Five Dark Fates (Three Dark Crowns #4) - Kendare Blake Page 0,58

Tea. No wine or ale. They must all be clearheaded for tomorrow, when they will turn loose the horses and set fire to the stable. They will rain down flaming arrows into the lead queensguard and scatter them. They will cause chaos.

He hopes Arsinoe is all right. He can tell by the looks the warriors give him that they see him as a burden. A boy to babysit. But he could not let Arsinoe attempt this alone. He had to be close in case something went wrong.

He hears footfalls in the straw behind him and looks over his shoulder. The warriors have gathered at the west window and whisper to each other. Bea nods and hurries back to his side.

“What?” he asks when she hauls him up by the arm. “What’s happening?”

“Black smoke. It has been called off. Get your things. Hurry.”

“What do you mean it’s been called off?” He looks about the floor of the hayloft. He has no things, except for a borrowed blanket and the cup of hot tea. But he supposes those should not be left and reaches for them. When he bends, he catches a glimpse out the window.

“Bea. Wait. Is that normal?” The horses in the adjacent pens are riled. They stomp and mill about.

Bea bends down beside him, just in time to see the flash of silver. “Queensguard armor. They know we are here.”

“How?” Seeing the soldier, Billy freezes with fear. He reaches for the hilt of his sword. A sword. Ridiculous. He has never had cause to use one before. All his life he has settled his rows with words and fists.

“They are inside,” says Bea. She shoves him to the window. “The roof. Go.”

“What?” he asks as he slings a leg over the sill. There is nothing to hold on to and the ledge is not a ledge but a slim bit of timbering. He looks down. He may be all right if he falls, as long as he aims for a pile of straw.

The door of the hayloft is kicked in and a lit lamp heaved through the opening. The flames catch instantly, lighting up the space and showing warriors arming themselves. Bea pulls a crossbow from her shoulder as a barrage of bolts follows the lamp. The warrior near the window manages to deflect many, until one sinks into her gut. The hit makes her gift falter, and she is taken down by the next volley, so many bolts stuck into her that she looks like a pincushion.

“Anne!” Bea shouts, and fires as the first of the queensguard comes through the door. She drops him with one bolt, right to the head. “Go!” She shoves Billy farther out the window and coughs. The smoke inside is already thick.

“What about you?” he asks, but she shoves him again, so hard he nearly loses his grip and falls to the cobblestones. As he climbs, desperately finding one foothold after another, one fingerhold after the next, he hears someone begin to fight the fire inside. What has become of the warriors inside? Were any able to make it out? He reaches the side of the building, throws his arm over the roof and starts to drag himself up.

The bolt catches him in the ankle, and he reaches back without thinking, losing his grip on the roof. He falls. When he comes to, he is facedown on cold, wet straw, staring at a set of boots. Before he can so much as shake his head, he is lifted until his feet dangle, like a newborn puppy picked up by his scruff.

“Let go!” he shouts. Then he looks into her eyes and stops speaking. Even in the dark, he can see that they are black, like the queens’ eyes. But they bleed that blackness in veins down the cheeks, and in wetness, like tears.

“What are you?” he asks, just before she knocks him unconscious.

THE VOLROY

When Rho comes to Katharine’s chamber to inform her of the rebels’ capture, she knows it before she arrives. The dead queens still inside Katharine sense the return of their dead sisters, lent to Rho in the cells beneath the Volroy.

Katharine lights a lamp.

Inside Rho, the dead queens have made themselves right at home. Though Katharine had not given many, their blackness spills from the tall priestess’s eyes like tears. And though Rho speaks in a gentle voice, she cannot seem to stop baring her teeth.

When Rho has finished telling her that two rebel warriors and the suitor William Chatworth