Chapter Sixteen
Ina reached the marsh court first.
She did not wait to be announced. She flew straight through the outer arches, past two startled guards who recognized her too slowly to bow, and into the palace proper.
Marsh servants drew back against the walls as she rushed past.
One dropped a tray of folded cloths in surprise and then stared after her as if queens were not usually meant to arrive at full speed looking as though they had flown straight out of a storm.
She found Lugomir and Jasenka in a chamber overlooking the black water, with Jasenka’s three ladies standing at her side.
All five looked up at the door bursting open. Shock passed through their faces when they saw their armored queen.
Lugomir rose so quickly his chair legs scraped the floor. Jasenka was on her feet a heartbeat later, one hand going to the table as if to steady herself before pride corrected the motion. Shayna, Zuri, and Matilde drew slightly together in front of her, protective, each silent but alert.
Ina did not waste time. “I need a moment with Jassie.”
Lugomir and Jasenka traded a look.
“Your Majesty,” Lugomir started, voice lumbering and self-important, “with the utmost respect, whatever you say – ”
“He knows,” Jasenka interrupted him briskly.
Ina looked at her with surprise she did not bother to hide.
Jasenka gave a small nod. “I told him. I had to.”
That gave Ina pause, the plan she’d been so sure of above the ocean already unravelling.
Then Lugomir reached for Jasenka’s hand and kissed it softly, without display.
The gesture was enough to answer every fear Jasenka had voiced in the healing room.
He did not look at her as though she had failed him.
He looked at her as though the room contained too many dangers and she was among the few things in it he trusted. That softened some of Ina’s concern.
“About the necklace?” Ina finally asked.
Jasenka nodded.
“And the note?”
“Yes,” the marsh princess said softly.
Still, Ina hesitated to tell them more, looking from one face to another. Any of them could be under the mirage fairy’s control. Any of them could be the mirage fairy. Nothing seemed out of place in the room, and yet, something felt off.
Jasenka’s three ladies stood a little apart now, hands clasped before them, beautiful and grave and not speaking.
They truly were astonishing creatures, all three.
Shayna with her quick expressive face and bright honey-brown beauty.
Zuri with those impossible dark curls and her smooth severe loveliness, all polished stone and violet eyes.
Matilde paler than the other two, composed in a quieter fashion, with the kind of face that seemed plain only until it moved and then refused to be forgotten.
Matilde looked up and caught Ina’s gaze.
It happened so quickly that anyone else in the room might have missed it. But there was something in that look. Trepidation, and the strain of someone holding onto a fact she had not been permitted to place on the table.
Ina took one small step toward them. “What is it?”
All three looked toward Jasenka, who paled.
The speed and perfect unison of it made Ina turn her head. “What is going on?”
Lugomir hesitated, then crossed his arms. “We… found a second note.”
Ina raised her brows. “Another one?”
Jasenka sighed. “We did not wish to trouble you, your Majesty.”
“I’m more troubled by your withholding, Jassie,” Ina said, not harshly, but with the kind of disappointment that invites shame.
Jasenka, to her credit, did look appropriately ashamed, which at least spared Ina the effort of further reproach.
“Found it this morning,” Lugomir said, voice entirely unconcerned.
“It said only, ‘you have until sunrise.’” He shrugged and half-snorted at once.
“Ridiculous, really, some secret actor demanding we relieve ourselves of the crowns in the space of a day. I tossed both notes in the marsh, where all such nonsense belongs.”
The thought struck Ina as suddenly as the guilt for thinking it – he threw away the only other clues?
How witless is he? Then she sighed inwardly, one bit of relief joining the guilt of reflexive unkindness.
Well. Either the mirage fairy is so clever that she has everyone fooled about him, or…
she can’t possibly be taking his shape. She knew which scenario she considered more likely. At least he’s not dead.
She put her head in one hand. “You really could have led with that.”
Lugomir waved a hand, still too carefree for Ina’s liking. “The necklace is enchanted well, with the aid of many powerful fairies. No simple thief can break through its charms. Not by sunrise.”
“This is not the work of anyone simple,” Ina replied, more harshly than she intended.
She told them then what she and her princes had learned. The mirage magic. The stone prison in the ocean. The cavern in the mountain. The riddle-head in the water below. The words it had spoken.
When she finished, the chamber stayed quiet for a breath.
Then Jasenka asked, very quietly, “Do you suspect this mirage fairy stole the necklace?”
“And if she did take it,” Lugomir spoke over Ina’s answer, “why aren’t I dead yet? We haven’t stepped down from the throne. If she’s as powerful as you say, she shouldn’t have much trouble with the enchantments.”
Ina paused a moment, thinking out loud. “Then… perhaps she wants something other than your death. Something more.” She looked from Lugomir to Jasenka and back again. “Or something before it? Perhaps she’s waiting for whatever hasn’t yet happened.”
Jasenka’s expression changed to epiphany. “We haven’t named our regent yet,” she said softly.
Lugomir turned his head. “Jassie.”
She did not look at him, but at Ina instead. “Should anything happen to us, the regent was meant to be named during the celebrations. We paused some of the larger ones, though there are others we cannot. The ones tonight, where the regent would be discussed and named.”
Ina felt a weight settle in her stomach. “Who would be your regent?”
Lugomir answered, “Lord Bolvia. Or perhaps Lord Acheron.”
Ina blinked.
That was not the name she had expected.
Some part of her, honest or not, had expected the answer to be Lady Achlys.
She had half convinced herself that Achlys stood somewhere near the middle of this whole foul business, all cool courtesy and hidden sneers.
But if the woman was not even in line for regency, what motive did that leave her?
Loyalty to old power? Vengeance for Aikento? Service to someone else?
Or perhaps, Ina thought with some reluctance, there’s no motive for her to be involved with the mirage fairy at all.
Jasenka glanced at him, saying, “My husband and I will have to discuss those options.”
Lugomir gave her a faint smile, one that suggested an older and more domestic disagreement than any present crisis. “I know, I know. There’s no love lost between you and Lord Bolvia. I’ve said it before – it’s not about that, my love...”
Ina stopped listening.
Not entirely. She heard the shape of it, husband and wife slipping into a familiar quarrel over practical names because it was easier than acknowledging the world tilting into darkness around them. But her attention had already caught elsewhere.
The ladies.
They were not witless, not one of them. And they had been with Jasenka nearly at all times, serving her closely, attending her every need.
Her gaze landed on Matilde again. She was still staring at Ina, and the look had become almost uncanny. Still. Blank.
Ina took a step toward her.
Matilde moved so fast, not one of them had a chance to react. One moment she was there in fairy form. The next her body folded and burst with light in the familiar sight of transformation, though not into any recognizable marsh creature. Not a frog or a heron or even an alligator.
Wings snapped against her back, too many and too few at once. Arms lengthened, twisted, and broke apart into too many jointed limbs. Claws and teeth tore free around her as her shape swelled into something no marsh creature had ever been.
Ina recoiled in horror.
Matilde threw herself out of the chamber and was streaking out over the marsh in a blur before any of them could blink.
“What the – !” Lugomir shouted. “Guards!”
Several armored fairies rushed into the chamber, summoned by his voice. He pointed at the creature disappearing over the reeds. “After her!”
The guards launched themselves into the air and gave chase.
For a brief instant, the chamber held that queer stillness of shock settling.
Then Ina straightened.
“We’ll find her,” she said. “We have to. I must go warn Eogan.”
She did not wait for ceremony after that. There was no time left in the day for politeness, and less in the afternoon ahead. She turned and left the chamber without another word.
---
Ina reached the canopy court with less breath than she would have liked and more urgency than the place seemed built to receive.
The palace was all height and bright light and carved grace pretending to be effortless.
Usually it asked for ceremony. Today she did not give it any.
She passed through two open galleries, ignored a startled attendant who half-bowed and half-tried to ask her something, and found Eogan in a long chamber lined with open windows and leafy panes.
He looked up from a table of papers and did not waste time asking why she had arrived looking as though the entire kingdom were on fire.
Ina told him everything. This time she did not leave out the necklace.
She told him about Jasenka’s notes, the mirage magic, the broken stone prison on the ocean floor, the riddle in the cavern, Matilde’s unexpected transformation into a mirage creature, and the fear now sitting over the marsh court like a knife not yet lowered.
When she finished, she said, “I think I need that help you offered.”
Eogan gave one brief nod. He looked neither pleased nor displeased by the request. Only settled, as though some internal question had at last been answered and the answer had been inconveniently predictable.
“Can you help us keep Lugomir safe?” she asked. “Help us find Matilde?”