Council that this was not a Chantress hunt. And yet the fact remained that I was about to order my men to track down Chantresses, and to consider them our enemies.
I could quibble over words all I wanted to, but there was no getting around it. I was a Chantress about to turn Chantress hunter.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
QUESTIONS
My men had been chosen for their discretion as well as their strength. Accustomed to delicate and secret undertakings, they took this one in stride. The only problem was in knowing how best to deploy them. After ordering them all to carry iron, I dispatched some to places where Chantress families had once flourished, with instructions to search for descendants whom Scargrave might have overlooked. The rest I kept with me at Whitehall—including young Barrington, who was still recovering from the injuries he’d sustained at Charlton Castle.
“But you can count on me,” he told me eagerly. “My left shoulder still catches me, but my sword arm is fine.” He slashed in the air to prove it.
“Put that down, Barrington.” The last thing I wanted was for him to start hacking at potential Chantresses. “It’s not your sword I need right now but your brain.” I turned to Captain Knollys and the rest of the men. “And that holds true for all of you. Our best scouts will go out into the taverns and meeting places of this city, where they will listen for any talk that may be useful to us. The rest of you will wait here for further instructions.”
“And where will you be?” Knollys asked.
“I will be having a word with someone who might be able to help us,” I said.
Knollys, who had plenty of discretion of his own, didn’t ask any more questions. Which was just as well, because I didn’t want to say that the person I had in mind was the Queen. I made my way alone to her chambers.
Under the circumstances, it might not have been best to remind people that Sybil was the granddaughter of a Chantress, but that was why I wanted to see her. Although she couldn’t work magic herself, she knew all kinds of odd facts about Chantresses. Well, perhaps “facts” was putting it strongly, since much of her knowledge came from hearsay or family tradition or stories that were close cousins to fairy tales. Still, she’d helped me in times of trouble before, and she might be able to help me now.
As I reached the Queen’s chambers, I found myself tensing. Behind the gilded door, someone was singing beautifully—Lady Clemence, with another love song. When I entered the Queen’s chambers, she broke off and bowed her head, not meeting my eyes.
Everyone else stared at me, even Sybil. Sitting in an opulent chair, she looked more like a portrait than a human being, a painting of elegance personified. But when she rose and held out her hand, I saw she was wearing an ugly iron ring among her jewels, as were her ladies. Evidently, word of iron’s powers had reached them.
After I touched Sybil’s ring, she gave me a strained smile. “How delightful. Shall we take a stroll in the garden, under the loggia?”
She spoke the words as if she were playing a role—as of course she was, I realized—the role of Queen. Her wish, it seemed, was our command. Taking it for granted that I would say yes, her closest attendants ran to fetch the Queen’s cloak and a pair of elaborately carved pattens to protect her brocade shoes from mud and rain.
“No, we wish to be on our own,” Sybil said in answer to their murmurs as they dressed her. Stepping daintily forward, she nodded at me. “Shall we go?”
She maintained her queenly bearing until we were just outside the garden and no one else was around. Pattens clattering on the wet pavestones, she threw her arms around me. “Lucy! I’m so glad to see you. Everyone keeps talking about your battle with that dreadful serpent, and how you and Nat fought it off together, and I feel so stupid because the guards sealed us away the moment it began and wouldn’t let me go to you. Then they told me you were in a meeting, and—”
“Never mind.” I hugged her. “I’m glad to see you, too.”
“Oh!” She jumped back, blond tendrils bobbing under her hood. “Something stung me.”
“What?” I said in alarm.
“I think it was that.” She pointed at me.
I looked down and saw the cloudy red jewel that was my birthright