Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1) - Kendare Blake Page 0,96
the priestess’s plot to assassinate her and Katharine.
“This can’t be true,” Jules says when Arsinoe is finished.
“But it is. I saw it in old Luca’s eyes.” Arsinoe sighs. “Luke should go. Someone should get him out. He would stand between me and a thousand priestesses’ knives, and I don’t want him to be hurt.”
“Wait,” Joseph says. “We can’t give up now, after all this. There has to be some way . . . some way to stop them.”
“To outmaneuver the High Priestess at the Beltane Festival?” Arsinoe asks. “It isn’t likely. You should . . . ,” she says, and pauses. “You should take Jules away, too, Joseph. For the same reason as Luke.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Jules says. Her eyes flash at Joseph like he intended to grab her right that instant.
“I don’t want you to see it, Jules. I don’t want any of you to see it.”
“Then we’ll stop it,” says Madrigal.
They turn to look at her. She sounds very sure.
“You said that the temple is using the guise of the Sacrificial Year,” Madrigal says. “One strong queen and two weak ones.”
“Yes,” says Arsinoe.
“So we will make you strong. They cannot strike after the Quickening if the island does not see weakness. Their lie will not hold.”
Arsinoe looks at Jules and Joseph.
“That might work,” Arsinoe says wearily. “But there is no way to make me strong.”
“Wait,” Jules says. Her eyes are unfocused and faraway. Whatever it is that she is thinking, she is so distracted that she does not even respond when Camden tugs on her pant leg with very sharp claws.
“What if there was a way to make you look strong?” Her eyes snap back to Arsinoe’s. “What if on stage tomorrow night, you call your familiar, and it arrives in the form of a great brown bear?”
Arsinoe inadvertently touches the cuts on her face. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw a great brown in the western woods,” Jules says. “What if I could get him to go to you? I could hold him on that stage.”
“That is too much, even for you. A great brown bear, in the midst of the crowds and clamor . . . You couldn’t hold him. He’d tear me apart in front of everyone.” Arsinoe cocks her head. “Though I suppose I would prefer that he do it, rather than the priestesses.”
“Jules can do it,” Madrigal says. “But just to hold the bear on stage will not be enough. It must be made to obey you, or no one will believe. We will need to tie it to you, through your blood.”
Jules grabs her mother by the wrist. “No. No more.”
Madrigal jerks away and shakes the touch off dismissively. “Juillenne. There is no choice. And it will still be dangerous. It will not be a familiar-bond. You won’t be able to communicate with it. It will be more like a pet.”
Arsinoe looks at Camden. She is no pet. She is an extension of Jules. But better a pet than a torn-out throat or losing her head and arms.
“What do we need?” Arsinoe asks.
“Its blood and yours.”
Jules inhales shakily. Joseph takes her by the elbow.
“This is too much,” he says. “Holding a bear is one thing, but taking his blood? There must be some other way.”
“There isn’t.”
“It’s too dangerous, Jules.”
“You’ve been gone a long time,” says Madrigal. “You don’t know what she can do.”
Jules puts her hand over Joseph’s.
“Trust me,” she says. “You always have before.”
Joseph clenches his jaw. It seems that every muscle in his body might burst from tension, but he manages to nod.
“What can I do to help?” he asks.
“Stay away,” says Jules.
“What?”
“I’m sorry but I mean it. This is the hardest thing I have ever asked of my gift. I can’t be distracted. And I don’t have much time. It will take a while, to move him from the woods. I will have to take him around the valley, where he won’t be seen. Even if I sneak out tonight, after everyone is asleep, I may not make it in time. And if the Hunt drove him farther away . . .”
“It is the only chance we have,” Arsinoe says. “Jules, if you’re willing, I would try.”
Jules glances at Madrigal. Then nods.
“I’ll leave tonight.”
THE DISEMBARKING
Arsinoe is the last queen to take her place atop the cliffs for the Disembarking. By the time she makes her way through the meadow and up the path, the valley has emptied. Everyone has assembled on the beach, to stand beside tall, lit