Blackbird Broken (The Witch King's Crown #2) - Keri Arthur Page 0,6
ours, but she’d attended the Okoro Academy at the same time as Max and now worked with him at the Department of Weather Guidance. Her skill set was the control of running water, which was extremely handy when it came to flood situations.
“If she’s close, that would be good,” Mo said. “The last thing we need is the environmental bods coming down on us for fouling the waters and killing the fish further downstream.”
The environmental bods would actually have a hard time pinning these deaths on us, given neither elemental nor personal magic had been involved, but I guess it was better not to take any chances.
“I’ll ring her now,” Max said. “You heading home?”
Mo shook her head. “I need to rest, and if Gwen flies too far with those wounds, it’ll just hasten the spread of any remaining infection. We’ll head over to Kirby Stephen and stay there for the night. You want me to book you a room?”
“No.” He hesitated. “I only flew back to England to attend Gareth’s and Henry’s funerals tomorrow.”
Mo frowned. “I’m not sure that’s wise, Max.”
“Why? If the sword’s been claimed, there’s no longer any point in hiding.”
“Unless the heir wants to ensure there’s nobody else to contest his claim.”
Max snorted. “And how would he do that? He drew the damn sword out of the stone—the throne is his. Besides, he can just smite any challenger with the sword’s power.”
“That depends on whether he can access it without first being crowned. There’s some conjecture that he can’t.”
“There’s a lot of things they don’t mention in history books, my boy, in part because many were written by scholars after the event.”
He rolled his eyes. “I went to the Okoro Academy, remember? They’ve one of the finest history archives in the country. Nothing I ever read there said anything about the crown being necessary to access the sword’s power.”
“And yet Darkside has been searching for the crown,” I said, “and in fact stole the fake one kept in the Tower of London.”
“That wasn’t fake—it’s the crown Layton wore when he married Elizabeth.”
Layton Aquitaine had been the very last Witch King. Not only had his marriage to Elizabeth of York combined human and witch royalty and signaled the end of true witch rule in England, it had also handed his descendants a means of curtailing any magical attacks on human monarchs—one that was still in force today.
Whether it would protect them from a mad Witch King and the sword of power was a question no one could currently answer.
“True,” Mo said, “but said theory also suggests that the coronation needs to be with Uhtric’s crown, not Layton’s.”
“Why on earth would that even matter? The crown’s just a symbol—”
“In theory, yes. In reality?” She shrugged.
He raised an eyebrow, skepticism evident. “I take it these theories are yours?”
“Mine and a number of others. And you’d better pray that we’re right, otherwise this country is in deep trouble. Are you sure you don’t want us to book you a room tonight?”
He shook his head. “Given your advice not to attend the funeral, I might as well head back and enjoy the evening’s entertainment. Will you be home tomorrow?”
She nodded. “We’ve a builder coming at eleven for a quote on repairs.”
He grunted. “Then I’ll meet you there and pick through the ruins. I might as well see what survived and what didn’t.”
Mo nodded and looked at me. “Meet you at Kirby Stephen—probably The Green Lodge if they’ve rooms available.”
As she shifted shape and flew out of the Gill, I unstrapped my daggers and lashed them together. Their blades were silver, which meant they were immune to the shifting magic that took care of everything else. “Be careful, Max. Not only might there still be demons in the area, but there’s every chance the heir will come here to test the sword.”
He snorted. “If he had any brains, he wouldn’t. He’d wait until all the fuss died down.”
“He might not be that cunning.” Which was unlikely. Everything so far suggested we were dealing with someone who meticulously planned each and every move. He wouldn’t have kept ahead of us otherwise, even with inside help.
“It doesn’t take cunning to understand rushing into anything is never a good idea.” He shrugged and pulled out his phone. “I’ll make the call to Kiri now. You’d better head out, otherwise Mo will be back here telling us both off.”