Twenty-Three
DAWN WAS A faint splinter of gold outside her window as Charis awakened from a fitful slumber. She’d dreamed of monsters and blood and the unforgiving depths of the sea dragging her to her fate.
Shivering as the remains of her nightmares crept back into the shadows of her mind, she stretched and climbed out of bed, moving as silently as possible.
Where were the Rakuuna guards? Outside the wing? Outside her door? It had been nearly impossible to fall asleep knowing they could come for her at any moment. The idea of washing and then getting herself dressed with that threat hanging over her head sent her stomach churning.
Reuben was snoring on the sitting room couch, his sword hand clenched as though he imagined he still held a blade. The Rakuuna had confiscated all weapons upon their arrival in the palace. Perhaps the queen, unlike the ship captain, now had enough experience with humans to realize that even when the odds were against them, people were courageous and foolish enough to fight for their freedom.
The doors to Holland’s and Tal’s rooms were still closed. Charis slipped into the bath chamber, quietly closing the door behind her. Her fingers shook as she lifted the lid on the chamber pot, straining to hear any hint of sound.
When would the Rakuuna queen send for her? And would Charis be summoned alone, or would Holland and the other Calerans who’d been with her be punished as well?
When she’d finished with the chamber pot, she crept to the sink and turned the water on low. She was nearly finished washing her hands when she finally found the courage to look in the mirror.
It was like looking at a stranger.
She was pale and gaunt with hollow cheeks and smudges of exhaustion beneath her eyes. Her brown curls tumbled wildly, and her body appeared to be carved from paper-thin stone, all sharp lines and blunt edges.
Slowly she straightened her shoulders. Appearances no longer mattered. Only strategy remained.
The Rakuuna queen might believe she was summoning a defeated rival to her execution, but Charis had to prove her wrong. Charis knew how to read situations, detect lies, and exploit the tiniest of openings. She could negotiate with a vengeance and gain more for her people than her opponent even realized she’d given up.
And even if Charis couldn’t convince her enemy to let her live, all she needed was to get a message to the leaders of the rebellion. If they exchanged pallorens with Nalani in code, they could set up an invasion of their own, using the moriarthy dust to obliterate the Rakuuna. Holland and Tal would see that the message was sent, even if Charis wasn’t able to do so herself, so long as one of them survived.
Quickly she bathed herself, scrubbing at the dirt beneath her fingernails and attacking her snarled curls with a wide-tooth comb. The closet in her room had a sparse selection of clothing for both men and women. Charis chose a blue velvet dress with a belt made of tiny silver interlocking links. She’d just tucked her curls behind her ears and straightened the belt when someone opened the suite’s door.
For an instant, time seemed to hold its breath.
Then, as Charis stepped from her bedroom, doing her best to wear an expression fit for a queen, Tal and Holland flung their doors open and rushed into the sitting room, each brandishing a makeshift weapon. Tal had an iron fire poker. Holland had what looked like a bedpost he’d snapped in half. Neither of them was wearing a shirt.
Reuben lunged off the sofa and snatched something from the floor. Charis frowned as her guard whipped his weapon into the air. Was that a curtain rod? Her lips lifted slightly.
The Rakuuna queen may have taken her people’s blades, but their courage was out of her reach.
A pair of Rakuuna guards entered the suite, ducking to avoid hitting their heads on the doorjambs. Their lips were peeled away from their fangs in a snarl, and their black eyes swept the room before landing on Charis.
“It comes with us.” The female guard stepped forward, only to draw up short as Reuben slapped the curtain rod against her stomach. “Stupid human.” She batted the rod away, sending Reuben stumbling into the side of the sofa.
Tal and Holland lunged forward, throwing themselves between Charis and the advancing guards. “Not today!” Holland whipped his broken bedpost into the air.
The male guard sniffed scornfully. “Can’t stop us or it dies.”
Charis’s hands began to shake as Tal swept into the first rathma position while Holland looked one second away from charging the Rakuuna. They were committed to defending her, but it was going to cost them their lives.
“I’ll go.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat as every gaze in the room found hers.
“Absolutely not.” Holland glared at her.
“I agree with Holland.” Tal rolled to the balls of his feet.
The female Rakuuna strode forward, clawed hands extended, fury on her face. Hastily, Charis said, “I’ll go peacefully. Stand down.”
“Charis—”
“I mean it, Holland.” She skewered him with a look designed to shut him up, for all the good that ever did. “Stay alive.”
“You stay alive,” he muttered, his bedpost still raised threateningly.
“No more time.” The male Rakuuna leaped forward, slammed into Holland, and sent him spinning into Tal. Both of them hit the wall beside Charis’s bedroom door. “It comes with us.”
“I am coming.” Charis’s voice shook. “Leave them alone.”
There was a commotion at the suite doorway, and then Dec and Grim raced into the room, headed for Tal. The male Rakuuna turned to face them as Tal yelled at them to stop before they got themselves killed.
Look who was dishing out the same order he’d failed to obey when it came from Charis.
“Bring them all.” Another Rakuuna entered the suite, her gray-white hair flowing down her back, her skin so translucent, the threads of blood beneath its surface resembled thin, black snakes.
“Go peacefully,” Charis said before Holland could finish climbing to his feet. He gave her a mutinous look, but then Tal clapped a hand on his shoulder and steered him toward the corridor, speaking quietly in his ear.
Moments later, Charis, flanked by Reuben and Holland, left the southern wing and headed toward the center of the palace, following the first guard who’d entered the room. Tal, with Dec and Grim on either side, was on her heels, and the male guard took up the rear.
They passed guards at every turn. Charis’s skin crawled at the way their black eyes watched her while they spoke to each other in their language. Desperately, she reached for strategy.
What could she say to convince the queen to keep her alive?
What could she say to bargain for the lives of her people?
And what leverage could she use if all of that failed?
It didn’t matter that she’d spent most of the night wrestling with those questions—she still didn’t have answers that felt like a solid plan. Her chest pinched, making it harder to breathe.
Before she was ready for the confrontation, they were at the door that led to Mother’s sitting room. There was no more time to strategize. There was only the painful thud of her heart, the smell of Mother’s favorite dried herbs sitting in a dish on the table, and the sight of a tall, lithe Rakuuna with silver-blue scales in delicate patterns on her white skin, long white braids woven with blue beads, and a dull green crown of what looked like moss-covered metal on her head.
She was sitting in Mother’s favorite chair.
The queen glared at Charis, and her thin lips peeled back into a snarl. A pair of guards stood on either side of her. The pinching in Charis’s chest exploded into fury.
This was Mother’s room.
Mother’s chair.
Mother’s kingdom.
And if not for the creature in the mossy crown, Mother would still be alive to rule it.
The female guard said, “I present Charis Willowthorn, Queen Bai’elsha.”
“Renegade princess.” Bai’elsha’s words trailed off into a snakelike hiss. Her Caleran was accented but much clearer than her guards’ or that of those on the ship.
Charis moved fully into the room, chin held high, thoughts sharp as knives as the guards herded her people against a side wall.
“Renegade queen.” Charis strode forward, ignoring the way the Rakuuna’s guards tensed in response. “And you are sitting in my chair.”
There was a collective gasp from the side of the room, but Charis ignored it. There was nothing but Bai’elsha and the verbal duel Charis couldn’t afford to lose.
“I earned this.” The Rakuuna queen swept her taloned hands out to encompass the room.
“You stole it.” Charis’s voice shook with the heat of her anger.
“In my kingdom, if you kill the owners of a house, you get the house.” The queen smiled, revealing both rows of fangs. “But of course, I haven’t killed all the owners of Calera. Yet.”
Charis took two steps forward and gracefully perched on the edge of the cream-colored chair opposite Queen Bai’elsha. Running her hand over the smooth marble surface of the coffee table between them, she tapped a fingernail against the base of the heavy crystal candlesticks Lady Channing gave Mother for her last birthday. Had she already decided to betray Mother then?
Meeting Bai’elsha’s gaze, Charis said, “You won’t get what you want from King Alaric if you kill me.”
Bai’elsha’s smile widened. “You know nothing of my business with King Alaric. He’d prefer you to be alive when he arrives, but he’ll make do with the other heirs if necessary.” Her eyes sparked with malice. “Let’s see if it’s necessary.”
Charis’s stomach plunged. This was it. The moment where she either found a way out of this or died trying.
Cocking her head to the side, Bai’elsha studied Charis for a long moment. Charis crossed her legs as if nothing worried her and folded her hands in her lap. There was a faint ringing in her ears, and she had to remind herself to breathe.
“You are not scared?” Bai’elsha asked.
Charis was terrified. Heart pounding, mouth dry, palms damp. But showing her fear would gain her nothing.
“I do not cower before my enemies.” Charis waited a beat and then said with confidence, “Neither do you.”
The faster she could establish a connection between them, the faster she could shift the queen’s intentions.
“No, I do not.” Bai’elsha slid one taloned finger down the arm of Mother’s chair. “Your people are loyal to you.”
“As are yours to you.” Charis cocked her head as though studying Bai’elsha the way the Rakuuna queen watched her.
“I recently put to death two people who tried to sabotage my ships. Members of this silly, doomed rebellion. They pleaded not for their own lives, but for yours.” Bai’elsha’s mouth curved into a sneer.
Was the scorn in her voice because she didn’t respect a queen whose people spoke up on her behalf? Or was the sneer aimed at all Calerans?
“They understand that I’m of far more use to you alive.” And please, please let that be true.
“An enemy without usefulness is best killed quickly.” The queen rose to her feet, moving with startling quickness.
“I agree.” Charis stood as well, praying that her shaking knees would hold her. There was a scuffle from the people lined up against the wall, and Tal said something in a voice Charis barely recognized, but Charis didn’t look away from the Rakuuna queen.
Would Bai’elsha tear out her throat? Stab her in the heart? Or would she order one of her guards to do it?
Quickly she said, “I was never your enemy, Queen Bai’elsha. Why were you mine?”
Bai’elsha drew back as though startled, her watchful eyes flicking a glance toward the others against the wall before returning to Charis. “My people are dying. Without serpanicite, we will be gone in five years. Maybe less. What kind of queen would I be if I didn’t do what was necessary to save them?”
“Then why not schedule an audience with my mother and present your case? You could have asked for help—”
“We did!” The queen’s voice rose. “Your Lady Channing presented our request. It was denied.” She swept out a hand to encompass the room again. “And now this is mine.”
“Lady Channing did not tell me your people were dying, or that you needed a specific jewel from Montevallo to make medicine for them.” Charis kept her voice even, though everything inside her wanted to scream. “And you had already begun sinking our ships before she ever came to us with your offer. You set yourself up as our enemy, but if you’d simply told us the truth, we would have welcomed you as a friend.”
Bai’elsha leaped over the table to close the distance between them faster than Charis could blink. “You know nothing.”
The Rakuuna queen whipped her hand into the air and wrapped long, taloned fingers around Charis’s throat. Tal, Holland, and Reuben shouted in protest, and there was a brief skirmish as several Rakuuna guards rushed forward to keep them from getting to Charis.
Pain, sharp and biting, as the queen’s talons sank beneath Charis’s skin. She squeezed, and it was suddenly impossible to breathe. Charis’s hands flailed, searching for a weapon. Her fingers brushed against the glass candlestick, and she grabbed it.
“I trusted your Lady Channing,” the queen whispered against Charis’s ear. “And this is the result.”
Gray spots danced at the edge of Charis’s vision. Lifting the candlestick, she smashed it against the table’s edge and then thrust the broken shard she held into the queen.
Instantly, the Rakuuna let her go, her dry bones language spilling out of her as black blood poured from the wound on the back of her hand. Strong arms grabbed Charis from behind and the glass was yanked from her grasp.
Charis coughed as air flooded her lungs again, and then said quickly, “I could have stabbed you in the heart. I didn’t.”
“Weak.” The Rakuuna queen glared at Charis, blood falling from her fingertips to stain Mother’s rug.
“Strategic.” Charis held the queen’s gaze. “I don’t wish to be your enemy. Your people can be saved, and so can mine.”
For a long moment, Queen Bai’elsha glared, and the only sound was the steady drip, drip, drip of the Rakuuna’s blood hitting the floor.
Finally, the Rakuuna queen said, “My kingdom will be saved. Stay in the palace. Do not cause problems. Otherwise, I will kill you.”
Charis held herself still while hope, fragile and aching, bloomed within. She was still alive, and so were her people. Maybe everything would be all right. Once Alaric arrived and traded serpanicite for Charis, the Rakuuna would leave, and she could rebuild her kingdom.
“Take her to her chambers and lock her in.” The queen turned away. “If she tries to escape, kill her.”
Before Charis could utter another word, she was dragged from the room.