“You don’t believe her promises that she’s reformed.”
“No more than I believe a spirit will become my best friend.” He took back the empty goblet and then, after a hesitation, leaned over and kissed her cheek.
She laughed. “Thatwas a kiss?”
“You’re on the throne. More seemed inappropriate.”
Grabbing a wad of his shirt in her fist, Daleina pulled him closer so fast that he dropped to his knees, and kissed him thoroughly. He slid his hands around her and over her, until both of them were breathing fast and she didn’t feel the least bit tired anymore.
She heard the seneschal clear his throat from the entrance, and Hamon jumped to his feet. He straightened Daleina’s skirt and smoothed her hair, tucking loose strands behind her ears. She grinned at him, drinking in his handsomeness. “Thank you for your ministrations, Healer Hamon. I feel better already.”
He kissed her lightly again. “You said the seneschal cleared your schedule tonight?”
Her smile widened. “Yes, isn’t that lovely?”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Youare lovely.”
“Charmer,” she murmured. And then her good mood drained away as she thought of what had to happen before she was free to be with Hamon again.
He saw her shift in mood. “Daleina, what is it?”
She reached out with her mind briefly and touched the thoughts of the spirits in the palace. She felt them churning, like water in a waterfall. “I have a meeting.”
“About what?” She heard the concern in his voice.
She judged the other queen to be only a staircase away. She felt, rather than saw, the candles in the hall blaze as the fire spirits reacted to Naelin. “I have to tell a mother not to care so much about her missing children.”
Missing, and nearly certainly dead, she thought.
He left her with one more kiss, and Daleina waited on her throne. She was aware of the second throne beside her, one that Naelin had sat in only a handful of times, since their unusual co-rule began. There was no known protocol for how to deal with such a situation. According to all records, such a situation had never occurred before, and before recent events, Daleina had thought they were handling it well—double the queens should have meant double the protection for Aratay.
Now she wished Naelin were merely a powerful heir that Daleina could order to stand down, rather than a queen. She was going to have to rely on Naelin’s willingness to cooperate, and she couldn’t count on that. “Seneschal, could you please help me display the damage reports, as well as the requests for assistance?”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” He scurried forward and placed the stack of papers in front of her. Standing, she began to lay them out side by side on the wood and mother-of-pearl table. Homes, schools, shops, libraries, fields, orchards, bridges, marketplaces... Outside the door, she felt Naelin arrive—tree spirits crawled over the door as if they wanted to tear it apart. She heard their claws scrabble at the wood.
Ready to rush to the door, the seneschal hopped away from the table, but Daleina laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “I suspect she’ll make a dramatic entrance. I’d rather you weren’t harmed, Belsowik.”
He waited beside her, tense.
The door, a heavy oak door, blew open and slammed against the wall. Chittering like squirrels, spirits ran across the walls and onto the ceiling. Daleina let them—she had no fear they’d harm her; they were her spirits too, no matter how strong the other queen was, and she could stop them if she had to.
I’m almost certain I can....
Lizardlike fire spirits scorched the wood ceiling and then dove into the cold fireplace. Embers smoldered as the lizard spirits writhed in the grate. An ice spirit, lithe and tall, slipped along the ceiling. Shaped like a human, it ran its long fingers over the edge of the table, causing frost to spread in flower patterns, then drifted to the window. It curled its body onto the sill, bending into itself in a tighter coil than any human body could bend. Dozens of tree spirits, each no larger than Daleina’s hand, skittered around her feet.
“Go,” she told Belsowik.
He scurried out the door. She knew he’d stand just outside with the guards until she called for him again. Gathering her inner strength, she faced the new arrivals.
Ven first: he looked weathered, as if he were an old shirt that had been scrubbed in the wash too many times. She wondered if he’d slept in days.Probably not.
Daleina crossed to him first and embraced him warmly. “Champion Ven.” She then turned to Naelin. Usually, the other queen was unremarkable. Usually, she looked like the motherly woodswoman she used to be—sturdy, steady, rational. But now she looked wild, almost feral. Her eyes flickered around the room, at the spirits, at the papers on the desk, at the fire that now, suddenly, roared in the hearth, fed by the fire spirits. Her uncombed hair floated in a halo around her head, and she had a streak of soot on her cheek. She still wore one of the voluminous gowns from the palace courtiers, but the skirt was ripped—intentionally,Daleina thought,so it won’t impede her movement.She’d clearly come straight here from the village without another thought.
I hope the people didn’t see her. She’d cause a panic.It wasn’t that Daleina cared about the gown or Naelin’s hair.It’s just that sometimes the role of queen is reassuring people that they aren’t going to die today.
Right now, nothing about Naelin was reassuring.
“Queen Naelin, I am deeply sorry for what you have endured. Please know that we will do all in our power to determine the fate of your children.”
