One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2)(49)

They walk quickly through the market, past the empty stalls, and through the alley that leads to the square. Except the sliver of the square that Jules can see is empty. There is no one at the tables and no laughter carrying down the streets. She looks back out to the harbor. Maybe she was mistaken, and the lanterns she saw from Joseph’s window were an illusion or a dream. But there they are, burning, bobbing on the water. The ceremony is over.

“Where is everyone?” Joseph asks.

Camden whines and swings her dark-tipped tail back and forth. Something is wrong.

“We’ll try the docks and the shore?” Jules suggests. She can think of nowhere else to go.

“Juillenne! Joseph!”

Luke comes running with Hank fluttering and clucking on his heels. “Where have you been?”

“We fell asleep,” Jules replies honestly, too distracted to feel shy. “What’s happened? Where is everyone?”

“They’re in the orchard,” Luke spits. “Waiting on the edges of the forest. The poisoners and the queen, Queen Katharine, she challenged them to a hunt!”

“A hunt?” Joseph repeats, and his brow furrows. “Luke, where is Arsinoe?”

“I don’t know! She went into the woods first with Braddock. Both of them are after her now. Especially that poisoner. She kept staring at Queen Arsinoe the whole time!”

“Where?” Jules demands, and when Luke starts to sputter, she reaches out and shakes him. “Where?”

“The southern edge, near the creek. But she could have gone anywhere. Where were you, Jules? Why weren’t you here?”

Jules does not answer. She runs for the forest, not near the orchard where the crowd would see her, but up the hill and off the road to follow the stream. Camden sprints ahead, her pink nose twitching and scenting the air. In her panic and haste, Arsinoe may have gone anywhere. But she will not have left Braddock behind, and the scent of the bear will be easy for Camden to pick up.

“Jules, wait,” Joseph calls out. He is right on her heels, but even his long stride is no match for her short one when her blood is up.

“Wait for what?” she snaps, frustrated. She pauses for one step and turns. “I know that we can’t interfere. But I can’t let her be hunted out there alone, Joseph. Can you?”

“No.” He grabs her arm and they start to run again. “We have to find her.”





THE QUEENS’ HUNT





The poisoners see Braddock first. His enormous, shaggy form is impossible to hide. Arsinoe hears the cries and then the hoofbeats. She looks at her bear.

“Run!”

But a great brown’s instinct is not to run. It is to fight. He turns toward their pursuers, still far off in the trees. He sniffs the air curiously and stands up on his hind legs.

“No,” Arsinoe pleads. She pats his side desperately and motions with her hands toward where they must go, deeper into the trees, into the dense growth where the horses will not have speed. “Please, Braddock, please come! They’ll kill you!”

They cannot kill him. The big sweet bear. The poisoners will remember the havoc he wreaked the night of the Quickening. They will not take any chances. They will not give Arsinoe any time to tell them that he is not mean-tempered; that it was all her fault.

“Come on, Braddock, come on!” Her feet move in place, and her eyes dart between him and the approaching riders. Katharine is in the lead, her crossbow raised.

“Please!” Arsinoe hisses, and then cries out with relief when he drops to all fours and follows her into the underbrush.

Mirabella stiffens at the sound of running horses. They are close, but she is safe enough, high in her tree. She presses against the trunk and braces her legs, her feet stuck firmly into the V of a branch. Bree and Elizabeth left to run decoy only a short time ago. She lost track of them almost immediately. Will she see them run past with Katharine on their heels? Or a bear? She clenches and unclenches her fists. Her lightning is stronger than her fire, but the fire is faster. And more accurate.

The shouting and hoofbeats grow louder, and she twists to see whether she can spot movement. The noises are violent. Crashing. But Elizabeth and Bree set off in the opposite direction. They should be safe unless they have circled back.

It is terrible, waiting there, listening to her sisters hunting each other. Wondering what is happening. Not knowing what to hope for. The clever thing to do would be to remain right where she is. To wait for it to be over and for Bree and Elizabeth to return.

Mirabella climbs down from her tree and drops to the ground.

Her sister and her bear have heard them coming and darted into the foliage like frightened rabbits, but it will not save them. The distance covered by Half Moon’s legs is much greater than the distance covered by Arsinoe’s. If Arsinoe were smart, she would ride the bear. Or perhaps there are limits to even what a familiar will allow.

“Don’t lose them!” Nicolas calls, exhilarated, his eyes bright. Even Pietyr has gotten into the spirit of things and rides as focused as a diving hawk.

The bear comes into view, and Katharine holds her crossbow at the ready. But she is not after it. The others, with their weapons edged with sleeping draught, may have their fun with him. She wants only Arsinoe. It was always going to be Arsinoe she hunted, the one from Wolf Spring, the one who would die here, in front of her own city. It seems only fitting.