Chapter 7
Should the impossible occur, give her this. There is a way out that only the two of them together could master.
— ALARIC SARE’S LETTER TO QUEEN LUCINDA
“Iwould have extended an invitation to dine with us tomorrow,” Lucinda drawled. “You needn’t have nearly gotten yourself killed in the streets to procure one.”
I was uncomfortable, to say the least, as we sat down to a meal in a room too formal for my liking.
Staff surrounded the table, watching, waiting for a signal to act.
A bureau on the far wall held carafes of water and wine.
The painting on the wall above it drew my attention.
In it, the red dragon we’d seen upon arrival circled the city.
That action had been a nightly occurrence during our stay.
“King Richard had to deal with the unfortunate business of your attacker,” the queen said as she gestured for the servants to fill our plates.
I didn’t want to consider what that entailed.
Lucinda sat at the head of the table. Blair was on her left, and I was on her right. Hart sat next to me, like the queen wanted him as far from her as possible.
“How quickly you disturb the peace of our city.” Lucinda’s pointed glance was aimed at Hart.
My eyes narrowed at the assumption. “I’d think it was the assassins that disturbed the peace, Your Majesty. Hart only defended me.”
I regretted the words as soon as the smirk curled Hart’s lip. It was too knowing. Like he had further evidence—like he knew I was angry on his behalf.
How could he break our silent truce like that? I could only stand to be around him because we spoke of nothing of substance. Our focus was on breaking our curse and going our separate ways.
We’re connected more than you want to admit.
“Fucking Chaos,” I mumbled. Hart’s smirk grew, and across from me, Blair’s brow raised in question. My gloved hand covered my mouth. I couldn’t believe I’d said that aloud.
This entire situation was untenable.
Steam rose from the plate now filled with food. Roasted meat, charred vegetables, and fresh berries were served to each of us.
The queen looked thoughtful, ignoring my curse. “You called him that before. Hart, is it?”
“A different kind of family name,” I replied automatically.
Hart smirked at that, too, and I wanted to scream.
“Well, I guess I don’t need to ask what you two are to each other.” The queen gestured between us.
I nearly choked on my wine but had the presence of mind to realize we had wanted them to believe we were together. It was better than the alternative, paying too close attention to who I was. I gave her a slight dip of my chin.
“Your nonverbal communication is clear enough. But I’m told very few know the origin of his chosen name.”
Hart’s head cocked, and I understood the action for what it was—a question. He had said he didn’t spend much time with the royal family on his last visit. How did she know such a detail? Who had told her?
The queen continued. “I’m not judging. So long as you know who and what he is, your decisions are your own.”
Hart cleared his throat.
Who and what he is. My heart clenched in my chest. He said she knew, but it still stung to hear. A relative stranger, someone Hart didn’t even like, knew the secret he’d kept from me. How many in Kavios knew?
Embarrassment at how he’d played me heated my cheeks.
“Is there something you wanted to ask us, Lucinda?” Hart pressed. I didn’t think too hard about the discomfort he must have felt to interrupt.
“We’re only curious why you’re here, Sebastien,” Blair replied instead of Lucinda. “You’ve read Delphine’s journals many times. What more could you need to know?”
Lucinda spoke again before Hart could respond to Blair’s question. “We haven’t considered Emberline’s interests, dear. She had always wanted to visit the Library of Linia, after all.”
I stilled with my fork midway to my mouth. I had told Blair I’d always wanted to visit Linia, not necessarily the library. We’d let them assume Hart had returned to read the journals, continuing his readings from his prior visits.
That was the second fact Lucinda shouldn’t have known. The hairs on my neck stood on end as I considered what this meant. She had knowledge about me and Hart that we hadn’t given her.
A variation of the truth was my best bet in times of stress. “It still amazes me that the library is so freely available to all. That the history of your kingdom isn’t behind lock and key.”
The queen cut into the carrot on her plate and spoke. “No matter what one thinks of Rodric and his Blessed, it’s the lack of information in that kingdom that is truly abhorrent. I do wish more would venture into our city as you have done.”
I shoved a forkful of blueberries into my mouth to stop my immediate response, which would have questioned if lack of information was really as bad as lack of emotion, as bad as having your feelings stolen to fuel magic.
But I didn’t know how much those in Linia knew about the magic the Blessed wielded.
It was another topic I’d rather not broach.
Upon swallowing the tart fruit, I found a more generous response. “It is a testament to your leadership that the knowledge is so freely available.”
“Delphine started it,” Lucinda replied as she cut into her meat. “The king who ruled before her calling was much like Rodric. He knew controlling information controlled the population.”
“And Delphine, she was your great-grandmother?” I asked conversationally. Without the longevity of the Blessed’s magic, Linia had been through many more generations of rulers than Kavios had. I guessed that was why the royal family knew something of Rodric’s Blessed and Hart’s summons.
Lucinda nodded. “As I’m sure you read, she chose a brutal path. She took on a burden I’m not sure I could have. Yet, even when she regretted it personally, she knew it to be the right choice for her people. Linia wouldn’t be the kingdom it is today without her actions.”
Yes, the fact that Delphine had to kill Themis’s Champion had been clear. Delphine hadn’t wanted to do it, but she hadn’t hesitated when the time came.
Hart took a sip of his wine, then asked the question that had also jumped to my mind. “Did she ever try to reverse her choice?”
Blair’s spine straightened, as if she’d reply in anger. Lucinda’s hand covered her daughter’s in warning before she spoke. “You know the calling is different than the summons, Sebastien. I can’t imagine why it would matter to you.”
Her smile turned sharp as she tipped the rest of her wine into her mouth. She placed the empty glass on the table and glanced around the room. None of the servants remained. I hadn’t seen them leave.
“Sebastien, I wonder if you’d be so good as to fetch one of the servants for us?”
Hart’s gaze locked on mine as his muscles drew tight and the salty taste of his worry dotted my tongue.
He didn’t like the idea of separating. After the attack today, I agreed with him, but I wondered if there was more to Lucinda’s request. If there was something she wanted to say that she wouldn’t in front of Themis’s Champion.
I rested my gloved hand atop Hart’s. His gaze found mine immediately as the evidence of our connection flared to life. “Go.”
His lips flattened, but he must have seen the resolve in my face. The wooden chair scraped against the marble floor as he stood. My fingers touched the hilt of my dagger beneath my dress as he exited the room.
“You’re in no danger from us,” Blair said with a glance at the door closing behind Hart. “We only want to ensure you know your options.”
The more they spoke, the more fear prickled along my spine. I pushed it down, lest the awareness bring Hart barreling back through the door in my defense.
“Some of my comments earlier appeared to give you pause,” Lucinda said.
While true, it wasn’t something I would acknowledge without more information.
“Fortunately, or unfortunately, Emberline, I know more about you than I probably should.” She sighed, and it sounded heavy, as if her next words carried a burden she’d never asked for.
“Usually, I wouldn’t entangle myself in the affairs of other royals, but I found the incentive too good to pass up. ”
Discomfort urged me to reach for my dagger even though I pushed down any fear that fought to rise in my throat. Had she accepted some reward from Rodric to deal with me? No one else was in the room. The Queen of Linia wouldn’t drive a blade through me herself, would she?
“It appears you and Sebastien are … involved, but if you are the Champion of Chaos in Kavios, I don’t understand how that can be the case.”
I blinked, not sure I’d heard her correctly. My mind spun as I worked through the queen’s words. She knew I was Chaos’s Champion? How?
An awareness of Hart’s distance pulsed through me.
Discomfort mixed with … longing. I wished he hadn’t left as much as I didn’t want him to come running back to save me.
The kitchens must be on the opposite side of the castle, and I didn’t appreciate how sure I was of that fact.
The curse had yet to present itself in such a manner, though Hart and Charon had warned of it.
It felt silly with everything else going on that I had to deal with this, too. I’d take any path to break this curse.
I jumped and gripped my dagger again as, noiselessly, Blair rose from her seat and moved to the wooden cabinet behind me.
She opened one of the cupboards and pulled out a worn packet of papers.
The princess’s pale fingers lifted the top one, and she read aloud.
“Should the impossible occur, give her this. There is a way out that only the two of them together could master.”
I let my eyes fall closed and tipped my head back, driven by an overwhelming sense of …
knowing. It had the added benefit of keeping the tears that pricked at my eyes from falling.
The princess had only read one line, but I knew who’d written it.
His name was a whisper on my lips as I considered what the words meant—more plans he’d set in motion, more plans about me of which I’d been unaware: “Alaric.”
The queen’s smile showed all her teeth. “Yes.”
My heart stopped as the snapping sound I could never quite eradicate from my thoughts broke through. The image of his lifeless body on the floor of King Rodric’s throne room. Themis’s impassive face, not even a thought spared for the life she had so carelessly ended.
Queen Lucinda kept speaking while Blair handed me the papers.
“He sent me this and asked that I give it to his niece, Emberline Arkova, only if she arrived with the Champion of Order. Specifically, if it appeared that the two of you loved each other. I assumed it to be impossible when his letter revealed who you were, but your and Sebastien’s interactions leave little doubt. ”
I set aside the last detail. It was more than I could handle.
I focused instead on what Alaric had done.
The words Blair had read indicated that Alaric had known Hart and I would be here together.
Is this what he’d planned when he’d asked Hart to see me through the Oldwood before my original trip?
Was this another prophecy about us not included in Champions of Kavios?
The questions were too big, too unknowable without Alaric here to explain himself. They reopened the pit of despair I’d worked so intently to shut. He had told a foreign queen before he told me.
Then I froze, considering that again. Why would this queen believe him? Why would she do the bidding of a jeweler?
“I can see you didn’t expect this,” Lucinda said. “I’m not sure why I thought you might have.”
I grasped for a question I could ask. One that didn’t unravel me at the table. “Why did you accept it? Why believe a jeweler from Kavios?”
She laughed. “We both know he was not just a jeweler in Kavios. He was the jeweler in Kavios.”
The look she leveled at me pulled forth more memories I’d rather not relive. Alaric’s empty workshop. Him declared missing. My task to uphold his duties, to venture to the castle and mines on his behalf.
“As I said, his incentive was too strong. Rodric is a dangerous man, and as you’ve no doubt understood, none of us have been called by Chaos since Delphine. As a ruler, it wasn’t even a choice. This small act will protect my people better than any other single move I could have made.”
Fear flooded me, and this time, I felt Hart bolt back toward the dining room. Still, I reclasped the handle of my dagger in anticipation. What had Alaric done? How stupid I’d been to assume the adamas stone hadn’t left Kavios.
“He gave you adamas,” I whispered.
She touched her long silver braid. This was the first show of nerves I’d seen from the queen, but her movement also gave me a clear view of both of her hands. Neither held an adamas ring. “That is correct.”
“Why don’t you wear it?” I asked.
Her words were hesitant for the first time tonight. “Who says I’m not?”
My gaze snapped to her daughter. The queen would have accepted the adamas for her kingdom, but she wouldn’t have kept the power for herself. She’d want the future of Linia to have it. A chain dipped below the neckline of Blair’s dress. “She gave it to you.”
Blair glanced at her mother, but I’d already seen the truth pass between them.
“Adamas will bring nothing but destruction to your kingdom, as it has to Kavios.”
The queen steepled her fingers. “That’s not your concern. You know nothing about the threats we face.” She reached for her glass, but Hart hadn’t returned, and it remained empty. “Whatever entanglement you have with Sebastien, there is a way to free yourself.”
I swallowed. Why did everyone want me to kill him? “I’m not like your great-grandmother. I can’t do that.”
The queen tsked as she lifted her water glass instead. “I don’t believe that based on what I read.” She gave a meaningful glance at the papers.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d read them all. She would have wanted to know what they said before passing them along, even with the proper incentive.
“But that’s not the only option. At least not as Alaric imagined it. Now, put those away. Read them yourself without the prying eyes of Order’s Champion.”
I don’t know why I listened. Maybe the small packet of papers felt like a final piece of my uncle that I wasn’t ready to share. Or maybe I wanted to keep information from Hart as he’d done to me. That thought soured my stomach, but I tucked the papers into the sleeve of my dress.
Lucinda glanced at the door, and Hart burst in with his sword drawn.