Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) - Kendare Blake Page 0,103
the cold, hard ground. You really were raised by naturalists.” Billy wraps her tighter in his arms and nestles down into the blanket. “I’m glad that Renard had the use of the tent. I like being out here with you, away from everything.”
“So do I.” She rests her head against his chest. “But poor Pietyr Renard. Knowing Emilia, she’s sure to have a use for him.”
“I think she only wants him seen. To rattle Katharine and goad her into something foolish.”
“It won’t work. Katharine may be many things, but foolish isn’t one of them.”
Billy sighs. “I suppose I don’t envy Renard. Standing on opposite sides of a battlefield. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it were you. But then, it would never be you.”
“It shouldn’t be any of us. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. All the people who are going to die, none of them would if their queens had done what we were meant to.”
“You can’t think like that. It does have to be. Fennbirn is finished with the old way. Emilia might come off like a swindler, but she’s right. Every person we’ve passed on the march. Every soldier in the rebellion. They’re ready for something to change.”
“I hope they mean it,” Arsinoe says. “Because after this, everything will.”
His hand goes still on her skin. Their time is almost over.
“During the battle, we won’t be together,” he says. “Jules will draw the queensguard attack—”
“And I will go after Katharine.”
“What are you going to do?” he asks. “Are you really going to kill her?”
“I’m going to do what Mira asked me to,” Arsinoe replies, rubbing the scars in her palm. “I’m going to banish the dead queens. And then yes. I’m going to kill her.”
She waits. She cannot see his expression in the dark.
“After the battle is over, I’m not going to stay on Fennbirn,” Billy says.
“Because of that?” She sits up.
“No. It’s a war, Arsinoe. After it’s over, none of our hands will be clean. But . . . I have to go home. I have to take care of things there.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“You don’t belong there. They need you here. I just wish I belonged here, too.”
“You do,” she says weakly. But she does not fight too hard. He is right, and she cannot shake the feeling that after the battle is over, none of the queens will remain, living or dead. “You know I tried really hard to not be what I am.”
He pushes up on his elbow, and now she is glad he cannot see her face.
“And you know that I loved you, don’t you, Junior? You know that I always will.”
INDRID DOWN
“The rebels are here.”
Katharine turns. The message that Rho delivers is not unexpected.
“What are the numbers?” Katharine asks, without much interest.
“High,” Rho replies. “The initial estimates given by your spies were treasonously low.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” asks Genevieve. Only she, Rho, and Renata Hargrove have come to her rooms. The rest of the Black Council hides from Katharine’s summons. She is not surprised. They are cowards. And besides, she does not need them.
For the last two days, Katharine has felt the Legion Queen approaching. She has felt it in the excited chatter of the dead queens in her blood, tasted it in their craving for her flesh between their teeth. Those twisted and corrupted dead queens, whose names have been forgotten.
“We have more horses,” Renata says. “Trained soldiers with full armor and weapons made of steel instead of wood.”
Rho opens her mouth to argue, but Katharine quiets her with a look. She knows full well that a disadvantage of numbers will not matter.
“What of the people? Have many fled?”
“Those who could afford it have fled inland—sought refuge in the west at Highgate.”
Katharine nods. Those who could not remained and cowered, caught between the battle and the mist.
“We have the provisions,” Genevieve says. “They will be safe as long as we can hold the city.”
Katharine glares down at the sprawling rooftops. What did the people have to fear? The Legion Queen arrived to liberate them, or so she said. But Katharine will protect them anyway. She will protect them, these people who remain, even if they hold no faith with her. Even if they have turned away from their crown as if it were nothing, rather than the island’s entire history. Hundreds of battles fought and won. Illustrious queens of strength and honor, whose gifts turned the island into legend.