Crush the King (Crown of Shards #3)(29)
Once again, a bit of warm, sweet honey hope oozed through me. I let myself feel that hope for a moment before ruthlessly quashing it and latching on to the other emotion that it roused in me—cold, cold rage.
Serilda stared out into the dark, snowy night a moment longer, then blinked and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I wish I could be more help.”
“You’ve been plenty of help. You brought me sangria.” I toasted her, then drained the rest of the fruity liquid and set my empty glass aside. Time to get down to business.
“I already asked Auster to increase the number of guards patrolling the city plazas, and he and Xenia have their spies searching for more information about the geldjagers. Now we need to talk about how we’re going to respond to this latest attack.”
Serilda snorted and waved her glass toward the bodies hanging in the plaza. “I think you responded quite clearly.”
I shook my head. “That was only the beginning. I mean how we’re going to respond during the Regalia.”
“What do you have in mind?”
I gestured at the silver signet ring and the gold-coin pendant lying on the wall. “Maeven, the Bastard Brigade, and now the DiLucri bounty hunters. The Mortan king just keeps sending people to kill me.”
“So?”
“So I’m tired of always being the one on the defensive. We need to beat the Mortans at their own game, and the Regalia is the perfect opportunity. The Mortan king and the DiLucris will be there, maybe even Maeven too. No doubt they’ll try to assassinate me again. Whatever they do, however they come at us, we need to strike back at them even more viciously. We need to end the threat they represent to us, to Bellona, once and for all.”
Serilda’s eyes narrowed with understanding. “You want to kill the Mortan king during the Games.”
“I want to fucking crush the king.” I slammed my fist down on top of the wall. “I want to take away every little thing he cares about, no matter how small it is. I want to hobble him, break him, and yes, I especially want to bloody kill him. But only after he’s felt some of the pain that I have. He crushed my hope, my heart tonight, with his damn Blair rumor, and I want to crush his in return.”
My words echoed out into the night air, although the wind and snow quickly drowned them. But they couldn’t douse the cold, cold rage flowing through my veins with every beat of my heart.
“Diante told me earlier that I needed to do more of that.” I gestured at the dead geldjagers. “And she is absolutely right. I have to go on the offensive, and I can’t think of a better way to do that than by assassinating the Mortan king during the Regalia.”
“How do you want to kill him?” Serilda asked, ever practical about such matters.
I shrugged. “Shoot an arrow into his throat. Poison his wine. Bash in his skull with a brick. I don’t care how he dies, only that he does.”
“Very well,” she replied. “We’ll start working on it tomorrow. Auster, Cho, and I can talk about arrows and the like. Xenia and Sullivan will probably have some ideas about potential poisons. And I’m sure that Paloma would be quite happy to bash in the king’s skull with her mace.”
I sighed. “And that’s the problem. I want to kill the king, but I don’t want to lose anyone doing it. His death doesn’t mean more to me than your lives. I want you to know that.”
Sympathy filled Serilda’s face. “I do know that, just as you know that we would all give our lives for you, for Bellona. Don’t worry, Evie. We’ll find a way to keep you from having to make that choice.”
My gaze flicked over the many spires that decorated the city rooftops, the ones gleaming like freshly sharpened gladiator swords. I already knew of one way to potentially kill the Mortan king, although I didn’t mention it, given the inherent dangers. That way, the traditional Bellonan way, would be my last resort, a card I would play only if all else failed.
Perhaps it wouldn’t come to that, but if it did, then it would be my choice, my decision, my sacrifice as queen. And I would make it just as gladly as Serilda and the others would lay down their lives for me.
Serilda tipped back her glass, draining the rest of her sangria. Then she grinned and poured us both some more of the sweet liquid. She handed my glass back to me, then tinked hers against mine again.
That one crystalline note rang out loud and clear, summoning up that phantom music in my mind again. I listened to the rhythm and started thinking about the best ways to deal with my enemies.
“Well, then, there’s only one thing left to say, my queen,” Serilda purred, her grin taking on a hard, sharp edge. “Let the games begin.”
Part Two
Games People Play
Chapter Seven
The morning of the first day of the Regalia dawned bright and clear, and I stood at the top of a rocky ridge at the edge of the Bellonan camp. Sullivan, Paloma, Serilda, Cho, Auster, Xenia. My friends were standing in a line with me, and we were all staring out at the spectacle before us.
The Summanus River emptied into a large natural harbor that stretched all the way over to Fortuna Island, where the cold, churning river currents mixed with the warmer ones of the Blue Glass Sea. Ships of all shapes and sizes were anchored in the harbor, and my gaze moved from one vessel to another, studying the flags they were flying.