26. The Prophecy and The Fortune #3
I can’t argue with that.
She says, “Nice flying today, by the way, Rike. You were one of the best out there.”
“Oh. Thank you.” He looks between us. “So, why did you want me?”
“I got him for you,” Meg tells me. “You do the talking.”
I cross my arms, thinking hard about what I need to know. And why.
“Some of my memories are missing,” I start. It seems as good an opening as any. “I know yours were, too. What did the Queen make you forget?”
“Meg could have told you, but they were minor things, really. The king’s funeral – maybe because she made a spectacle of herself. The fact she travelled.”
“She travelled?” That must be one of the memories she’s made me forget, too.
He nods. “To visit Lartos, in a sky ship they’d gifted her. It caused my father a lot of grief. It was dangerous for her to be away from the dome.”
I let the words settle. Then I say, “The Soulmates. Did she make you forget that story? The song? Because I think she did for me. I only remembered them when I heard the song at the morale booster.”
Rike contemplates it. “Possibly. Yes.”
“Tell me the whole fairy-tale. I want to make sure I’m remembering it right.”
He shrugs. “The Soulmates were fated to be together by the Sisters. Their powers, combined, were unimaginable. But they wanted different things. When they separated, they were weaker – and they were punished by the Sisters for going against them. It ends badly for them both.”
I don’t know what to make of that.
I look over at Meg, now leaning back against Rike’s ship. “If the Queen hides things she thinks are dangerous, things that expose her, why hide a story?” I ask her.
“You wouldn’t hide a story. Unless you thought it wasn’t just a story.”
I get her meaning. “A prophecy,” I say with a nod.
Rike’s face puckers, showing his dimples. “Ara. Your grandmother. She spent a lot of time with the Queen, didn’t she? Could she have seen something that convinced the Queen the old story – the prophecy – was in motion?”
He’s absolutely right.
I’m breathless as it comes to me. Old Mother had read the Queen’s fortune.
I’d been told she did, many times, throughout my childhood.
I’d even seen the card she had drawn for her, on Old Mother’s table, earlier today.
The Card of The Soulmates.
I say, as if just to solidify the thought – the memory – in my head, “Old Mother’s fortune predicted the prophecy would, or could, come true.”
“I’m confused. Why does any of this matter?”
“Because Old Mother’s fortune referred to me. And someone else.”
“If the fortune referred to you, why would it have been read to the Queen?”
I open my mouth to try to answer him, but Meg clears her throat.
“Rike, thank you,” she says, tugging her starched collar to lift it higher. “This has been very helpful. Ara, shall we continue this conversation elsewhere?”
I let her pull me away.
Outside the hatch, she says, still speaking in Rhavnan, “Try not to be so trusting of people.”
“Like you?”
“Yes. You should never have let me into your mind. Who knows what I’ll do with all your secrets?”
I think – I hope – she’s joking. But as she doesn’t crack a smile, it’s hard to tell.
Quietly, because there are pilots and engineers around, Meg muses, “Your track marks. I don’t see how they link to this.”
“More preparation, maybe?” I suggest. “Like my training. For the person I was to marry.”
“Possibly. But Rike is right, though. If the fortune was read to the Queen, it had something to do with her personally.” Her eyes gleam. “What do you know of the person we were discussing?”
“Next to nothing. Other than that he’s from the west.”
Meg holds my gaze. “West.”
“Yes. But he’s obviously not from Banko.”
She grabs my shoulders. “Rike just told you the Queen was travelling to Lartos. And in the spies’ quarter, we knew of large sums of money being sent there for guards and tutors.” A vast, awful smile slices her cheeks. “Drake didn’t mean he was from west of Rhavna, Ara!”
West.
Not of Rhavna.
Of the world.
My mouth parts, but nothing comes out. Except maybe part of me.
She shakes my body. “He’s her son!”
I’m frozen.
Close to tears.
“He can’t be,” I murmur, hot. Dizzy. Like I’m sick.
“He must be. She just hid his existence. Had him raised in Lartos.” She lets go of me.
Sort of spins on her heel. “Just think. He’s the right age.
He’s clearly of noble birth and education – anyone who has lived in the Palace can see that.
Sisters, why didn’t I see it sooner? He even has the look of her! ”
Drake’s face flashes up like laser light in my mind.
And I can see it.
The smoothness of his skin. His strong nose and jawline. Dark, imposing features, like midnight just landed on them.
Sisters. That’s why I’d thought he looked so familiar when we first met.
I’d recognised his mother in him.
“And he’s her firstborn. That means he would supersede Princess Faye in line to the throne. You were promised to the Crown Prince!” she whispers, utterly gleeful.
Anyone passing might think the deities just granted all of her wishes.
I must look like they just destroyed all of mine.