“Do not tell me what I can and can’t do.Iam the queen.Iam the one in charge here.”
“Get off your high horse, Fern. I would say Bastion is the one responsible for this, but I know better. Who was it that put the idea in his mind? Was it Morgana?”
My throat tightens at the name. Morgana. The one who cursed me, now involved once again. It’s always her.
“Your son is a bad influence. He has been from the start. I knew it was a bad idea to allow them to be friends.”
“Stop changing the subject. You have a crisis at hand. Whatever dark spell Bastion found has turned the area unlivable. The wildlife have abandoned it, the plants are dying, the soil has dried up….What if the ruin spreads? What about the nearby villages? You and Morganahaveto answer for this. You need to dosomething.”
“It’s not her fault! She was only trying to help. Which is more than you’ve ever done!”
“I told you what happened the first time I tried!” Ruth raises her voice. “I’m surprised Lilibeth stayed in the citadel after what Morgana did to her and that poor girl. Once again, you’re blaming others, Fern. There’s a dark magic spreading in the north, and it won’t be long until the people find out. When they ask who is responsible, what do you think they’ll say when they find out it was their own prince?”
The queen clutches Young-Bash tighter.
Her rage peaks.
With a simmering low voice, she says, “They won’t. Because they’ll never know. The only people who know what happened are our husbands and the people in this room. Morgana will investigate the area the next time she visits and fix it. In the meantime, we’re sending extra supplies to the people. They’ll be fine. Everyone will have forgotten about the whole incident by the next solstice. So if you breathe a word, if I catch the story spreading, I’ll know who it was, and I’ll have your entire family killed. Don’t test me, Ruth.”
Ruth blanches in disgust. She pulls Young-Will closer.
“Fine. Have it your way. Let’s go.”
Young-Will hasn’t once taken his eyes off Young-Bastion. As his mum tugs him toward the doors, he blurts out, “Bash—”
The prince flushes in shame. His jaw clenches but he doesn’t look up.
“Coward,” Will says from my side.
“If the queen asked Morgana to fix it, why didn’t she?” I ask as the colors bleed together again.
“I don’t know,” he says. “Maybe she couldn’t. No one else has been able to. I guess the queen believed that if she denied it long enough, it would go away and heal itself. Instead, years later, it brought rebels and explosions to her doorstep.”
That does explain her paranoia, her desperation to keep an eyeon everyone and everything in the citadel. Just in case any whispers begin that this was Bastion’s doing.
“Something makes sense to me now.” I grimace. “It was very soon after this that the queen summoned me to her chambers for the first time. I was thirteen. She must have been checking for any rumors about what Bash did.”
“What?”
“She asked if I’d heard anything suspicious, and in return for my truth, she would give me something I wanted.” I stop to hold back a pained laugh. “I told her that my best friend loves reading, and he wanted to use the castle library. She agreed, but asked again:What do you want?I then answered that I wanted my mum to be happy, as she sometimes looks sad. She asked what would do that, and I said flowers. The best flowers in the whole kingdom. Since then, the queen improved the trading routes with Lucan and Dreah to include more varieties of flowers. And in return, she gets to question me anytime she wants.”
“Fliss…that’s awful. You were achildand she used you like that?”
“Actually, it’s what allowed Bastion to meet Card, so I suppose some good came of it. Card and I wondered why the prince was suddenly spending so much time in the library when he was supposed to be in the training yard. Now we know.”
Will scoffs.
“Here, this is a few months later,” he says.
He pulls my hand, and we step onto a cobbled street in the lower town, the fountain at our backs and the castle standing tall beneath a strong summer sun. We see Young-Will passing a group of townsfolk who whisper and throw side-eyes his way. He yanks a hood over his head and marches on. Shortly ahead, Young-Bastion laughs alongside Ava, who has not yet made captain. They pause before a stall selling a variety of summer fruits when Young-Will catches up. He tugs on Young-Bastion’s sleeve and the prince’s face falls.
“I’ll just be a moment,” Young-Bastion says to Ava with a strained smile. She nods and continues her conversation with the seller.
Once out of sight down a nearby alley hidden in shade, Young-Will grabs the prince and presses him against the wall with his forearm against Young-Bash’s throat.
“Where have you been? I haven’t heard from you inweeks,” Young-Will says. “The guards in the castle courtyard won’t tell me anything.”
At least the prince has the decency to look ashamed.
