Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2)(122)

What could possibly be happening on the lawn? I eyed my friend, but she didn’t say anything else.

By this point, I was getting annoyed, so I got to my feet and walked down the dais steps. The nobles moved aside, and I marched past them, heading for the closed double doors at the far end of the throne room.

“My queen?” Fullman called out. “Where are you going?”

“To see what the bloody noise is,” I snapped back.

Two guards opened the doors at my approach. I glanced over my shoulder. Paloma and Auster had fallen in step behind me, as had all the nobles. Everyone wanted to see what was going on.

I quickly made my way through the hallways, pushed through the glass doors that led out to the royal lawn, and stepped outside. I looked around, but the lawn was empty, except for a few servants going about their chores. Still, the sound was much louder here than it had been inside, and I realized that it wasn’t coming from the royal lawn—it was echoing up to it from somewhere down below.

I looked over my shoulder. Paloma and Captain Auster were still behind me, and Serilda, Cho, and Xenia had joined them, along with the nobles and everyone else who’d been in the throne room. The nobles were as confused as I was, but my friends looked at me expectantly, as if I should know exactly what was happening.

Finally, Paloma rolled her eyes and pointed at the wall that cordoned off the lawn. “Maybe you should check out the view, Evie.”

I frowned at her again, but I walked over to the wall and peered down, still trying to find the sound of that loud ringing noise. Everyone followed me, lined up along the wall, and stared down at the river and bridges below.

“Look!” Cho said, his voice booming out. “Down there! At the end of the Pureheart Bridge!”

I peered in that direction. A man was standing at the far end of the Pureheart Bridge, right beside the Heartsong Bell—and he was ringing it.

Over and over again, the man pulled on the long rope, making the clapper bang against the inside of the bell and emit a loud, pealing noise. I lifted my hand to shade my eyes from the sun and squinted, trying to make out his features. The man moved around to the front of the bell where I could see him, and my breath caught in my throat.

Sullivan.

He was the one yanking on the rope, and he was the one making the bell chime. He’d already attracted quite a crowd on that side of the river, and more and more people hurried in that direction, eager to see what was going on.

Behind me, a soft, resigned sigh sounded. “Damn,” Diante murmured. “I wish I’d thought of that.”

I kept staring at Sullivan, still not quite believing that he was here. “What is he doing?”

Paloma elbowed me in the side. “What does it look like he’s doing? He’s going to climb up here to get you. Isn’t that the grand Bellonan love tradition?”

“That idiot!” I hissed, even as my heart soared. “He’s going to fall and break his fool neck!”

But she was right, and that was exactly what Sullivan was doing. He rang the bell again, then looked up. He must have spotted me because he let go of the rope. Everyone on the lawn fell silent, as did the crowd gathered along the river. Sullivan waited until the last cheery echoes of the bell had faded away before he cupped his hands around his mouth.

“Queen Everleigh Saffira Winter Blair!” he yelled. “I’m here to profess my love to you and to prove it, in true Bellonan style! What do you say?”

I cupped my hands around my mouth and yelled back at him. “That you’re a fool and that you’re going to fall to your foolish death! Come up to the palace, and we can talk about this like normal people!”

Sullivan grinned, his eyes flashing like sapphires in the sunlight. “But we’re not normal people, highness. I may be a fool, but I’m a fool in love!”

Several people in the crowd down below aahed at his words, as did some of the nobles up here on the lawn. Even Captain Auster dabbed at the corner of his eye, as if he was suddenly overcome with emotion.

Sullivan turned to the crowd gathered around him and held his arms out wide just like I’d seen Cho do dozens of times during a gladiator show at the Black Swan arena. “Good people of Svalin! What do you say? Shall I take up this Bellonan challenge to prove my true love? Shall I put on a good show for you, along with my lady, my queen, up there high in her grand palace?”

The crowd roared in response, as did everyone on the lawn. How could they not?

Sullivan grinned up at me, then strode forward across the bridge.

“He’s actually serious,” I whispered. “He’s actually going to do it.”

“Of course he’s serious,” Paloma said. “He wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

I whirled around to my friend. “Did you know about this?”

Her smug grin, along with the one on the ogre on her neck, was all the confirmation I needed.

“But when— How—” I sputtered.

Paloma put her hands on my shoulders. “The when and the how don’t matter. Not right now. All that does is that he’s here.”

Her amber eyes gleamed with sincerity. She was right. Sullivan was here, and that was all that mattered.

A wide, crazy, happy grin spread across my face, and I turned back to the wall and looked down, as did everyone else on the lawn.

Sullivan was on this side of the bridge now, staring up at Seven Spire’s jagged cliff face and trying to figure out where to begin climbing. Finally, he picked a spot, stretched up a hand, and reached for the nearest rock.