“You suspected you might need to pull this.” I narrowed my eyes. “Otherwise, why would Herald appear with that law scroll just in time?”
“Fine.” He gulped guiltily. “I’ll admit, it was a backup plan. I had hoped that if things went badly, you’d be able to challenge her. I sent word to Herald to have the law scroll ready.”
“That’s so fucked up.”
“No! This way, when you win, it’s a fair upheaval.”
“What about Herald?! He showed up my crazy-ass aunt.” I flung my hand in the direction of Heartfire Hall. “Won’t he die for that?”
“This might come as a surprise to you,” Henri murmured, “but he was all for it.”
I arched an eyebrow. “He’s terrified of her.”
“True, but he also works for her daily. In my opinion, that makes him one of the bravest in our ranks. He’s willing to give it all up to see our cause through.”
Damn it all to hell.
The glow of my fingertip lessened.
Hatter’s eye went to my hand. “Are your powers up for a tournament yet?”
“Probably not,” I huffed, and threw myself down upon a red chaise lounge in the center of the room.
After a moment, I took in my surroundings.
Three bedrooms branched off a living area, much like a modern penthouse. Everything in here was plush, luxurious, and not made for prisoners.
When the Red Queen had told her soldiers to put us in a tower, I’d assumed they would shunt us into a moldy, leaking tower with bales of hay to sleep on. However, the tower suite we found ourselves in was nothing like that. The only objectionable object in the room was the dining-room-table-sized portrait of the queen, hanging on the wall.
I flipped the painting the bird. “Someone take that off the wall and get it out of my sight, will you?”
Alran and Sansu got right on it.
“Why are we here, anyway?” I gestured around the room. “Why didn’t she throw us in some terrible cell?”
“She’s playing thegracious hostcard,” Sansu muttered as he wrestled with the painting. “The queen doesn’t want anyone to think she’ll cheat or pull anything during the trials. This is one way of doing that.”
“He’s right,” Hatter said, “but don’t let her fool you. When the trials begin, watch your back every second.”
I rolled my eyes. What did he think I was? An amateur? “So what are these trials?”
At that exact moment, a pounding came on the window. I looked over to find Dee and Dum rubbing their hands up and down their tiny arms and gesturing to be let in. Alran opened the window, and the pixies soared inside and zoomed straight toward me.
“By the old gods! A Trial by Aether!” Dee’s pitch was so high, I cringed. “We heard the party guests gossiping about it. Is it true?”
“Yes. In fact, Hatter was about to tell me what the trial entails.”
Henri heaved a sigh. “You got the gist that only royalty and the aether-blessed can challenge a monarch for the crown in a Trial by Aether?”
“I have ears,” I muttered.
“Well, that’s about the only thing that’s certain in the trials.”
“That’s not true,” Alran said. “There are always three competitions, and their categories are set in stone.”
“And those are?”
“Combat, creatures, and conjuring.” Alran ticked them off on his fingers one by one.
