Knight's End: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (Tangled Crowns Book 3), page 21
Declan sighed. “Quinn, toss Blue your clothes. You stay with her.”
Boots and pants suddenly appeared on the floor. A shirt smacked Blue in the face. “Get dressed and come on, Blue. Let’s get out there and calm them down before a riot breaks out.”
Blue tossed on Quinn’s clothes quickly. Then Declan pulled my newest knight into the halls and held up his hands. “Everyone! Everyone! I need your attention!”
I gently closed the door and locked it.
I could hear Declan trying to explain the spell that froze them and the battle that had just happened over the panicked questions of dozens of people. I backed away from the door and the chaos. I crossed my fingers that Declan didn’t start drinking emotions just to shut the idiots up. Because there was a mob of dunderheads out there for him to manage. With Connor off healing the wounded, poor Declan and Blue would have to suffer through.
I sighed and leaned against the locked door for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. I didn’t need courtiers finding me in only Connor’s shirt, a naked Quinn beside me. We were married, but still, I had enough whispers to deal with.
“Too bad I can’t hear or see you,” I said softly to Quinn. But the reality was, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway.
I knew Declan’s patience would only last so long. He would need help. I couldn’t hide in here for long.
I scrubbed a hand over my face and walked carefully around the shattered figurines toward the secret passage at the far side of the room. I ran my hand along the seam and the secret door opened. Then I stepped into the dark, stone hallway. “Quinn, I hope you’re following.” I whispered, as I used my magic to light the path.
I didn’t hear a response, and I sighed as I pulled the door shut.
This nightmare was going to take a toll on the both of us. I could feel it.
But I didn’t have any more time for self-pity. Donaloo had said that someone had revealed our secrets to Raj. And I needed to help Declan. Then I needed to find out who the traitor was.
The next few days were chaos. We had dead to bury, soldiers wished into animals that had to be contained, enemies to spy upon, enemies to research, and that traitor still hovering in our midst.
It was never-ending chaos. And I nearly collapsed in tears when I'd gone up to the mage’s tower for a moment of peace. There, among the fairy vines that had taken over the place, I had found the entire bundle of nasty-smelling tablets. It looked like Donaloo had brewed another batch of the wakefulness potion for me and my knights. It sat there just waiting on his worktable on a plate. Next to the plate stood the little purple love potion that Cerena had carried on our journey. I hadn't even realized we still had it. I'd forgotten all about it. But I took a bit of leather string and tied the glass vial up into a makeshift necklace. Donaloo had clearly left it out for me. And if he thought it was important then, ultimately, I believed him.
Faith in his crazy sayings, in his belief in happy endings, were all that I had left of him.
I bowed my head and fought tears. “Quinn, are you there?” I stifled a sob with a laugh. “Because I was just thinking that Donaloo turned down this room, this job, because he didn’t want to get blown up. How ironic—”
The sobs pulled me under. And it was a few minutes until I surfaced. When I did, I rubbed my face free of tears, ate a tablet, and marched my ass downstairs. I wouldn’t do Donaloo any good hiding out in the mage’s tower. I went out to the courtyard and found Dini.
Since she’d grown so big, she’d chosen to stay outside. She had been helping a bit with the reconstruction, closing up sinkholes, somehow grabbing boulders from underneath the ground and yanking them upward so that our stone masons could use them to repair any holes in the walls.
When I approached, her oversized red petals turned my way. Her razor-sharp teeth glinted in the sunlight, and I had to repress shivers at the vision.
“I think I need to move somewhere else.” She shook her leaves.
I started. “Leave?” That was not what I was expecting to hear.
Her flower face turned toward the east. “I can taste the ocean breeze. She’s coming for you.” Dini shook her petals sadly. “I can withstand many things. But saltwater …”
I nodded. Yet another of my strongest magical defenders was leaving. And I couldn’t ask her to stay. “Of course. Please, if I can do anything to help you …”
I fought the shiver that crawled up my spine and whispered in my ear, “You can’t win without their power.” That shadow of doubt tried to pull my thoughts toward darkness.
I shoved it down. I would find a way. I had to.
Dini turned her flower face down to me. “I’ll need someone you trust to take me inland. I’m not leaving completely. I’ll do what I can to help Evaness. Perhaps you could plant me back at the hut where we met? It’s part of Evaness now, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“At the very least I can help ensure those …” she lowered her tone to a whisper, “amulets don’t fall into the wrong hands.”
I nodded. “As you wish. And thank you, for all your help, Dini.”
Dini shrunk down before my eyes. “You’ll remember to help Posey?” she squeaked, once she’d regained the tiny, single bloom form that I’d first met her in.
I nodded. “We’re trying to settle a few things here, and then yes. We’ll need to get Gitmore’s approval to use the undead army to go under the sea. We’ll need them to be able to attack Mayi. I don’t see another way. The surface of the water is too vulnerable. We’ll have to go where she doesn’t expect us to go. So I should meet your daughter. I hope.”
Dini popped out a second bloom. “If you see her, please give her this.” Her leaves pointed toward the bloom.
I hesitated. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She giggled. “I’ll be fine.”
I gently broke the tiny bloom off and tucked it into my coin purse. “Thank you, Dini.”
Dini nodded. “I won’t say goodbye, since I’ll see you soon, hopefully with a few soldiers.” She changed the subject, “Any luck finding out that Mayi’s magical price?” Dini asked. “My daughter never used her magic. At least not when she was growing up. Used to want to embrace her human side. Donaloo said the price wasn’t worth it.”
I tilted my head. “That surprises me.”
Dini crossed her leaves. “Just because he used it, doesn’t mean he loved it. He always wanted to do good. And he paid many a price himself.” Her squeak grew quiet. “Sorry. Memories. Mayi’s price?”
I shook my head. “Blue tells me that Quinn sent another soldier to see if she had to pay in heat for what she used in water, but the man reported the water around her was cold before she—before we lost him.”
I sighed. Quinn still hadn’t reappeared. And I missed him horribly. The other men joked, and Blue did his best to pass on Quinn’s thoughts. But it wasn’t the same. Without him in my head, sending his quirky and naughty references to lighten the mood, everything felt strained and heavy.
Instead of asking one of the gardeners to tend to Dini, I asked Jace to help her get resettled. Since she was talkative, I figured he’d handle her better than a gardener who was used to trimming and tweezing plants as he fancied.
The beast master had smiled and said, “It’d be an honor.” And he’d taken to Dini like he took to baby horses. I wasn’t shocked at all to find her riding on his arm later that day, as he loaded up a cart full of dung and a shovel, then set off to rebury the pretty plant.
I’d waved them off but hadn’t been able to linger. With Dini’s statement about the threat of seawater, I set Connor to evacuating the castle and the districts of Marscha closest to the sea. We stripped the castle of everything but the absolute necessities. The library and mage’s tower were packed up, the contents moved to Fer’s province in the forest for safe keeping. All but the essential employees were told to relocate to the summer palace in Kycee’s province. My home became but a shell.
I tried to convince the fairies that Donaloo had brought to the mage’s tower to relocate, but they were stubborn creatures and refused to leave their vines, no matter how I pleaded. I gave up when one of the purple fairies stabbed me with her sword.
“Go fight for us instead of telling us to run!” she’d screeched.
And so, I’d left, to find Connor to heal my hand and the rest of my knights to help me come up with a battle plan.
The djinn still attacked from the north. Even with the sultan supposedly out of commission, his generals were war hungry. So, Ryan decided to barter a deal with the soldiers we captured. He gathered them in one of the ballrooms, still handcuffed. He fed them first, insisted—over Jorad’s protests—that a hungry man couldn’t listen to reason, let alone make a decision.
And so, they’d been marched into one of our ballrooms, a room full of marble columns and mirrored walls. It was one of the few rooms in the palace that hadn’t been ruined by battle, possibly because it had been stuffed full of courtiers, possibly because of dumb luck. My hand had traced down a tapestry, one of a dragon protecting a maiden from a knight who’d come to steal her, as I watched Cheryn’s soldiers ignore their cuffs while they ate their soup and tore their trenchers to devour the sopping bread. The thick smell of stew filled the air and mixed with the scent of melted metal floating in from the open balcony doors. A forge had been set up behind the castle, the blacksmith from Marscha temporarily relocated here to help with repairs and with weapon-making. The dual scents contrasted as sharply as filthy prisoners in a ballroom.
But that was life now. War was full of unlikely combinations. War made a mockery of everything normal, until chaos became the new normal, and people settled in with lowered expectations. I remembered how it was when I was young. Mother’s council meetings with the duchesses had been in tents, in huts—hurried, rushed conversations. Taxes had consisted of deliveries of bread for the soldiers, leather for their boots. Farmers were hesitant to plant crops that would be burned or trampled, and food shortages had been horrid.
I vowed not to let that happen again. I didn’t want another Fire War. I didn’t want all seven kingdoms swept up in years of fighting. I was doing my best to end it.
Our tentative peace with Rasle had been the first step. And while I had no doubts that Raj wasn’t truly defeated, this was the next step.
Converting some of his soldiers.
After most of the men had been served seconds, Ryan and Blue stepped over to the musician’s platform while the rest of the knights and I stood to the side.
Declan smacked his lips next to me. A funny look crossed over his face. “I’ll be right back.”
I simply nodded and turned to face Ryan. Despite the cane he was using, my half-giant radiated confidence and strength. He eyed the prisoners, waiting until they were quiet, and every eye fell on him.
My heart couldn’t help but swell with pride at the way he took command.
“We brought you here for a reason. Those of you that choose to give us information on the plans of Cheryn, attacks, formations, etcetera, will be compensated and receive citizenship. You’ll have the official protection of Evaness. Those of you who agree to give up a wish to restore some of our soldiers to human form will receive both citizenship and a plot of land.”
“How do we know we can trust you?” one of the half-djinn had asked.
Blue held up a hand. “Evaness is different. They work things out with magically-binding contracts here.”
That seemed to be an explanation the djinn could understand. It made me sad to know that they didn’t trust honor. But, a secret part of me was glad for the magically binding contracts as well. Because included in the contract was fealty to Evaness … and a consequence not too different from my own engagement contract. If they betrayed the country, they’d die. I supposed, I wasn’t much better than them, since the contracts made me feel more secure as well.
The new hedgewitch, Markle, whom we brought up from Kycee’s province, wasn’t as keen on explosions as Wyle had been. “Too messy,” she’d shaken her head. I’d agreed, so the new language in the contracts stated simply that violators would fall over dead rather than explode.
Ryan unfurled a magical decree and passed it around so that those soldiers who could read could tell the others what it said.
I waited impatiently—my mind listing off the thousand other items that needed doing. I watched as Jorad had the recently unfrozen kitchen staff clear the food from the room.
One of the prisoners asked, “And where is this land?”
Connor responded, “Lady Agatha’s province has a number of homesteads—”
Just then Jorad squealed. The manservant fell to his knees, knocking over a tureen of soup and writhing on the ground.
My eyes widened. I glanced around. Had one of Cheryn’s soldier’s attacked?
But then I saw Declan’s hand extended, saw the fury on my knight’s face.
I hurried across the room as Jorad grabbed a knife. I latched onto the manservant’s wrist; and yanked it away from his throat. Ryan was only a step behind, and he lifted Jorad bodily by his collar, so that the man hung in midair like a baby kitten.
The soldiers of Cheryn watched with wide eyes, waiting to see what we’d do next.
I turned to Declan.
“He tasted of rye bread. Just as my mother did before she tried to take me.” Declan’s face was the darkest I’d ever seen it. Even worse than after he’d met his mother. Because this time, his features were twisted in rage.
I stared at Jorad as Declan’s words sank in.
“Blue, his thoughts?” I asked, in a dull, neutral queen-like tone.
Blue sent me flashing images of Willard, Agatha, a stream of curses that shamed me for giving their lands away. And then, most interestingly, a quick flash of Raj in a soldier’s tent.
Jorad tensed when that image came to his mind. He knew what Quinn could do, and how my knights had switched powers. Immediately, he started to shuffle his thoughts to the prisoners in front of us, to the menu for the evening.
My heart constricted. Jorad and I had always been at loggerheads. But I’d never thought he’d betray the people of Evaness. He was propriety and—I’d thought—rule-following incarnate. Things that didn’t mesh well with my personality. But I’d thought at the heart of it all, we’d both been staunchly loyal to Evaness. I was wrong.
“You went to Raj.” I shook my head as if I was merely disappointed, and not as if I were hurt. Though I was.
Blue projected more thoughts, this time, unrestricted thoughts—glances of me colored by furious words. Even a flash of Willard trying to blame me for his own choices. And I realized that’s where the hatred began. It was rooted in the moment Jorad’s lover had betrayed him, broken his trust and blamed me for it.
It didn’t seem to matter how much right I did. Being accused of one wrongdoing, something I hadn’t even done, was all that mattered. Even the most loyal people could be turned by a lie.
Was it hopeless? Was it always this way for a Queen?
Blue stepped closer to me. No, Bloss. It isn’t. For every one of him, there is someone like me.
It doesn’t feel like it.
My brain ticked away. No wonder Isla had such an easy time planting explosives here. No wonder Raj had easily been able to take Agatha’s province. Jorad, no doubt, knew that province like the back of his hand. And then another more recent memory clicked into perspective. I hadn’t eaten recently. I’d used Donaloo’s tablets since before his death. But the one time I had eaten back at the palace, Jorad had served me. And I’d gotten sick.
“Did you try to poison me?” I tilted my head and studied Jorad.
His face grew red. And then, in a very uncharacteristic move, he spat on my face.
All around us, whispers went up amongst Cheryn’s guards, as I wiped my cheek. They watched every move, wondering what I’d do next.
I kept my eyes on Jorad, but asked Blue, What would the sultan do to punish him?
Make him gut himself, slowly. Or put him in a cage and wish leprosy upon him, then set him out at the gates so travelers can see him.
I looked to Ryan. “I hereby accuse Jorad of treason. Cut his throat. End it quickly.”
I turned back to Jorad. “Your years of service have earned you a clean death. Your betrayal—I hope it earns you a godsawful afterlife.”
Ryan slit Jorad’s throat deep, severing the artery. And as the ballroom floor grew soaked in red, and a glugging noise filled the room with Jorad’s final moments, a number of Cheryn’s soldiers lined up, quietly, to sign a contract with Evaness.
I was a little surprised that an execution had that effect on them.
Blue? I asked for an explanation with my thoughts.
People don’t fear death so much as they fear evil. And you’ve just shown them you aren’t evil.
Chapter Twenty-One
Evil or not, I couldn’t stop the attacks from the djinn, or the giant waves that battered our docks the next day.
Our country was a wreck. I was a wreck. I was an emotional mess because I still couldn’t see or hear Quinn. I carried heaping loads of shame on my back because every attack that hit us felt like it might have been prevented. Or I might have known how to respond better … if I’d never run away.
Sirens came ashore, singing to the dockworkers in Marscha. We sent gargoyles to run them off, but I heard thirty civilians had walked themselves into the water and drowned.
The guilt of that gnawed on my bones.
My knights and I issued orders and divided responsibilities. We did all we could to help alert the people and levy the shores. But we couldn’t stop the attacks. Not without help. We left Connor’s mother in charge as we mounted gargoyles and flew to see if we might convince Gitmore to ally with us.
If all else failed, at least my husband’s family would rule Evaness with a fair hand.
I dressed for a formal court appearance once again, this time Gennifer was unfrozen and could actually plait my hair. But it seemed her freezing experience hadn’t left her much more talkative than she’d been before. If anything, she seemed to have withdrawn further.
