Chapter Thirty-Two The Villainess Steals Treasure
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The Villainess Steals Treasure
The Emperor led his lady by the hand into the Room of Golden Wonder. Lovely as any jewel within, the lady surveyed the stacks of coins with equanimity.
“My lord, let us give this gold to the poor.”
“Which poor?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Which poor people would you like to me give this gold to?” the Emperor asked.
“The virtuous poor? How shall we determine their virtue? I don’t have a weighing scales to measure virtue.
Shall we simply pass gold out in fistfuls to anybody on the street, in view of as many of our people as possible? ”
Her sweet gaze was reproach enough for his harsh questioning.
The Emperor sighed. “Distribute the treasure as you see fit. Before you do, will you not choose a gift from me from among all this?”
Lady Lia shook her golden head. “No, my lord. I want nothing from you.”
Time of Lies, ANONYMOUS
The second and final test of the Queen’s Trials, to test a queen’s true heart, was held beneath the glass roof of the imperial conservatory.
The ladies-in-waiting-to-be-queen lined up in the greenhouse like a row of potted plants in various flowery shades.
They stood before low tables on which a row of vials was displayed.
A vial for each lady, holding a red concoction made from eyebright and clary star flowers and the crushed roots of mandrake that screamed like children when plucked from the earth. All this, to find the strange wonder of a woman both true and fair.
Rae cursed the enchanted earth of Eyam. No second Flower of Life and Death, but enough to make truth potions for everybody.
“Please consume your vials in an orderly fashion,” Prime Minister Pio instructed.
“For some, truth comes easily, and for some, truth is reached with more difficulty, but truth will come to you all within one full turn of the sun and moon. When truth comes, please report to the Emperor. Offer him wise counsel as a true queen, and prove your love as a true bride.”
No problem. Rae only needed to sneakily tip the potion down her sleeve, and watch out for Glacia.
Lady Ninell had heard what Key said about Glacia, just as clearly as Rae.
Unlike Rae, Ninell had no reason to leash her jealousy.
Rae could see Ninell’s china-blue eyes watching Glacia from behind the leaves.
Rae had selected Glacia to be the new heroine of the story, so Glacia was Rae’s responsibility.
She knew all too well what had happened to Lia in the original story.
Enough women had died during the first round of the trials. She needed to keep Glacia safe.
She remembered how Marlowe back home had stranded Rae by sharing messages behind Rae’s back. Marlowe hadn’t been brave enough even to tell Rae why.
If Ninell was anything like Marlowe, Ninell would never dare physically harm her.
Rae held Glacia by her side, talking about books, until it was Glacia’s turn to drink the truth potion. She had kept both Glacia and the vial in her line of sight the whole time. Ninell had no chance to tamper with the potion.
With all the secret bravery of a heroine, Glacia took the truth potion as if it were a tequila shot. As Rae lifted her own vial, positioning it to slip just before her lip, Glacia smiled shyly over at Key.
A glancing blow struck Rae’s elbow upward. The truth potion flooded her mouth, sparkling as if she were drinking stars, stinging tongue and throat like envy.
“Oh I am sorry, Lady Rahela,” cooed Lady Ninell. “I didn’t mean to jostle you. I was just in such a hurry to get my vial. Can you blame me for being excited?”
She sent a wink over to the Emperor, who stood outlined against the glass and sky, watching them all with a sardonic air.
Rae swallowed, trying to get rid of the taste of truth. “How will we know when the truth potion kicks in?”
Nobody seemed sure of the answer. Another lady, wearing a coral gown, coughed. Light bloomed at the base of her throat, as if a bright bubble was being born there.
“Never mind,” said Rae.
The woman in coral crossed the grass to stand before the Emperor.
“You are a disgusting dead thing. We all hate you, and we’re frightened of you. We wish you had never crawled out of the pit.”
Her hand flew through the air to slap the Emperor’s face. The Emperor caught it casually, not trying to be careful, so his claws grazed her skin and a few drops of blood bedewed the grass. The lady gave a scream and fainted in a heap at his feet.
The Emperor said, “Great news, my evil chancellor. I’m fairly certain the potion is working.”
“Well done, noble maidens of the tower,” intoned Prime Minister Pio, after a moment’s embarrassed pause.
“The effect of the heart’s reveal potion may be immediate, or it may take the full day and night, but in time every one of you must reveal your true heart.
Once all hearts are known, the true queen will be revealed. ”
Rae realized she hadn’t chosen Glacia to be the heroine of the story. She had only known the rules of the story well enough to see the hero would choose Glacia.
The aftertaste of the truth potion was bitter. Or perhaps that was the taste of Rae’s true heart.
“I do not know if we can change our fates without sacrificing somebody, but I intend to try. Tagar is not the real enemy. Watch for signs of the Great God.”
Rae had read the Cobra’s note many times by candlelight as evening drew in, until she decided she needed to try to get the letter to Lia and Emer in the Cauldron, so they could all talk it over together.
She dressed in clothes which would be easy to move in since they came in parts: a gauzy, brief white chemise with sleeves hanging in the shape of daggers over her hands, an embroidered white silk corset with front lacing, and a red silk surcoat.
She lay down in Lia’s virginal-white and veiled old bed in the tower, biding her time until the Palace on the Edge fell asleep.
She woke to the sound of a soft cry behind her bedroom door. She was by the door by instinct, ruby slippers clicking on the marble, before the thunder came.
Thunder on the ground, not in the sky.
Thunder shaking the earth. Dull percussive crashes, shaking the city walls.
Rae had intended to creep stealthily from her chamber and head towards the secret tunnel that would lead her to the Cauldron, determined not to put a foot wrong.
Instead, she threw open the door at the speed of terror, determined to flee as fast as possible.
Neither plan worked out.
One step over the threshold, Rae tripped and stumbled over a large object in the dark.
Her foot landed on something that definitely wasn’t floor, and she pitched forward in the darkness.
Fear flashed through her, even as she fell.
Beyond the threshold of every maiden’s chamber in the tower lay treacherous stone steps, and a stone wall to dash her brains against.
Stone didn’t catch her. Arms did. When Rae tumbled down, one arm snagged around her waist and the other broke her fall.
Key didn’t let his claws touch Rae’s skin, though a sharp whisper of metal slid through her skirts and in her hair.
She felt her long hair fan out, spilling down the steps.
She could have fallen all the way down from the top of the tower.
Instead, Rae lay on the edge of a fall, held and caged.
A hoarse and sinister voice in the midnight darkness murmured: “Ow. You stepped on my lungs.”
Breathless, Rae said: “I hear you’re an immortal, invulnerable god. Stop complaining.”
Her eyes were still adjusting to the dark. She glimpsed the red gleam dancing in Key’s gaze, reflecting flames that were not there. She traced the shape of his shoulders as a deeper shadow directly above her.
When she pushed at his chest, he let her sit up. He wasn’t wearing his bronze breastplate. She supposed it would be uncomfortable to lie down in. The breastplate was originally made for a conqueror king of Eyam, not the Emperor. She preferred him all in black.
The crash from outside the city walls came again. The Maidens’ Tower was shaking. Even the ghouls in the abyss must be shaking.
Rae clutched at the black folds of Key’s shirt, until she got a secure grip on the leather straps of weaponry beneath and held onto him. “Key. What are the raiders doing?”
Limned in silvery red by moonlight and abyss fire, Key’s shadowy figure had one leg drawn up so she could rest against it, and lay propped up against one elbow so they could talk. Otherwise, he seemed unacceptably relaxed for a ruler whose enemy would soon send his city walls crashing down.
“Battering rams,” Key said. “They won’t want to use their dragon, in case I kill their princess. But I have my roc now, so they need to either surrender or make a move.”
“And their move is bringing down the walls? I thought battering rams were for doors!”
“They’re battering rams with mechanisms, to increase the force,” said the Emperor. “King Ivor is a clever man. I guess a few kings must be clever, by random coincidence. Bit of a waste.”
“I don’t know. Ivor seems to be using his brains!”
The thunder came from all sides. It seemed to come from the very bones of the earth. The noise made Rae want to grind her teeth to powder, just as the walls were being reduced to powder.
She had believed the sound of the battering ram was thunder, before she heard the crash. Unmistakable, the sound of an avalanche. Rocks fall, Rae thought, and everybody dies. Walls fall, and we do.
Rae stared out the arrow-slit window of the Maidens’ Tower, but she could see nothing. Her breath came in shallow pants as she waited for fires to start across the city, for people to begin screaming. But Themesvar lay quiet beneath the broken moon.
“King Ivor’s not the only one using his brains,” Key remarked. “Nobody expected my dead to rebuild the city walls overnight. So nobody watched them do it.”