As the Mahananda channels my body upward, I scramble to ask, “The Crows’ obsidian curse. Can it still be broken?”
“Tomorrow, Zendaya. Tomorrow, I will tell you what can be done.”
Chapter 49
Zendaya
When my head pierces through the surface of the Mahananda, crown-first, I’m met with layered silence. It surges against my skin in waves shot through with scorching scorn, balmy awe, and cool caution.
“Sumaca,” Abrax murmurs. He must’ve shouldered past the thin crowd while I was in the Mahananda because he stands right behind Agrippina, whose eyes shimmer like the twinkling talons and beaks of the Crows swerving over Shabbe.
My guard drops onto one knee and begins to bend his head, but then his gaze trawls the courtyard and he bellows, “Kneel for our queen.”
Though every guard heeds his command, out of the Akwale, only Tamar prostrates herself. The others, including Soorya the healer, huddle around Malka’s supine form. Is the immortal sorceress dead?
Yes,Agrippina says.Struck dead by the Mahananda.Her voice lilts over the words.
I shouldn’t be surprised by the power the Mahananda can exert on the living, but it’s still astonishing. I do wonder why it didn’t punish Priya after she disrespected its orders. Unless shedidn’t? Perhaps Meriam misheard and the Mahananda never planned on lifting the Crows’ immortality?
Questions for tomorrow.
I finally step over the hardened surface that reflects the stars and the murder of Crows, that reflects me and the crown braided into my pink locks. “I encourage those of you who do not want me as their ruler to leave Shabbe.”
“You’re kicking us out of our homeland, Naaga?” Aori snarls.
“Prostrate yourselves, sisters. The Mahananda chose her to guide us,” Tamar whispers.
None do.
“Come with us, Tamar,” Aza implores, holding Soorya’s arm.
Tamar looks at them, then at me, then at Malka’s bloodless body, and then she shakes her head, splashing the stone beneath her with the tears coursing over her deep-brown cheeks. “I trust the Mahananda.”
“Day!” Asha erupts onto the courtyard, then halts beneath the canopy of honeysuckle that’s always in full bloom. Her eyes widen, and then the corners of her mouth wobble around the title that’s now mine. “Sumaca.”
“I’ve tasked my people to spread the news of your rise,” Lorcan says. “To Shabbe and beyond.”
I nod but don’t meet his golden stare. No, I track the retreat of Priya’s coven and of Shabbe’s healer. I suppose we don’t need one now that I can make Serpents. Our tongues best any crystals.
“How many do you suspect will leave, Lore?” I ask as I catch the giant Faerie healer calling out to Soorya. They clasp hands and murmur aggrieved farewells before Aza whisks her out of the courtyard. Did he kneel, I wonder.
“When I returned to power”—my fellow monarch grows out his talons and drums them against his leather-cloaked thigh—“there was a mass exodus of pure-blooded Faeries.”
My breath hitches. “Shabbe’s so much less diverse than Luce that if there’s a mass exodus of pureblooded Shabbins, I’ll have only the serpents in the Sahklare to rule over.”
Fallon takes one of my hands and squeezes it. “Mádhi, many will stay. Just look around you.”
“They’re not staying for me; they stay because they fear the Mahananda,” I murmur, tracing the shape of Malka’s body with my gaze, while giving my daughter’s fingers a squeeze, touched by her enduring support.
“Some, but not all,” Lorcan says. “When I rose out of the Cauldron seven centuries ago, your great-grandmother told me that a ruler should never endeavor to please; only to protect and improve. Whatever you do, Daya, do not expend energy on trying to shepherd those who left back into your queendom. Concentrate on those who stayed.”
I bob my head, storing his advice. “I know nothing about ruling.”
“You’re in luck. I’ve a general to lend you.” Lorcan levels a smile on the male who warms one side of my body. “He’s well-versed in politics. And yes, I’m aware that he’s passably agreeable on good days, but you’re in need of a fount of knowledge not a bucket of sunshine.”
“I know plenty about generaling, too, Day,”Agrippina says as she marches toward us.Unless you want Cathal to stay?
Enzo crosses his arms and stammers something in Lucin that makes Lorcan cant his head, Cathal scowl, Agrippina smirk, and Fallon bite her lip.What did you tell them?
