One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2)(84)

“I couldn’t get in to see Jules,” he says quickly. “I have a message from Arsinoe.” He tells them of the duel and the queens locked in the Volroy cells. Their faces fill with terror.

“I don’t know what’s happened with Jules and Joseph after they were locked away,” he says. “But I think they’re safe. For now.”

Madrigal begins to pace.

“They will never let her go. They will never let my Jules go, now that they have her. Now that they know about her legion curse. They’ll put her to death!”

The woman who must be Jules’s aunt Caragh looks up toward the sunset and the fading light. She looks a little like Madrigal, he supposes, around the eyes and the shape of her face. But the rest is all Grandma Cait. The same hardness and the same firm lines. He feels like he is looking at a photo of Cait from twenty years ago.

“I need to return to the city,” Madrigal says. “To see what’s happening.”

“Stay,” says Caragh. “I don’t want to have to search the capital for you, too.” She puts a hand on Braddock’s back as he snuffles Billy’s clothes. It is sad to see the bear so diminished. The days in the cage have lessened him. The poisoners’ arrows have lessened him. Fear is not a lesson that most great browns ever learn.

“I’m sorry, boy,” Billy says. “I didn’t bring you anything.”

“It’s not that.” Caragh pats the bear fondly. “He’s looking for Arsinoe. He knows you’ve been near her. He may not be her familiar, but whatever low magic she used to bind him is strong.” She looks at Madrigal and at her crow. “We must get word to our parents. Send Aria.”

“We have to do more than that,” Madrigal protests.

“We will.”

“Well, what?” But Madrigal takes up her bird and whispers to her before tossing her into the air.

“I’ll speak with my father,” says Billy. “He can press his friends here to release Joseph and Jules. And Luca and the temple will have Arsinoe and Mirabella released by nightfall, surely.”

“Funny,” Madrigal says without stopping her movement. “You never struck me as an idiot. We are in Indrid Down now, Billy. Where the poisoners rule. And if you think they aren’t going to take this opportunity to get rid of Arsinoe and the legion-cursed naturalist, you’re fooling yourself.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No. She’s right,” Caragh says, and Madrigal blinks. “We need backing here. Natalia Arron will try to get away with something if she can.”

“Even if we ride straight through,” says Madrigal, “switch for fresh horses. Nobody in Wolf Spring will make it back in time. Not even if Matthew takes them on the Whistler.”

“I’m not thinking of Wolf Spring. I’m thinking of Bastian City. The warriors we saw in the stands today. They may still be here. We may be able to find them before they leave the capital.”

“Why would they help us?” Billy asks.

“Because of Jules,” Madrigal exclaims excitedly. “She is not only one of ours. She is one of theirs.”

“I still say it’s unnecessary,” Billy says. “My father has clout here. Friends within the Westwoods and the Arrons. He won’t leave Joseph to rot. I’m going to wait with him at the Highbern for news. He’ll get it sorted. You’ll see.”

“And when he doesn’t,” says Caragh, “you come back to help. We’ll be here with the warriors in red-lined cloaks.”





THE VOLROY CELLS





Jules presses her cheek against the bars of the small cold cell. A nice change from pressing her cheek against the hard, stone walls. She does not know exactly where inside the Volroy they are, but they are down deep. Much deeper than Arsinoe and Mirabella. The trip they took to get here was full of stairs. And full of thrown elbows.

Camden rests her big heavy head on Jules’s leg. Jules scratches her ears. They have only slept a little, with no sense of how much time has passed. They have moved past tired to restless and back again.

“How is Cam doing?” Joseph asks from his cell one down from hers.

“She’s nervous,” Jules replies. “We should have been dragged back up before the Council by now.”

“Maybe they mean to forget about us.” Joseph’s voice is deliberately light. “And keep us down here forever.”

A hot ball rises in Jules’s throat. Let them try. Cait would never allow it. Nor would Joseph’s mother. And between the two families they could cause more than enough loud trouble to rattle the Arrons.

“Joseph,” Jules whispers. “I’m sorry I got you into all this.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Except for maybe in that cell with you.”

Jules smiles softly. Their one afternoon together in Joseph’s bed feels like years ago, and it makes her sad, as if the memory belongs to another time, before the Queens’ Hunt and Arsinoe almost dying, before everything went so horribly wrong.

“I’m sorry I left you that day, after we . . . after the Queens’ Hunt. I’m sorry I disappeared to the Black Cottage.”

“You had to. You had to save Arsinoe. I’d have told you to do it if you hadn’t done it yourself.”