Two Dark Reigns (Three Dark Crowns #3)(77)

Katharine puts a hand on Pietyr’s arm. “What do you know about the Legion Queen?”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Madrigal says, with the barest hint of a smile. “We don’t get much news in Wolf Spring. I confess that, the day of the escape, I was the one who freed the bear. After Jules and . . . the others sailed away into the storm, I brought him back north and released him into the woods there.”

“Hmm.” Katharine touches her chin with a gloved finger. “The day of the escape was the last day I saw her, too. Down here in these cells. When I came to poison my sister Arsinoe to death. When I frightened them so badly that they chose to die at sea instead.”

“If you’re convinced that my daughter is alive, then what makes you think the other queens aren’t also?”

Katharine’s eyes glitter, and Madrigal recoils. The dead queens do not like her. They would stomp down hard on her pretty black bird and leave nothing but a red mess and feathers.

“Tell me about the blood binding.”

“How do you know about that?”

“The same way we knew how to find you,” says Katharine. “We questioned someone. Unfortunately, that someone did not survive the questioning. So speak. If Jules is dead, like you say, then it will not matter.”

“Very well.” Madrigal draws her knees up to her chest. “We discovered Jules’s curse when she was a baby, and I was told to drown her or leave her in the forest. But I couldn’t. So I bound the legion curse through low magic. Bound it in my blood. To keep it from harming Jules and keep her from being found out.”

“But she was found out,” says Katharine. “And she is legion cursed. It seems your low magic is not very strong.”

“Or Jules’s gifts are so great that they overcame it.”

“Hmph,” says Pietyr. “You must truly want to die.”

Katharine wraps her fingers around the bars. “You know she is alive. You were riding from the north, where her rebel army is. We have spies. We have seen.”

“If that’s true, then why haven’t you stopped her?”

Katharine’s hand slides down her side; she raises her boot and reaches for the small knives she always keeps there.

Madrigal crouches against the back wall. “Spill my blood and the binding is broken. Whatever remains to hold my Jules in check will disappear. And if you’re afraid of her now, wait until you see what she can really do.”

“I am a poisoner,” Katharine snaps, her hand drifting away from the knife. “I will poison you so your insides boil, but not a drop of blood will be lost. It will not be clean, but it will be contained.”

“That won’t work either. Murder by poison counts as blood spilled. That’s how it is with low magic.”

“Is that true?” Bree asks. “Or is she lying?”

Madrigal smiles a pretty, crooked smile.

“Maybe it is, or maybe I am. None of you know for sure. You exalted Arrons have had no cause to use low magic. And you, High Priestess . . . I know you would never touch it.”

“She is only trying to scare us,” says Bree.

“Is it working?” Madrigal asks. “Are you willing to chance it? I have been using low magic all my life. I know its ways as well as its ways can be known.”

Katharine grits her teeth. She is not sure yet. For now, let the woman remain locked up in the dark cells. Quietly, she turns on her heel and leads the others back above ground.

“Well,” she says. “You are my advisers, so what do you advise?”

Bree crosses her arms and speaks hesitantly. “We should learn what we can about the low magic binding. Send for experts, if any will come forward.”

“None will,” says Katharine. “And if they do, none will know more than the Milone woman knows herself. High Priestess, what do you think?”

Luca takes a deep breath. “Rho has been assessing the queensguard. There are near five thousand trained soldiers in and around the capital, and another thousand standing at Prynn. More are waiting to be called up and trained. You have what you need to crush a rebellion, even one supported by a lesser number of war gifted and oracles. But that is not what I think you should do.”

“Am I to wait, then? For spring and the naturalist to march on the capital?”

“You have her mother,” Luca says. “I think you should arrange a trade. Without Jules Milone, the rebellion will fold.”

Katharine stares at the High Priestess as she considers. She would avoid a battle if she could. Even though the dead queens clamor for it. To stand directly in the midst of it with blood on her arms. In her teeth.

“I could not execute her. That would only entrench the rebels further. I would have to hold Jules Milone here, under charge of treason, and then offer a sentence of mercy.” Her eyes narrow. “Would she truly trade the rebellion for her mother?”

“It is worth a try. And I know Cait Milone. If you hand down a sentence of mercy, she will accept it, and Wolf Spring will take its cue from her. What does the Goddess say? Do you feel her hand in this?”

Katharine cocks her head. “Should I not be asking you that?”

“You are the Goddess on earth, Queen Katharine. I am only her voice to the people.”

At her words, the dead queens twist through Katharine’s insides, spreading the ash-gray of corpses through her body until she can practically taste it.