dress . . . reaching, Elyssa knew, for the sapphire that lay beneath. “It’s a pity you fight me so hard, for if you would only fall in line, Brenna could show you wonders. So many wonders.”
“Do you honestly believe that creature acts for your benefit, Mother? Are you so foolish?”
“Magic is magic. Who cares about motive? These jewels, Elyssa!” She brought out the sapphire, and Elyssa noted that her eyes were wide, the pupils dilated, as though she had just taken a hit of morphia. “One could rule the world with these jewels!”
“And you call me naive.”
Her mother’s face tightened, and Elyssa realized that she had misread her mother slightly. Though the rest of this scene might have been contrived, the subject of the jewels had been spontaneous. Her mother had been sincere, had tried to share something with her. Elyssa felt a momentary regret, but it was too late.
“You are naive, Elyssa . . . which brings us back to your little friend here. Culp’s been itching for another go. He would have begun interrogation immediately, but I told him no, we must wait.”
The Queen smiled wide, and now Elyssa saw the blade before her, naked and shining.
Great God, they will torture him right here before my eyes, they will make me watch—
“I would have let him go, you know,” the Queen remarked. “You played a nice hand when you put me on the spot in front of them all, and I would have had no choice. I would have nursed him and let him go. But life is about choices, Elyssa. Making choices and living with them. If you’re to sit the throne after me, you must learn that. You may know it academically, but academics mean fuck-all with a crown on your head. Better, I think, to teach you a practical lesson . . . one you will never forget.”
The Queen rose from her vanity table, and Elyssa saw, almost numbly, that she held a knife in her hand.
“I am going to give you a choice now, my little rabble-rouser. At the moment, your friend here is drugged to the gills, probably doesn’t even know where he is. You may kill him quickly, here and now, and retain your claim on the throne. Or, if you refuse, Culp can take him down to the dungeons, wait for the drugs to wear off, and do with him as he pleases, while I strip you of your title and invest Thomas. The choice will be yours.”
She cannot be serious, Elyssa thought, numb with horror. It’s a trick, a test. She just wants to know that I’m willing to do it, but she won’t really make me, she wouldn’t—
But then Elyssa abandoned even that last, desperate hope, because her mother would. It was plain in her face, which wore the same blank, implacable expression that Elyssa recognized from so many punishments before.
“He may have information—” she began, but her mother cut her off.
“Not enough. As you were so kind to point out in front of the crowd, dear daughter, even Culp cannot wring a confession from these Blue Horizon lunatics. The man is of no further use to me.”
Elyssa’s mind ran back and forth, seeking a way out. The entire city knew that Gareth had escaped; according to Niya, the tale of his daring flight was being told in every pub and market. Culp had taken Gareth in secret, and the guards’ pique had been too real; no one else knew about this. There was nothing to stop her mother from murdering Gareth in any way she liked, not even the wrath of the Blue Horizon. They would never find out, not unless Elyssa told the world.
But I can’t do that either, she realized, suddenly seeing the true nature of her mother’s move here. They thought Elyssa the True Queen; they believed in her. What would happen to that belief if they found out that she had murdered a member of the Blue Horizon in cold blood?
“Make a decision, Elyssa,” her mother commanded. “You will be queen someday, and the kingdom will not wait while you vacillate between your cunt and your better judgment.”
For a long moment, Elyssa meant to tell her mother no. She even opened her mouth to do it. But the memory of that night was upon her—Gareth smiling lazily up at her—and she couldn’t do it, couldn’t say the words that would see him handed over to Culp, sent down to face the manacles. The