Chapter 34 The Serpent #2
“Reveals danger,” Tait snapped back.
One brow arched, the princess tilted her head. “Then why haven’t you been staring at that thing the whole time?”
“Danger for the Ever, meaning the crown.” Tait returned the golden watch to his trousers. “A spell from the House of Mists to aid me in finding anyone who means harm to the king . . . and now queen. The one thing Harald did right by commissioning this.”
“It only works around Bloodsinger?”
Tait didn’t respond, merely offered the princess an exasperated look, like he’d already explained it all in great depth.
I did not need a mystical watch to tell me, the prickle on my flesh and weight in my gut was enough to know there was something amiss in the House of Tides.
Livia stroked the hair of a child. A girl, her matted braids were tangled around her flushed face, and the sickly creature could hardly catch a breath between her coughing spells. The girl trembled, flushed in fever, and toppled at her side was a basket of . . .
“What the hells is this?” I lifted a pome, soaked in blackened skin. “The darkening?”
Livia clung to the child, but a new sort of villainy burned in the deep blue of her eyes. “They’re eating it. This isle is infected.”
It was then I looked to the fields behind the manor. Deadened meadows, crops, and riverbanks. Land that looked as though a wildfire had devoured the lot of it soaked the House of Tides.
“Three hells.” Valen took in the land. “This is what you’ve been healing?”
“This is what has been devouring us,” I retorted, voice rough and more hiss than words. I reeled around the corner, darkened pome in hand, and gripped Joron by the throat. “Why did you never send word? The state of your lands, hells Joron, they’ve been infected for months.”
The tide lord shook me off. “We tend to ourselves in the House of Tides. Our gifts were given for a reason, if we cannot save ourselves, then we do not deserve to be saved.”
“You don’t make those choices for my people.” I slammed a hand against his chest, shoving him against the wall. “Your folk are dying.”
“Have you been feeding them infected crops?” Livia, furious and harried, came to my side, shaking another blackened fruit in her hand. “You’ve been starving them, haven’t you? They have no choice but to take from the darkening fields.”
Joron’s eyes flashed in hatred. “I never permitted my folk to take from the fields. If they would consecrate and ration, they would not be in this state.”
I let out a growl of building rage and slammed his back against the wall again.
“Did you think we wouldn’t notice when we arrived here?
Why have you let this go on?” In Joron’s silence, I understood.
The laugh from my throat was bitter, empty.
“Ah. You were awaiting a new king. The creator of the darkening. You want him to rule, to clear your lands, is that it? So, you sit here like a coward and what? Wait me out? Wait for my death?”
“It isn’t like that,” Joron murmured. “It’s logical. We’ve heard by now who is responsible for the curse. He . . . he will be able to clear it.”
“As can your queen,” I snapped.
“Yes, but it will be swifter if a curse maker breaks their own spell.” Joron glared at me. “If you would not be so proud and simply give up the blood crown—”
My fist crunched over Joron’s jaw. Unsatisfied, I struck him again, then once more until he doubled over. Joron coughed and kicked, desperate to break free when the ground shuddered beneath Valen’s fury magic, a threat of what could come.
Avaline backed away, horrified. Mira went to the woman, squaring to her, voice soft. “You know something is wrong here, don’t you? You don’t want this. Look at your people, they grow ill.”
Avaline let her hand slide off her mouth. She looked to me, then Livia who slammed the rotted fruit onto the stones at our feet.
“Father . . . believes it is a sign of the fates, that a new blood heir is destined to rise.” Avaline winced. “After so many turns with the blight unable to be healed, it was thought this new king might have answers.”
“But you disagree?” Mira pressed gently.
Avaline didn’t respond.
Celine was the next to move in. “Look at me.” Tidecaller waited until the woman lifted her gaze. “Bonekeeper began the darkening. Why would we want him to be on the throne?”
“Father says—”
“Shut up, girl,” Joron seethed.
I struck his lip again, his blood on my knuckles. “Speak, Avaline.”
She let out a rough breath. “Father says we do not have a choice. Yes, we heard the darkening was his doing, but he . . . well, he wants to restore the Ever to what it was, not what—forgive me, My King—not what you are creating.”
“I see.” Livia stepped forward, her gaze focused nowhere but on Joron. “So it all leads back to a queen.”
“Songbird,” I warned when she knelt, but I pulled my hand away. Instinct to shield her, to keep her from more harm burned like lamplight in my chest. Yet, she was queen. She was a voice of the Ever.
Livia leveled with Joron, sneering into his bloodied face. “You hate that Erik placed me on the throne, don’t you? You would rather crown the bastard who is killing your lands, your people, all so a queen does not sit above you.”
“It is deeper than that.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “But that is a great part of it. You think he is your answer? Hmm, I wonder why he had to take me, then? Let me tell you something.” Livia leaned closer, lip curled. “It will not be a traitor who saves your lands. It will be your queen.”
She said nothing else and took hold of the splattered bits of fruit at her feet.
Cupped in her palms, she closed her eyes.
Even without touching her as we’d done, a hum of fury burned in the stone tiles.
It spread through the courtyard. I went to her side, touching her shoulder, and nearly buckled from the burst of heat radiating off her skin.
Gasps, even cries of praise, rolled from the far side of Joron’s manor.
“Good hells, Liv.” Jonas stood around the corner. “Keep going. Valen, look.”
The earth bender followed. He did not wear a look of stun. He grinned with a searing pride. “It’s pulling back from those fields.”
“She’s not even touching it this time,” Tait whispered.
“No.” I held tightly to Livia’s shoulder, convinced bond or not, there was a power that flowed through us, an unmistakable strength. “But do not underestimate the rage of the Ever Queen. Hold him, will you?”
Mira and Sander went without pause to Joron’s side. Mira wrapped the tide lord in a dazed illusion of darkness. His whimpers were sweet as the dawn after a wretched night.
“Come.” I helped Livia to her feet. “These people will not doubt who you are by the time we end this.”
Since reuniting, we’d had little time to seek out the blight and poison across the Ever. The risk of facing Larsson unprepared was too fierce, and in truth, I wasn’t certain if Livia was ready.
She proved me wrong.
Without a pause, Livia hurried to the back fields. The thrum of magic, hot and palpable, burned between us. Fate joined us as children, and it was felt now with every step through Joron’s fields.
Crops, stalks of grass, of wildflowers, of mangled fruit trees, they returned, lush and full and ripe. Livia was unrelenting. Tension pulsed in her jaw, but if she was fatiguing, she never let it show, merely urged us to continue across the flatlands.
I studied her, holding her palm, while she worked on a scorched, deadened wild oak.
You are the queen, love. She would not hear me, but her gaze caught mine, as though something in her heart stirred. With a wicked smirk, she nodded toward the deeper fields and pressed on.
Two fields. Three meadows. An entire orchard of fire plums that would feed most of the township for a month.
Livia pulled back the poisoned earth with more strength than I anticipated.
Truth be told, she did so with more strength than me.
By the time she slumped into my chest, spent, I was damn close to pleading we return.
We were able to stumble back to the side of Joron’s manor where a small army of people awaited, slack-jawed, in awe.
“Bleeding hells.” Celine knelt in front of us, a ladle and bucket of fresh water in her hands. She forced the spoon against our lips, wetting our mouths. “Did you see how far you went?”
“No, Tidecaller.” I laid back on the grass, cradling Livia’s head to my heart. “We must’ve missed it, but please, do tell us how far?”
Celine clicked her tongue. “You won’t be able to stand for days.”
I didn’t disagree.
Movement by our heads forced me to crack my eyes. The earth bender stood over us, head cocked.
“Daj?” Livia said weakly. “What’s . . . what’s with the look? You’ve seen me bloom soil before.”
His face was tugged into something else, not confusion over her abilities, it was more he studied us. “Why did you touch her while she pulled it away?”
I closed my eyes, too fatigued to keep them open. “We found it helps. I thought it wouldn’t without the heartbond, but—”
“It did.” Livia patted my belly, like she might be dozing off. “Your words . . . well, you help, Serpent.”
Valen rubbed a hand down his face. “Your touch strengthened her?”
“I suppose.” Did he not realize I wanted to sleep for no less than two days?
“Dammit,” he grumbled, and as he walked away, it sounded a great deal like he said, “like Elise.”
Of course, it could’ve been made up in the haze of my mind.
“Erik.” Tait kicked the bottom of my boot. “You’ll sleep soon, but we need to deal with Joron.”
Damn bastard. Reluctantly, I unraveled from Livia’s body, and together we stood.
Joron was coated in sweat but released from whatever illusion Mira had used to keep him compliant. He blinked his gaze to us.
“On your knees,” I said, voice low. “Bow to your queen. Thank her for her mercy, and perhaps I’ll let you keep your eyes. I’ve not decided on your tongue yet.”
Joron shuffled forward. He bent low, pressed his brow to the stones, and placed his palms out in front of Livia. “My Queen.”
Livia leaned against me, seeking my strength the way I sought hers.
She looked to the curious people around us and lifted her voice as well as she could.
“I am Livia Ferus, and I have sat on the throne of the Ever King. I am his queen. Stand with us, and you will not suffer the way your lord has made you suffer. You will not be forced to choose a tyrant who steals a crown, who poisons your land, your home.”
I kept a possessive hand on her back but said nothing. Not when a few gazes fell to me, as though they did not know what to do, not when Joron spat his distaste for our abuse of his title.
“I will choose an Ever Queen.” Avaline, meek and uncertain, stepped forward. Murmurs followed from her house. “I will choose you both to lead us through . . . well, just to lead us. I don’t exactly know what all is going on out there.”
“The earth realms stand with Erik Bloodsinger and Livia Ferus.” Aleksi pounded a fist to his chest.
More murmurs rose up when a few folk went to their knees. Some uttered prayers to the gods. Most seemed too stunned to move, too uncertain on who to follow—their king, a new queen, or the lord of their house.
“My King.” Avaline approached, giving her father a wide step as she came. “You . . . you said you came to speak to me.”
“Aye. We did.”
She clasped her hands in front of her body. “I would like to hear what you wanted to say.”
It took little convincing of Avaline to accompany us to the royal city. I wasn’t certain if she wanted to join to aid us with her voice, or merely to see a bit more of the Ever.
At the docks, Gavyn aided the weakest folk onto his ship.
“You’ll have access to clean food, boneweavers, and fresh beds,” I shouted, leaning over the rail of the Ever Ship to hide how desperately I wanted to slide to the deck.
“You are of the House of Tides, but you are of the Ever first and foremost. We do not allow our folk to suffer the way you have been forced.”
Some joined us aboard the Ever Ship, others remained on land, able to work, and now, find unblighted food. Men from the House of Bones and the Ever Ship offered to remain behind and keep Joron in their sights, a sort of imprisonment in his own manor, until this ended.
Should I die, Larsson could free him or kill him. It mattered little to me.
Avaline closed her eyes against the sea spray. “My voice is dangerous, My King. I hope you know.”
“I know some,” I admitted. “But there is a connection I must make.”
Avaline scoffed, bewildered. “You do not fit the old ways of the Ever, King Erik.”
“I’m not of the Ever.” I looked to Livia. “I’m of her. Your voice will help me find those who took her, harmed her, who began the darkening, and who seek to return the Ever Kingdom into the land of brutes like King Thorvald.”
Avaline gave me a gentle nod. “Then, I agree. I think it will be worth the risk.”