Aefa thrust out her chin. “You cannot defeat the very rocks you stand on.”
“Quiet, Fool,” the eldest sister ordered.
Elia closed her eyes briefly, then leveled her gaze upon Gaela. “Are you less brave than ourmother?”
“What,” snapped Gaela.
Regan hummed, low and soft, discordant with the wind.
Elia took Gaela’s wrist. “Dalat has everything to do with this, with us, with what we are. This is how she died: as a queen. With one action to protect us and uphold the star prophecy. She ate poison, and did not let the island save her.”
“No,” Regan whispered.
The eldest laughed like a snarling wolf, tugging out of Elia’s grip. “I don’t believe this. It was Lear’s worship of star signs that doomed our mother.”
Elia nodded. “Yes, but because she chose to let it, she chose to strengthen the people’s faith in the stars—which was faith in her. Don’t you see? Dalat’s legacy depended on that prophecy being fulfilled.”
Regan shook her head,no no no.“She loved us, and him. No one who loves like that would keep such a thing secret. Connley would—” The middle princess stopped suddenly, going still and certain and cold. “It is not possible.”
“She was wrong,” Elia said, glancing between her sisters. “She should have told us, told our father. Trusted him. But he lost her, too, haven’t you ever thought of that? He adored her, and his heart tore apart when she died. Have you no sympathy for that?”
“I crushed sympathy in myself long ago, little sister,” Gaela said.
“I do, though, have sympathy,” their witch-sister answered. “But no more for him than for myself or my sisters. No more than for the roots and wells of Innis Lear that he forsook! His pain does not excuse his actions.”
“Nor yours, Regan,” said Elia.
Gaela shook her head. In a voice sharp and regal she said, “I do not believe this, but even if I chose to, how would it change anything at all? It does not make me want to eat these death flowers, especially if my mother died of the same. You cannot manipulate my heart, out of desiring my destiny. I have always been meant for the crown. I have strived all my life to make myself into a king. I will not apologize for what I have done to achieve this, and none shall take it from me because of stars or trees. It is mine. I am the oldest and strongest. Peace will come from me.”
“And all my strength is hers,” Regan said. “Why do you not give over yours as well, Elia?”
The youngest breathed hard, struggling for calm. “I would have, before you went just as mad as Father, mad with violence and hatred, disregarding Innis Lear itself. I cannot allow the island to crumble beneath my feet for your arrogance and ambition.”
“You’re ambitious, too, Elia,” Ban Errigal said. The wizard had been quiet, following his queen’s command.
The sisters turned to him like a fearsome, three-headed dragon. Elia said, “To bring everyone together. To save everyone.”
“To forgive,” he sneered.
Morimaros of Aremoria spoke pointedly to the Fox, “Sometimes we forgive others because it keeps our own hearts whole, not because they deserve it or for any thought of them.”
Ban’s nostrils flared, but Aefa yelled, “Stop, all of you! This is a family squabble that will tear the roots from the earth and pull the stars from the sky if you allow it!”
“Yes! Don’t you see?” said Elia. “This happened because our family shattered, and if we come together again we can fix it together.”
“What would that look like? You married to this king? Always a threat at our east?” Gaela smiled a dark smile.
Regan petted Elia’s cheek before her little sister could shy back. “I like this rage in you, baby sister. Perhaps you can join with us. But you must give up your Aremore king, and these fantasies about our mother, and let go of thinking Gaela and I do not have Innis Lear’s best interest at the fore of our minds. If the rootwaters mean so much to you, as they do to me, I will eat this poison, and Gaela will be my king.”
“No,” Gaela said stubbornly. “We do not need the imagined approval of the land. It is ours.”
“Ban will tell you,” Elia said, latching her gaze onto the Fox. “You know, Ban Errigal, Fox of Aremoria, of Innis Lear, of whatever side you steal. Tell them, if they trust you so well, that they must bargain with the island.”
“You cannot use him against us, either,” Regan said, silkily. She dug her fingers into the Fox’s hair, curling a fist against his skull. “Ban is ours. You gave him up, his great strength and power, but we will not.”
The hemlock blossoms trembled as the Fool’s daughter stamped her foot. “How can you do this, Ban Errigal? Elia has loved and defended you beyond all reason, while you have betrayed all of us some time or another. How dare you stand against her?”
“How…” Ban bared his teeth. “Here are two queens who admire mefor myself and give me a purpose I am suited to. Who do not treat me as a bastard, or a tool, or someone who never,never,can be an equal. They aremyequals! They do not hold themselves apart from me.”
