lips and her neck until she slips her hands under his shirt.
“It is unfair of me to be jealous,” she says.
“It does not matter,” he says. “It is our lot. To drive each other mad with jealousy. You will kiss a suitor, and I will kiss a priestess, and it will make your fire for me burn even higher.”
“Do not tease,” she says, and he smiles.
Outside the tent, poisoners converse as they move and unpack chests. Preparation for the night’s Hunt has begun. Every poisoner at Innisfuil will soon be stringing bows and readying crossbows, dipping their arrowheads and bolts in dilutions of poisonous winter rose.
“I wish I could take part in the Hunt,” Katharine says. She walks to the bed and kneels to smear butter across a bit of crust. “It would be nice to take a horse into the hills and flush quail and pheasant. Will you go on horseback? Or on foot?”
“I will not go at all,” he says. “I will stay with you.”
“Pietyr. You do not need to. I will only be a bore, worrying about the Gave Noir and the Disembarking.”
“No,” he says. “Do not worry about any of that.”
“It will be hard to think of anything else.”
“Then I will help you.”
Pietyr pulls her to his chest and kisses her again until they are both breathless.
“Do not think of it, Kat. Do not worry.” He lays her back on the bed. “Do not be afraid.”
He moves on top of her, his warm breath in her ear. Something has changed in Pietyr; his touch is desperate and slightly sad. She imagines it is because he knows they will soon be parted by one suitor or another, but she does not say a word for fear he will stop. His kisses make her dizzy, even if she does not understand it when he traces his finger across her skin, first where her arm and shoulder meet, and then in an invisible line across her throat.
THE MILONE ENCAMPMENT
Jules raises the mallet high above the tent stake. She means to tap. But when she swings, the impact splits the wooden stake in two. A waste of a perfectly good stake, but at least it frightens the onlookers. Since Arsinoe disappeared, Jules has had no peace. Everyone thinks she must know where Arsinoe went.
Even Billy’s father. The day after the boat went missing, William Chatworth finally paid the Milones a visit, but only to pound on their door demanding answers. Demanding punishment. But there is no one to punish. The queen is gone, and Billy has gone with her.
Ellis bends down with his white spaniel, Jake.
“I didn’t mean to split it,” Jules says.
“I know,” he says. “Don’t worry. Jake can pull this out, and there are more on the cart.”
Jules wipes her brow as the dog sets to digging up the stake. Their main tent lies on the grass like a dead bat’s wing, and smells just as sour. It is nothing like the fine tents housing Mirabella and Katharine. Not that it matters. They do not really need to put it up. Without Arsinoe, they did not need to come to Innisfuil at all.
Jules toes the edge of the tent, and a hole in it that needs mending.
“This is shameful,” she says. “We should have taken more care. We should have treated her like a real queen.”
“We did,” Ellis says. “We treated her like a naturalist queen. Nose in the dirt. Running with us and fishing. Naturalist queens are queens of the people; it’s why they make such good ones, when they are strong enough to manage it.”
“Scat!”
Jules and Ellis turn and see Cait chase Camden from her tent. Eva caws and flaps around the cougar’s head.
“What’s the matter?” Jules asks.
“Nothing much,” Cait says. “She is only after the bacon.” She gestures with her chin. “Here’s Joseph.”
He waves a greeting, walking slightly hunched. The eyes of the island have been on him too since Billy and Arsinoe disappeared.
“Hallo, Joseph,” Ellis says. “Have you and your family settled in? Where are you camped?”
“Just over that way,” he says, and points to the east. “Though my parents decided to stay behind with Jonah, so it’s just me and Matthew.”
“Have you scouted ground for the Hunt?” Cait calls.
“No. Not yet.”
“Then you’d best get after it. You and Juillenne both. If you go slowly enough, you can take this beast with you.”
At her mention, Camden looks at Jules hopefully. Her left foreleg and shoulder are healing poorly, but her eyes are bright and