One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2)(51)

WOLF SPRING





Joseph lost track of Jules and Camden almost the moment that the mountain cat caught Braddock’s scent. They were far too fast for him, and though he tried to catch up, there was no chance. So he backtracked through the forest toward the orchard, where at least he will not have to worry alone.

He exits the wood and joins the silent, gathered crowd, slipping through people until he finds Billy beside the Milones and Matthew.

“Someone comes!”

“Is it Arsinoe?” Billy asks, neck stretched.

“It’s so soon,” Cait says quietly. “Too soon.”

And she is right. The queen who emerges from the trees is not Arsinoe but Mirabella.

“Mira,” Billy says. “Is she all right? Is Katharine dead?”

Joseph looks into Mirabella’s eyes and goes cold all over.

“I am sorry,” Mirabella says. “But Queen Katharine shot her in the back.”

The gathered people barely react. No raucous celebration by the poisoners. No relief from the elementals. They will save their prayers and toasts for later when they are alone. As for the naturalists, they are an iron lot to begin with and have braced themselves for this news since Arsinoe was born.

“No. No!” Billy elbows his way toward Mirabella, who is being held up by Bree Westwood and one of the priestesses. She looks at Billy regretfully. She cannot even meet Joseph’s eyes.

“Mira, you’re lying!” Billy shouts. “I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it until I see her!”

Matthew reaches for Billy’s arm, but he twists loose. Joseph takes him by the shoulders, and Billy grabs him back, shaking so hard that they almost fall.

“What’s the matter with them? Why aren’t they doing anything?” He turns to the Milones and screams into their grim, silent faces. “What’s wrong with you? Go in there and find her!”

“Easy, Billy,” Joseph says into his ear. “It might not be true. It can’t be. Jules and Camden had her scent.”

Joseph’s heart thuds at his own words. If Jules and Camden were killed, he will lose his mind.

“I’m going in there,” Billy says, and pulls free.

“Billy.” Mirabella holds up her hands. “You will not find her. She is gone.”

“She’s not gone!”

“No. I mean that her . . .” Her eyes shift to Joseph. “Jules tried to save her. And afterward . . . she took Arsinoe away.”

Joseph’s eyes fill. Madrigal grasps her stomach and falls to her knees.

I am sorry, Mirabella mouths.

“I know,” Joseph whispers. “I know.”

The crowd straightens at the sounds of hoofbeats and rustling leaves. The Arrons step to the fore with their ever loyal Black Council. So far, they have wisely kept to the edges, but their queen is returning. And a queen returning in victory is to be honored, regardless of where that victory took place.

Margaret Beaulin rides out of the trees first. She slows her horse and trots directly to Natalia Arron, so close that Natalia must move her head to the side to avoid the horse’s tired blowing.

“It is done.”

“They could still be wrong,” Billy says, and Joseph keeps an arm across his foster brother’s chest as Natalia questions every rider, even the gold-haired suitor. And then Queen Katharine emerges, riding tandem behind the Arron boy.

“She took my horse,” Katharine fumes. “She stole Half Moon!”

“Who?” Cait Milone demands. “Arsinoe?”

Katharine looks positively furious, but when she sees who is asking, her face calms, and she lowers her eyes respectfully.

“Queen Arsinoe, my sister, is dead, Mistress Milone. I shot her with a poisoned bolt from my crossbow. The ‘she’ who I speak of is your granddaughter, Juillenne. She stole my horse and fled with the body.”

“If that is so,” Cait says, her voice strained, “then she acted out of grief and will soon return to her senses.”

“I am sure you are right, Cait,” says Natalia. “But the queen’s body must be returned. Queen Arsinoe is deserving of her burial rites.”

Joseph’s eyes narrow as Katharine covers her face, perhaps to hide a sneer. When she lowers her hands, her face is solemn.

“But there is more,” she says. “When the Milone girl attacked me, it was not with her familiar. It was with the war gift.”

Silence. Then shouts of disbelief. Katharine’s voice rises above the noise.

“Think what you will, Wolf Spring. But I have seen it. Juillenne Milone is legion cursed.”





THE NORTHEAST WOODS





Jules slows the horse when they come to the banks of the River Calder. The night air is chilled, and the water rushes by black in the moonlight. Arsinoe lies across the pommel of her saddle. Dead? Jules refuses to think so, but is too afraid to check. She calls Camden and holds the horse steady as the cat jumps onto its hindquarters to ford the river.

“I’ll say one thing for the poisoners,” Jules says. “They breed fine horses. This fellow is faster than any of the saddle horses in Wolf Spring by half. And stronger.” He has carried Camden’s considerable weight for at least a third of the distance, and Jules has not even used her gift to press him.