Hidden Crown

by Emma L. Adams

  They’d never let a half-blood claim the throne, but even a Sidhe who took the Erlking’s place would be at risk from assassination, especially if they weren’t able to gain power over his talisman.

  “Luckily, that isn’t your job,” she said. “All you have to do is be present for the various ceremonies and try not to get killed.”

  “Hey, I haven’t done a terrible job at staying alive so far.” I laid down the last bottle in the ‘safe’ group. All three safe bottles smelled distinctly of elf wine. “You know, if I have to drink three bottles of elf wine, I’ll be too wasted to do any more training exercises today.”

  “I’ll help you.” She grinned. “This is your last task of the day, besides. And between you and me, I don’t think anyone will notice if we skip over the ‘mandatory tasting’ part. I doubt anyone’s coming to check. Darrow was in a real mood earlier when he left. I think it’s because he was arguing with Lord Kerien earlier.”

  “He was?” I hadn’t thought to ask if he’d seen Lord Kerien himself.

  “They were arguing about the Sidhe’s response to the Erlking’s death,” she said. “Or lack thereof. It sounded like Darrow was pressuring him about it.”

  More like pressuring him to explain our secret errand yesterday. “Why? It’s not like he’s part of the Court. I don’t think you were supposed to tell me that, by the way. He gave me this really dirty look when I mentioned it.”

  “Huh.” Her brow crinkled. “Maybe he doesn’t want the Gatekeeper to know.”

  “So you didn’t hear which Court he’s from. Darrow, I mean.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. It doesn’t matter, in all likelihood. Like I said—we independent Courts have almost no power. And it’s not in anyone’s interests to start a war with Summer. Even Winter’s.”

  No… the enemy most likely lay within Summer’s own borders. And while the Seelie Queen was in jail, she’d been in a position of power for centuries. She’d had enough time to spread her influence among her followers, playing on the rumour that the Erlking was ill and infirm. I needed to speak to Lord Kerien again to learn more of the Sidhe’s theories, but not when everyone else was trying to get hold of him at once. Especially Darrow.

  I knotted my hands together on the table, tracing the callouses swordplay training had left on my palms. “You know, I might have a glass of wine, after all.”

  “Knew you’d change your mind.” Coral rose to her feet, at the same time as two Sidhe entered the room. Lady Aiten and Lord Pointy Spear. “Is there a problem?”

  “Lord Kerien has been found dead,” said Lady Aiten. “Come with me, human.”

  12

  Lady Aiten and her companion escorted me out of the Gatekeeper’s training grounds and through the forest, which seemed quieter than usual, though my thumping heart drowned out all other sounds. Lord Kerien hadn’t been avoiding everyone earlier today after all. Someone had murdered him.

  “How?” I spoke through dry lips. “Where?”

  Lady Aiten glanced sideways at me. “Lord Kerien was found on the Erlking’s territory, killed by a wound that could only have been inflicted by a single weapon.”

  Chills raced down my spine. “The Erlking’s talisman.”

  “Yes,” said Lord Pointy Spear. Lord Veren, she’d called him. “Do you know who might be responsible?”

  “No.” I was too stunned to think clearly. Had the killer known Lord Kerien and I were investigating the Erlking’s death? Nobody else had known of our clandestine trip aside from Darrow, and while Lord Kerien had been alone when they’d ambushed him, for all I knew, I was next on the killer’s list.

  What did Lord Kerien learn that was worth killing him for?

  We reached the gate to the ambassadors’ palace, where Lord Raivan stood wearing a furious expression. I braced myself for the hit, but it was Lady Aiten he addressed. “I assure you my skills are better suited elsewhere. I will not waste any more time dealing with mortals—”

  “As you told us, and the Sidhe collectively voted otherwise,” interjected Lady Aiten. “You will take Lord Kerien’s place. He named you to inherit this palace, and you will honour his last wishes.”

  Lord Raivan’s pale face flushed with anger. “This is an outrage.”

  Some people need to get their priorities in order. I gathered Lord Raivan hadn’t been in the Erlking’s inner circle, given his lowly status in the Court, and Lord Kerien must have believed he wasn’t the killer if he’d entrusted him to take on custody of the palace. Which gave me one person to trust—pity he was such a whiner.

  Ignoring Lord Raivan, Lady Aiten led me up the stairs and through the oak doors into the palace hall. After exchanging some words with her companion, she gestured through a side door into a tapestried room. The same room where Darrow and I had bound ourselves, mentor to apprentice. Lord Veren walked away, leaving the two of us alone in the room, and with a snap of Lady Aiten’s fingers, the door closed.

  I cleared my throat. “Is this an interrogation?”

  “You were looking for Lord Kerien earlier today, around the time he was killed,” said Lady Aiten.

  Crap. If the Sidhe used their magic to wring the truth from me, they’d know I’d been on the Erlking’s territory. Not only would it land me back on their suspect list, I might well be the next to die if the murderer got wind of my involvement. When the Erlking had foisted this mission on me, he might have considered that it would be a thousand times harder for me to investigate when everyone in the Court wanted me to stay the hell out of their business.

  “I wanted to ask him how my family’s gate ended up outside the ambassador’s palace,” I told her. “It’s not important now, anyway. Did the killer leave any identifying clues behind?”

  “No.” Her eyes glittered with green light. “Tell me… what were you doing this morning?”

  “Training with Darrow. You saw me.” I’d had about enough of this crap. “As for my family, they were at home, and the gate was right here. They don’t even know the way to the Erlking’s territory, and they wouldn’t touch that talisman with a ten-foot pole.”

  “Your sister carries her own talisman, does she not?” said Lady Aiten.

  Nice try. “It’s a book that can summon the dead, not a staff that destroys everything it touches. Major difference there. She’s also living in Edinburgh and can’t get here without me to open the gate for her. Why are you so dead set on blaming my family?”

  She gave me a long look. “Your family’s circumstances make you look guilty by default, and given the method in which the Erlking was killed, I felt it was prudent to step in and question you before the other Sidhe get any ideas. There are many who would not weep to see the Gatekeepers driven out of Faerie.”

  Wait, she thought someone was trying to frame us? Or was I reading too much into it? “You’re not exactly helping that impression, hauling me off into a room to interrogate me.”

  At least she hadn’t made me swear another vow.

  “Would you rather face the full council?” she said.

  “I’ve told you everything I know,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don’t know who killed the Erlking or Lord Kerien, and that’s the truth.”

  Everything else I’d concluded, they could work out on their own. Even the tunnels. It wasn’t hard to guess. The question was, why had the killer chosen to use the talisman against Lord Kerien when they might have used any other method to kill him?

  To send a message, a warning to every Sidhe in the Courts that none of them was safe from the talisman’s magic. A bloody effective one, too.

  The door opened with a creaking sound, revealing Lord Raivan, Lord Veren and several other Sidhe.

  “Lady Aiten,” said Lord Raivan. “Are you still questioning the human?”

  She has a name. “I think we’re done in here,” I said. “I was in the back garden of this palace when Lord Kerien was murdered. Darrow can back me up.”

  They must know that our bond also told him where I was at any give
n time, too. Not that I could trust him to have my back when it came to my ill-timed visit to the Erlking’s territory.

  “No human could have wielded that talisman,” said Lord Veren. “The traitor is one of our own.”

  Mutters broke out among the other Sidhe, but none looked directly at me. Without Lord Kerien, I was back to square one in terms of Sidhe allies, but at least they weren’t shouting accusations. I’d take it.

  “Sounds like you should be looking for any Sidhe who are currently missing from Court,” I told them. “Not someone who has an alibi that can be confirmed by multiple people. Even the person who killed the Erlking probably wasn’t human.”

  “Oh?” Lord Raivan cocked a brow. “What gives you expertise on that matter? He was poisoned with iron.”

  “Yes, but the killer managed to sneak up on him without being detected,” I said. “They also knew the layout of his territory and how to remove his security. Even without the details, I can guess that they must have had inside help from someone who knew his territory well. As for how he died? Even if the killer used iron, they must have had magical advantages at their disposal.”

  “Lord Kerien did suggest the weapon used to kill the Erlking must have been enchanted,” said a silver-haired male Sidhe who wore deep-green armour patterned with holly leaves. “That means the killer was Sidhe. Or half-blood, perhaps.”

  “Half-bloods wouldn’t be familiar with the Erlking’s territory,” said Lady Aiten. “The Queen would never—” She broke off, with a glance at me.

  Aha. So she does agree with my theory.

  “The Queen would never what?” I said. “Hook up with a half-faerie? I don’t know her well enough to assume anything, but she might have told anyone how to get in. She had no love for her husband.”

  “She is a known traitor and conspirator,” said a blond Sidhe. Lord Torin, River’s father. He wouldn’t toss my family under the bridge, even if his influence among the higher Sidhe was minimal.

  “Leave, human,” said Lady Aiten. “We will discuss this further among ourselves.”

  I left the room, my mind spinning. The Sidhe believed me. The apocalypse was nigh. Not that I was all that keen to usher it in. After all, while the Sidhe and I might be on the same wavelength, it seemed someone was murdering them for it.

  In the entrance hall, Darrow stood waiting for me. “Come with me.”

  So much for being off the hook. “I already answered all Lady Aiten’s questions.”

  “You met with Lord Kerien yesterday for a reason.” He walked into step with me as I made for the exit.

  “I wasn’t the last person to see him alive,” I pointed out. “Also, he was killed while we were training, which gives both of us an alibi.”

  “I know,” he said. “So does Lady Aiten. What I would like to know is why he chose to take you with him to the Erlking’s territory, especially if you were telling the truth earlier and he didn’t know about the note.”

  “Of course I was telling the truth,” I said, irritated that he’d assume otherwise. “I wish you and the Sidhe would put as much effort into catching the culprit as you put into interrogating me. Maybe then Lord Kerien would still be alive.”

  “You’ve seen his territory before, so Lord Kerien assumed you might have insight into the Erlking’s death,” said Darrow, seemingly unconcerned by my comment. “I understand why you would feel reluctant to confide in the other Sidhe, but I’m not your enemy.”

  Uh-huh. “You report everything I do to the Sidhe yourself. Don’t deny it. Even if not, they can wrench the truth from you with a word if they so desire.”

  He halted in front of the oak doors. “I find it hard to believe that you chose not to confide in me out of concern for my safety.”

  More like because I don’t know if I can trust you. Each clue I unravelled made him less likely to fit the profile of the killer and it was unlikely he’d zipped over to the Erlking’s territory to murder Lord Kerien while I’d been with Coral, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have his own agenda.

  “I didn’t ask to be entrusted with this,” I said. “If you must know, there’s nothing Lord Kerien didn’t tell me that the other Sidhe haven’t already concluded. The killer sneaked up on the Erlking through the tunnels under his territory. It sounds like Lord Kerien went back for a closer look and the killer ambushed him.”

  His brows rose. “Tunnels?”

  “Yes, tunnels.” I pushed the oak doors open and walked out of the palace. “The Erlking was shot from a distance, which means it was probably a Sidhe or half-blood. No humans are that good at archery.”

  “Unless the bow they used was enchanted,” he said.

  “Feel free to hand that theory over to the Sidhe.” My heart gave a sudden lurch. A bow that never missed its target might be enchanted… or it might be a talisman. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

  I turned back to the palace, wondering if the Sidhe had come to the same conclusion. A large proportion of the Sidhe wielded talismans, but most favoured swords or spears, not bows. Add in the murderer’s familiarity with the Erlking’s territory and the suspect list shrank even further.

  “I will,” he said. “I hope for your own sake that you leave the investigating to the Sidhe from now on.”

  “Why?” I tilted my head. “Now you’re worried for my safety, are you? Or just your own position?”

  He opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he planned to say, I never found out. A furious shout drifted over from outside the gates to the palace. A human voice.

  “They went after my family.” Anger rose, sharp and potent, and I marched out of the palace’s grounds in time to see someone disappear through the Summer gate.

  “Hey!” I shouted. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  A male Sidhe turned and gave me a cold look. His hair was blue-black, pulled into a ponytail, while his gold-plated armour clung to his muscular frame. “The killer is no longer in our realm,” he said. “This is the nearest exit.”

  “Like hell.” I marched over to the gate, hearing Mum’s raised voice from the other side. “You’re trespassing.”

  “Everything your family owns belongs to the Seelie Court, Gatekeeper.” He drew a gleaming sword and pointed it at me. “Do not overstep your boundaries.”

  “Touch my daughter,” said Mum, “and you die.”

  Mum stood on the gate’s threshold, an iron knife in her hand. Holy crap.

  The Sidhe spun around, blade and all. “Life is fragile. I’d keep it in mind before you threaten me, mortal.”

  “If life is fragile,” said Mum, “perhaps you ought to cherish yours more.”

  Uh… wow, Mum. Part of me wanted to tell her to calm down before the Sidhe skewered her, but it came as no surprise to see her snap, considering she’d worked for the Sidhe thanklessly for years and they’d repaid her by invading her home and trying to arrest her family.

  Clearing my throat, I jabbed a finger at the lawn visible through the gates. “Look at the grass there. It’s alive. If you’ve ever seen the Erlking’s territory, you’d know his talisman destroys anything living. Clearly, it’s not in my family’s garden.”

  The Sidhe gave me a scowl, but the two other Sidhe walked through the gates and back into Faerie. As soon as they did, I joined Mum on the other side. “Are you okay?”

  “Of course.” She pushed the gate closed. “I should be asking you the same question.”

  “I’m fine, despite Lady Aiten’s best efforts.” I stood stock-still, my body thrumming with tension. When the gate opened again and Darrow stepped through, I made no effort to hide my groan. “If you’re here to accuse us, please do us all a favour and throw yourself in the pond so I don’t have to do it for you.”

  “I’m not.” His gaze flicked to Mum. “Did they violate the treaty?”

  “No.” Mum lowered her knife. “Hazel, tell me if you’ll be staying here tonight and I’ll take precautions.”

  She turned around and walked back to the Lynn house. Da
rrow watched her leave, his brow cocked. “She raised you alone?”

  “Three of us,” I said. “Word of advice: don’t fuck with her.”

  “Three of you,” he repeated. “The others aren’t bound to serve the Court.”

  “No, and if the Sidhe go after my siblings, I’ll give them the same treatment I gave that troll.”

  “I’m starting to understand where your attitude came from.” His gaze followed Mum as she entered the house through the back door.

  “I like to think I have an attitude all of my own.” And if the Sidhe were willing to break the rules, then I’d return the favour. I made for the gates again and opened them, entering Summer once again.

  Darrow stepped through behind me and caught my sleeve. “That shield of yours won’t stop them from running you through with their swords.”

  “I’m aware of that.” His fingers were curled loosely around my wrist, just above the mark of our bond, and tension hummed in the inches between us. I didn’t think he was the killer, not anymore, and I wanted to trust his judgement. Pity I knew I was right, and since he’d pressured me to confide in him, his own head might end up on a platter if the killer realised he knew the details of the Erlking’s death, too.

  I retraced my steps to the ambassadors’ palace, strode through the oak doors into the hall, and made straight for the Sidhe’s meeting room. After knocking on the door twice, I yanked it open. “I need to speak to you, Lady Aiten.”

  “I told you to leave, mortal,” she said, her voice flinty and sharp.

  “That was before several of your fellow Sidhe tried to attack my family.” I took in the other Sidhe’s shock at my brazenness with some satisfaction. “I want a guarantee that my family members will stay safe from any further unwanted visitors.”

  Lady Aiten looked me up and down. “I won’t be long. Please continue the discussion without me.”

  I waited until the other Sidhe were out of earshot before I spoke again. “We can do this any way you like, but I don’t trust the Sidhe to uphold the treaty with the Gatekeepers for the duration of the investigation.”