Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(54)

The guards loosen their grip and allow Billy to stand on his own.

‘You do not care for me,’ Rho says. ‘Nor I for you. Not even when we were in Rolanth, when you served as Mirabella’s taster and we were on the same side. But I was the last person to be with your father. So if you would know anything, you may ask.’

‘And that is supposed to make it better? Make us even?’

‘I do not seek to make us even. I do not know who my father was. So there is no “even”.’

Billy glares at her impassive face. Rho might as well be made of stone. Only someone who has known her as long as Mirabella has, or Luca has, could see the markers of weariness, and perhaps of compassion, on her features.

‘What . . . ,’ Billy starts, and swallows. ‘What happened?’ ‘I came upon him in one of the rooms in the East Tower. A room Natalia used as a study. She was on the ground, and he was choking her to death.’

Billy looks away, his expression disgusted. ‘Go on. Tell me everything.’

‘When he stood up, I put my knife into his ribs. He had not seen me coming. But I was too late, and Natalia was already dead.’

‘Did he . . . say anything?’

‘He wheezed. A little blood came out. I cannot say whether he was trying to speak or to scream.’

‘You,’ Billy gasps. ‘You murdering—’

‘He was a murderer,’ Rho interrupts, and her voice booms through the throne room. ‘Afterward, I had him wrapped in a rug and thrown into the river. No one has found him or at least not that I have heard.’

‘And that’s it.’

‘Yes. That is all.’

Mirabella bows her head as Billy bares his teeth, as he strains against the guards. He has never been quick to anger. Seeing it transform him so is ugly to behold.

‘I’m going to kill you when I get out of here,’ he says.

‘It is easy to make threats when you are in shackles and under the queen’s protection. I killed a murderer, and I do not regret it, though I do regret that you suffer. What you feel is up to you, but your father did not strike me as someone to be mourned heavily.’

They are silenced by the throne room doors being thrown open and the other two prisoners marched inside. The guards bring them nearly to Mirabella’s feet in the aisle and force them to their knees before the queen.

‘Well?’ Katharine asks.

‘Well, what?’ asks Mirabella.

‘Do you know them?’

She looks down, and the guards jerk the prisoners’ heads up and to the right so that Mirabella can better see their faces.

‘I do not.’

‘How is that possible? You were in the rebel city for weeks.’

‘I was. But the rebels were many and varied. New war-gifted arrived from Bastian City every day.’

Katharine studies her quietly. Then she exhales and reclines again upon her throne. ‘They will have to be questioned.’

Mirabella swallows. Everyone on the island knows what is meant when a poisoner says that someone must be ‘questioned.’

‘Genevieve will do it; she is the best.’ Katharine waves her wrist. ‘Start right away.’

‘No.’ Mirabella squares her shoulders. ‘They were here to free me.’

‘Free you? And why would you need to be freed?’

‘It was a misguided attempt. They thought—I was being kept here against my will.’

‘Did you not leave a note?’ Genevieve asks sarcastically. Mirabella ignores her. ‘They would have disrupted the parade and used the distraction to facilitate my escape. I told them not to do it. That is why I seemed nervous before the parade began.’

‘Because you thought they would help you escape,’ Katharine says softly.

‘Because I feared they would try to make me. That is why I asked you to take hold of my horse’s rein.’

Luca sighs. ‘Why did you not say something?’

‘I hoped I would not have to.’

‘But there were rebels in the city. And you knew.’

‘Yes,’ says Mirabella. ‘And Billy Chatworth is my friend. I make no secret of that.’ Finally, given the excuse, she looks at Billy again. But his expression is unreadable.

‘How did you communicate with them?’ Katharine asks, and Mirabella looks back at her. ‘You said you told them not to. How did they get word to you? How did you respond?’

‘By bird,’ Mirabella lies. She cocks her head at Genevieve. ‘I trust you will not “question” every sparrow that makes her nest upon the Volroy.’

Genevieve narrows her eyes, and they wait. Katharine has gone still. Such stillness does not seem as dangerous to Mirabella as it once did, when all she knew of her youngest sister was that she was a snake and likely to strike. But there are no easy answers for what to do with the rebels. Or with Billy.

‘The secret of these prisoners has been kept already for a night and a day. But we cannot keep it for much longer.’

‘All of Indrid Down should know about their capture,’ says Genevieve. ‘It will be the most festive month on record. A parade and a public execution.’

‘Or perhaps they should not know,’ suggests Luca. ‘It may make the people uneasy, that rebels were so near. We do not want to shake their confidence in the crown right after we have bolstered it.’