As the knights advance, King Balen’s raven eyes meet mine. Then he is gone, vanished into thin air. But his words remain, the whisper of a promise.
‘This is only the beginning, little dove.’
50
We sit on the roof of Harglade Hall, watching the sun set over Valburn.
‘Back where it all began,’ says Flint, tossing me a peach.
I catch the fruit and take a bite. The day has been uncomfortably hot, with not even the slightest breath of breeze to alleviate the closeness of the air. It’s been the same for weeks – bright hot days, cold dark nights, reports of wildfires, crops dying, monstrous waves.
The Gods are angry, the natural order has been thrown into chaos, and the elements are out of control.
‘What do you think of this one?’ Flint asks, gesturing to the patch over his eye.
‘I like it,’ I tell him, but that’s not quite true. The truth is that it unsettles me. Horrifies me, even. Because I’m not used to seeing Flint like this – damaged.
He takes a swig from a dusty bottle of wine. ‘Spinner sent me a crate full of patches. She and Elaith reckon they can turn them into a fashion statement, said they’ll have everyone wearing one by Dawnday.’
I try to smile. ‘I don’t doubt it.’
Renly mutters something in his sleep, shifting his head inmy lap. Since watching the emperor being stabbed through the heart, he’s been suffering from nightmares, and he’s not the only one. I can still smell the blood, can still see the three queens lying dead around me.
After the Binding Ceremony, many called for the Earth Cleaver’s execution, demanding the deaths of the old Council be avenged. The people don’t know what really transpired in that chamber. They don’t know what I know. About King Balen, about the prophesy. But regardless, killing an Heir is forbidden. It is our most ancient, most sacred law.
So, Fox wasn’t executed – he was exiled.
It was Hal’s first decree as emperor.
Hal, who has spent these last few weeks tailed by an incessant deluge of advisers and emissaries, who has had to step into his new role under the worst possible circumstances, and who lost a father and banished a brother in the space of a few days, all while waiting for his uncle to make his next move for the throne.
King Balen could be anywhere, biding his time, gathering his supporters. But one thing is for certain – he will return.
In light of this, much like the last seventeen years, I have been placed under heavy guard, unable to venture out anywhere on my own, and I have accepted it with the grace and dignity of a future queen. Or at least, that’s what they think.
I knew I had to tell Flint about the three enchanted Eyes. He didn’t believe me at first, and just made a joke about needing a new eye himself. But I persisted.
‘So what you’re saying is,’ my brother began slowly after I’d finished explaining, ‘King Balen has the Eye that once belonged to …’
‘Sifa.’
‘Sifa. And that with it he has the ability to see the past?’
I nodded.
‘And you have –had– the one belonging to …’
‘Syla.’
‘Which gave you the power to summon that storm in your third trial and return the gifts of your Obsidian serf girl?’
‘Precisely.’
‘And King Balen wants it?’
‘Badly.’
‘But you chucked it through a portal to …where, exactly?’
