Bride of Ashes (Kingdom of Shadow and Ruin #1)

45. Reyla

45

REYLA

“ C urse?” I barked, making one of my guards jump and lift his sword, feverishly scanning the area for a threat. I flicked my hand his way, assuring him I was fine, before turning back to Faelith. “What curse?”

“Excuse me, my queen?” Faelith’s brow wedged together. “I don’t believe I heard you right.”

“You said all of you were bound by a curse. What curse?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.” Her head tilted, and her face got even tighter, though her eyes had returned to their regular color. “I didn’t say any such thing.” She gasped and spoke quickly. “I mean . . . I should not have scolded you.” Color bloomed in her face. “I wasn’t suggesting anything with my statement, my precious queen, but I said nothing about a curse.”

If she wasn’t looking at me with complete honesty, I’d doubt her. But this woman had given me no reason to suspect she’d tell me an untruth.

“I must’ve misheard,” I said.

Her face smoothed, and she gave me a sweet smile. “I’m sure that’s it. Farris is rather loud, isn’t he, barking as much as he does? My words must’ve sounded different when mixed in with that, my queen.”

“I’m sure that’s it.”

I didn’t believe that one bit. She’d said curse, and I’d stake my life on it.

What curse was holding everyone at Evergorne Court spellbound?

When I returned to my room, I searched for the book again, but still didn’t find it.

As Moira and Calista helped me dress, arrange my hair, and adorn me with enough jewels to buy a year’s worth of rounds at the fortress bar, I delicately quizzed them about the curse. They each denied knowing about such a thing, and their faces were so open and honest, I couldn’t help but believe them.

When it was time, Moira and Calista escorted me to one of the huge, formal dining rooms. Erisandra and her entourage of six ladies had already been seated, her ladies taking up one side of the table.

I paused in the arched entrance while Moira and Calista smoothed my red gown, and Calista tucked a stray curl back into the arrangement on the top of my head. I felt every bit a queen, and I couldn’t thank them enough for making me look amazing.

Erisandra studied the blades strapped to my sides with her eyebrows lifted, but she said nothing. Her ladies shared her bemused expression but thankfully, also remained quiet. For now. We’d barely gotten started.

“There you are.” Merrick came up behind me and placed his palms on my shoulders, taking care not to crumple the sleeves of my gown. He leaned around me and kissed the side of my neck.

It was all I could do not to melt back into his embrace, to turn around and drag his mouth down to meet mine.

He stepped up beside me and held out his arm, and from the gleam in his eyes, he was well aware of the effect he had on my equilibrium. “May I escort you to your seat, my queen?”

“Thank you.” I smiled with adoration, partly for Erisandra’s benefit but also because I couldn’t help myself. Whenever Merrick was around, my soul calmed, my pulse roared, and I felt as if I could handle anything.

He guided me into the room with Moira and Calista walking sedately behind us. My guards spread out to encircle the area, placing their backs against the wall and keeping their hands on the hilts of their blades strapped to their sides.

Erisandra watched them, her eyebrows clawing higher.

Merrick pulled out my chair and helped me guide it inward after I sat. While Moira and Calista fluttered around me, placing a napkin on my lap and making sure my gown wasn’t being crushed by a leg of the chair, he took the seat to my right, directly opposite his mother .

“You’re not sitting at the head of the table?” she asked, clearly scandalized.

He lifted my hand sitting on the table and kissed my knuckles. “Why would I when I can sit beside my queen instead?”

She huffed but said nothing further about it, choosing instead to redirect her attack. Her mouth pursed, and she sent a snide look Moira and Calista’s way. “Please tell me that these two lessers will not be serving as our future queen’s ladies-in-waiting?”

A high lady sitting to her right tittered before slapping her hand over her mouth—by herself and not from Merrick’s intervention this time.

“Moira and Calista serve me quite well,” I said softly. “I see no need to replace them.”

“This cannot be allowed.” Erisandra ripped her napkin off her lap and tossed it onto the table. “They’re lesser .”

Though I couldn’t see Calista and Moira cringe because they stood behind me, I could feel it as if their dismay raked across my exposed skin.

Merrick looked my way, and I could tell he was ready to intervene if I so much as blinked.

“Is there any reason they can’t be my ladies-in-waiting?” I asked.

Calista gasped. I swore Moira took a step backward.

“It’s quite clear,” the woman to Erisandra’s right minced out. “Lessers are not allowed to serve in such a way.”

I turned to Merrick. “How can we make this work? I don’t see any reason why they can’t be my ladies-in-waiting. I don’t need anyone else. ”

His eyes gleamed with approval and a spark of indulgent amusement. “Tradition states that only high ladies can serve as the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. I was going to speak to you about that after the coronation.”

“I’ll make them high ladies.”

The women across the table universally gasped. I worried the one on the far left was going to pass out and fall off her chair.

Even Surren watched the exchange intently. I couldn’t tell if he was as horrified as Erisandra’s ladies or stunned.

“You cannot do such a thing,” Erisandra shrieked, starting to rise from the table. “I will not allow this . . . horrifying thing to occur. Merrick. Chastise her.”

“It’s not my decision,” he said blandly. “Sit, Mother.” As she did so, he waved for one of the staff hovering near the right wall with rapt expressions to pour him some wine, before turning to me. “Would you like some as well, Wildfire?” At my nod, he directed the woman to fill my glass.

I took a much-needed sip, swallowing with care. “Is there a true reason why I can’t make them high ladies?” I asked him in particular.

“None at all. You’re queen.”

“She does not wear my— the —crown,” his mother snarled. “Not yet.”

“She’s the queen already,” he rasped. “A coronation is just a formality. You know that. We’re married. She sits on the queen’s throne. She sleeps in my bed.” An interesting thing to say. “She has the final say in this.” Death lurked in his voice .

All color fled his mother’s face, and she slumped against the back of her seat.

“Wine, Mother?” he asked, waving for them to pour her a glass before she replied. His gaze met mine, and the pride shining there made me want to preen. “If you’d like to formally make them high ladies, you can do so at court tomorrow.” He glanced back at Moira and Calista, and I followed his gaze, finding them staring at me with astonished expressions and with tears in their eyes.

Had I made things worse for them or better?

“This is an honor,” he said softly, for my ears alone. “I believe you’re the first queen to lift one they call a lesser to such a high position, and I applaud you.” His smile rose just for me.

“Faelith too,” I said, and his smile only grew.

“I love how you’re shaking up this court, how you’re shaking up me. Keep doing it. It’s not only fresh and exciting, but it’s also amazing.” His fingers teased across my nape as he laid his arm on my shoulders. “It makes me adore you even more. This, more than anything else, will endear you to the court.”

The lesser fae part of the court, that is.

As I met the gaze of each high lady sitting across the table and then that of his mother, I suspected I’d made new enemies.

“Oh, my queen. My queen!” Faelith kept gushing as she helped me undress. “Please understand that we’re exceedingly honored by your offer but . . . high ladies. ”

“High ladies,” Moira shrieked. “I can’t believe it. High ladies.”

Calista said nothing as she removed pins from my hair, carefully placing them in the jeweled container sitting on the vanity.

“It’s astonishing,” Faelith breathed. “Life changing.”

“If this will make things awkward for you here at court, we don’t have to do it,” I said. “But fuck, she made me so mad scorning you when you do so much for me.”

Faelith grinned. “Swearing aside—”

“We’re honored,” Moira said. “Honestly, and strictly between us four, my queen, she also made me a touch angry.”

Faelith and Moira bobbed their heads in agreement. Even Farris joined in, dipping his head back and forth, though his nyxin grin said he was more focused on the ball sitting on a nearby table than the conversation. “It’s just . . .” The three exchanged concerned looks.

“Will there be ramifications for this?” I didn’t want to put them at risk.

“I don’t believe so. Not for those such as us,” Faelith said. “But it’s not done.”

“Why not?”

They exchanged another glance.

“We’re lesser,” Moira said as if that explained everything.

“You have magic,” I pointed out, and they nodded. “Then you’re no different than anyone else in this court except, perhaps, the powerless, though their only difference is their lack of magic.” I met Calista’s gaze in the mirror. Her hands had slowed on my hair, but she started tugging out pins again, placing them in the case. “Will this cause you problems?”

“I don’t believe so. It’s an . . . adjustment,” she said.

“In what way?”

“We’ll be given rooms on a different level and will no longer sleep in the basement.”

“The basement?” I scrunched my nose. “Why the basement?”

“It takes a large staff to run a castle this size, and you’ve only seen this particular building. Past the woods behind, there are others. Huge gardens where they grow everything we eat. Stables. And on the cliffs beyond that, more than one aerie, though I’ll point out that there are only a few dragons there.”

Lonely ones, I bet, since no one appeared to ride them. I needed to rectify that. Who would’ve thought I’d miss jumping onto a dragon’s back, giving the command, and taking flight through the sky? Spiraling toward the ground before pulling the beast up and coasting over the canopy close enough the creature’s claws could brush the leaves?

“My point is, my queen, that they have to put us somewhere,” Moira said. “You and the king command this level. The queen mother and her ladies have suites on the next floor down. Some levels don’t have rooms for staff at all. And so it goes until you have to place staff in the basement or in the outer buildings. I assure you, it’s quite nice below the ground level. Cool in the summer when it’s stifling up here, and still warm enough in the winter.”

Calista and Faelith nodded .

“We have our own small rooms and that’s enough for us,” Calista said.

“If you don’t want this, I won’t do it.” I stood, and Faelith undid my gown in the back.

“Oh, I want it, my queen,” Calista said. I swore I spied rage in her eyes, though I had no idea why.

“Especially after that fiend . . .” Moira coughed. “Excuse me, my queen. But this . . . you’re giving us a new chance in life. I’m proud of the job I and all the prior oldest ladies of my family have done in this castle. We’ve always served the queen . . . though in a lesser way. But being granted the status of high lady? Well, it’s something I’m sure every one of us aspires to.”

Faelith’s nod grew in vigor.

“Are you saying it’s impossible?” I asked.

“Oh, not quite.” Moria’s eyes flicked to the others. “I’ve only heard of it happening a few times, when the lesser has done something amazing, like save the queen’s life or sacrificed themselves for others.”

I was upsetting the court, but this court needed a good shake.

“It takes magic to break . . .” Her gaze dropped to the floor. “To circumvent the . . .”

“The what?” I asked.

Faelith and Calista remained still, Faelith still holding my gown, Calista a hair pin above the container.

“Moira?”

Her gaze lifted to meet mine. “Yes?”

“What will I break by changing your status?”

“Everything,” she breathed. The sheen of white in her eyes faded and she took my gown from Faelith. “I’ll have this cleaned and returned by tomorrow, though I imagine you won’t wear it again for some time.”

“Please, would one of you tell me how my doing this will circumvent . . . everything?”

“I don’t . . .” Calista quivered like a chall tiptoeing through puddles. “It’s quite kind of you to do this for us. I believe that says enough. Don’t you agree, ladies?”

They nodded in unison.

Another twist in the mystery surrounding Evergorne, one I was determined to expose.

“Alright, then,” I said, letting it go. “We’ll do it tomorrow.” And may the fates help me smooth this over with Merrick’s mother and the other high lords and ladies.

They helped me dress in a simple tunic and pants, an outfit I’d wear when I worked with Lore. I was about to dismiss them for the night when someone called out from the sitting room.

“Excuse me,” Lord Briscalar said. “My lady? Are you present?”

I lifted my voice. “Yes?”

“Lord Lorant sent word through one of the other staff that he won’t be able to work with you tonight.” He cleared his throat. “He hopes you’re well and that you understand.”

I doubted Lore had added the latter. That sounded more like something Lord Briscalar would say.

“That’s fine,” I said. “Thank you for letting me know.”

“Very well, my lady. Is there anything I can do for you before I retire for the night?”

“Are you a high lord? ”

“My lady?” The shock in his voice made me grin.

“I asked if you’re a high lord.”

“I am. Passed down through my family for many generations.”

Another person bound to this court, deepening the secrets surrounding Evergorne.

I hadn’t mentioned the curse during dinner, not wanting to bring it up when Erisandra might overhear, but I wouldn’t let any of this slide.

If someone had placed a curse on this court, then I wanted to know.

As queen, it was not only my right but my duty to do something about it.