The crowd are wild; half of them booing, half of them cheering and I smile. Self preservation is a widespread curse it seems.
“He will be King of the Realm, her dominions and all of her possessions. He will rule with a true soul and an honest heart...”
I continue with the coronation, saying the words that Halfreda transferred to my head from her own, but taking my time, despite knowing that no help will come.
30
LANORIE AND WILL FOLLOW slowly behind Wolf as he wrestles a struggling Everleigh to the tower. They cannot allow her to be locked up; they have to stop him, but he is taller and stronger than both of them, even though he’s got his hands full carrying Everleigh, they still wouldn’t want to fight him.
“What do we do?” Lanorie whispers to Will, her voice strained.
“Stop him.”
“How?”
“Hit him.”
“With what?”
“Something heavy.”
They are passing the stables. Lanorie runs inside, frantically looking around for a weapon, anything they could use. She picks up a spade, runs back out and passes it to Will.
Will nods and takes a breath. He runs forward and before he can talk himself out of it, jumps up and slams Wolf on the back of the head. He crumples to the floor and Everleigh darts away from him. He may not stay down for long; his size and strength make him pretty resilient.
Everleigh hugs them both tightly. “Is Millard King yet?”
They shake their heads. “Not yet.”
“We still don’t know where Archer is.”
“We need to find him. I cannot fight Millard; he will kill me.”
“What if we rally the crowd?” Lanorie asks, desperate for this to be over, for them all to be safe.
“They might help, but they didn’t step in for Macsen or Halfreda. People are too frightened of dying. And used to accepting the King’s will. Millard is King in all but name to them now.”
“So, we need to find Archer.”
“Something must have happened. Someone’s hurt him. There’s no other reason he wouldn’t be here.” Everleigh is sure of him.
“So, he’s probably hurt?”
“And hidden.”
Leaving Wolf on the floor and hoping that he stays there, the three of them fan out around the courtyard and the grounds directly around the coronation crowd. They need to find him.
Will shouts out to the others when he sees him; Archer is lying on the floor by the side of the stables. “He’s not conscious.”
“Fetch water,” Everleigh tells Lanorie and kneels on the floor cradling Archer’s head.
Lanorie comes back with a small flagon of water from the well. With no time for hesitation, Everleigh throws it over him. If he does not wake they will just have to try their best without him.
He does wake; spluttering back to consciousness and spitting water over the floor. Everleigh touches his cheek. “What happened?”
Archer groans and touches his scalp, his fingers coming away bloody. “Don’t know.” His words are slurred.
“Someone wanted you out of the way.”
Something sparks in Archer’s foggy brain, but he can’t remember what or why.
“Doesn’t matter who,” Will says, crouching down beside him. “Can you stand?”
Will helps Archer up and after swaying slightly he finds his feet. “I’m good. Is Macsen dead?”
“Yes, and Ginata is crowning Millard. We need to be quick.”
He frowns at Millard’s name; feeling like he needs to remember something. “Crowning him? Why?”
“To save her own life and mine.” Everleigh’s voice is firm.
Archer looks awful; pale and clammy. Everleigh wishes Halfreda was still around to help him.
“Let’s go.”
“Can you manage?”
“I have to. We have to stop him from becoming King and get the crown on your head instead.”
The four of them head towards the coronation, towards the stage, coming at it from behind so they don’t have to wade through the crowds.
Ginata is holding the crown, saying something they can’t hear.
“Stop!” Everleigh’s voice is loud and clear.
Ginata turns to face her, a smile on her face; until she sees Archer with them. She pauses, crown still in her hand.
Millard turns, a look of pure hatred on his face. “I thought Wolf took care of you?” he says, his voice a growl of fury.
“You were wrong. I am meant to be Queen today.”
“No chance.”
Archer draws his sword. Millard laughs, the sound like a bark. “Another body to add to the Ashes? With pleasure.”
He draws his sword high, coated now with the dried blood of his brother and Halfreda.
Archer jumps onto the stage and Ginata takes Everleigh’s hand. “What’s he doing?”
“Defending me.”
“I told him to stay away. Millard will kill him. I saw it.”
The two men clash swords. Millard is older than Archer, but Archer is a fighter, Millard is a prince.
Everleigh calls to Archer to stop, to get out of Millard’s way, and as he turns to hear what she says, he stumbles. Millard slashes his sword, taking another step closer to him. Before Archer can rise, Millard steps closer to him, hovering over him, and slices his sword towards him. Everleigh screams, shakes her head. The sword wavers and misses Archer. He scrambles to his feet and out of the way.
Archer is quick on his feet and Everleigh remembers his practice in the woods with a smile. She does not doubt that he will be the victor here, despite Ginata’s vision.
Lanorie and Will are on the stage, close to Everleigh, unsure what they should do but happy to be near her.
Millard slashes his sword, taking another step closer to Archer. Archer raises his sword, but Millard dodges around and slashes again. Archer stumbles on the dais and falls to the floor. Before he can rise and before Everleigh can send the sword off-course, Millard steps close to him and deftly slices his sword straight through his side, a gush of scarlet blood flooding out and wetting his feet. With Archer flat on his back and severely injured, Millard finishes the fight, and stabs his sword straight at his heart.
Everleigh
THE SCREAM DOES NOT sound human and yet it comes from my mouth. Immediately I am silenced by my own vomit. Archer is dead. I am sure all his blood has gushed out of his beautiful body and my brother has finished him off by piercing his heart.
I place my head against his chest, desperate to hear a flutter of life inside him but his heart has stopped, the steady beat of life has been silenced by my evil brother and just as quickly the fight has gone out of me. I do not care who rules this wretched Realm. I want to die alongside him.
My brother grins at me, shakes his sword so that drops of Archer’s precious blood fall to the floor, joining the blood of my other brother.
Will is holding on to me on one side, Lanorie on the other and they pull me away from the shell of Archer’s body. Without them I would drop to the floor next to him and beg for my brother’s sword to finish me off. How do I live without him? Why should I?
Millard holds his sword out, a warning to any of us who might try to stop him. “I will be King.” His voice is steely and cold, and I am filled with a fury like I’ve never felt before.
I shake my head. “You have taken everything that was mine. And Archer. I love him. I loved him.”
“Too bad, sister, you shouldn’t have got in my way.”
“The crown isn’t yours. It’s mine. I am born to rule. Born to live.”
He holds out his sword. “My love for you makes me soft. Die with your lover or leave. Leave me to rule this Realm.”
What a choice. I look at him, trying to see inside his mind. His face is so handsome, speckled with blood. I have loved him, hugged him, laughed with him. My brother.
My murderous evil-minded brother.
How can I forgive him this? How can I leave the crow
n on his head? A madman he surely is.
I scream again, a howl of fury and hate, and launch myself at him. Anger gives me a strength he hasn’t expected and I knock him flying, we skid in Archer’s blood and I am almost sick again.
Lanorie and Will are at my back, pulling me off him, his sword a hair’s breadth from my neck. “I will kill you,” he tells me and suddenly, clearly, like a vision, I know that I cannot win here today.
But losing is not failure.
Failure is not trying again.
I stand strong, looking down at him. I spit on the floor, imagining I can taste Archer’s blood.
“I will kill you,” I say. “I will let you have your crown, for all the good it will do you. I am the true ruler of the Realm. I will be Queen. Never sleep big brother, never let your guard down. I will be watching and I will be waiting and when you least expect it I will seize the crown and when I put it on my head, you will die. I will put your head on a spike so the whole Realm can see that I have triumphed and you are bird feed.”
I take Lanorie and Will’s hands after laying my cloak over Archer’s body and I walk away.
From my first love.
Archer.
SEIZE THE CROWN
Lanorie
I CANNOT SPEAK. OH, well you know that’s not true. I can speak but I can’t believe what I’m saying.
Everleigh was meant to be Queen today. It’s all she’s talked about all week, since she made the river rise. It’s all I’ve thought about since I told her secret. I know, I know. I feel awful. I’m not proud of myself.
I told Everleigh’s secret, then I tried to end it all. Stupid I know. But it was a bad week. Will had been hurt and the King was dead, and it was all my fault.
So Everleigh has been destined to die since she was born. I’ve known her since I was seven and she was nine. I’m her handmaiden. I have spent most of my life looking after her.
Then everything changed. She was told she would live.
And now it has changed again. Her brother is King.
The old King is dead, killed by his own son. Then he – Macsen – was killed by his brother, Millard. And he, well, he’ll kill you as soon as look at you, I reckon.
It’s all I ever wanted; Millard to be King. When I thought Everleigh would die and her blood would crown one of the princes, I wanted it to be Millard. Everyone thought it would be. He’s so handsome, so clever, so nice. We know that’s not true now, of course. He sat by and watched his brother kill their father and he thought Everleigh was killed too. Didn’t lift a finger to stop it. Then he killed Macsen. And Halfreda.
Halfreda was the wise woman. Old as even the oldest thing and scary and creepy, but I suppose I must admit, nice. She saved me when I tried to...you know, and she made sure I was better. I feel sad that she’s dead. It was an awful thing to see. He just stabbed her right in the heart, in front of everyone.
Then he killed Archer. Oh, Everleigh had fallen hard for him, let me tell you. She never thought she would find love, what with dying so young and being a princess, all protected and that. She wasn’t a good catch really, as beautiful as she is.
Then Archer turned up. He was related to Halfreda and he was a knight, only young but a right good fighter. Well, he wasn’t good enough in the end. Millard killed him.
Millard’s a mad man. I don’t want to even look at him, in case I’m next.
Poor Everleigh, she put her cloak over Archer, and then as we walked away, her knees just went. She was sobbing that hard. Will and me kept her up, but she started screaming about Archer’s body. She didn’t want Millard to send him to the Ashes – where the dead bodies are burnt. She wanted him to be sent out to sea, like her father was.
I took her to Halfreda’s rooms, it was the only place we could think that she might be safe. If Millard sees her he will probably kill her. What she’s going to do next I don’t know. I’m glad it’s not up to me to decide.
So, Will went back to fetch Archer. They need to wrap his body up and then we can take it to the little island to send him off.
Oh, it’s been a scary and horrible day. Every time I shut my eyes I see Macsen’s head flying clean off his body. There was so much blood and upset today. How any of us will sleep I don’t know?
Poor Ginata had to crown him after all that – what else could she do? I don’t know her well but I feel awful sorry for her. I don’t go to the village much and when she came to the castle it was to visit Halfreda and I certainly wasn’t going to join the pair of them.
She looked so petrified as she crowned him. And I knew she was hoping he wouldn’t finish her off too. I was the same. I didn’t want to catch his eye in case I gave him an idea. No one is safe here.
Cook just knocked, guessing where I was – she’s wilier than she looks I reckon. She said that Wolf’s taken Addyson off to the tower. Wolf is Millard’s henchman, though everyone thought he worked for Macsen. Shows you what a sly one he is, changing his tune like that. I’m to take food up to Addyson. What is this place coming to? I know she’s the cursed princess but she shouldn’t be locked away. And what about Everleigh? She told him she’d kill him, he’s not going to want to see her at breakfast. Next time he sees her, one of them’s not long for this world I tell you. Who will live and who will die I wouldn’t want to guess.
And Cook was full of it. Never seen anything like it in her lifetime. And now we all know he’s crazy, none of us wants to go near him. There’s to be a feast tonight, and Cook reckons he’s already talking about a proper coronation next week, one without a headless corpse watching him – his words apparently!
Everleigh’s just sitting in front of the fire, watching the flames and crying. I don’t know what’s going to snap her out of this or who’s going to look after her. Poor dab.
1
EVERLEIGH’S DRESS IS wet through from crying; tears flowing continuously down her face, with no move made from her to stop them. Her nose is running and she’s dribbling. The wailing has stopped; her heartbreak is silent now. She doesn’t care what a mess she must look or that Millard has probably put a price on her head. Everything has gone wrong.
Lanorie and Will stand together watching her, in Halfreda’s rooms, the only safe place they could think of to steer her to, away from Millard. “I’m going to have to go.” Lanorie’s voice is a whisper. “Cook wants me to take food to Addyson in the tower.”
“He has locked her up then?” Will asks the question, but it is more of a statement. They both know how bad things are. Lanorie reaches for his hand.
“Where’s Archer’s body and the others?”
“I asked the pages to wrap them up. They know Halfreda and Macsen but I explained that Archer was the one covered with Everleigh’s cloak. There are some other dead bodies – some fighting went on after the coronation – but they’ll be taken to the Ashes. They’ll put the three of them on the island and leave them there till we decide what to do with them. I can’t imagine Millard giving them any thought.”
“He may want their heads on spikes.”
“Then I am glad I moved them. Bad enough that so many are dead today. He can’t play with their corpses as well.”
Lanorie shakes her head, upset, and Will pulls her close, hugging her, giving and taking some level of comfort on this awful day.
Everleigh is rocking, as she watches the flames. Everything is lost to her; least importantly her crown.
Her father is dead, murdered by her oldest brother, Macsen. And Macsen. Her sweetest brother. Dead before she got to confront him. He tried to kill her too and if her good friend Will hadn’t put his own life before hers, she would have been dead at his hand as well.
Halfreda – the wise woman – managed to save Will.
Her happy, close knit family of only a week ago, is now altered irrevocably.
Her emotions and lifelong loyalties need time to catch up with the facts of what has just happened.
Her whole life long, from when she was old enough to understand her ro
le, she has known she would die at seventeen. All Kingmakers did. Learning from Halfreda, that she would live and rule as Queen has changed her life for the good but ended up being the downfall of all that she loves and cherishes.
Macsen, desperate for power had been plotting to kill their brother Millard at the sacrificial ceremony – when the Kingmaker’s throat is slit and her blood decides which prince will be King – instead of drinking Everleigh’s blood he had planned to give Millard a death draught. He tested that draught out on their father, King of the Realm.
Letting her mind go there was painful. Wondering about her father’s last moments. Had he known it was his own son who killed him? She hoped not. She hoped that he had been oblivious. Can there be a greater crime than a child killing their own parent? Maybe a parent killing their own child?
Macsen had then learned that Everleigh would live, or had it been the other way around? Had he learned that she would live and killed their father to get the throne, no one would ever know the order, or how his murderous mind had made something so awful seem like a logical next step for him.
Whatever happened, he decided to get her out of the way too. She would never be able to repay that debt to Will. Always her good friend, he had done something she would never have dared ask of anyone; taken her place in her bed and almost died for his trouble. Thank goodness Macsen was a clueless soldier and thank goodness that Halfreda had been able to save Will.
And then Millard. Her tears flow afresh when she thinks about him. Her other wonderful brother; acerbic but funny, blunt but loving, always there for her, if not always on her side. He had turned out to be worse than Macsen. She can hardly believe that’s possible.
Millard had known of his brother’s plan to kill him during the sacrifice. He knew that he had bought the death draught. He knew Macsen had killed their father and he knew – or thought he knew – that Macsen had killed Everleigh, and he had just sat back and done nothing.
The Kingmaker Complete Trilogy (The Kingmaker Trilogy #1-3) Page 22
