‘And I’m sure that the queen will allow you more freedom as soon as she declares your allegiance before the city.’ She sidles closer and Mirabella wraps her in her billowing black cloak. ‘The people will be so happy; even in the temple, there are rumblings of approval.’

‘That is surprising,’ says Mirabella. ‘Two queens together . . . two queens alive after an Ascension . . . It is not allowed to be.’

‘So perhaps now you see the truth of the temple,’ Bree says to Elizabeth. ‘It is not tradition but the word of the High Priestess that determines their course.’

‘Do not be so hard on them, Bree,’ Mirabella says when Elizabeth frowns. ‘They have seen things that no other generation has seen. The mist rising. A legion-cursed girl who is strong as a queen. Two traitor queens disappeared into the mist only to show up again alive and well. The temple does not know what to do. So they listen to Luca, because she is the Goddess’s voice to the people.’

In the whip of the wind, she cannot hear Bree’s muttered reply. But she sees the bitter twist of her lips, and it fills her with regret. When they were children, Bree was always so pious. Wild, of course, always wild, but she prayed at the temple every night with her eyes squeezed shut. Unlike Elizabeth, who has always understood the flaws and shortcomings of the priestesses, Bree’s faith was fragile. She held it up too high. And now she has lost it, unable to accept the temple’s human failings.

Bree wraps Elizabeth in her cloak from the other side. ‘When Queen Katharine announces your allegiance, she will want to present you to the people. When she does, you must make sure that you do not outshine her, Mira; even now that she is queen, she still feels so uncared for.’