Chapter Eighteen – Mira
Chapter Eighteen
Mira
How strange it was to realise I would soon be a married woman. Even stranger to realise I wasn’t dreading it.
‘It’s nearly finished,’ Velanthe said as she tattooed my forehead. Her eyes were highlighted by crimson ink, reminding me uncomfortably of blood. ‘You have done well, Kasmira.’
I kept still with an effort, though the pain never seemed to lessen. My skin felt like it was on fire.
‘Why didn’t you tell me the real reason the clans distrust the Temple?’ I asked.
Velanthe’s expression shuttered. ‘V?lund told you.’
‘ You should have told me.’ I was surprised by how much it stung. I had come to rely on Velanthe’s advice. The fact that she had kept information from me–
‘You’re right. I should have.’ Though her fingers didn’t pause in their work, I sensed the mood shift. ‘I’m ashamed of what the Temple did, Kasmira. I’m even more ashamed of the role I played in it.’
And there it was: the confirmation I had been dreading.
I stood abruptly, needing to put some distance between us. ‘Did you kill them? My grandparents?’
‘Not directly, but I might as well have,’ she said.
‘I was a young, ambitious priestess when I met Zandri. She convinced me to teach her blood magic – not that she had to try very hard. I believed I was serving my future queen by fulfilling her wishes. Then her mother found out, and destroyed centuries of matriarchal tradition by making Arioch her heir instead. When the Temple gathered to decide where their duty lay – with the queen they had pledged to, or the daughter who had been robbed of her birthright – I spoke on Zandri’s behalf.
I convinced the high priestess that it was a miscarriage of justice not to act against such an edict. ’
Velanthe’s lips pressed into a thin line.
‘I expected that the Temple would publicly align themselves with Zandri – put public pressure on the crown. But after the high priestess met with Zandri in private . . . she ordered us to take up arms. I left when I understood the extent of her plans, when I realised what Zandri had used blood magic to achieve. I took as many priestesses with me as I could, and fled to the Wilds. But even though I didn’t take part .
. . the massacre is still my fault. I’m responsible for the bloodshed Zandri caused that day, and every day since. ’
The heaviness in Velanthe’s face, in her shoulders . . . how long had she been carrying the weight of those lives? What must it have been like for her – to feel responsible for the deaths not just of the queen and her consort, but of the high priestess, who she had clearly looked up to?
‘You couldn’t have known.’ My voice was gentle. ‘Zandri is skilled at manipulation.’
And so is her daughter , I thought.
Velanthe didn’t meet my gaze immediately.
When she did, her dark eyes were shadowed.
‘It’s the reason I’m pushing you so hard, Kasmira,’ she said, resuming her tattooing as I sank back into the chair.
‘The reason I’m so determined that you wield blood magic.
One day, Zandri will turn her attention to Kalure, and when she does . . . you need to be prepared.’
That was a terrifying thought. Bad enough that I had Roran and Scarlett to contend with.
But Zandri . . .
‘All done,’ Velanthe announced, stepping back and surveying me. I couldn’t see what the tattooed crown looked like, but I could imagine it based on her drawings: delicate, interlocking patterns that reminded me of links in a chain.
She swept past me before I could respond, her robes rustling.
I hesitated before following her out onto the balcony, where V?lund was already waiting – the black crown across his forehead a perfect t win to mine.
A permanent reminder of our new position as king and queen, and one that couldn’t be taken away from either of us.
I stopped dead as I reached the balustrade. It seemed like every Kalurian warrior had journeyed here, lining the clearing from the Temple to the forest. There were even priestesses gathered outside, clearly visible in their silver robes.
‘There’s . . . there’s an army out there.’
‘Yes.’ V?lund was smiling. ‘They’re here to pay fealty to you. To us .’
While they looked on, Velanthe tied our hands together with strips of black cloth: a symbol of our union. Our pledges to each other were short but heartfelt. Declarations – not of love, but of duty and protection.
‘As your hands are bound together by this cord,’ Velanthe declared, ‘so too shall your lives be bound as one. Let no man, woman or deity tear apart what has been joined together this day.’
A rhythmic thudding met my ears – the army pounding their shields against the ground. The tempo picked up, a roar swelling through the crowd as we lifted our entwined hands.
Joined together in marriage. Just like that.
‘What is it?’ V?lund asked softly in my ear.
The afternoon sun lit up his hair and set his green eyes sparkling. It would be no chore to be married to this man, and as I stared out over the gathering, I knew I should have been pleased. This was what I had wanted – what I needed , if I was going to stand against Roran. But–
‘I’m thinking about the cost.’
Neither of us had spoken about the ruthless practicalities underpinning our alliance. But they soured every shared smile, every careful brush of V?lund’s hand against mine.
‘There is always a cost,’ V?lund reminded me. ‘Sometimes, in order to make a body healthy again, a limb must be severed. So it is with the Ravalian Court.’
An apt metaphor, I supposed, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
‘What is it that bothers you so?’ V?lund murmured, tracing my cheek with his finger.
‘Killing on a battlefield is one thing. This feels . . . calculated. Cruel.’
‘By killing three people, you will save untold thousands,’ he said. ‘You already know that Roran has to die to win this war. You’ve made your peace with that. All you need is to make your peace with this. Can you do that? Can you do what is necessary to secure the Ravalian Empire?’
When I looked at him, V?lund’s face was alive with determination. With passion.
I let that passion seep into me. Let myself pretend, if only for a moment, that this was as simple as a man and woman committing to one another.
‘Yes,’ I told him, with as much certainty as I could muster. ‘I can do that.’
V?lund took me in his arms and kissed me. When we finally broke away, the crowd was screaming and I was breathing hard.
‘Until tonight,’ he said, the words filled with sensuous promise.
‘Until tonight,’ I echoed, and tried my best to smile.
I crossed back into the courtyard, feeling curiously adrift. The priestesses were preparing for the upcoming handfast celebration; everything was a hive of activity, like an overturned hornet’s nest. I liked the Temple better like this. It reminded me less of a mausoleum.
But without V?lund’s steadying presence, all the doubts I’d been ignoring threatened to overwhelm me. As if by instinct, my gaze rose to a set of windows high above the courtyard – where Cassius stood watching.
We hadn’t been friends in the past – had barely been allies. Still, he had helped me with Roran. And he had been the closest thing to a confidant I’d had in the Ravalian Court. But he was the one who had always counselled me to be ruthless – to do whatever it took to survive.
I turned decisively away from the window, but even as I walked away, I could feel him watching me.
My marriage to V?lund would give me everything I wanted: an army, a crown, and an empire.
And all it would cost was Cassius and Scarlett’s lives.
I strolled through the gardens that flanked the Temple complex, smiling at the sight of ordinary citizens enjoying the celebrations. Children laughed as they ran through the hedge maze, and I passed more than one couple locked in a passionate embrace.
There was a definite bite in the air, the priestesses bundled in furs. I had acclimatised to the colder weather, but I was grateful for the ermine trim of my dress – and for the bonfires blazing up ahead.
I glimpsed Velanthe, Odessa and Jadis huddled around the closest one.
I smiled as I noticed Odessa and Jadis sitting together, their hands brushing.
I hoped this meant that they had sorted out their differences; they had both lost so much, and they deserved to find happiness.
Elian was nowhere in sight, but he’d fashioned himself as something of a spy here in Kalure, blending in so well that sometimes I didn’t even recognise when he was around.
Then my eyes fell on V?lund. My husband.
He was surrounded by Kalurian clansmen, all clapping him on the back and smiling.
Looking on from a distance, marriage felt lonelier than I’d thought it would – perhaps because I had been torturing myself with memories of Aric.
Lillian had once confided that she’d envisioned us marrying in the mountain meadow where we’d trained on Aldara.
That had been her dearest dream: for me to become her sister in truth.
But that dream was dead, Lillian along with it. Thanks to Scarlett.
I wanted to kill her for it – and I would happily end Roran if I had the chance.
So really, it was only Cassius’s death that gave me pause.
But I’d come up with an answer to that: I would lock him back in the dungeons, and once Roran and Scarlett were dealt with, use blood magic to neutralise the threat Cassius posed.
Not a perfect solution, but one I could live with.
I didn’t bother with the chairs or divans the priestesses had arranged. Tonight was supposed to be about me, and what I wanted was to sit on the grass and look up at the stars with my husband – while drinking enough wine to numb my remaining doubts.