Crush the King (Crown of Shards #3)(105)

“How did you do that?” I whispered.

Magic.

I blinked. Had the caladrius just . . . talked to me again?

The creature kept staring at me, then raised its wing and pointed it to the right.

“That way?” I asked. “I should go that way?”

The caladrius bobbed its head and shuffled on my palm again.

My father had always told me that caladriuses had powerful magic, but I hadn’t known they were strong and tough enough to survive a blast of magier power and then an actual fire. For the first time, I understood why Rocinda and Caxton—and whomever they had been working for—had wanted the creature for their own.

But it was a wild thing, and it deserved to be free, like all wild things did. So I lifted it up, staring into its gray-blue eyes.

“Thank you,” I murmured. “For saving me.”

The caladrius shuffled around again, bent down, and rubbed its soft head and feathers against my fingers. Then it spread its wings wide and took off, disappearing into the trees. I watched it go with a smile on my face.

But all too soon reality set in, reminding me that I needed to get out of here and find someone who would help me. So I headed over to Rocinda’s and Caxton’s knapsacks to see what I could take with me on my journey out of the cold, snowy woods . . .





My eyes fluttered open. For a moment, I thought I was still in the woods that awful night so long ago. But then I realized I was staring at the wall of a gray canvas tent, instead of the snow-dappled ground, and everything came rushing back to me.

Sneaking into the Mortan camp. Freeing the strixes and the caladrius. Sneaking back over to the island. Seeing Paloma win the tournament. Watching Maximus kill his own guard. Stepping onto the bridge and seeing the weather magiers’ tidal wave . . .

I shuddered at the horrible memory of that wall of water rising up. Even among all the horrible things I had been through over the past year, that image would haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life.

Low voices sounded, and I glanced over to my right.

Paloma, Sullivan, Serilda, Cho, Xenia, Auster. My friends were gathered around a table that had been set up along one of the tent walls. I didn’t see Leonidas, so the boy must be in his own tent. I wondered if Lyra had flown back here to find him. Probably.

My friends kept talking in soft voices. I lay still and listened to their conversation.

“We’ve gotten reports that the Mortans are massing on their side of the river. Guards and strixes are lined up on the rise at the edge of their camp.” Auster pointed to a spot on a map spread out on the table.

“Do you think the Mortans will actually fly across the river and invade Bellona?” Paloma asked in a worried voice.

“It’s too early to say,” Serilda murmured. “More likely, Maximus doesn’t want us sneaking into his camp again. That’s why he’s making such a strong show of force.”

“But what if you’re wrong?” Sullivan asked. “What if he comes here and tries to kill Evie again? The strixes could easily fly across the river and swoop down into our camp.”

“Then we’ll fight the bastards off,” Xenia replied. “Just the way we’ve been doing for months now . . .”

My friends kept discussing the movements of the Mortan soldiers and strixes, and the scent of their collective worry hung like a wet blanket in the air. But there was only one way to end this now—my plan of last resort.

Perhaps I had always known that it would come to this, ever since the Seven Spire massacre. After all, it was a grand Bellonan tradition and how my kingdom had been founded. It seemed fitting that I should defend it the same way all these centuries later.

As much as I wanted to rest, I couldn’t let my friends deal with the fallout of Maximus’s latest attack by themselves. Queens did not have the luxury of lounging around in bed, not even after they’d almost been assassinated—again.

“Well, I say that we forget our problems and go to the ball,” I drawled, sitting up on the bed.

My friends whirled around at the sound of my voice, then rushed forward.

“Evie! Evie!”

“Are you okay, highness?”

“How are you feeling?”

The questions tumbled out of their mouths one after another, and their chatter made me smile. On the bridge, I had thought I would never hear their voices again, but here we were, all safe and sound, and I couldn’t stop smiling at that.

“I’m fine. Really. No doubt thanks to Aisha and her healing magic.” I looked around for the bone master, but she wasn’t here.

“Aisha went to check on Leonidas,” Serilda said. “The boy was still a bit shaken up, so she was going to make sure he was okay. Lyra flew back to camp. She’s in the tent with him.”

Good. I was glad the boy had a friend right now.

“Aisha was here, but she said that you were exhausted more than anything else,” Cho chimed in. “She told us to let you rest, and that you would wake up when your strength returned.”

I did feel extremely tired, but there was nothing Aisha or any other bone master could do about that. My body would just have to recover in its own time, even though time was something that was in short supply right now.

Auster gestured at the map again. “We were just talking about what course of action we should take next.”