Ash Princess (Ash Princess Trilogy #1)(116)

The door creaks open and Artemisia lingers in the frame, hair blue and silver again. She doesn’t have any reason to hide it anymore, after all.

“We’re approaching the Smoke—my mother’s ship,” she tells me, without any preamble. “You should get up and try to make yourself look somewhat queenlike.”

The barb doesn’t sting, mostly because I’m sure she’s right. My hair is stiff with seawater, and the bitter wind last night left my skin chapped and raw. I’m sure I don’t look like anyone’s queen right now.

“Get them up, too,” she adds, nodding to Blaise and Heron. Her eyes glide over S?ren’s sleeping form like he isn’t even there.

“Blaise needs sleep,” I say. “You and Heron and I can do this on our own.”

Art snorts, but she doesn’t argue. “You’ll tell him it was your idea when he wakes up, then. He’s not going to be happy he missed it.”

She slips away as silently as she came, and I lean over to where Heron is sleeping on the floor by the bed. I nudge his shoulder as gently as I can, but he still wakes with a jolt, hazel eyes wide and searching but seeing nothing. He gasps, but it sounds like he’s choking.

“Heron,” I say, keeping my voice soft even as his fingers grip my arm painfully tight. I know how nightmares like this work, and I know too well how to break the spell. “It’s just me. Theo,” I tell him, bringing my other hand on top of his. “You’re all right, we’re all right.”

He comes back to himself slowly, blinking away whatever nightmares haunted him. I watch them fade away behind his eyes, his gaze finally meeting mine.

“I’m so sorry, Your Majesty,” he says, sitting up and letting go of my hands. “I…I thought I was back in the mine for a moment.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me, Heron, though if we keep Art waiting much longer, she’ll demand a few apologies of her own,” I tell him. “And you can still call me Theo.”

He climbs to his feet, though he’s so tall he has to hunch over to keep from hitting his head on the low ceiling. He holds out a hand to help me stand, and I take it, more for the brief human contact than because I need help.

“All due respect, Your Majesty, but I’m not sure I can,” he says with a tired smile. “It’ll be important to remind Dragonsbane of not just who you are but what you are.”

My stomach clenches and I suddenly regret drugging Blaise’s tea. It’s selfish, but I can’t imagine facing Dragonsbane without him, after everything I’ve heard. I try not to let my fear show.

We meet Art on the deck, where she’s tethered us to a much larger ship with black sails that billow in the wind. Hundreds of expectant faces watch from its deck and the many porthole windows that dot its hull.

“You couldn’t have done anything with your hair?” Art snaps.

“With what? S?ren doesn’t keep an assortment of grooming products aboard, surprisingly,” I reply, matching her tone.

She rolls her eyes. “Then wave, at least, and smile. They’ll tell their grandchildren about this one day. The first time they saw Queen Theodosia.”

It’s a surprisingly optimistic thought from Artemisia, and I let it buoy me. There will be future generations of Astreans. We will survive. We have to. But as soon as I think that, a sadder thought shadows it.

“I’ll want to see Elpis’s mother and brother right away to relay my condolences,” I tell Artemisia.

She glances sideways at me, but Heron is the first to reply.

“I’d like to go with you, if you don’t mind,” he says quietly, and I realize he must feel as guilty as I do. He was supposed to fetch her from the Theyn’s after she administered the poison, but he wasn’t able to.

Artemisia clears her throat. “She died a hero. We’ll sing songs about her one day,” he says.”

“She was thirteen,” I say. “She was too young to be a hero. I should have let her be a child a little longer.”

“She never was a child,” Art protests, eyes steely as she stares at the deck of the Smoke, where a rope ladder is being lowered to us. “They took that away from her, and don’t you forget that. They’re the enemy. You gave her a chance to be something other than a victim, and she took it happily. That is her legacy, and turning her into a helpless victim tarnishes it. I’ll arrange for you to meet her family, but that is what you’re going to tell them. You didn’t kill Elpis. The Kaiser did.”

I’m too shocked to reply, and Heron must be as well. It’s a kinder sentiment than I ever expected from Artemisia, and though it doesn’t alleviate my guilt wholly, it does help a bit.

“Come on,” Art says when the ladder reaches us. “I’ll go first, then Theo. Heron, you bring up the rear in case she falls.”

“I won’t fall,” I scoff, though it suddenly occurs to me that I might. After the swimming and climbing yesterday, my arms feel limp and useless, but it’s a short climb, at least.

“There will be a crowd gathered,” Art continues, as if I hadn’t spoken. “I’ll push through it, so stay close to me. My mother will be waiting in her quarters, away from the madness.”

She takes ahold of the rope ladder and begins to climb. I wait until she’s a few feet up before following. The pain in my arms as I climb is almost a pleasant distraction from the worry rattling around my mind. I can feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on me, watching me like I’m someone worth watching—worth following—and I’m not sure I know how to be that person.