Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(29)

‘But you know her, don’t you?’ Jules asks. ‘If she’s needed, she’ll do it anyway.’





INDRID DOWN TEMPLE




The initiate priestess leads Mirabella, disguised in a hood and veil, through the austere interior of Indrid Down Temple, past the rows and rows of pews in carefully preserved oiled walnut, and past the Goddess Stone that winks to her from behind its barrier of ropes. She leads her behind the altar and through the cloister and up, up, up the stairs that lead to the room Luca has taken for herself. Or rather, that she has taken back. Her old quarters from the time before she came to know Mirabella and before she abandoned the capital and the semblance of neutrality to live with her in Rolanth.

Mirabella inhales and smells cold stone. There are so many stairs that her legs have begun to burn. They must be high enough to lean out a window and pat the heads of Arsinoe’s favorite gargoyles.

‘I hope you will forgive the distance,’ says the priestess ahead of her, carrying a torch to light the path. ‘Many were surprised when the High Priestess elected to reclaim her old rooms. We had thought to prepare some more comfortable space on the ground floor.’

The ground floor. Luca would never submit to that. She would force them to carry her up and down on their backs first.

They reach Luca’s door, and the initiate bobs a curtsy and takes her leave, a little careless with her torch as she passes it near Mirabella’s face. Perhaps the girl had the gift of fire before she came to the temple and has not yet learned to be mindful of it.

Mirabella knocks once and enters Luca’s chamber. What she sees inside is so familiar that for a moment she is transported across the island to those afternoons in Rolanth when she would race up to the High Priestess’s quarters for tea.

‘Look at you,’ Luca says, bent over her desk and pouring a steaming cup. ‘Out and about, with no escort.’

‘The queensguard is waiting below with the carriage,’ Mirabella says. She pushes back her hood and removes her veil, walking to one of Luca’s couches piled always with too many soft pillows. She unfastens her cloak and slings it across the arm. Then she nods to the tea. ‘Honey and lemon?’

‘Honey and preserved lemon,’ Luca replies. ‘Fresh fruit will become a distant memory if the problem of the mist is not resolved soon. None of the importers from the mainland have been able to make it through. Or none of them have dared return once they heard what was happening.’

‘The naturalists will look after the island when the spring comes.’

‘Not even they grow lemons and oranges. We simply do not have the climate.’ She sets the tray of tea on the table between the couches and hands Mirabella her cup. ‘The way you speak. “The naturalists will look after the island.” The island. Not “us”. As if you are not a part of it. What wonders there must be on the mainland to claim you after so little time.’

‘Yet I am here. Serving the island. Doing my duty, as you said.’ Mirabella sets her cup down without drinking. Neither sit, and Luca manages to make standing look very comfortable, sipping her tea with her eyebrows raised, back straight and shoulders loose as if her old bones have never felt a single ache. ‘You seem younger here than you did in Rolanth, High Priestess. The air off Bardon Harbor must agree with you.’

Luca smiles.

‘Why did you want to see me?’ Mirabella asks.

‘Because I finally could! Now that you have found your way into the queen’s favor, I need not avoid you any longer. You must have realized that my not coming to see you was not without cause.’

‘I am sure you never do anything without cause.’

Luca picks up a plate of biscuits and offers them: meringues topped with custard and a bright spot of jam. Mirabella’s favorite. She takes one off the plate.

‘How are you enjoying the capital now, with your newfound freedom? How are you finding your time with your younger sister?’

Mirabella frowns, looking down at the meringue. She is very hungry. And though she would prefer to snub everything Luca offers, Arsinoe would not want her to waste food.

‘She is calling me Mirabella Mistbane,’ Mirabella says, and Luca chuckles. ‘She has ordered special armor to be made for us both. Silver breastplates engraved with clouds and lightning for me and skulls and snakes for her. She wants to parade me beside her through the city.’ She glances at Luca. ‘Are her moods always so changeable?’

‘Queen Katharine is quick to hate,’ Luca replies. ‘But she will forgive you anything the moment you show her the smallest kindness. You and she share many traits, though they manifest in different ways. You are both softhearted. And you are both lethal.’

‘Lethal.’ Mirabella looks Luca square in the face. ‘How is Katharine able to ingest so much poison?’

‘Her poison gift is strong.’

‘She has no poison gift,’ says Mirabella. ‘Arsinoe is the poisoner.’

‘Perhaps there were two.’

‘Not according to Willa.’ Mirabella’s eyes narrow. ‘Yet I have seen Katharine swallow poison after poison as if every meal is a Gave Noir. How? What low magic did you and Natalia Arron work on her to turn her into such a . . . talented queen?’

Luca scoffs. ‘There was no low magic. No tricks. I was not working in secret with the Arrons. Up until the last, I was working in secret for you. Which is why I know you so well.’ She lowers her voice. ‘I know it was not truly my words that swayed you to the crown. What are you doing here, really? What are you up to?’