The figure reached up and pulled the black hat and veil off its head, revealing coppery red hair, amber eyes, and a face that I had never thought that I would see again.
“Xenia,” I whispered.
Lady Xenia smiled at me, as did the ogre on her neck.
I smiled back at her. In fact, I couldn’t stop smiling, the expression so wide and happy that it made my cheeks ache. But smiling wasn’t enough, and I started laughing. I wasn’t quite sure why. Perhaps it was the sheer, utter happiness filling my heart.
Xenia was alive.
Halvar frowned, not sure why I was laughing. So did everyone else, but I didn’t care. It felt so good to laugh right now.
It took me the better part of a minute, but I finally managed to stop my crazy chuckles, although tears started streaming down my face instead. I didn’t care. For once, they were tears of joy instead of sorrow.
Xenia bowed low to me and straightened back up. I executed the perfect Bellonan curtsy in return, even though my feet were dripping blood and had swollen to twice their normal size. Small white stars winked on and off in my eyes, but I ignored them, along with the pain and exhaustion steadily rising up in my body.
Xenia tried to give me a stern look, but her lips twitched up into another smile. “That was the best rendition of the Tanzen Freund that I have ever seen. Every step, every movement was perfect.”
I smiled back at her. “That’s because I had a most excellent teacher.”
The words were the final straw. Those white stars in my eyes grew bigger and bigger, and darker and darker. The pain and exhaustion rose up, even stronger than before, and the blackness dragged me under.
* * *
I was being tested.
I sat in a chair, watching a magier arrange objects on a table. Seeds, potted flower bulbs, chunks of stone, candles. All those items and dozens more covered the wood.
Today, I would be tested to determine what kind of magic I had, just as every member of the royal family, every Blair, was when they were twelve years old. I could have told the magier not to bother, that I already knew exactly what powers I had—my enhanced sense of smell and my immunity.
And that was the problem.
Everyone already knew about my enhanced sense of smell, but my mother had always warned me never to tell anyone about my immunity. She had said that other people knowing about it would make me a target in more ways than I could possibly imagine. I hadn’t really understood what she’d meant, but I had always kept my power a secret, like she had told me. But how was I going to hide it during the testing?
“Don’t worry, Everleigh,” a soothing voice murmured. “Just do your best.”
I looked at Vasilia, who was sitting next to me. I had been at Seven Spire for a few weeks now, and the two of us had been inseparable ever since that first day. We did everything together, from eating our meals to learning our lessons to playing with the other children. I even slept in a room down the hall from hers. Vasilia was my best friend, and I was so glad that she was here.
“I don’t see why I have to be tested,” I said for the tenth time in as many minutes. “Everyone already knows that I don’t have any magic, other than my sense of smell.”
“You have to have something more useful than your silly nose.” Vasilia’s voice was strangely flat, and she tapped her fingers against her chair arm, as though she was annoyed.
I frowned, wondering at her odd mood. Vasilia had been fidgety and impatient all morning. Perhaps she was nervous for me. I reached out and squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her as much as myself. She hesitated, then squeezed back, although her smile didn’t warm her pretty face the way that it normally did.
The magier finished arranging the objects and gestured for me to approach. Nervous butterflies quivered in my stomach, but I let out a breath, got to my feet, and walked over to begin the testing.
For the next hour, I picked up one object after another to see if I had any magic related to it. A plant master’s ability to make seeds grow and bulbs bloom. A stone master’s power to carve and command rocks. A magier’s fire to light candles.
One by one, I picked up the objects and concentrated, and one by one, I set them all down again after nothing happened. No new skills, no fire, nothing on my part. The only thing that I had any reaction to was a perfume bottle. At first scent, the bottle seemed to be filled with a pleasant aroma. I drew in another breath, crinkled my nose, and put the bottle down. I could smell the rot lurking underneath the deceptively sweet scent.
“An enhanced sense of smell, as expected,” the magier murmured. “Nothing else so far.”
Over in her chair, Vasilia sighed, rolled her eyes, and started tapping her fingers again. She seemed more annoyed and impatient than before. What was wrong with her?
The magier made me pick up the rest of the objects to make sure that I didn’t have any other powers. Everything was fine until I reached the item at the very end—a long, slender tearstone sword.
Unlike the other objects, which were dull, ordinary things, the sword was full of magic. My nose twitched. I could smell the power radiating off it. The magier nodded at me, and I had no choice but to pick up the sword, even though I knew how much it was going to hurt.
As soon as my fingers closed over the sword, sharp, invisible jolts of lightning sizzled against my skin. In an instant, my hand felt like it was on fire from the stinging power, and my immunity rose up, wanting to snuff out the magic. I started to unleash my power, but then I realized that the magier was watching me far more closely than before, as if this object was more important than all the others combined. Even Vasilia had quit fidgeting and was leaning forward.
This wasn’t a test to see if I had magic—it was a test to see if I could destroy it.
“Do you feel anything?” the magier asked. “Any magic? Any tingling? Any sensation of any sort?”
I kept my face blank and shook my head, as though I didn’t feel the magic shocking my fingers over and over again. “I’m sorry. It just feels like a sword to me. Nothing more.”
The magier sighed. “Put it down then.”
Even though I wanted to drop it like a hot rock, I slowly laid the sword on the table. I looked at Vasilia, expecting her to be smiling now that the first part of the testing was finished, but she got to her feet, turned away, and left the room without a backward glance.
“Vasilia?” I called out. “Where are you going?”
She didn’t answer. My stomach twisted with worry, but I pushed it aside. Vasilia might be my best friend, but she was also the crown princess. She had probably been called away on some royal business.
The magier made me pick up all the objects again, double-checking to make sure that I didn’t have any other powers. When the testing was finished, I hurried to Vasilia’s playroom. The doors were closed, although I could hear faint giggles inside. Vasilia must already be in there, along with some of our other friends. I smiled and pulled on one of the knobs.
The doors were locked.
I yanked on first one door, then the other, but they didn’t budge. Strange. So I raised my hand and knocked. “Vasilia? Are you in there? It’s Everleigh.”
More giggles sounded, louder than before, although they seemed to have a sharp edge to them. I knocked again, and several seconds later, the door finally opened. Vasilia was in the playroom, wearing her favorite pink dress and diamond tiara. Behind her, three girls were sitting around the table having a tea party with tiny cakes and steaming cups of hot chocolate.
I started to step inside, but Vasilia put her arm on the door, blocking me from entering.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped.
“Joining you and the others for cakes and chocolate like always.”
Vasilia shook her head. “You’re not welcome here. Not anymore.”
“Of course I’m welcome here. I’m your friend.”
She let out a small, mocking laugh. “Oh, Everleigh. You have no idea what’s going
on, do you? I always knew that you were nothing more than a silly little country bumpkin.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on?”
“I can’t believe that I wasted my time sitting through your testing.” A sneer crept into Vasilia’s voice. “Although that wasn’t nearly as tedious as all the time that I’ve wasted listening to you cry about your dead parents. You’re such a weak, whiny, pathetic thing.”
I reared back in shock. She had never spoken to me like this before. Why was she saying all these cruel things?
“Putting up with your sniveling might have been worth it, if you had had even a lick of magic. But you don’t .” Vasilia sneered at me again. “You don’t have any magic, which makes you completely useless .”
Every word she said was like a dagger slicing off another piece of my heart, and I struggled to push away my pain and surprise and focus on her words.
“But—but you’re my friend . You’re my best friend .” I couldn’t keep the tremor out of my voice. “You shouldn’t care if I have magic or not.”
Vasilia let out another laugh, this one louder and even more mocking. “I am not your friend. I was never your friend. I was just playing along to see if you could be of any use to me.” She lifted her chin. “I will be queen one day, sooner than anyone thinks, and I need the right people around me. Strong people, strong allies like the girls in this room.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder, and I looked at the girls sitting around the table. One was a senator’s daughter, the second had wealthy guilder parents, and the third was training to become a powerful stone master.
I opened my mouth to protest that I was strong, and that in my own way, I had just as much magic as Vasilia did with her lightning. I longed to tell her about my immunity. In that moment, I wanted to reveal my power to her more than anything . She would take me back, she would be my friend again, if only she knew about my immunity. I was sure of it.
But something held me back. Perhaps it was my mother’s voice whispering a warning in my mind. Or how closely the magier had watched me when I had picked up that tearstone sword during the testing. Or the way that Vasilia was staring at me now like I was a stain on the floor, something far, far beneath her notice. Maybe it was all of them together. Either way, I choked back my words.
“Face it, Everleigh. You’re just a little lost orphan girl with no parents, no money, and no magic. And now that I know how weak and useless you really are, I don’t have to waste any more time pretending to care about you.” Vasilia’s gray-blue eyes were as cold and hard as the tearstone columns. “Don’t come back here, and don’t ever bother me again.”
She slammed the door in my face. A moment later, I heard the click of the lock sliding home, followed by another round of giggles from the other girls. The sounds rammed into my heart, one after another, shattering it into a hundred pieces. Hot tears gathered in my eyes and streaked down my face, but they were nothing compared to the sharp shards that were twisting and twisting in my chest, cutting me to shreds from the inside out . . .
My eyes fluttered opened. I was lying in bed, clutching my chest, as if I could somehow ease the pain of Vasilia’s long-ago betrayal. But I had never been able to do that, and this time was no different. So I dropped my hand and stared up at the fresco on the ceiling, which featured ogres running through a forest . . .
Wait. Why were there ogres on the ceiling?
For a moment, I didn’t remember where I was, but then it all came rushing back. Killing the weather magier. Being captured by the Ungers. Performing the Tanzen Freund. Realizing that Xenia was here.
I sat up and looked around. I was lying on a large four-poster bed covered with soft sheets and thick blankets that stood in the back of the room. A nightstand, an armoire, and a vanity table with a mirror hugged the walls around the bed, while a round table flanked by several chairs stood in front of a fireplace that took up most of another wall. An open door to my left led into a bathroom with a white porcelain tub mounted on silver ogre heads. Sunlight streamed in through the white lace curtains on the windows, telling me that it was around noon.
My nose twitched, and I glanced down at my body. Someone had cleaned me up, and I was now wearing blue silk pajamas, instead of all the layers of clothes that I’d had on in the courtyard. I wiggled my arms and legs. Someone, probably Aisha, had healed me as well, although I still felt tired and sore. I peeled back the covers to find that my feet were heavily bandaged. I flexed my toes inside the white bandages. My feet felt as sore as the rest of me, but at least they were still attached to my body.
Someone cleared her throat. My head snapped to the right. I hadn’t noticed her before, but Lady Xenia was sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace, reading a book.
She smiled at me. “Hello, Everleigh.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Am I dead?” I asked.
Xenia’s face crinkled with confusion. “Why would you say that?”
“Because you keep smiling at me. You never smiled at me before. Not once in all the weeks that we worked together.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That is a problem that is easily fixed.”
I grinned. “Ah, there’s the Xenia that I know. Stern and demanding.”
She snorted. “And there’s the Everleigh that I know. Cheeky to a fault.” She pointed to a blue silk robe lying at the foot of the bed. “Put that on, and we’ll have a drink.”
I got up, shrugged into the robe, and slid my bandaged feet into a pair of soft, padded slippers beside the bed. Then I plodded over and sat down in the chair across from Xenia.
She had traded in her long black coat for a dark green tunic topped by a short, matching jacket, along with black leggings and boots. Her silver cane with its ogre head was leaning next to her chair. She picked up a crystal decanter, also shaped like an ogre, and poured a healthy amount of amber liquid into a glass. Apple brandy, from the smell. She passed the glass to me, then poured herself a drink before setting the decanter aside.
“To us.” Xenia lifted her glass. “The survivors.”
I grimaced, but I clinked my glass against hers, leaned back in my seat, and took a sip. The brandy was cold as ice in my mouth, with a sweet taste, like a bloodcrisp apple. I swallowed, and the brandy heated up as it slid down my throat before forming a warm pool in my stomach.
Xenia and I sipped our brandy in companionable silence. It was several minutes before she spoke again.
“I’ve always preferred a good, strong brandy to anything else. Especially champagne.”
“You didn’t drink any champagne at the luncheon,” I said. “That’s why you were able to shift when none of the other morphs could. That’s why you were able to fight back.”
She nodded and took another sip of her brandy.
“What about Gemma, the Andvarian girl? What happened after you disappeared with her?”
“Maeven hurt me pretty badly with her lightning, but I managed to carry the girl inside the palace.” Another smile flickered across Xenia’s face. “You made quite an impression on Gemma. She kept screaming that we had to go back and help you.”
“But you couldn’t come back.”
Xenia shook her head. “No. The guards chased after us, so we had to run. Gemma started yelling that we had to go to the master’s workshop, and I realized that she was talking about Alvis, and that you had told her to find him.”
My breath caught in my throat, and my fingers clenched around my glass. I had lost Isobel, and I had thought that Alvis was dead too. “And did you?”
She nodded again. “Alvis was in his workshop. As soon as he realized what was happening, he used his magic to collapse part of the ceiling and block the door. We could hear the guards outside, but they couldn’t get through his barricade.”
“But how did you get out of the workshop if Alvis had barricaded you inside?”
Xenia shrugged. “He pressed in on a stone in the wall and opened up a secret passageway.”
I
blinked. In all the years that I had worked for him, I had never suspected that there was a secret passageway in his workshop. Then again, it was just like Alvis to keep something like that to himself.
“The passageway led into some of the old mining tunnels that still run under Seven Spire,” Xenia continued. “Alvis knew all about the tunnels. He said that we could use them to escape, and he was right. We trudged through the tunnels from the palace, all the way under the Summanus River, and came out in an abandoned mine on the outskirts of the city.”
Those must be the same tunnels that Serilda and Cho had been talking about after the queen’s vigil. The ones that they had said were blocked and that they couldn’t use to rescue Captain Auster.
“All of the turncoat guards were still at Seven Spire, so it was relatively easy for us to escape from Svalin. We ran into some trouble after that, but we eventually made it to safety.” Xenia gestured out at the room with her glass. “I’ve been here ever since. Castle Asmund has been in my family for generations, although few people know that it belongs to me. Halvar, my nephew, takes care of it during the months that I’m in Bellona.”
“And Alvis and Gemma?” I asked, my fingers clenching around my glass again.
“Safe in Andvari. They’re being protected by the king.”
I sighed with relief. Alvis and Gemma had escaped Vasilia’s clutches. I longed to see the metalstone master and the girl, but it was enough to know that they were alive and well.
Xenia leaned back in her chair and studied me. “But it seems that my adventure pales in comparison to yours. I didn’t know what to think when Halvar returned to the castle yesterday claiming that some woman had demanded to perform the Tanzen Freund in order to save her gladiator troupe. At first, I thought that it was some trick and that Vasilia’s minions had found me. But then you appeared in the courtyard.”
I snorted. “I wouldn’t call it an adventure.”
“Then what would you call it?”
Kill the Queen (Crown of Shards #1) Page 29
