Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(84)

She is not afraid, this time. Not wary or even apprehensive. This time, she knows why she has come.

‘Don’t be shy, Daphne,’ Arsinoe whispers. ‘You owe me.’

She stares into the blackness at the shape of the stones. Finally, she gets up and stalks into the dark.

‘I didn’t come all this way to speak to a hole in the ground.’ She waits. Any moment, Daphne will appear: a dripping shape, fingers tipped in sharp points and legs that stretch too long and bend in unnatural directions.

Except that she does not. Arsinoe leans over the side of the stones, suspending herself above the abyss. Once, in her dreams, she had thought of Daphne as a friend. Perhaps she had even thought of her as a part of herself. She does not anymore.

‘Come out of there!’ she shouts, and listens to her voice ring off the depths. ‘Mirabella is dead! And the mist remains! Did you ever really think it could be quieted? Or did you only want to see another dead elemental queen?’ The questions hang in the air and echo back to her unanswered. She sees no movement in the shadows, no drifting bits of smoke. Nor does she sense her hidden behind the stones.

Arsinoe reaches for her small sharp knife. She makes a shallow cut on the side of her hand and smears it against the cave wall. She squeezes her fist and lets her queensblood drip down, down, down to the heart of the island. But the mountain is empty. Daphne is gone and whatever force raised her is once again silent. She will be of no help to them.

They are on their own.





THE REBEL CAMP




‘It wasn’t easy,’ Jules says as she and Caragh look down upon the army from Jules’s campsite on the knoll. ‘But we did it.’ They moved an entire fighting force through the mountains. Below, rebels set up tents and construct temporary paddocks for the horses. Thanks to the naturalists, almost none were lost to lameness despite the uncertain and rocky terrain.

‘The rebels are rebels no more,’ says Caragh. ‘They’re soldiers.’ She inclines her head toward Jules. ‘Arsinoe should have caught up with us by now. Maybe she’s just lingering with Braddock.’

‘Maybe you should go back and see.’ Jules looks at her aunt from the corner of her eye.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean I want you to go back.’

‘Absolutely not.’ Caragh shakes her head. ‘Your mother is gone. I’m no warrior, but I won’t let you go alone.’

‘I’m not alone.’

‘But I’m all that—’ Caragh stops.

Jules looks at her. Caragh raised her, when Madrigal left. She taught her how to use her gift. And those years she spent away at the Black Cottage were all for her. For Jules. No one makes Jules feel safe like Caragh does. Even now, when she would ask for no more, all Jules wants is for Caragh to stay.

‘I need you to go back. For Fenn.’

‘Fenn has Matthew,’ Caragh says, but her face falls.

‘I need you to go back for the others, to get them to safety if we fail. Every Milone’s life will be forfeit if we lose, and I can’t let that happen to Grandma Cait and Ellis. I need you in Sunpool to help the others fall back to Wolf Spring. And from there to disappear. Take my little brother. Take Matthew. And don’t let Katharine find you.’

‘Jules,’ Caragh says. She reaches out and hugs her tightly, like she has not done since Jules was a little girl. Too soon, she turns and walks away. ‘I’ll go,’ she says over her shoulder. ‘And if I see Arsinoe, I’ll send her in the right direction.’

Caragh heads quickly down the hill, and passes Emilia on her way up.

‘Caragh?’ Emilia calls. ‘Caragh, where are you going?’ She joins Jules at her campsite. ‘Where is Caragh going?’

‘I sent her back.’

Emilia stares after her, as if considering the loss of another fighter. But then she nods.

‘Good. I’m glad.’

‘Arsinoe should have caught up with us by now.’

‘She’ll be here,’ Emilia says, unconcerned.

‘We should send a scout back to look for her.’

‘Mmph,’ Emilia grunts.

‘Is that a yes? I haven’t figured out how to interpret all of your noises yet.’ She nudges the warrior in the shoulder. Emilia swats her away.

‘Do not try to disarm me.’ She glances at Jules, annoyed. ‘And it was a no. We will not waste scouts. The battle is ahead, not behind.’

‘You know we need her and Daphne to stand against Katharine and whatever Katharine controls. What she did in Bastian—’

‘We only need you,’ Emilia snaps. ‘Our Legion Queen. I hope that Arsinoe falls down that hole inside the cave. I hope she and her dead queen leave us in peace.’

‘You don’t mean that, and you don’t believe it. You’re brave, but you’re not stupid.’ Jules looks down at the army, and stiffens. She cannot forget the things she saw in the warriors’ city. The brutality of it. And the utter onesidedness.

‘Are you afraid?’ Emilia asks.

‘Of course I am. Aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’ She grins. ‘But the war gift . . . I enjoy the fear. I drink it like ale. Do you not feel that?’ She turns to Jules and runs a finger along her chin. The touch and the look set off something deep in the pit of Jules’s stomach. Something that feels both familiar and completely new. ‘Do you not like it, even a little bit?’ Jules takes a shaky breath, and Emilia steps closer to take her face in her hands.