Chapter 11 Astrid #2
“The magic of the Covenant,” her mum answers. “The king will be compelled to share the location with the victor.”
“I just have to kill the other heir first,” Astrid says under her breath, then quotes the wording of the Covenant, the wording that means one of them has to die. “ ‘Two must become one.’ ”
KILLING HER MAY brEAK YOU INITIALLY, BUT YOUR SOUL WILL RECOVER. Bastet’s voice is solemn. THIS IS BIGGER THAN YOU, ASTRID.
She hates that he’s right. Hates that she’s already coming to terms with the fact that she’ll have to kill the new Vatran heir—a woman who isn’t prepared for this, who never signed up for this.
But then, neither did Astrid. Isn’t she just as much of a victim?
She pulls her hands through her hair, disquieted by her own thoughts, her own self-pity.
At least Astrid had twenty-four years to ready herself for this.
“How did you find her?” Astrid asks. And why the dramatic Gods-damned entrance? Why didn’t her mother tell her?
Jessa clears her throat.
“My Queen,” she says. “Astrid.” Her voice is full of compassion. “I’m going to leave you.”
Gwen inclines her head and Astrid mutters a quiet thanks.
Jessa clicks the door shut behind her. The interruption has an almost soporific effect on her mother, and she sits down heavily in the desk chair.
Astrid perches on the edge of her bed, Bastet jumping up to sit on her lap.
His purrs ripple through her, easing the ache in her chest.
“It was a simple spell in the end,” her mum says, voice low, “though it took us a long time to figure it out. We knew nothing about the heir—whether there even was an heir, how they identified, how old they were—we thought about a locator spell but—”
“But you need something of the person to find them, I know,” Astrid interrupts.
“Exactly,” her mum replies. “We’d no idea where to begin looking for the child, but the Stone City seemed the best place to start and it wasn’t long before Veronica got a lead.
Some rumor about an old consort of the king’s who had disappeared from the castle after it was discovered she was pregnant.
We thought if we could find this woman, we could find the heir, but we had no such luck—there was no trace of either of them in the city, and our search of the kingdom was proving futile.
” She pushes a loose strand of hair from her face.
“At that point, I thought we’d failed, but Veronica—she had one final idea.
Said if we couldn’t find the heir, then we’d let them come to us.
A triggering spell, a very potent one,” her mum explains when she notes Astrid’s confusion, “cast around the perimeter of the Stone City. Every duel, hundreds of thousands of people from around Vatra flock here, and Veronica thought the heir might do the same. And thank the Stars she did.”
Astrid stares at her mother. They found her through sheer dumb luck. “When? When did you actually realize she was here?”
Gwen grips the edge of the chair. “The spell was triggered six weeks ago.”
“Six weeks!” Weeks in which Astrid has been coming to terms with her certain death. “You should have told me.”
“We only confirmed it a few days ago,” her mum continues. “When we tested her blood.”
“How? How in the name of Nyx did you get her blood? How did you even know it was her?”
“That was Veronica again.” Her mum smiles faintly.
“The triggering spell led us to the source, but as she’d traveled in with a troupe, we weren’t sure which one of them it was.
” She twists her arm ring. “But money talks, Astrid. The troupe leader had an inkling about the girl’s past, and wasn’t shy about telling us.
” There’s a hint of disdain in her mother’s tone.
“The fact she’s a blade juggler made it easy to get her blood.
We planted an Ulven in the crowd, he threw in a blade, and she helpfully threw it back.
All it took after that was a simple spell, and another small fortune in Grele to convince the troupe leader to help bring her in. ”
Astrid shakes her head, reeling from every revelation. “None of this changes the fact you should have told me.”
“I didn’t want to tell you in case it all came to nothing.”
Astrid slumps. What would she have done if she’d known? Stopped her mother? A part of her is glad she didn’t know, glad she didn’t have a chance to talk her mother out of it and be all morally superior.
Her mum comes to sit beside her and takes her hand, pulling it into her lap. A nauseating thrill goes through Astrid, a tingling, foreign sensation. She’s going to win this duel. She’s going to beat the Vatrans and claim guardianship of the Heart. She will duel, and she will live.
“I’ll be queen,” she murmurs, and her mum strokes her face, a gentle smile on her lips. Astrid will be able to help her people. She’ll stop the Blight. No one will ever be in Jessa’s position ever again, no one else will have to grieve their families.
The greater good, she thinks. This is for the greater good.
She turns to her mother and smiles back, despite everything. It might make her a terrible person for the gladness she feels, but one of the heirs has to die. And it’s not going to be her.