Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) - Kendare Blake Page 0,28

from Jules. Then from Emilia. Their arms fall, and Emilia slides onto her side, fingers feebly reaching to apply pressure to her wounds.

Arsinoe looks down. Her hands are coated and sticky with red, already drying. She uses her knife to cut the long, dangling lengths of scarf, separating the pieces from the knots, and rolls them carefully into the jar beside the last of Madrigal’s blood-soaked cord.

The knots that joined Jules and Emilia together are soaked through. There is so much of their blood and her blood that holding them in her hands is like holding a freshly harvested heart. She drops the mess into a small burlap sack.

On the floor, Jules and Emilia lie motionless, still bleeding. She hurries to her desk and retrieves bandages to pack and bind their cuts. Now that the spell is finished, the wounds are not so bad. They are not deep and will leave only thin scars. In a few years, they may fade completely.

“Arsinoe.”

At first she does not hear Jules speak. She is too distracted by her task.

“It worked,” Emilia cries. “Arsinoe! She is here!” She fumbles with the chains. “Get these off her!”

“Wait.” Arsinoe holds her breath, watching Jules. And then Camden nuzzles Jules’s cheek and purrs.

“All right,” Arsinoe says, and takes the key to the chains out of her pocket.

Billy and Mathilde look down from the castle upon the deserters leaving through the city gate. The Legion Queen has finally been gone too long from view, and the rebellion has begun to leave in earnest. They have no doubt heard, too, the rumor that is circulating: that Queen Mirabella has left them and gone to fight at Queen Katharine’s side.

“It’s not your fault, you know,” Billy says to Mathilde. “We both tried to convince them to stay. I used every charming trick I know on these deserting rats.” He had even thought he had changed a few minds, only to wake the next morning and find they had snuck out in the night. “They’re just tired. It’s not easy being uprooted from home and living in strange, makeshift spaces.”

“You must be tired as well,” Mathilde says. “You, too, are far from home in a strange place. You must care for your exiled queen a great deal.”

“Yes. A great deal.”

Down below, a cart of young rebels leaves, five of them packed in behind the driver and clutching their small sacks of belongings.

“Oh, would you look at that,” Billy says, and throws up a hand. “They’re taking one of the best mules!”

Mathilde smiles. “It was probably their mule to begin with.” But her eyes follow the cart sadly. “Let a few of them go. The true-hearted will stay, and it will cause the crown to underestimate us when their spies report how easily we fall apart.”

“Spies?”

She nods, and Billy looks around as if he might see one right there in the empty room with them.

“How many? How long have you known?”

“So far we have identified three. There are undoubtedly more. It is not unexpected.”

“What will you do with them?” he asks warily.

“Better to know your spies than to kill them and have to search for new ones sent to take their place.” She nods toward the gate. “Another mule leaving.”

“Another mule?” Billy leans out the window. “Go on, then,” he half shouts. “Go on with the lot of you! Who needs you, anyway?” He turns his back on them and crosses his arms until he hears shouts as both mules and both carts come clattering back through the gate. “What, they’re coming back?”

“No,” Mathilde says as they crowd the sill together. “She is back.” She points to the crowd quickly gathering in the square below. At the people racing through the streets to join it. And at the head of them all, Camden leaps through the air and swats with her good paw. She roars and hisses and lashes her tail back and forth. Behind her stands Jules, flanked by Arsinoe and Emilia.

Emilia places an arm around each and raises her voice to the people.

“Our two queens return,” she declares, triumphant. “Queen Jules! The Legion Queen! Queen Arsinoe!” It does not take long for the crowd to take up the chant.

“Our two queens,” says Billy, looking down. “As in, against their two queens.” He shakes his head. “Emilia is so clever.”

“She is,” says Mathilde. “And she is determined to win this, one way or another.”

THE FOUR QUEENS

THE VOLROY

Up on the topmost battlements of the West Tower, Mirabella takes some air with Bree