Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(72)

She looked up at me, surprised. “Yes, my queen.”

“Good,” I said. “Then let us focus on our people, and their needs. We have so much to do, and no time for any petty thoughts.”

I held out my hand to her, and she took it, squeezing it with a grateful look. I brought her over to the table where women were cutting and arranging bread, and let her stand beside me.

I felt the weight of someone else’s eyes, and I looked up and across the courtyard to find Galen’s warm gaze following me. He gave a judicious nod when our eyes met and turned away, calling for the gates to be opened.


Hundreds of people came to inform on their friends and neighbors. The bread disappeared, and more bread, cured meat, and cheese replaced it.

Kairos came, working beside us and teasing the women, laughing with the guards, another d’Dragyn conspicuously in the king’s courtyard, doing his bidding, showing where we stood. But Osmost wasn’t on his shoulder, and I was certain that the hawk was carrying a warning to the one d’Dragyn we were supposedly standing against.

“I think you should sit,” Kai said. It was late afternoon, and the line was only growing longer, with more people for us to offer food to as they waited to tell their tales for a coin.

Adria nodded at this. “You do look tired,” she said. “And I thought you rather liked hard work.”

“I do,” I told her. “So I will continue.”

“You haven’t eaten,” she said.

“Why don’t you rest, and I’ll get you something to eat,” Kairos said.

“I’m not hungry,” I told him. “And I don’t really understand your concern.”

“I don’t think it would do very well for the queen to faint in the middle of all this,” Kairos told me, raising an eyebrow.

Perhaps he had something he needed to tell me? “Very well,” I told him, and he led me over to a stool. The moment I sat, I sighed heavily. I was tired. I pressed my hand to my stomach—it seemed a sad reflection on how little I did every day that a few hours on my feet handing out bread could exhaust me.

The cook was bringing out a huge vat of stew, and Kai waited for her to set it up before requesting a bowl. I couldn’t hear what was said, but I saw the cook smile and angle her spoon at Kairos until he laughed. My brother, ever the charmer.

He brought it over to me, but I smelled it a foot away and stood up. He halted, looking at me curiously. “Skies, that’s the fish, isn’t it?” I asked.

He looked at it. “Yes. Has it offended you? I think it already lost its head, but I’m sure we can cook up some kind of revenge.” He grinned. “Cook up?” he repeated with a wink.

I backed away, but it was like the smell was a thick, physical presence in my nostrils, clawing down my throat.

“Oh,” I cried, and barely made it to the edge of the courtyard, the grassy patch that led down toward the garden and the ocean, before my stomach wretched up its meager contents.

Kairos was beside me, twisting my hair back and holding my crown steady. “Very well,” he said. “No more fish.”

My stomach heaved again, but nothing came up. “Water!” he called, and I heard someone offer it to him.

I straightened up, and he let my hair go to rub my back, passing me a skin of water. I drank a little, but it made my stomach feel tight and angry, and I passed it back to him, shaking my head.

I turned around. Adria and Kairos were there, but the guards had formed a blockade around us, their backs to me, affording me some strange level of privacy. “Here,” Adria offered, handing me a piece of bread. “Try that. My mother said that’s all she could eat with Aero.”

I didn’t take it. “Aero?” I repeated.

Skies Above, she thought I was with child. But I couldn’t be—I had last bled—

Months ago, I realized.

I had been exhausted for days. My mother had been so tired with Gavan, especially for the first few months.

My head was pounding. “Skies,” I breathed. “I think I need to sit for a minute.”

“Yes, we established that,” Kai told me. “Theron, bring that stool here.”

A moment later it materialized, and I sat. Kairos stayed right beside me, handing me first the water and then the bread. “Try to eat something,” he said. “And then we’ll get you back to your chambers to rest.”

I nodded, nibbling at the bread. I looked up. “What a scene this must be causing,” I said, shaking my head.

“I think it’s the best sort of scene,” Adria said with a smile. “The king will be beside himself. My queen, you’re with child!”

People heard her, and the murmuring voices around us started to pitch to yells.

I searched the soldiers’ backs, thinking of Galen. It was difficult to tell, but I was nearly certain he wasn’t one of the men standing there. Admonishing myself, I shut my eyes. I was expecting his brother’s child—I couldn’t think of Galen anymore. Not that I ever truly could.

When I finished the piece of bread, I stood, and Kairos put his arm around me. “Easy,” he told me.

I flapped my hand. “Skies, Mother could walk for days in the hot sun when her belly was heavy with child,” I told him. “I’m fine, I just needed a moment to rest. Please let us pass,” I said to the guards.