Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(33)

‘No, I will do it,’ Katharine says, and takes up the tubing in her hand.

‘Look how you are trembling. Let me do it. I am very deft, I promise.’

Reluctantly, Katharine gives it over, and Genevieve lubricates the tube with oil. She tilts Pietyr’s head back, and Katharine holds her breath as Genevieve guides it smoothly down his throat. He does not fight it much before the reflex swallows it down.

‘The funnel.’

Katharine hands it to her, and she affixes it to the end of the tube.

‘How are you faring with Mirabella, Katharine?’ Genevieve asks as she spoons the vegetable mash. ‘You say she is here by your invitation, but I know you. I am surprised you have not killed her already.’

‘Perhaps you do not know me as well as you think. I am not so bloodthirsty as to place my own vengeance above the interests of my island.’

‘And what if your bloodthirst is at the very heart of the island’s interests?’

‘What are you talking about?’ Genevieve knows something. Her lilac eyes are narrowed with contentment.

‘There,’ she says as the last of the mash goes down the tube. She reaches for the goblet of water and sniffs. It has been infused with hemlock.

‘It is Pietyr’s favorite.’

‘A nice addition. It is important to nurture his poison gift as he recovers.’ Genevieve pours it slowly, flushing the last of the food down into Pietyr’s stomach. Then she carefully removes the tube and wipes his mouth.

‘I have received an interesting report from my spies in Sunpool. It seems the rebellion has found a solution for the problem of the attacking mist.’

‘What solution?’

‘The death of an elemental queen.’

Katharine scoffs. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I would not have believed it either, had I not also previously discovered this during my research into the Blue Queen.’ She reaches into her pocket and pulls out pages of ancient-looking parchment. She hands them to Katharine. ‘But the call for the death of an elemental queen, when put together with this, makes the puzzle complete.’

Katharine unfolds the pages. They appear to be from a journal of some kind. ‘This is from the journal of Henry Redville,’ she says. ‘Queen Illiann’s king-consort.’

‘I know,’ Genevieve muses. ‘It is a lucky thing they were even kept. For who preserves the thoughts of a king-consort?’

Katharine reads on. What follows in the pages is a largely rambling account of a man wracked with guilt, and quite possibly in his cups. It is a confession of sorts. Written to Queen Illiann as if she was not there and had been gone for many years.

‘Why would the death of an elemental queen stop the mist?’ Katharine asks.

‘Because according to Henry Redville, the death of an elemental queen was what formed it in the first place.’ Genevieve gestures to the pages. ‘Read on.’

Katharine’s eyes move feverishly across the scrawling hand of the king-consort. It is a muddled composition, so full of apologies that Katharine wants to slap him, though he is long, long dead. ‘“Please forgive Daphne, who has continued to love you as her sister,”’ Katharine reads aloud. ‘“Please forgive me, who was not strong enough to repel the Selkan attack. Your death upon the cliffs that night haunts us both, and we have often been unable to enjoy our happiness, as it came at the loss of you. Sometimes I wonder if this is truly what you would have wanted, but they insisted that the line of queens must go on, and Daphne was still a queen . . .”’ Katharine stops. ‘What is he speaking of? Her death? The Blue Queen reigned in peace after the creation of the mist for another forty years!’

‘Did she? Not according to that. No, Queen Illiann was killed, by who he does not say, and after her body created the mist, this . . . Daphne . . . was put on the throne to rule in her place.’

‘But the Blue Queen’s sisters were all to have been put to death, days after birth. Could this Daphne have really been a queen?’

‘Enough of a queen to fool the populace for another forty years. Enough of a queen to bear the sacred triplets.’ Genevieve looks at the yellowed papers. ‘I cannot say for sure—there is no record of a triplet born under the name Daphne—but I think she is actually the other elemental born: Roxane. It would have been the only way for their deception to work.’

‘Queen Illiann replaced by another queen.’ A Queen Crowned replaced so easily.

Genevieve stands and takes the pages back, folding them and returning them to her pocket. ‘I have done as you asked. Become your eyes and ears. So now we know why Mirabella truly fled the rebellion. Because they planned to kill her to put an end to the mist.’

Katharine looks at her. ‘And now you would have me do the same. When I have given her my word she would be safe.’

‘Her safety or the safety of the island,’ Genevieve says, weighing them on her hands.

‘She has already secured the safety of the island. She fought the mist and won.’

‘She fought the mist, yes, but she did not win. Not for good. It will return. We should kill her now, and put an end to one threat at least.’

‘No.’ Katharine shakes her head. ‘Not yet.’

‘Why not?’

‘I do not know. I only sense that I need her.’ For what? Not even she can say for sure. To help her rid herself of the dead queens? But how? She cannot allow the dead queens to set one foot inside her powerful sister.