The Deepest Blue(85)

“Yes, Your Majesty. Your visit here, unannounced and off schedule, was alarming, yet another indication that your obedience is not as complete as the Families would like. A final straw, if you will. For the good of Belene, I did what I had to do.”

She blew the powder into Maarte’s face with a smile. “For the good of Belene, so did I.”

He collapsed on the sand.

Hiking her skirts up to her knees, Asana ran across the shore toward where her family should appear any moment now. I’m coming, my dear ones!





Chapter Twenty-One

Kelo saw the queen running across the sand as he helped the queen’s father out of the tunnel. Her father was followed by her mother, then Garnah, with a pleased cat-who-spilled-the-milk-but-will-deny-it expression.

The older man let out a half-cry, half-moan as he stumbled across the beach toward Queen Asana. His wife followed, and soon they were all in one another’s arms. Kelo felt tears well up in his own eyes. This was how it should be. This was right!

“Very touching,” Lady Garnah muttered. “But let’s move it along.”

“They haven’t seen each other in years,” Kelo objected. “Give them a moment, for pity’s sake.” You could almost taste the emotion flowing from them—the love and relief and joy radiated from the three of them. The first star of the evening shone in the deepening blue sky, as if it were blessing them with its approval. His fingers itched to capture the moment in a sketch. It would make a gorgeous work of stained glass, with the sea and the sky just past sunset.

“The queen’s family isn’t free yet,” Garnah snapped. “Not until they’re back in the palace and the truth is known. If the queen and her parents are killed here, in the shadows of the fortress where no one can see, then this will have all been for nothing.”

“No one will kill the queen. Everyone in Belene needs her alive.” Even the most self-interested would balk at removing the one who kept the worst of the monsters asleep.

“You’re adorably naive. It’s going to get you killed, you know. We need a queen. And I’ve been told that by tradition, there’s always an heir in the Belene grove, ready to take control should the current queen unexpectedly fall, which is a beautifully practical solution that has the flaw of making the queen expendable.”

She could be right. He felt chilled, as if he’d been dunked into the ocean.

“If you’re right, we need to leave.” Kelo started toward the queen and her parents. They were hugging, laughing, crying, and talking over one another all at the same time. “Wait, where’s the queen’s daughter?”

“She wasn’t there,” Garnah said, watching Queen Asana and her parents. Her voice was expressionless, but her eyes were a mix of hungry and sad, as if this moment were conjuring up memories. Kelo would have asked what she was thinking of, if the words she were saying weren’t so horrifying. “The queen’s parents said she’s beyond the Families’ reach and not to wait.”

“If she’s not there, where is she? Is ‘beyond their reach’ a euphemism for dead?”

At the same time, he heard the queen ask, “But where is my Rokalara?”

Silence.

“Not . . . ?”

Her father spoke. “I’m sorry, Asana. We hid her power for as long as we could, but she insisted on displaying it in front of the lord. There was nothing to be done.”

The queen looked fragile, as if a hard wind would blow her into pieces and she’d scatter like a pile of fallen leaves. “Lord Maarte looked me in the face and lied. . . . After he tried to poison me, of course. Perhaps I shouldn’t have expected any different.”

Poison! Kelo thought.

But Lady Garnah didn’t look concerned or surprised at this revelation. He tried to feel reassured. If anyone knew how to counteract poison, it would be her. Lady Garnah won’t let anything happen to her. Other people might suffer—Lady Garnah was remarkably unconcerned about protecting innocent bystanders—but Kelo was certain of the poison-maker’s loyalty.

Queen Asana drew herself straighter, looking like a queen again, not a long-lost daughter. “Tell me: What did my little Roe choose?”

“She’s on the island,” her mother said.

“Not for much longer,” Asana said firmly. “I have promised an end to the test, for the sake of one who has aided me and for the good of all Belene. And I will end them now.”

Kelo was about to step forward, to suggest that they leave before they attracted trouble, but the appeal of stopping the test now, of saving Mayara, was too great. He stayed silent.

Queen Asana closed her eyes in concentration—and then her eyes popped open. Kelo tried to decipher the look of wonder and amazement on her face. Had she done it already? Was the test over? What did it mean for the test to be over? Was Mayara coming home? Before he could ask any of the questions that wanted to spill from his mouth, Asana said, “I don’t know how or why, but Roe is coming! She’s nearly here!”

Her parents both began talking at once.

“How did you do that?”

“How do you know?”

“Why is she coming?”

“How did she leave the island?”

“Is she all right?”

“Is she coming by ship?”