Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(30)

‘Only what you told me to do. I am protecting the island, and trying to solve the puzzle that is my sister.’

‘And what will you do when you solve it? Whatever secrets she keeps do not matter. She is crowned.’

‘So much loyalty,’ Mirabella says bitterly.

‘You learn to love the queen you have. You know this. Had you won the throne, you would have found Arrons lining up to become your allies. It is no different.’

Except it feels different. Mirabella would have expected that the Arrons would quickly change their colors. Arrons are changeable and lack conviction. But it was a shock to come to the capital and find that Katharine had won over her two best friends.

‘Perhaps I am being silly,’ she says, and to her surprise, Luca steps forward and embraces her, patting her lightly on the shoulder.

‘It is not silly, Mira. It is natural. As subjects, we must love our queen. But we have always loved you. And we are all glad that you have come home to us.’

Mirabella takes the old woman’s hand. That familiar, wrinkled hand with its practical, short-clipped fingernails, the knuckles slightly swollen with age. She lowers her head and kisses it, and smells the almond oil that Luca massages into her skin.

‘Are you truly glad?’ she asks. ‘Do you really still love me?’

‘Mira.’ Luca’s brow knits. ‘What is the matter?’

‘I should not say,’ Mirabella says, her eyes fixed upon Luca’s hands. ‘For I do not know if I can trust you. But I am going to ask you anyway, because I am lost here and without a confidant. And because you did love me, once . . .’ She looks up at the High Priestess and finds her soft blue irises trembling.

‘Before Madrigal Milone died, she told me something about Katharine. “She is full of the dead.” That is what Madrigal Milone said, just before her life ran out into the snow at Innisfuil. What did she mean?’

Mirabella waits, and Luca pulls her hand free.

‘I have no idea. She was dying. Perhaps she was rambling. Perhaps you misheard.’

Mirabella studies the High Priestess carefully. Her expression is haunted but not confused. ‘I did not mishear. You know something. You want to tell me.’

‘What do you mean I want to tell you?’ Luca brushes her away and turns, walking to her desk to open drawers and move papers without purpose.

‘You have lied to me many times, Luca, and I have never been able to tell. So if I can tell now, it is because in your heart you want me to know.’ She follows the High Priestess to her desk and grasps her by the arms.

‘“She is full of the dead,”’ Luca whispers.

‘Yes. What did she mean?’

‘A thought forms in my mind . . .’

Mirabella waits as Luca thinks, her eyes distant. ‘Tell me.’

But Luca jerks herself loose. ‘It is not certain yet. And I will not speak against the queen.’

‘Not even if that queen is a danger?’

‘A danger to who?’

Mirabella sighs hard through her nose. She picks up her cloak to leave and moves for the door. She will find no answers here. The best she can hope for is that Luca will not go running straight to Katharine to advise Mirabella be executed by poison in the square. But as she reaches for the doorknob, Luca speaks.

‘I will not speak against the queen,’ she says again. ‘It is not my place. But if someone were to speak’—she looks at Mirabella meaningfully—‘that someone would be Pietyr Renard.’

Pietyr Renard. And just how was she supposed to get to Pietyr Renard? By all accounts, he was unconscious, at Greavesdrake. And Katharine would be sure to keep her beloved under heavy guard. Besides, if she ran directly to him the moment she had the slightest freedom, Katharine would guess her true intentions.

Mirabella presses her lips together in frustration as she fumbles with the tangle of her veil. Back in Sunpool, the rebellion is still gathering, and Emilia will lead them to attack in the spring. By then she must know all there is to know about Katharine, if she is to find a way to bring peace back to the island.

‘And then Arsinoe and I will leave,’ she says out loud. She says it out loud, because with each passing day, she believes it less and less. Dangerous as her presence in Indrid Down is, she feels more at home in the capital than she ever did on the mainland. The mainland is strange rules and limitations, imposed traditions to keep things orderly. But this—this is what she was raised for: intrigue and political movements.

Veil still crumpled in her hands, she steps into the corridor directly beside the initiate priestess, who gasps when she sees who she has escorted up the stairs.

‘Oh!’ Mirabella’s eyes widen. She pretends to try to hide herself. ‘I was not expecting you to be waiting!’

The initiate, flustered, tries to look everywhere else but at Mirabella’s face.

‘It is all right,’ Mirabella whispers when she has put her disguise back on. ‘The Queen Crowned knows I am here, though my presence must remain a secret.’

‘I won’t speak a word!’

‘Good. I thank you.’ She squeezes the girl’s hands, and the initiate sinks into a fast, low curtsy. Mirabella quickly tugs her back up. Her respectfulness will get them caught. ‘But, as long as I am here, might you be able to sneak me into the temple library? Hidden away in the Volroy, I am afraid I am dreadfully bored. I would enjoy exploring the temple collection, if only for a few hours. I would require somewhere private.’