The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,101

bicker and scheme against each other and play favorites with the upper-class families. One queen to bring everyone together.”

“Can you do that?” Agnes asked. “Just . . . break away from Pelago and form your own nation?”

“Why not?” her grandmother said. “Just because something has not been done before does not mean it shouldn’t be done. Braxos has power, Agnes, and not just this tether that Sera is seeking to find.”

“I know,” Agnes said. “I read the scrolls. Or what was left of them.”

One side of Ambrosine’s mouth curved upward like a scythe. “Of course. I heard you met Matthias. What did you think of your uncle?”

“He was very kind,” Agnes said.

The scythe twisted. “I suppose that is one way to describe him.” Ambrosine roused herself. “So you know about Braxos and the power that rests there, greater than anything, a power tied to Culinnon . . . it belongs to our family. And together, you and I will create a new dynasty in a new country, all our own.”

“A what?”

“The northern islands would not support me without an heir, you see,” Ambrosine said. “But then I heard you had applied to the university and I knew . . . Alethea’s daughter was returning to Pelago at last, to take her rightful place in the family. You were the linchpin I needed, Agnes. And once I am queen of the north, you will be a princess, won’t that be grand?”

She was beaming at Agnes like she was offering her a large serving of chocolate and not domination over a territory. A princess? Agnes had no interest in being a princess. She was supposed to study at the Academy of Sciences. She hadn’t come here to rule over anyone except herself.

Ambrosine reached out to take Agnes’s hand in both her own. Her fingers were bony but surprisingly strong.

“Oh, Agnes,” she said, triumph ringing in every word. “Don’t you see? We will finally be who we were meant to be—a family, all together where we belong. I wouldn’t want to start this journey with anyone else by my side. I had thought perhaps my son’s wife could—” She stopped herself and shook her head. “But that was foolish of me and makes no matter now. Think of it—when you have daughters they will be princesses, and then their daughters and theirs after. We will make the Byrne family live in the minds and hearts of our people for generations to come. We will truly leave our mark on this world. And it all starts now, it starts with us together. It is everything I have ever wanted.”

But Agnes didn’t want to have daughters. Or sons. She didn’t want to leave a mark on the world or start a new line of queens. Her grandmother pulled her to her feet and wrapped her arms around her, engulfing Agnes in the scent of lace and jasmine, and it was what Agnes had always dreamed of and yet not at all the way she’d pictured it.

Ambrosine released her and held Agnes by the shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. “I see her in you,” she said. “Not the way she lives in Leo. But I see her.”

“Really?” Agnes asked, her spirits soaring because this was truly all she had ever wanted to hear, her whole life.

“Really,” Ambrosine said, and then kissed her lightly on the cheek. “We have so much catching up to do! I’m sorry to spring this all on you so suddenly, but there simply wasn’t time to waste. Much has happened since your flight from Ithilia. Now, come. Let’s get some hot food in you. And I’m sure you will be wanting to see your brother and Sera.”

Agnes allowed herself to be led from the room, her thoughts in turmoil, her homecoming not going at all the way she had expected.

28

Sera

SEVERAL DAYS AFTER AGNES’S ARRIVAL, SERA WOKE EARLY and crept down to the dock.

She was slowly learning her way around the estate, the glass halls and winding stairs and huge sequoias becoming familiar. She, Leo, Vada, and Agnes had explored much of the island—Hektor took them to where the Misarros’ ships were docked on the eastern side, Ambrosine showed them the vineyards on the western slopes, and once Bellamy even led them to a place she said was her favorite, a cave with walls that glittered with quartz in an array of colors, emerald and ruby and amethyst. It reminded Sera of the stargem mines. And at the very back of the