Chapter 28
Elil’s stealthy march through Eudaimonia ended when we crossed the border into Querencia. The column of soldiers, the princess, and the prisoners—us—moved through hamlets, small villages, and every major town between the border and the castle. The Querencian castle. Elil hadn’t wanted anyone to know we were leaving Eudaimonia, but he definitely wanted the world to know we had arrived in Querencia. He paraded us through the kingdom as if he were a conquering hero and we were the spoils of war. Or at least, Snow was the prize, and we were the conquered, brought low and humiliated by the prince who would become king.
It was kind of pathetic, really. Was he overcompensating for something? What was with the showing off and fanfare?
Someone had changed Snow’s clothing. I hoped to Irys that it wasn’t Elil, or I just might kill him. She was now dressed in a silk gown and her short, cropped hair had been woven with flowers. The gown was a very pale pink and did not suit her at all. Snow usually wore strong colours, jewel colours, not pastels. They may look good on other people, but on Snow they looked insipid and just wrong. I prayed that Snow was in a dream somewhere and was not conscious of what was happening.
While Snow looked as fresh as a spring day, Tain, Zeyr, Weylei and I looked like beggars. We hadn’t been allowed to wash the entire time, let alone shave or run a comb through our hair. Tain’s long, blonde hair had become tangled with leaves and twigs, and we were all smudged with dirt and dust from the road.
We were marched into the castle forecourt looking like the bandits Elil accused us of being while he, by contrast, was clean and dressed in his finest military uniform. Again, I wondered if he was compensating for something. He was making such a show about this whole thing, I wondered if he was trying to curry favour with the people of the kingdom. Was he not as popular as Eudaimonia had been led to believe?
I thought back over our trek through the kingdom. We in Eudaimonia believed Querencia to be as equally rich as we were, but when I really thought about what I’d seen, I questioned that belief. The towns looked…run down. The people, burdened. The crowds had cheered as we were paraded through the towns, but was it forced? Had the looks on the faces of the people after the prince had passed by been that of…contempt?
It was wishful thinking. I wanted this kingdom to reject its leaders because I had a personal grudge against the prince. I did not like him. I hadn’t liked him from the start, but I especially didn’t like the way he had monopolised Snow’s time and now…now I wanted to kill him for the way he was displaying her.
The soldiers dispersed at a command, and we were taken by a small group into the castle, through the halls and into the throne room. I paid attention to everything I saw. More so now than I had before. I was looking for evidence that Querencia was not all it seemed.
The throne room was large, with a stone floor running the length and climbing up the stairs to the dais where King Chronin and Queen Marce sat upon their gilded thrones. Tapestries hung from the walls, and the courtiers tittered and gawked from around the edges of the room. It was like the Eudaimonian throne room, except there was a different atmosphere. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was, but something felt…off.
Snow’s litter was laid before the king like some sort of prize, and Elil took a knee beside it, bowing his head to his father.
‘We are returned,’ he said, his voice ringing clearly through the room. ‘With my bride.’
It took a lot of effort to keep my mouth shut, even as my body stiffened and a shout of protest rose in my throat.
‘Oh, the poor thing,’ the queen cooed with concern that felt insincere and forced. ‘Is she unwell? Should we call the physician?’
‘There is no need,’ Elil said, standing to his feet. He motioned to his attendants, and they removed the glass case covering Snow.
I watched in utter disbelief as Elil bent over Snow and kissed her. I struggled against my bonds, desperate to get to her, insane with my need to get between them. A guard slammed a cudgel against my shoulders and then the back of my legs, making me fall to my knees.
Horrified, I watched Elil prolong the kiss and then lift his head, a smile on his lips. Snow’s chest rose as she sucked in a deep breath, and my heart broke as her eyes fluttered open. The first person she saw was Elil, and she smiled.
She smiled at him.
I hung my head, my body going slack against my bonds.
I had failed. I had failed to keep her safe. I had failed to return her to her mother. I had failed to win her heart.
‘True love’s kiss.’
The whisper circled the room, and it felt like a noose wrapping around my throat.
True love’s kiss had been a myth left over from the time of magic. It had been spoken about in fairy tales and love stories for decades, but no one believed it was true. Even if all the other magic was more than just legend, true love’s kiss could not possibly be anything but a lie. A pretty lie, told to tantalise young women, but a lie nonetheless.
I couldn’t watch, but I couldn’t turn away either. Elil helped Snow to sit up. She had not yet looked away from him. She gazed at him as if he hung the stars and the moon. She gazed at him as if he were the answer to all her prayers.
It made me sick. I dropped my head. I couldn’t watch as the woman I loved fell in love with someone else.
We were marched out of the throne room and down to the dungeons, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. Snow was lost to me. She was lost to Eudaimonia, and soon we would be too. If Snow married Elil, Eudaimonia would come under the governance of Querencia.
Unless the king woke.
I sighed and slumped against my bonds, my feet dragging as we were led deeper and deeper under the castle.
There was no chance of the king waking.
‘Parisar?’
It was hissed from a cell as I passed by. It was a voice I recognised.
I skidded to a stop and turned as best I could in my bonds.
‘Queen Eleodora?’
The queen pressed herself against the bars and looked out at me with desperation in her eyes. ‘Snow? Is Snow alive?’
I broke from my captors hands, although they didn’t do much to stop me, and approached the bars. ‘Snow is…alive,’ I replied.
‘Oh thank Irys,’ The queen breathed. ‘But…why are you here?’
‘I should be asking you that,’ I said, taking in the queen’s appearance for the first time. She looked just as rough and bedraggled as I felt. ‘Why are you in the dungeons?’
‘The king…is dead,’ she breathed, her head falling against the bars. ‘King Chronin sent his soldiers almost the minute it happened. He claimed that I had gone mad and killed the king, and that I intended to kill Snow as well. But Snow is alive? She is alive and well?’
I groaned. ‘She is alive but…’
‘But?’ The queen’s eyebrows burrowed together as she looked at me.
‘When Elil found us, she had been struck down by the same sleeping sickness the king had.’
‘But that means…’ Queen Eleodora sucked in a breath.
‘She woke up,’ I said bluntly. ‘She woke up when Elil kissed her.’
The queen’s eyes narrowed. ‘True love’s kiss?’
‘Supposedly,’ I replied.
‘It’s not possible,’ the queen replied, shaking her head. ‘True love’s kiss is…’
‘A lie?’ I replied. ‘I always thought so too, but I saw it. I saw it with my own eyes. Snow woke up when Elil kissed her, and the way she looked at him…’ I shook my head. ‘The way she looked at him looked like love.’
‘Enough chit chat,’ the guard said, dragging me away from the bars, but he didn’t take me far.
The door to the next cell opened, and I was forced in along with my companions. It was filthy. The dirt floor was strewn with decaying hay and other unidentifiable detritus. It was empty except for the scurrying rats that hid in the dark corners. The guard slammed the door shut and grinned, showing all his teeth and the gaps where he had lost some.
‘Home sweet home,’ he said before sauntering away.
‘Parisar,’ the queen hissed when the guards were gone.
I moved to the front of the cell. I couldn’t see the queen, but I could hear her well enough, and if I stuck my hand through the bars I could probably touch her, not that I would be so impertinent to do so.
‘My queen,’ I replied.
‘True love’s kiss isn’t a lie,’ she said, and my heart broke even more. ‘It’s a curse.’
I sucked in a breath. ‘What?’
‘It’s a curse. Powerful magic. It is one of the curses that led to magic being banned in the first place. It puts the receiver under a spell. A controlling spell.’
‘What?’ I hissed again, unable to believe what I was hearing.
‘Elil can’t have used it. It is forbidden magic that has been gone from the world for generations. The user has to be a powerful magician in order to use it, and it takes years to create. Years of adding magic to the spell as it is built. Elil is too young, and he has no power. He is not of a magical line.’
I slumped against the bars, not sure if I was relieved or even more alarmed.
‘Elil made a spectacle of it. He wanted the court to see him wake Snow. He wanted them to think it was true love’s kiss.’
‘There are not many people left who know what true love’s kiss really is,’ the queen said. ‘Most only know the fairy tale version.’
I looked over to Tain, Weylei, and Zeyr. The were watching me, listening to the queen’s words.
‘What do you think?’ I asked.
Tain shrugged. ‘It looked like what happens in fairy tales,’ she replied. ‘He kissed her, and she woke up.’
‘Is it possible that he slipped her an antidote for the poison?’ Zeyr asked.
‘If he did that, then he would have to know what poison it was,’ Tain said.
‘Which means he was the one to give it to her,’ Weylei added.
‘If he gave Snow the poison, then he also had to be the one to poison the king,’ Tain said.
‘Do we really think Querencia killed the king?’ I asked no one in particular, trying to put all the pieces together. ‘Why would they do that?’
‘To take over Eudaimonia,’ the queen said from the cell next door. ‘King Rowan was convinced there was someone trying to start a war with us. It was why we invited the other kingdoms to Snow’s birthday party. Rowan hoped he could ferret out the guilty party before they could do anything.’
‘But none of the evidence points to Querencia,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘If anything, Thassalonia was my top suspect. Or Werifesteria.’
‘Not Werifesteria,’ the queen said. ‘They are a victim. I’ve always had my suspicions that their sudden withdrawal from Fernweh was not of their doing.’
The heavy tread of boots and the scrape of a key silenced us. I slowly moved away from the front of the cell and took a seat amongst the filth on the floor, trying for nonchalance even though I was churning inside.
Not true love’s kiss, or at least I hoped it wasn’t. But some other trick of Elil’s to make it look so. Why? What was his end game here?
‘Dinner,’ a guard said sliding a metal tray with four wooden bowls of slop through the door. ‘Enjoy.’