The Promised Queen (Forgotten Empires #3)- Jeffe Kennedy Page 0,122
him. “You’ll remind Anure of his illegitimacy, that you are what he can never be. It will put him off balance.”
Percy deflated slightly. “Even after everything that rat bastard has done, I don’t like playing that card. Being born on the wrong side of the blanket isn’t anyone’s fault.”
“No, but what Anure chose to do with his lot is his fault,” I reminded Percy without remorse. “Shitty things happened to us, too, but you and I aren’t ravaging the world, enslaving people to fill our treasuries.”
“Too true, Conrí.” Percy turned and surveyed the jaggedly ugly outline of the citadel looming above us. “Though I’ve hardly lived an admirable life.”
“Neither have I.” The smoke from the burning vurgsten on the walls darkened the sky, creating a gloom in the previously fresh morning light. I might have mined those very rocks with my own hands. As my lungs tightened from the stink, my throat closing in a reflexive clench to shut the noxious stuff out, I missed Calanthe’s fragrant air with a pang of nostalgia. When did you start thinking of Calanthe as home?
I still wasn’t sure of the answer to that, except it had happened sometime after Cradysica, when Lia had been taken and I’d been left to sort through the rubble, to give the orders she would have. I’d felt a connection to Calanthe then—probably a thin shadow of what Lia felt—but I’d had a love for the land in those days, when I had nothing else.
“You’ve done better than most of us,” Percy was saying. He lifted a brow at my inattention. “At least doing admirable things.”
“I’ve done terrible things,” I corrected, keeping my gaze riveted on the citadel. I’d once thought killing Anure would be the atonement for my many crimes. Now I might have to walk away and let him live. That would please Lia, but would it be enough to silence the ghosts of the angry dead, to expiate the many sins I’d committed in the name of vengeance? I could only hope.
“In the name of good,” Percy reminded me. “Whereas I’ve been petty and selfish for no other reason than because I could. And because I lacked the courage to do otherwise.”
“Except for now.”
“Yes. Except for now.” He sighed, a releasing of tension, no drama in it. “Here comes the harbor guard. Are you certain you can handle this?”
I wasn’t sure at all, but after what Lia and Sondra suffered, I could hardly shrink from bringing up a few bad memories. Holding out my hands in front of me, I pressed my wrists together. “Do it.”
Percy smirked as he clapped the heavy manacles on my wrists, binding them tightly together. “When I fantasized about this, it was much sexier,” he said, fluttering his lashes and earning a hoarse laugh from me. I appreciated his effort to distract me, as the clasp of heavy iron sent my heart pounding. “All right?” Percy asked, peering at me with keen insight.
“Yeah.” Mostly. I’d sworn I’d never wear chains again, but the world had a way of making us taking back those sorts of reckless vows.
“At least the beads of cold sweat will lend realism to the ruse,” Percy noted, placing the glass case in my hands and attaching its chain to my manacles. He and Brenda had crafted the box with the help of the palace glassblowers. Metalworkers had constructed the heavy base, the two pieces fitting together with Calanthe’s trademark artistry. Lia’s severed hand rested within on a black satin pillow designed to set off the pale, dead skin—and the large and lavish orchid Lia had attached to it, breathing into it some kind of magic that had kept it fresh and lush all this time. Magic she’d learned from those scrolls we’d taken from the tower of Keiost.
I concentrated on the orchid’s steadying loveliness, and the memories of Lia it evoked, as Percy attached a chain from it to encircle his wrist, then the heavy bag to my belt, draping the fuse to dangle in clear sight.
The two smaller ships came straight for us—against the wind and with considerable speed. Smoke blew behind them, and I narrowed my eyes. “They’re using vurgsten to power those boats,” I observed.
Percy leaned over the rail to see better, then nodded. “A clever application.”
“Hail, yacht!” a voice boomed through an amplifying horn. “Who are you and what is your business?”
Percy waited a deliberate moment, studying his nails, then picked up a similar horn. “Inform His Imperial Majesty Anure, Emperor of