The Crown of Embers

by Rae Carson

  “Yes, Your Majesty.” He turns over on his knees, no longer bothering with stealth.

  “And Belén?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty?”

  Maybe I do want to talk about him. A little. “Humberto would be proud of you, too. He always believed you’d come back to us.” Saying his name aloud doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. Humberto, I practice silently. Humberto.

  A soft catch of breath. Then: “He had a way of believing in people long before they believed in themselves, didn’t he?”

  The entrance to my tent flaps closes, and he is gone.

  As we breakfast on corn cakes fried in olive oil, Ximena and Hector argue about whether or not to split the group apart. Everyone else listens to their discussion, shifting awkwardly in the sand, trying to be invisible.

  Only Storm has not joined us for breakfast; he does not dare leave the carriage in daylight.

  “There is safety in numbers,” Ximena insists. “Five men against our guard and Conde Tristán’s warriors? It’s no contest. And I’m not convinced they’re out to cause trouble. It’s likely the conde just sent them to keep an eye on Elisa. This journey does not play into his plans, and he’s desperate to feel like he has some sort of control over the situation. The best thing we can do is stick together. Go to Selvarica as planned. The more expectations we meet, the less suspicious we become to observers. But if we separate, Elisa is even more vulnerable.”

  Conde Eduardo is not the only one desperate to feel some sort of control, I muse as I chew on my corn cake. Ximena seethes with the frustration of being stuck in the carriage with the decoy queen, unable to keep close watch over me. She hates ceding complete responsibility to Hector.

  “I hope you’re right, Lady Ximena,” Hector says. “But if he merely wanted to keep an eye on the queen, why didn’t he insist on letting his own delegation travel with us? It doesn’t make sense. And the presence of Franco has me concerned. He’s a shadow adviser. No one knows anything about him. My instincts say all is not as it seems.”

  “We should have traveled with a larger party,” Ximena says.

  Hector shakes his head. “I don’t trust enough people to form a larger party. Better the enemy out there than here among us.”

  Tristán has been listening quietly, sipping from a waterskin at regular intervals. He ties it off, sets it in the sand, and gains his feet. He does it gracefully, in such a way that all our eyes are drawn to him. His beautiful face is grave when he says, “My father was killed on a journey such as this. It’s the perfect opportunity, you see. Anyone can be blamed. So no one ever really is. I still don’t know who killed my father.”

  Everyone is silent. I say, “What do you advise?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t know. Caution, I guess. I think the Lady Ximena is overly optimistic to hope the conde merely wants you observed. But I’m also not convinced that splitting off would be safer for you.”

  I take a deep breath. I have to make a decision. And it’s one that could lead to someone’s death. Mine, or decoy Elisa’s, or someone I care about. I used to make these kinds of decisions all the time, when I was only a desert rebel. I would have expected to become accustomed to it.

  “We have a plan for splitting the group if necessary, right?” I say.

  Hector nods. “We do. But we can’t do it in open desert. We need to reach a village or trading post. Better yet, a large port like Puerto Verde.”

  “Then we continue on as we are for now. Belén, you will observe them every night, so long as you feel you can get there and back undetected.”

  He ducks his head obediently. “I can do it.”

  “I’ll reevaluate when we reach a trading post.”

  We break off to pack up camp. Ximena glowers as she returns to the decoy carriage.

  As I’m rolling up my tent, Hector comes up beside me. “Tonight,” he says, “I’ll sleep outside your door. We’ll see if Belén can get by me.”

  I freeze, and my fingers dig into the tent fabric. Humberto used to do the same thing, to protect me from the others. I look into Hector’s eyes. They’re steady and fierce, but I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I could always tell what Humberto was thinking.

  Hector is so much more complicated, and though he is less a mystery to me than he used to be, it feels like I could spend years peeling back the layers, trying to learn his whole person.

  When I don’t answer right away, he says, “Please let me do this.”

  One thing I am certain of: I trust him utterly. “Thank you,” I say at last. “I’ll sleep easier knowing you’re there.” And it’s the truth.

  Riding in the servants’ carriage is as awful as I anticipated. In no time, my back and rear ache from being jostled against the wooden bench, and I am crazy with heat, for we deliberately chose carriages with only small, curtained windows. Sweat pools between my breasts and soaks my hairline, curling wisps of hair that have escaped my plaits.

  There are two nice things about the arrangement, though. One is that Hector sits beside me, and our thighs brush with every jolt of the carriage. When one wheel hits a large stone, the carriage lurches to the side and I slide along the bench until our hips collide. The carriage rights itself quickly, but neither of us bothers to move away.

  The second nice thing is that it gives me a chance to talk with Storm for the first time in days. He sits on the bench across from us, and he is so tall his head nearly brushes the roof. He has pushed back his cowl, and sweat glistens on his near-perfect skin. He fans himself with a dried palm frond.

  “Are you enjoying our journey so far?” I ask with no small amount of amusement.

  He hisses, and his green eyes spark with fury, or maybe loathing. I feel Hector’s body go taut.

  But I am no longer afraid of the Invierno. Logic tells me to consider him a threat, to remember that he might even be the assassin who stabbed me in the catacombs. But my instincts say otherwise. Perhaps it’s his transparency that makes me feel safe with him. He is one of the few who never bothers to hide his true thoughts from me. Maybe the only.

  “This desert is God cursed,” he says.

  “Your people do not seem well suited to it,” I observe.

  “Indeed not. Our skin cracks and dries; our feet blister. There are days it feels like my blood is boiling. I found much relief from the wretched climate in my cavern hideout.”

  I scowl at him. “And yet you marched an army of thousands across the desert to try to overrun us.”

  “Well, we skirted it to the north and south, but yes. It was a difficult journey. Hundreds perished from the heat alone.”

  “Your own country is much cooler by comparison?”

  “Cooler. Wetter. Lovelier. Better, really, in every possible way than this forsaken blight that you rule.”

  I surprise myself by laughing.

  I’m further surprised to see his lips twitch with a hint of a smile. He says, “So tell me, Your Majesty. Why do I have the displeasure of your company today?”

  “I yearned to bask in the light of your empathy and good cheer.”

  “Sarcasm again. I thought you would tell me you had decided to hide like a frightened rabbit from the group following us.”

  “I’m hiding like a wise rabbit.”

  “Do you think they are the conde’s men?”

  “I do, though I can’t be sure. One of them, a tall, quiet man, has been seen with the conde before.”

  He starts forward so abruptly that our knees collide.

  Hector’s dagger is at his throat in an instant. “Back. Away.”

  Storm edges back, resumes fanning himself with the palm frond. His face becomes a mask of calm, even as he keeps a careful eye on Hector’s dagger. He says, “Describe this person to me.”

  So I do, trying to remember Belén’s description exactly: Tall, hair slicked back, young looking, a close adviser. Storm coils in on himself, growing tighter and tighter with the telling until he looks like a cornered cat.

  “What
is it? Do you know this man?”

  “I have to get away,” he says. “At the soonest opportunity. Leave me at the next trading post. No, leave me when we get to a large port. I’ll need a place big enough to disappear in. I can make my way back—”

  “Storm! Do you know this man?”

  He inhales deeply, and the mask of calm settles over his uncanny features once again. “I do know him. Franco, right? That’s not his real name. His real name, in God’s language, is Listen to the Falling Water, for Her Secrets Carve Canyons into Hearts of Stone.”

  I gasp. “An Invierno!”

  “A spy,” Hector says.

  Storm says, “If Franco learns I am here, he will kill me.”

  “Conde Eduardo has an Invierne spy working for him,” I say, as though sending the words aloud into the world will help me believe them. “Does the conde know that Franco is an Invierno?”

  Storm shrugs. “I don’t know.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me there was an Invierne spy in the employ of one of my own Quorum lords?”

  “You didn’t ask. Also, I’ve been underground for more than a year. I didn’t know he had worked his way into the conde’s inner circle.”

  “Have any others infiltrated my court?”

  “Not that I know of. Your Majesty, you must let me go at the nearest port.”

  The carriage lurches again, and I grab Hector’s knee instinctively. Storm’s gaze drops to my hand, and he allows himself a secret smile. I draw my hand back, curl it into a fist in my lap.

  “If I let you go,” I tell him, “you would miss your chance to accompany us to the zafira. You won’t get another. Only someone who bears a living Godstone can navigate there, remember?”

  He runs a hand through his golden hair, considering. Now that I’ve become a bit used to the odd color, I find it more beautiful than alarming. “You make a good point,” he admits.

  “We could leave Storm behind,” Hector suggests, and his gaze on our companion is unwavering. “It might distract Franco, give us a chance to put some distance between us.”

  That will never happen. I don’t care to show my hand to Eduardo or the Invierne spy by revealing that I’m harboring the former ambassador. But the alarm on the Invierno’s face is so satisfying that I pretend to consider it.

  “If we left you behind, do you think you could get away?”

  “No! Not if Franco sees me and recognizes me. He would stop at nothing to have me killed.”

  “So it would be sufficient distraction. They would abandon us for a while to chase after you.”

  He opens his mouth, closes it. I see the exact instant he recognizes that I’ve trapped him on purpose.

  “This Franco. He must be very capable for you to be so frightened of him.”

  Fury rolls off him in waves. He says, “Your Majesty, he is a trained assassin.”

  I gasp. An Invierne assassin in my own palace all this time. In the employ of a Quorum lord. I never even suspected. What if he’s the one responsible for the attempts on my life? If so, he will surely try again.

  I say to Storm, “I suppose you ought to stay hidden in the carriage. Like a frightened rabbit.”

  He scowls.

  “Don’t worry,” I add. “I’m sure I can find someone to keep you company.”

  “I’d rather be alone.”

  I turn my lips into what I hope is a decent approximation of his own smug grin. “I know.”

  “You would do well to hide, too,” he says. “Franco is cunning and skilled. He is to murder what an animagus is to magic.”

  “Oh.” I let my face fall into my hands, not caring that Storm will see and be amused. “Hector, we have to tell everyone about this.”

  He reaches over and gives my knee a squeeze. “Yes,” he murmurs, and I close my eyes to savor the sensation.

  When we break for the noon meal, I tell everyone else what I learned from Storm. No one is more surprised and terrified than decoy Elisa, who clings to Ximena’s arm with a white-knuckled grip. Her veil blurs her eyes and nose, and I’m relieved that I can’t see the fear sparking there, even more relieved that we cannot make eye contact. Because I’m terrified for her, too.

  “I can take care of him,” Belén says. “Tonight. I’ll slip into his camp and put a dagger to his throat.”

  “Storm said Franco is specially trained,” I remind him. “He might be your match.”

  “I can take care of him,” Belén repeats.

  I know what Belén can do. Cosmé once told me the story of how she watched from a ridge as he snuck into an Invierno scout camp, slit the throats of three of their warriors, and disappeared like fog. Should I send an assassin to kill an assassin? I know so little about Invierne. Is this Franco an anomaly of their world? Or does he come from a long tradition of elite selection and training, like my own Royal Guard? I must ask Storm about it before deciding.

  Tristán says, “I’d like to change my vote.”

  “Vote? What do you mean?” I ask.

  “I think our company should split up,” he says. “At the next port, you and a few others should go off in search of the zafira without the rest of us. We’ll try to draw the assassin away. It’s an opportunity you shouldn’t pass up. They’ll eventually figure out what happened, but you could buy yourself days, even weeks, of safety.”

  I nod, considering.

  Ximena says, “I agree. It was one thing to be followed by the servants of a pouting Quorum lord. An assassin is another thing entirely.” She looks down pityingly at the creature clinging to her.

  “Hector, when is the soonest we could split off?” I ask.

  “If we can make Puerto Verde, a few days south of here, I might be able to commission a ship. I know a captain who’s scheduled to be in port soon with a batch of early-harvest wine.”

  Probably wine from his home in Ventierra. “Someone you trust, then?” I ask.

  He nods. “With my life and honor.”

  “Then we continue on to Puerto Verde and split off there. We’ll keep a close eye on Franco and his group until then and adapt as necessary.” I look around at everyone. “Unless I hear convincing counsel otherwise?”

  No one has anything to add.

  “Then let’s get moving.”

  As Hector and I climb back into the carriage, I glance northward, along the shimmering highway. It’s strangely devoid of travelers, except for the small group following us. They are barely more than motes on the horizon. So there is no reason, I tell myself, no reason at all, to feel as if the assassin’s gaze is boring holes into my back.

  Chapter 19

  AFTER an evening meal of dried tilapia and dates, I sit cross-legged just inside the threshold of my tent while Ximena unpins my hair to let it down into a more comfortable sleeping braid. While she works, Hector comes over and flips out his bedroll in front of my door. He sets his pack beside it, shoving it down into the sand so that it doesn’t tip over. I watch him carefully, fascinated by the way he moves. Every motion is so strong and sure.

  When he pulls off his overshirt, my heart speeds up. His bare shoulders flex as he reaches beneath one arm to unlace his breastplate, and I swallow hard against the sudden moisture in my mouth as he lifts his breastplate over his head and sets it on top of his pack. His back is broad and taut with muscle, his waist trim. His sun-darkened skin shimmers faintly, and even though our camp is dimly lit, I see his scars, several of them. Most are tiny white lines, but one is larger and jagged, running diagonally across his lower back. I have an overwhelming urge to trace its length.

  Instead I place my fingertips to my own mark, just left of the Godstone. Both of us, scarred. I wonder how he got his? I want to know about it more than anything. I want him to share that part of himself with me. I want—

  Ximena’s fingers grip my chin. She forces my gaze to hers and regards me sternly for a long moment. “It is a hard thing to be queen, my sky,” she says.

  I blink up at her. She’s warning me. She wants him for Alodia
, after all. And she’s right. It would be a smart match.

  But the very thought hollows out my chest, leaving me empty and aching.

  Not trusting my voice, I just nod. She kisses my forehead, then goes off to attend her fake queen.

  Ignoring Hector, I crawl into my tent and lie down on my bedroll with my head at the door. I lie there a long time, listening to him breathe.

  Minutes later, or maybe an hour, I raise my head and whisper, “Hector?”

  “Yes?” he whispers back.

  His face is so near. Just the space of a breath away. I swallow hard. “My sister. Alodia. She has . . .” Oh, God, it’s so hard to say, but I can’t bear to pretend away such a huge thing. I inhale through my nose and try again. “My sister has made inquiries about you. In regards to a potential marriage agreement.”

  A long pause. Then, “Well, that would explain why she opened correspondence with me.”

  “Oh!” Pain, sharp and hard, squeezes my chest. Alodia already made her move then, before writing to me.

  “She’s like you, you know,” he says. “Intelligent. Beautiful. But . . .”

  “And will you . . . that is, are you considering . . .” I can’t finish. I’m not sure I want to know.

  He looses a shuddering breath. Then he says, “I will do whatever my queen commands.”

  Of course he will.

  Something overtakes me, desperation maybe, and before I know it I’m slipping my hand past the tent flap. My fingers find his wrist. It shifts, and suddenly my hand is wrapped in one of Hector’s much larger ones. Something about his gentle strength brings tears to my eyes.

  It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him I love him. Instead I say, waveringly, “I told Alodia that you are the best man I know.”

  He gives my hand a squeeze. “Thank you,” he whispers.

  I fall asleep like that, my fingers woven with Hector’s. Belén does not visit me. Or if he does, he chooses not to intrude.

  Two days later, the desert cedes to rolling coastal hills. The sand still stretches east as far as the eye can see, but the hills along the coast mark the beginning of the southern holdings, the most temperate part of my kingdom. As we climb, the land beside the road turns from sand to hard dirt that is dotted with dry grass and the occasional scrub tree.