One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2)(10)

Arsinoe, Jules, and Joseph arrive at Luke’s bookshop to find a service of tea and fried fish sandwiches already set out on his oval table on the landing overlooking the main floor. Luke sent his black-and-green rooster, Hank, up the twisting hill road to the Milone house to collect them early that afternoon. Jules still has the bird tucked under her arm (he demanded to be carried back), and drops him to the floor in a puff of feathers.

“What’s all this?” Arsinoe asks. “Why the official rooster summons?”

Before Luke can answer, Joseph nudges her in the ribs and nods toward the dress hanging in the shop window: the gown that Luke is making for Arsinoe to wear at her crowning. A bit of lace has been added to the bodice, and Arsinoe winces. Luke will have to take it off again if he ever wants to see her in it.

“Come,” Luke says. “Sit. Eat.”

The three share a heavy look. Even Camden seems suspicious, her tail swishing nervously against the rug. But they climb the stairs and take their seats, and stuff fish sandwiches into their mouths.

“Mirabella is planning a strike,” Luke says.

Arsinoe feels their eyes upon her and is glad the black mask hides so much of her expression.

“How do you know?” Joseph asks.

“A tailor friend traveling from Rolanth. He saw them readying two caravans. One is a decoy. To drive toward Indrid Down and ensure that Katharine stays put.”

“How would he know that?” Jules objects. “The decoy could be for us.”

“He saw scouts on the road and followed them as they curved around the capital toward Highgate. He lost them then, but it isn’t far from there to disperse into the wood. Our wood.”

Luke continues to serve, sliding biscuits onto each of their plates.

“I’ll be relieved to have one done, to be honest,” he says. “I wouldn’t have thought her brave enough to come here after the way she ran from the bear onstage.”

Joseph lowers his head.

“What luck to have the drop on her,” Luke goes on, and smiles. “The Goddess is with you, like I’ve always said.”

“Yes. It’s grand to have the upper hand,” Arsinoe says quietly. Luke does not know that the bear was a ruse. That she would have to walk into the fight alone. He will be so disappointed in her when she and Jules run away, to hide until Katharine is dead.

“We don’t have long,” Luke says. “If we are right, she could be in our forests in a day or two, just behind the scouts.”

The room falls silent. Hank pecks at the biscuit in Arsinoe’s limp fingers.

“We . . . ,” Jules says hesitantly. “We should go. Prepare.”

“Of course,” Luke says as they stand. “Take some biscuits with you. And some fish. I . . . I’m just so glad that I could give you this news. I almost wish I could go with you and fight.”

He hugs her, so unafraid. Confident that she will win, and Arsinoe hugs him back tightly.

“We’ll have to go,” Jules whispers as they go down the stairs. “If Mirabella is coming, we have no choice but to run.”

“I can bring the horses around after dusk,” Joseph says.

“No, I ought to bring the horses. My gift will keep them calm.”

Arsinoe walks through the shop on wooden legs as they assure her it will not be for long. That Mirabella will turn straight around when she finds Wolf Spring empty and go for Katharine. They might be able to come back within a week.

“I didn’t think she would attack,” Arsinoe says, dazed.

“I told you,” Jules growls, her eyes narrowed. “I told you that she would.”

They step out of the shop, ready to separate and race off to gather supplies, but instead run face-first into a gathered crowd. The shock is such that Camden hisses and paws the air at them.

“What . . . uh . . . what are you doing here?” Arsinoe asks. But she knows. They have come to see her off. Luke was never very good at keeping a secret.

“Will you bring the bear into the square before you go?” someone shouts.

“Go?” says Jules.

“Well, you can’t stay! You can’t let the elemental come to Wolf Spring! She’s a nightmare.”

“They’ve had lightning strikes as far west as Kenora,” someone else calls out. “Cows burned up in their pastures.”

“She’ll burn our boats into the harbor, looking for you!”

Joseph shakes his head. He should have stayed still. Too many still hate him for saving Mirabella at Beltane. Some hate him just because he has lived too long on the mainland.

“Burned-up cows in Kenora,” he mutters, looking past Jules right at Arsinoe. “As if she can command storms across the island while she sits at home in Rolanth.”

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Jules asks sharply. “If she’s coming here? They are right to be afraid.”

“They are,” says Arsinoe. “If she really means to kill me, I can’t let her do it here.”

“Right. So we run.”

“No. I can’t let her burn down houses looking for me. I have to find her first.”

“Arsinoe, what are you saying?” Jules asks, but Arsinoe can barely hear her over the growing noise of the crowd. Finally, Jules shouts at the people, loud enough that Arsinoe swears the planks beneath their feet quiver at the sound.