26. Bound by Oaths and Destiny
26. BOUND BY OATHS AND DESTINY
Though a drake was the highest position in Embermere’s nobility short of royalty, Rush walked beside me, a mere viscountess—if anyone still believed the ever-morphing tales the queen spun—as an equal. He’d cleaned up while I had, ditching his fighting leathers for a tunic and britches in woodland hues that accentuated every dip of his honed muscles. But for once, I wasn’t distracted by his body—a significant achievement since I was startlingly aware of the pleasure it could offer me.
Rush’s stare was so intense on my face that I could scarcely think. And when he wasn’t looking at me, his every step was clipped with his ire, his sensual lips tugged low with his brooding.
The queen had said we had an hour to meet her, but before Pru could do much more than retrieve her magically expanding multi-tool kit from wherever she hid it in her frock, a disembodied mouth—this time a feminine one with feathered lipstick in cherry red still clinging to its dead lips—zipped into my bathing chamber to cut our time in half. Pru had instantly panicked and begun spouting the familiar, “Hurry, hurry, or it’s off with our heads” when that much was a constant given, and stashed away her sewing kit without patching me up. A few cuts were minor compared to the urgency of keeping our heads.
My hair still wet, Pru had styled it up into several twists of easy braids, squeezed me into a dress, the taffeta sticking to my still-damp body, and shoved me out the door without jewelry or other adornments. She hadn’t risked even an extra second to wish me the fortune of dragons, and when I’d next turned to seek her out, she was gone, the king’s five guards hurrying after Rush and me in a jangle of bouncing swords, their scabbards smacking against their thighs.
Rush wore a loaded baldric across his back and his usual set of daggers. Woefully, I was back to being weaponless, since Pru had insisted I should do nothing more to provoke the queen. Even when I’d pointed out that my mere presence was enough to enrage her, and that I might as well have some way to defend myself, the goblin had gone twitchy, her gnarled fingers twisting together so markedly that I’d relented. When the queen could snap her fingers and force me to remain unmoving while Rush came at me with a blade, what did it matter anyway?
Even so, I’d managed to sneak the icepick down my cleavage when the goblin was turned around .
When grand double doors, their wood panels sculpted with a bas relief of— what else —a monarch defeating dragons, came into view at the end of a wide room as opulent as the Hall of Mirrors, I breathed, “Rush?”
I didn’t even know what I might want to say. His name was constantly on my mind, and had all too easily slipped from my lips.
His pace had been so fast I’d thanked sunshine several times that Pru had dressed me in flat slippers, but at his whispered name he slowed and spun on the sentries trailing us, giving them a single look that had them halting mid-stride as effectively as if he’d bellowed the command.
He faced me and dipped his neck so he could stare into my eyes. “What is it, El?” His question was a gentle caress that went contrary to the tension that so obviously roiled through his tight frame.
“I…”
He took half a step toward me, his hands reaching for me before dropping back to his sides.
“I…” I uttered again, my attention darting to the ceiling where the queen’s little bloody spies trailed perhaps twenty feet behind us. I didn’t know their range, but I guessed whatever we said to each other might not be private.
I exhaled loudly, and an ear beelined toward me as if understanding that my heavy frustration could all too easily make me reckless. Glaring daggers at the bobbing ear and its dangling strings of flesh, I scowled and told Rush, “Nothing, I guess.”
His fingers alighted on my arm, skirting the deep slice concealed by the three-quarter sleeves of my gown, as if he couldn’t help but remember the harm he’d done to me. A smear of blood already dampened the taffeta.
“Are you sure?”
“For now, yeah,” I said, irritation bubbling up in me that the queen should have such a stranglehold on all aspects of her court. A private conversation, for fuck’s sake, is that too much to ask?
The moonlight in Rush’s eyes dimmed. Only then did I realize he’d hoped I’d been about to reciprocate his declaration of love.
His shoulders sagged. “You’re really sure?”
I attempted a reassuring smile that fell flat. “Yes. Everything’s fine.”
Everything was not fine, and Rush certainly knew it.
He frowned. “We’ll talk later.”
“Mmmhmmm.” That same empty smile tugged at my mouth.
The double doors opened so violently that both sides banged against the wall, dinging the plaster and its ornate creeping vines with thunderous smacks. Ivar and Braque emerged at once, the thin man and the portly man, otherwise so markedly different, but identical in their disapproval. It pulled their lips into such sour lines that they etched down their chins, revealing them for the puppets they were.
“You dare to make Her Royal Majesty wait?” Ivar’s voice vibrated like an arrow shot from a bow, zeroing in on its target.
“After all you’ve already done?” Braque further accused in an incredulous pitch.
“After all we’ve already done?” I muttered, shaking my head in disbelief, then tsked. “Let’s get this nonsense over with,” I snapped loudly enough to precede me into the throne room, and next marched inside, Rush prowling a step behind me, the guards hurrying to keep up.
“Guards, wait outside,” the queen ordered from the single throne atop a dais at the back of the room, her voice ringing hollow as it reached for the high, vaulted ceiling.
Four of the sentries immediately bowed, turned, and stalked from the room. The fifth, the one who’d assured me that he and his cohorts would defend me against any threat save whatever faced me in the Gladius Probatio, hesitated.
The queen’s stare had been on me and Rush, but now it swung to the sentinel. She arched her dark brows, silently daring him to defy her.
The man, strong and evidently in his prime, gulped, bowed, and scurried away, sword clanking—leaving me with the greatest threat in all the kingdom.
Swallowing my bitterness at his cowardice—should I really blame him?—I realized Rush remained bowed, and I hadn’t yet shown the woman the formal respect she so clearly didn’t deserve.
She snapped those brows at me and I curtsied, dipping my head to conceal the disgust that widened my nostrils.
The heavy doors at our backs shut with a thud, caging us in with the beast.
As we stood, Ivar and Braque hurried to their queen, the smooth soles of their shoes click-clacking on the polished hardwood floor.
“You left the arena without my approval,” she announced.
I straightened my shoulders. “I didn’t realize I needed your permission to do so. The Gladius Probatio was over.”
The crystalline sky-blue of her eyes stormed and clouded over, and she leaned forward on her throne. “The festivities were to celebrate the end of the Gladius Probatio and its … winners.” Her lips rolled before settling into their usual curves. “The celebration was for you.”
“No,” I said, ignoring how Rush instantly stiffened beside me. “The celebration was for you, Your Majesty ,” I added with a cold smile.
Braque wheezed as he sucked in his affront. I didn’t even bother looking at him—or at Ivar, whose anger was attempting to sear a hole through my forehead.
The queen, however, stilled entirely. The severed ear, eye, and mouth that had trailed us into the room flattened themselves against the farthest wall as if she could still make their owners suffer after all they’d already been through.
“Everything I do is for my subjects,” she said, her tone too calm. “For this kingdom.”
“Of course it is,” Ivar said with enough offense for both of them. “That’s not in question, my queen.”
“Actually,” I said, “everyone here knows what’s really going on, so how about we save all the back and forth and posturing for when there’s an audience, huh?”
Braque’s round, pronounced cheeks colored, and his breathing sped up.
But I met only the queen’s waiting stare.
“El…” Rush warned.
What was the point of caution?
“Everyone here already knows you did your best to kill me today. You took over my body and Rush’s and came very close to having him end me. You had Lennox stab me in the back when no one was looking, and you ordered Russet and Selwin to chop my head off when it wasn’t necessary.” When was beheading ever necessary, actually? “Luckily, they didn’t succeed.”
The queen smiled like a viper preparing to strike. “Luckily.”
“We all know you hate me, and that there’s no way you called me here to award me some trophy for tying the Gladius Probatio when you almost let Azariah die just to keep me from winning too.”
Rush grunted something that was close to a whimper, but I continued: “You have the kind of power that could do away with me all too easily. And we all also know that I have power too. Something is going on with me and I’m guessing that you haven’t killed me yet because you want to figure out what as much as I do.”
That was the only move left to me. Anywhere within Embermere I was at her mercy—unless my burgeoning power could protect me, since no guard, however determined, could defend me from her. Whatever magic I might have, it was my only hope.
When the queen finally spoke, her tone as frigid as the river that snaked along the boundary of Nightguard, though I really tried not to, I shivered.
“Do you see how she talks to me, Rush?”
“Such horrid disrespect,” Braque hissed.
“Putrid,” Ivar added, though I wasn’t sure what exactly he meant by that.
Carefully not looking at me, Rush, with a wheedling smile, said, “Your Highness, I’m sure the lady Elowyn is just overcome by the stress of?—”
“ Quiet .”
Rush instantly silenced.
The queen scanned me so intently that I eventually tilted up my chin in useless bravado against her scrutiny.
She harrumphed and faced Rush. “Elowyn makes it clear at every opportunity that she’s a danger to me and my reign. I’m not just a person, I’m a symbol of this great kingdom and its might. If others aren’t convinced of my strength and ultimate rule, then Embermere’s in danger. So long as the mirror world has existed, my ancestors have labored to ensure we’re safe, that no one dares make a move against us. Now that job is mine and mine alone.”
I hesitated before deciding I had nothing left to lose: “Excuse me, ah, Your Majesty ?” Should I still use her title when I’d effectively given her a big eff you ? I had the sinking feeling that since I’d first stepped foot in Embermere, nothing I’d done or said had mattered. The woman had settled my fate probably before even meeting me.
“Isn’t this place a portal world?” I continued. “How could anybody invade when they can’t even get here?”
She pursed her lips and stared down her nose at me, shaking her head. She still wore the same getup she’d worn for the grand finale of the Gladius Probatio. The many arcs and dangling chains of white gold caught the sunlight streaming through high windows; the fat rubies refracted their rich color along the walls and floor. Everything about the queen was beautiful, but the inside that mattered most.
Finally, the queen frowned. “As ignorant as the beasts you were raised by… The mirror world’s only safe from invaders because I’m powerful enough to keep them from coming. If not for me, you all might be slaves, or worse, by now. ”
I bit back on the obvious retort. Was the woman as ignorant as she accused me of being? Was it possible she really didn’t see that practically every one of her subjects was effectively her slave?
“The world’s a very dangerous place,” she added. “Beasts of all sizes and sorts, wizards and witches, shapeshifters, horrid people-like creatures who drink blood, on and on the list goes. They all would gain advantage by laying claim to a population that has been untouched by their kind.”
She sized me up again. “Ignorant bastard, so obviously not of my blood.”
“Definitely not,” Braque cooed. “She hasn’t the strength and wisdom in her entire body that you have in a speck of a pinkie nail.”
The queen studied me before coming to some decision. “You’re right in one thing, Elowyn. Awarding you anything for your dubious win in the Gladius Probatio is pointless. Soon Rush will win the entire Fae Heir Trials, and then his victory will be far greater than can be stuffed into any one pointless trophy. Rush … step forward.”
When he did, the queen said, “You’re bound to your destiny. Like me, your duty was written in the Etherlands long before you took form in this”—she trailed an openly appreciative gaze across Rush that had me biting my tongue not to lash out at her—“obviously skilled, fine, capable body.”
Rush didn’t so much as blink in response as I waited for my blood to settle in my veins .
“Elowyn’s a danger to me and my duty, to Embermere and the entire mirror world. She tells my subjects that I’m a liar, undermining their faith in me. That’s horribly perilous. She defies me at every turn, and publicly. Her continued existence is a threat that must be extinguished.”
She drew out her pause. “By you.”
Rush didn’t seem to be breathing, but surely he couldn’t be surprised. I wasn’t surprised and had realized before entering this room it was likely I’d have to battle the queen today—test my new magic against the ultimate challenge.
The queen’s eyes, back to a pretty, alluring blue, were on Rush alone. “I need you to prove your loyalty to me.”
Rush swallowed visibly. “Your Majesty, have I not done that time and again? I’ve done everything you asked of me over the years…”
“I commanded you to kill her in the ring just today. You didn’t.”
“That’s because I promised to protect her. I swore an oath to the king.” And to her too, I recalled. Not that it mattered.
“Speaking of my husband,” she gritted through tight teeth, “that’s part of why it is you who must kill her. I need you to prove to me that you’re not part of this conspiracy Sandor confessed to.”
“But … but I took an oath with Azariah’s magic as witness.”
“You did. And then Azariah betrayed me. ”
My stomach sank at the thought of whatever vengeance she might take against the unisus who’d risen to save me when no one else had.
“Kill her and confirm that I can trust you.”
Rush swallowed another time; his forehead crunched into ridges of worry. “I beg for Your Majesty’s forgiveness, but … I cannot. I can’t kill the Lady Elowyn.”
“And why ever not?”
“I believe her majesty already knows the answer.”
“If I did, I wouldn’t ask,” she snapped.
The warrior who’d faced down his opponents in the arena without fear now glanced at me, terror darkening his eyes.
“Rush,” the queen pressed. “Don’t test my patience. I had to leave the festivities I carefully supervised to deal with the two of you. You know how little we have to celebrate sometimes.”
Her court celebrated even death, it seemed, but then I’d never witnessed the queen to be concerned about accuracy or truth.
“I love her,” he said so softly I believed for several moments I might have imagined it.
“You … love her?” the queen snarled as if he’d admitted to butchering her entire family.
“I do.” The confirmation was another whisper, barely there at all.
I whirled toward him, eyes so wide they strained. All this warning about not letting on about our bond, whatever the hell it was, in front of the queen, only for him to admit to her what he’d only told me an hour before? Was he out of his ever-loving mind?
The answer was evident: yes, he most definitely was. Why would he offer up something as fragile as love to her on one of those fancy silver platters that adorned her regular evening parties?
“How could you love … her ?”
The queen’s disbelief and disdain were so dense that I reacted before thinking. “Hey! There’s nothing wrong with me.”
She looked at me as if she were concerned I might taint her by proximity. “That’s a matter of perspective, and in Embermere my opinion is law.”
“That’s right, my queen,” said the obsequious Ivar.
My pulse beat in my neck as I warred with the desire to rip out his throat, then Braque’s, and finally, their precious queen’s. If I was lucky, my new, mysterious power would allow me to do it and spare the mirror world any more of their wretchedness.
“You can’t love her ,” the queen told Rush, who only stared up at her with vulnerability shining in those striking eyes of his.
Where the hell was the warrior drake whom everyone admired? Who kicked ass against the strongest fighters in their land?
“But I do,” he said. “Please spare her.”
“No. And unless you kill her right now, I won’t spare the others you supposedly love either.”
The healthy tan of his skin gave way to wan paleness. “Your Majesty, please don’t… ”
She tsked . “You’ve given me no choice. This is all on you, Rush. The sooner you do what you’re duty bound to do, the sooner this all ends.”
“Spare her, and I’ll do whatever you want,” Rush pleaded. “Take me instead.”
But the queen was already saying, “Bring out Hiroshi, Ryder, and West.”