Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns, #4)(98)

The clearing around them grows as those fighting nearby stop to stare. But even the spectators flee when the mist comes.

The dead queens land a fearsome blow and send their opponent rolling. At the sight of the mist, they screech and use the priestess’s war gift to wrench the battle-ax out of the ground. With two weapons, they greet their two enemies.

The legion curse attacks, slashing with sword and short dagger, using the war gift as a shield, but the dead queens are not afraid. They lash out, their rage their strength, cutting, bashing, stomping until they hear bones snap.

When the mist curls around their legs, they feel its chill. But they are still not afraid. They sweep their ax through the mist like they will cleave it in two.

They are distracted. They do not see her get up and brace on one leg. They do not see her leap, making the broken bone shatter.

The sword and the dagger sear into their flesh and pierce deep large holes that pour dead, black blood, and the dead queens drop the ax to try and hold themselves inside.

They leak out into the air, sensing Katharine nearby, and fly to her, pouring out of Rho as the body of the priestess collapses to the dirt. They leave her, and the hated Legion Queen, behind. They do not look back when the mist sweeps in to tear the empty sack of Rho Murtra to shreds.





THE VOLROY




Arsinoe shakes her cut hand, sending droplets of blood spattering against the Volroy’s stone floor.

‘Here,’ Pietyr says, and hands her his handkerchief.

‘Those poisoner manners.’ She wraps the cut. ‘I’m glad I never learned them.’

They walk together, deeper into the Volroy, and Pietyr keeps her abreast of the turns. He whispers which rooms are which and tells her where they might try. She lets him do it to feel useful. He does not know that she once lived a life through Daphne’s eyes and knows pathways through the castle that he has no idea of.

They round a corner and come upon a small green space, a walled garden that Arsinoe remembers well.

‘What is it?’ Pietyr asks when she lingers.

‘This was the Blue Queen’s favorite garden. Illiann, she used to sit here for hours.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I know lots of things that I shouldn’t know.’ She looks at him sideways. She should not be going to Katharine with him. It does not matter that he said he would not interfere or that he swore to overthrow the crown. Hearts in love are unpredictable, and once he sees Katharine, all of his promises may be forgotten.

‘Am I going to have trouble with you?’

‘I told you you would not.’

‘The word of an Arron?’

‘It means more than the word of a Milone.’

‘I doubt that,’ Arsinoe says, and snorts. But the Milones have done their share of wrongs and kept their share of secrets. Just like the Arrons. And like the temple.

‘You should be more worried about Katharine, in any case. You know what she is. How strong she is, thanks to the borrowed gifts, and how good she is with weapons. You know she is likely to kill you.’

‘We are likely to kill each other,’ Arsinoe says, her voice hard. ‘Yes, I know.’

She takes a deep breath. She hears Mirabella and Jules saying how foolhardy she is. How she never thinks anything through. But they would only say that because they love her. Deep down, they know as well as she does that this task can fall to no one else.

Quick as a cat, she draws her knife and shoves Pietyr against the wall, pressing the edge to his neck.

‘If I were smart,’ she says, ‘I would kill you. So tell me why I shouldn’t.’

‘Because I am an ally. Because I swore I would not stop you.’

She presses the blade harder against his skin.

‘Liar.’

Pietyr grimaces at the pressure of the knife, but he is not really afraid. He looks at her with his usual amount of disdain.

‘Then I will tell you the whole truth to prove that I am not what you say.’

‘The whole truth?’

‘In order to reach you on the battlefield, I had to stab your boy, Billy.’

For a moment, she cannot believe what she has heard. Then she pulls him forward and slams him back into the wall, hard enough to make him believe she has the war gift.

‘You what?’

‘I did not kill him. But he refused to let me by. He seemed to think I had nefarious plans for you. He is rather gallant for a mainland idiot.’

‘You stabbed him?’

‘Yes. But I did not kill him.’

‘How do you know? How do you know for sure?’

‘A poisoner knows the body,’ he says. ‘We know where to cut to make you feel it. We know how deep to make the blood run. And we also know how to keep you alive, to prolong the suffering.’

‘If there was poison on your knife, I swear—’

He shakes his head as much as he is able to without being cut.

‘There was none. The weapons were provided to me on the march, and I have been watched and searched regularly. When would I have had the chance?’

Arsinoe holds him for a long moment. Then she steps back, and Pietyr rubs at his neck.

‘I did not have to tell you that,’ he says. ‘But I am being honest. So please believe me when I say I will not interfere with you and Katharine. I just need to be there.’