Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) - Kendare Blake Page 0,104
we do?”
Katharine steps away from the window and sighs, hands folded over her skirt. “Do we intend for the Legion Queen to simply march through our streets? Muster the queensguard. Set barricades before the main thoroughfares and at the markets. Fortify the Volroy and arm the gatehouses. And as for me, I will meet them on the battlefield.”
Renata and Genevieve wait, looking to Rho.
“I would have a word with my commander. You two will see to this. And pass the message along to the rest of the council who could not be bothered to attend.”
They leave quickly, and Rho closes the door.
“They want to flee,” Rho says. “And Bree Westwood is nothing but furtive glances of late. She should be watched.”
“Let her go. Let them all. If the rebellion breaches the walls of the Volroy, they will receive little mercy in the fever of conquest. They fear the mob of soldiers. They fear being torn to pieces. And they are right to.” Katharine looks to the west toward Greavesdrake, though she cannot see it through the walls, settled so proud and alone in the hills. For once, she is glad that Natalia is gone, so she does not have to imagine her there as the rebels come for the manor house with swords and torches.
Rho goes to the table and pours herself a cup of wine. How odd it is, to have found such an ally in her. Katharine used to hate the very sight of Rho, her tight red braid, her jaw always set like it is carved from granite. But that hate was not truly hate. It was resentment, that such a woman stood against her rather than at her side. And now—now when she looks at Rho, all she feels is regret for what she must do.
Rho goes to the window, to look down upon the inner ward as the queensguard begins to assemble.
“It is hard to look into their eyes,” Katharine says. “Knowing that I must order them into battle to die. Is it me, after all, that they are fighting for? Do they believe, or do they simply have no choice?”
“You will never know,” Rho replies. “That is what it is to be a commander. But you must look them in the eyes anyway.”
Katharine steps up beside Rho. The priestess is so much taller than she is, so broad shouldered. She is the embodiment of the war gift.
“What does it feel like,” Katharine asks, “when I give the dead queens to you?”
Rho inhales.
“It feels sacred. And it is an honor to fight against the Legion Queen. These rebels hide behind the support of Arsinoe, but they do not love the island or the Goddess. Not like we do. I am grateful for the allegiance of the dead queens. It is as if the Goddess has sent them to us as aid.”
Katharine clenches her teeth. Not even Rho, one of the Goddess’s finest servants, understands her will. Not like her daughters do.
“Then come closer, Rho.”
The dead sisters slither through Katharine’s veins. They bolt for the surface so hard that it makes her grimace with the searing, stretching sensation of it. Katharine’s hand slips behind the back of the priestess’s head. She seals her lips over Rho’s mouth. Afterward, Rho kneels, gasping on the rug.
Katharine watches as her veins darken. The dead queens she sent into Rho were more than ever before. They swell beneath her skin. They turn her eyes to black.
“Ride out,” she says, and Rho gets to her feet. “Ride out for the Legion Queen. There is no better death. No larger battle than this one.”
THE REBEL CAMP
The call that the Queen Crowned’s army has begun to march ripples through the camp like a shudder. It does not matter that the rebels knew it was coming and that the soldiers have been standing ready since daybreak. It does not matter that they were the ones who marched across the entire island to pick this fight. Now it is real, and every woman and every man is afraid.
Billy and Pietyr arm themselves together in the tense quiet of their tent. Arsinoe crept off to Jules just before dawn. Though she ate what was left of their dinner first, and Billy takes that as a good sign.
“Something to eat before we go?” he asks, watching Pietyr struggle with his ill-fitting armor. They have not given him much: a set of leather greaves and shoulder armor, along with a sword and shield. “Though Arsinoe didn’t leave a