Regan circled her fingers around Gaela’s wrist and squeezed so the eldest released Ban’s chin. He swallowed, staring past both sisters at Elia. As if devastated by hope.
“So,” Gaela said, nearly a growl. “If Morimaros of Aremoria wins, little sister, you will have your desire that we eat the island’s poison. But if Ban the Fox wins, your Aremore king will be dead, and your allies will disperse. Rory Errigal will return to Aremoria forever. Kay Oak will be struck down for disobeying my banishment.”
Elia’s entire body had gone rigid. Her voice trembled with strain as she asked, “What of me? What will you ask of me?”
Gaela studied her baby sister for a moment, and then smiled. “You will marry Ban Errigal, and your children will be my heirs.”
The youngest princess looked at Ban the Fox with eyes spinning betrayal and wild panic.
And the wizard said, in the language of trees,It gives you everything you need to save everyone.
Not you,Elia replied in the same.
Of all there, only Regan the witch understood their words, but her heart did not care any longer.
You must,Ban said.
Elia opened her mouth, hesitating as she stared at him, and the entire world paused with her. But the world cannot hold still for long. She breathed deeply. “I accept.”
Her sisters clutched hands, pressed their lips into matching grim smiles. “As do we,” Gaela King said.
“At Scagtiernamm,” Regan Connley added. “Where the wind and trees can witness. Just when the sun rises.”
Dawn,Elia Lear whispered in the language of trees.
The island beneath their feet seemed to shiver, and the wind made an obeisance of gentle, laughing huffs against the death-gray pavilion.
THE FOX
BANERRIGAL’S ENTIRElife had led to this.
Elia looked directly at him and said, “I forgive you.”
There was no possible response he could offer, desperate as he was to remain standing, to hold himself together.
She turned from Ban and to her sisters, inviting them all and their captains and whatever men would fit to shelter in Errigal Keep and its yards for the long, blustery night to come. Gaela agreed.
Then, very like a queen, Elia marched out of the pavilion with both Morimaros and Aefa at her heels.
The two eldest Lear sisters surrounded Ban, who felt himself entirely stunned by the swift current of destiny.
Gaela’s face was murderous. “You’d better win, Ban the Fox,” she said.
Regan kissed him, soft and scraping. She left her cheek against his to whisper, “The island will choose. Nothing else matters now.”
“I will win,” he lied, meeting Gaela’s eyes. “I will go ready those men who can move, to join Elia in the Keep.”
Their permission given, Ban hurried to do so. It took the greater part of an hour before he was on his way with a full contingent of men, behind the two queens and Earl Glennadoer, with Osli at his side, and upon arrival at the Keep, nearly another hour to settle all in their places. The wind blew, softer than before, but still urgent and waiting. He swung his saddlebag over his shoulder and strode inside.
But alone, Ban reeled still, and could not yet go to his old rooms. He leaned into the whitewashed wall, and said Elia’s name silently, no voice behind it.
The future of Innis Lear was rooted to his life or death. Him, and him alone. Ban the Fox, bastard of Errigal, would determine who wore the crown.
Was this glee and triumph building like a scream inside his chest? Or despair?
It would not do to dwell—not with so few hours left in his possession. Ban dropped his bag and hurried around the corner, where he caught a passing servant and asked after his father’s body. Wrapped and oiled, the earl had been laid out on a slab of worn granite in the cellar. Curan Ironworker and Captain Med had seen to it in the absence of both Errigal sons.
Ban went on alone, hurrying down the stone stairs with a shuttered lantern.
