A Sorrow Fierce and Falling (Kingdom on Fire, Book Three)

by Jessica Cluess

  “You’ve wronged George, my lady.”

  “You take his side. But he’s already proven his heart to you, and it is ice.” She leaned back over her daughter’s body. “You’re bound to him now. You’ll never be free of this fate.” She looked at me again, my fire playing on the ruins of her face. “The same as me.”

  The door slammed open, and I dropped my flame. Blackwood stood outlined against the light of the hall.

  “You took her body. How could you?” He stared at his mother, the anger between them hot enough to burn. “Leave,” he ordered me.

  Even now, I pitied him. There was no one to comfort him any longer. They’d all been taken, or he’d driven them away, or they’d raised him while whispering poison in his ear. “Let me stay,” I said.

  He looked me in the eye, his gaze acid and loathing. “I don’t need you.”

  Lady Blackwood coughed. “Do leave us, Miss Howel. This is a time for family.” I wanted to scream at both of them, or to cry. Instead, I gave them what they both deserved: each other. Blackwood did not move a muscle as I left. As soon as I’d exited, the door slammed behind me on a gust of wind.

  I heard the rasping of Lady Blackwood’s voice and…what might have been crying. The tears were not hers.

  Hastily, I returned to my room. I sat in bed at least an hour, until the chapel bells chimed midnight. The guard changed below my window, and I went to look out at the moon-colored field. Last night, everything had been wonderful, sweetness mixed with the bitter. Now the world was ash.

  Below me, a lone figure waited by the ivy-covered wall, face visible in the light. He was wrapped in his cloak, a charcoal smudge against the wall.

  Blackwood watched my window.

  I looked away.

  * * *

  —

  BLACKWOOD WOULD NOT MEET WITH ME the following day, but Lambe’s message reverberated in my head. We all had to evacuate. The fire was coming.

  I had to save Maria, and I had to get everyone out of the estate. How the hell I was to manage this, I could not say.

  Even with snow on the ground, we were able to give Eliza and the rest of the fighters a decent burial. The men were laid beneath a tall tree that would be beautiful in high summer. Eliza went to the family burial yard, a cloistered section of the grounds. It was sheltered by two stone walls, with only the barest markers to indicate where the dead slumbered.

  Until they lowered Eliza’s silk-clad body into the grave, I did not truly believe she was gone. The same for Valens, who received a memorial stone while his widow clutched her baby and sobbed. Eliza and Valens, vanished from the earth. How these young, strong people could now be silent forever was a puzzle I could not solve.

  After the funeral rites, Blackwood returned to the isolation of his study. I’d watched him across the open grave, his face white as his sister’s body disappeared into the earth. I’d gone to him as soon as the ceremony ended, but he’d brushed past me. Now I stood by Eliza’s grave, staring at the quiet earth. How was I to do this? How?

  Magnus also remained. His eyes were red, and he seemed a closed fist poised to strike out at the nearest target. He laid a blue snow-sorrow on the earth, near where the headstone would one day stand. That flower would remain in perfect bloom throughout the cold winter. Neither of us spoke as he walked away. Only then, like a burst of divine light, did I realize what was to be done.

  I followed him back to the barracks yard, where his squadron gathered around him. Rings of the ordinary men they’d saved joined the sorcerers. Magnus was speaking softly, and I caught some of his words as I came nearer.

  “Richard Valens was a better man than I could ever be. I swear I’ll try to lead as he did. If you find I’m failing at the job, tell me. Lord knows Valens would.” A small ripple of laughter at that.

  Magnus held the attention of every man and woman, magic and non-magic alike. Yes. He was the perfect person to help me. I waited until his speech had ended and he’d sent them all to the house, or to wait in the yard so that they might have a sparring match.

  “I need to talk to you.” I caught up as he walked back toward the stable.

  “And I want to listen to you. It’s wonderful when things work out so neatly.” We walked into the stables, which now stood nearly empty. The injured had all been moved to the great house. There were still a few horses in here, and they blustered as they moved in their stalls. The sweet scent of hay and grain met me. This all reminded me so much of Rook.

  And of Magnus’s promise to kill him.

  “What is it?” Magnus asked.

  “Lambe told me we were in danger.”

  “Oh?” His eyebrows lifted. “Is this another psychic flutter he picked up?”

  “When you put it like that, it sounds rather foolish.” I smiled weakly; he did not. “He says Sorrow-Fell will burn. We need to get everyone out.” I waited to see if he would scoff, but he did not.

  “You believe him?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Magnus took up a handful of grain and fed it to the horse behind us. “All right.” He turned back to me. “What shall we do?”

  Having him ready to follow my plans felt wonderfully different. “Blackwood will never let the queen go.”

  “Not even if she orders him?” His eyes narrowed. “That sounds like treason, Howel.”

  “Trust me. Blackwood’s let the power of being Imperator overwhelm him. Having the queen under his authority grants him total control. He wouldn’t give it up even if he believed Lambe.”

  Magnus nodded. “What do you propose?”

  “I’ve an idea about how to free the queen, but I’ll need you to do something rather dangerous.” I bit my lip. “And we’ll need help from an unusual source.”

  “Who?” He frowned. I told him my plan. “Howel. You always were a madman.”

  * * *

  —

  “YOU WANT TO LEAVE?” BLACKWOOD STEEPLED his fingers as he sat behind his father’s desk. The crisp morning light illuminated dust motes that floated in the air. For this meeting, Magnus had worn his soldier’s livery. He’d even combed his hair and shaved. He looked respectable, no longer the wild figure charging up the hillside to certain doom.

  I’d given Blackwood a chance to do the right thing and told him the entire truth of Lambe’s vision. He knew as well as Magnus and I that these prophecies could not be ignored. However, he’d listened to me without hearing. He would not be swayed.

  “We should at least get the queen out.” I waited, hoping he’d agree and make this easy.

  “Absolutely not. Her Majesty is safer with me.”

  Under your control, you mean.

  “Lambe’s premonitions should be taken seriously,” Magnus replied. Blackwood scoffed.

  “The Speakers also said that a chosen one would save us all. But I’ve yet to be convinced.” I bit the inside of my cheek to avoid shouting at him.

  “At least let Magnus and his squadron take the people away. Perhaps there’s some residual protection at the priory in Northumberland,” I said. Blackwood pushed back from his desk.

  “Considering it’s been pulled down to the roots of its foundation, likely not. But you’ve always been an optimist,” he told me. Then, “Magnus, you may go. My sister has barely been laid to rest, and you already wish to be away.” His voice faltered at mention of Eliza. “If you hadn’t pulled that ridiculous stunt at her debut, she’d be married to Foxglove and alive today.”

  “Eliza was never your pawn,” Magnus returned.

  I had to stop this at once. “Please listen to Lambe before disaster strikes,” I said.

  “Disaster will not strike.” Blackwood sat back down. “I will make damned sure of that.” The optiaethis rested by his right hand. He stared at it, cracking his knuckles idly. “The queen stays. As do you, Howel.” So I was Howel again.
Not Henrietta.

  I left with Magnus, struggling to contain my tongue. But at least our plan would continue uninterrupted.

  “You know what to do,” Magnus whispered before departing. So I went looking for Alice. We would have only so much time to get this right.

  Alice was delighted to be a part of my plan and transformed neatly into a mouse. She had taken the effort to make herself rather adorable, with brown and white spots and quivering whiskers. I carried her in my pocket up the steps to the queen’s tower. Her Majesty was working at her desk when we entered. Two guards remained by her door, even when I asked them to leave.

  “Lord Blackwood’s orders. We’re to make certain no harm comes to Her Majesty,” Virgil said. Ah yes, no harm could come to the queen, and the queen could do no harm by leaving.

  “May we at least close the door?” the queen asked. She looked tired. The guards obliged us. Once we were alone, I took Alice out of my pocket.

  “This is for you, Majesty.”

  “Is this a joke, Howel?” When the mouse became Alice, well, that erased her exhaustion. “The devil?” The queen rose to her feet.

  “Well, I am a magician, Your Majesty. There are some as would call me that,” Alice said dryly. I nudged her.

  “Majesty, it’s essential that we get you out of Sorrow-Fell, but Lord Blackwood will not let you leave,” I murmured. “I’ve a plan in mind to help you escape.”

  “With this…magician?” Queen Victoria gaped at Alice. “How?”

  I waited while Alice stroked her chin and studied the queen, walking around her in circles. When Queen Victoria tried turning with her, Alice held up a hand. “If you please, Majesty, I’ve got to get the correct proportions. Magic’s a science as well as an art.”

  The queen looked ready to ask what the hell we thought we were doing, when Alice snapped her fingers. Her face morphed; her eyes grew lighter, her nose smaller and more upturned. She shrank several inches and grew rounder in certain areas. By the time she’d finished, I was staring at two Queen Victorias, not one.

  The only difference was that one of them wore threadbare clothes that were too large for her frame. Alice grinned.

  “Her Majesty has lovely little hands. I’m quite envious.”

  “Oh. Oh my.” The queen sounded frightened…and amazed.

  “Care to hear the rest of my plan?” I asked.

  * * *

  —

  “COMPANY, PREPARE,” MAGNUS CALLED AS MEN and women, commoners and sorcerers gathered together. They flanked wagons that contained the sick, the injured, and those too delicate for intense travel. It was so odd, and felt so wrong, to put the ill on the road. But when Lambe’s vision came true, these people would be safer far away from here.

  Horrible, that I shouldn’t consider Sorrow-Fell safe.

  Magnus rode to the head of the army. Dee rode alongside him, with Lilly in one of the wagons.

  As I’d loaded supplies, I’d overheard Dee speaking with Magnus before they left.

  “So. Captain.” Dee had clapped Magnus on the shoulder. “You should be proud.”

  “I shouldn’t be the one they’re looking to. They need someone like Blackwood, eh?”

  “You’re the right man for the job. All you need now is to become a man.” Dee had laughed, but Magnus had not.

  “Perhaps you’re right” was all he’d said. Now he was at the head of his “band of brothers,” a Shakespearean phrase he would have relished, looking every inch the commanding warrior. The troops were pointed toward the barrier. We’d had the area scouted, and there was a patch of woods to the east that was clear. If the troops moved quickly, they could get out without a fight.

  I wished I could go with them. If Maria had been free, I might have. But I could go nowhere without her. I hurried over to Lilly to say goodbye one last time. She saw me, and we clasped hands.

  “Do you have everything you need?” I asked. She patted a bundle of blankets beside her. The bundle shifted a tiny bit.

  “We’re all ready. Take care.” She kissed my cheek. The horses started, and Magnus led the charge up the hill. Blackwood was at the barrier already, waiting to let them pass.

  The ground trembled as the army thundered ahead. In the air above, I tracked a sparrow hawk as it winged its way toward the barrier, and smiled. The sounds of the army grew fainter. I waited and waited, until finally I could bear it no longer and flew up to the edge of the barrier, beside Blackwood. He and his men were watching the now-clear area beyond.

  “Well?” I asked. Blackwood turned his eyes to me, and for an irritating second I thought he’d shut me out.

  But instead, he replied, “They made it through.”

  Excellent. We did not speak on the walk back, but once home he summoned me to his study.

  I seated myself on the chaise while he sat opposite me in a claw-footed chair. The walls were papered a dark gray, with a large oil painting beside the door. The painting celebrated sorcerers parting the sea in ancient Greece, all of the men robed in white with their hands stretched to the horizon. It was such a colorful, hopeful image; to have it in this room felt sad.

  “We need to talk about Maria,” I told him.

  “She’s going to be burned. I’ve told the men that she is a witch,” he replied evenly. Surely I couldn’t have heard him right.

  “How could you do something so vile?” I hissed.

  “She murdered my sister.” Hatred radiated from him.

  Finally, I had the freedom to speak.

  “Maria didn’t kill Eliza. It was Mary Willoughby.”

  He paled but stayed mercifully silent as I told him what I’d witnessed. By the time I’d finished my explanation, he had his head in his hands.

  “Then you’ve given me more reason to have her exterminated. If she’s carrying that monster inside herself—”

  “That monster worked with your father to summon the Ancients, and then he murdered her to cover his tracks!”

  Blackwood sprang to his feet.

  “Keep your bloody voice down!” he snapped. “If you’re to be my wife, you’ll keep a civil tongue.” I laughed at that.

  “You think we’ll be happily married after what you’ve said to me?”

  “Not happily.” He turned his eyes away. “But I’m a man of honor. The fact you think there is any option beyond marrying me is disgraceful.”

  “I’m not going to marry anyone out of charity.”

  “It’s not charity. I still want you,” he whispered, his face contorting as he spoke. That shocked me into silence. “God help me, I thought my feelings would die with Eliza. They did not.”

  I knew I should say I didn’t feel anything for him now. But the words didn’t come.

  “Now,” Blackwood said. “Maria will die tomorrow. I will not hear another word about it,” he added, raising a hand as I started to argue. “We must begin our study of that stone circle. First, the queen will want her report.”

  He said it mockingly.

  I decided to accompany him. We walked through the east wing, up the tower steps, and passed the guards by Her Majesty’s door. When we entered the queen’s chamber, Blackwood looked about in confusion. The bed was made. The room was empty. Comically, he looked ready to open the closet door and rifle through the drawers to find our monarch.

  “Where is the queen?” Blackwood asked the nearest guard. The poor fellow looked white with confusion.

  “Beg pardon, m’lord, but Her Majesty never left.” The boy’s bewilderment was not feigned. I, however, could not conceal a small grin of triumph. Blackwood regarded me with amazement, as though I’d turned bright green. He blocked my path.

  “Where is she?” He clenched his jaw.

  “With Magnus.”

  “How?”

  It hadn’t been too difficult, really. A few h
ours before the army left, Alice had morphed into the queen, remaining as a decoy while I flew the real Victoria out the window. With Lilly’s help, it had been easy to hide the queen in a wagon under those blankets. Alice had remained in the room until the army began to move, at which point she’d transformed into a sparrow hawk and followed out the window.

  Finishing my tale, I added, “I didn’t think it right to keep our monarch a prisoner.”

  “You. Didn’t think.” Blackwood appeared almost proud, as if he were glad to have been outwitted. The pride lasted about as long as a snowflake before a fire. “Bring my squadron,” he told the servant. My stomach dropped, but I was not going to appear frightened of him. Once the boy had left, Blackwood and I had a moment alone.

  “Can’t you see what’s happening to you?” I asked. He went to the window to look anywhere but at me.

  “How much more can you take from me? My sister. My peace.” He came to me then, as lithe as a snake striking. I gusted into fire, just as a warning. “I didn’t know pain like this until I met you. I swore to myself I’d never be weak like my father, but see what you’ve done?”

  “Your weakness is not my fault.”

  “But in its own way, it was fate.” He touched the handle of his stave, and I could glimpse the carved ivy leaves upon it, identical to my own. “Why do you have this hold upon me?” He came close enough to graze his lips along my ear. “Why are we destined for this?”

  Even now, after all he had done, my body still gravitated to his. When he touched me, there was a mixture of pain and pleasure, revulsion and desire. I felt an urge to run from him, and twisted with that, the yearning to be consumed by him.

  “You’re my prison,” I told him, but I could not make myself hate the words.

  “And you’re mine. But God help me, I don’t want to be set free.” He sounded miserable. My whole being hummed to kiss him, to let go of every reality but his hands and his lips. Had my thoughts always been this unchaste?