Crush the King (Crown of Shards #3)(46)
Heinrich was among the last to go, and he squeezed my arm before following Dominic off the terrace. Several guards flanked them, including Rhea, who had her hand on her sword. She might be Dominic’s unofficial consort, but she was also the captain of the Andvarian guards, and she was totally focused on protecting her king and prince. I wasn’t the only royal the Mortans wanted to kill.
I waited until the Andvarians had walked down the steps and disappeared from sight before leaving the terrace. Sullivan, Paloma, and Captain Auster formed a loose, protective semicircle around me, with the Bellonan guards behind them. Xenia had already left with Zariza and the Ungers, while Cho was still down on the arena floor, helping the workers get ready for the afternoon competitions.
My friends and I quickly walked down the bleacher steps, circled around the arena wall, and stepped through one of the open archways and back out onto the plaza. Auster sent the guards on ahead to scout our route and report back if there were any signs of trouble. No one spoke until we had left the plaza and the crowds behind and were heading down the hillside steps toward the waterfront.
“Well, that went better than I expected,” Paloma said, repeating her earlier sentiment.
I snorted. “Why? Because no one tried to kill me over cider and sweet cakes?”
She grinned. “That is a marked improvement from what usually happens whenever we leave Seven Spire.”
I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t disagree.
“Yes, it did go well,” Auster murmured, his head swiveling from side to side, examining everyone around us. “Perhaps a little too well.”
“What do you mean?” Sullivan asked.
Auster rubbed his thumb over the hilt of his sword as if the motion was helping him organize his thoughts. “Maximus had enough guards and strixes to take control of the arena and try to kill anyone he wanted to, including Evie and the other royals. So why didn’t he? Especially after our failed assassination attempt.”
“Maybe Evie surprised him by striking so quickly. Or maybe he realized that there would have been an all-out riot if he’d tried to assassinate the other royals,” Paloma said.
“That’s certainly true, but Maximus isn’t concerned with things like riots. He doesn’t care who he has to slaughter to get what he wants,” Auster replied. “He’s never brought so many men and strixes to the Regalia before. He has something planned, something bigger than just killing Evie.”
“Perhaps he brought the strixes so his guards could fly across the river and try to assassinate Evie in the Bellonan camp,” Sullivan suggested.
“That thought has crossed my mind,” Auster muttered.
“Mine too,” I added. “When we get back, post more guards around the camp perimeter and tell them to keep their eyes on the sky. I also want your men to track the Mortans’ movements. I want to know how the king and his entourage are getting from their camp to the island and back again. Just because Maximus survived one arrow doesn’t mean that we can’t try to kill him with another one.”
“Yes, my queen,” Auster replied.
But there was nothing my friends and I could do about Maximus or his plots at the moment, so we walked on. Eventually, we reached the boulevard at the bottom of the steps. Auster had led us down a different route than what we’d used climbing the hill, and we had ended up close to the Fortuna Mint.
We crossed the boulevard and went over to the plaza on the opposite side. It was just after noon, and the area was filled with people browsing the wares the merchants were enthusiastically hawking from their carts, eating bags of cornucopia, and strolling along the waterfront and admiring the picturesque view of the harbor.
We weaved in and out of the crowd, watching for trouble and heading toward our rendezvous point with Serilda—the gold coined-woman statue that loomed up in front of the Mint.
Serilda wasn’t here yet, so Auster, Paloma, and Sullivan meandered over to the merchants’ carts, trying to look casual, while I stopped at the base of the fountain, as though I were admiring the enormous figure in the center of the water.
The bright noon sun made the woman—Lady Fortuna—gleam as though she were made of liquid gold that was about to start oozing everywhere, while the coins in her eyes and mouth looked like tears that were about to start dripping down her face. If only she would melt away and take Driscol DiLucri and his Mint with her, then I imagined that the island would be a far happier and safer place, especially for me. But wishes were useless, especially to queens, so I turned away from the statue.
In the distance, I spotted Serilda weaving her way through the crowd and heading toward the statue. She had gotten rid of her black assassin’s cloak, along with the bow she’d used, and she looked like her normal self again.
I had only taken a few steps toward her when I realized that someone was going to try to kill me.
I wasn’t quite sure what tipped me off. Everything was the same as before. The merchants hawking their wares, some people eating and shopping, others strolling along the waterfront.
Slowly, I noticed that several of the merchants and shoppers were more interested in watching me than in selling and buying things. Oh, they all looked harmless enough, but they couldn’t quite hide their interest, and every last one of them had their hands on the weapons belted to their waists. My nose twitched. Even more telling, they all reeked of magic.
My hand dropped to my sword, and my gaze flicked left and right, wondering which fake merchant or shopper would attack me first. The assassins sidled away from their carts and the goods they’d been admiring, but they didn’t head toward me. Instead, they stalked toward my friend.