A Throne of Swans

by Katharine Corr

  He helps me to a seat and passes me a glass of water.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ I don’t know why I’m apologising. Some instinct of self-preservation?

  ‘Don’t worry. You’ve taken the first step, but you’ll get stronger. You need to be strong, Aderyn, for what lies before us. Strong for what we have to do to save the kingdom.’ His dark blue eyes are almost black in the lamplight, but there’s no concealing the intensity of his expression. ‘We were discussing treason, that day in the garden: cutting out the canker at the heart of the kingdom. But can it really be treason, to make that which is sick whole again? Together, you and I are going to restore Solanum.’ He begins striding up and down, punctuating his words by smacking his fist into his palm. ‘We’re going to make it how it used to be. No more intermingling with the flightless. No more talk of allowing them representation, or of relaxing our borders. No more immorality among the nobles. No more squabbling between the Houses. We will burn away all that is rotten, and then – and only then – will come the time for mercy.’

  ‘But the king, and my cousins –’

  ‘Trust me – the king will not trouble us for much longer.’

  ‘He’s getting better, isn’t he? His secretary said so, only yesterday.’

  ‘Lies. It is no illness that afflicts him. It’s poison. A slow, subtle, undetectable poison.’ Siegfried gives me a quick grin. ‘Another gift from my friend the chemist.’ He waves a hand. ‘Aron is irrelevant. An embarrassment, in fact – poor, flightless prince. And as for Odette …’

  I swallow down the panic building in my chest. ‘You said that there was a way for us to be together. Are you planning to break off your betrothal to Odette?’

  He turns back to me and takes my face in his hands. ‘We will be together, my love. Eventually, you and I will rule Solanum side by side, equals, seated together on the swan-kings’ throne. But first … first, I must marry Odette. I will claim the throne as her husband when the king dies, and I’ll have to keep her for a while –’

  ‘You’re not going to kill her?’

  ‘Of course not. I’m going to give her the one thing she really wants.’

  The realisation that has been building, that I’m shut in an underground room with a madman, crashes over me. If I wasn’t already seated, I would collapse. I take a deep breath, grip the arms of the chair, focus on the need to get as much information as I can. ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Odette doesn’t want to be queen. She doesn’t care about the kingdom. All she really wants to do is fly. And the potion I’ve given you, in a stronger concentration, will not simply transform her into a swan, it will keep her as one. Permanently.’ Siegfried crouches in front of me. ‘There is one thing I need to apologise for, my love: I changed the dose I was giving you, to see how it would affect you – that’s the cause of your forgetfulness when transformed, the reason you’ve been forgetting human things, like words, and the passage of time. I had to be sure, you see. Sure that it would work. Sure of you. You understand, don’t you?’

  I nod automatically, and he laughs and tucks a stray strand of hair behind my ear. ‘I knew you would. I’ll take Odette to some remote lake when I transform her. Give her a strong enough dose that she will forget ever having been a woman. To everyone else, it will appear that she’s vanished. After a fruitless search, and a suitable period of mourning, I will marry you. With Olorys and Atratys and the Crown Estates united, Convocation will never be able to stand against us. Neither will the other dominions.’ He stands and draws me up with him. ‘We will sweep away any resistance. And then we’ll be able to do whatever we want.’

  ‘But you can’t –’ The words escape before I can stop them.

  Siegfried’s eyes narrow. ‘Can’t?’

  I’m not sure I can save myself, but I have to at least try to save my cousin. ‘You … You can’t expect me to wait so long to be with you. As you say, Odette doesn’t want to rule. Marry me now, and I’ll persuade her to step aside. Claim the throne as my husband.’

  His face softens. ‘You want this as much as me. I knew you would. It has to be the way I’ve described though: I will not risk division within Convocation, or war between the dominions. Too much noble blood would be spilled. But we don’t have to wait. The King’s Mistress used to be an official court position; as soon as I am king I’ll revive it, and we will have our union blessed by the Venerable Sisters in the sanctuary. Then we can be together.’ He kisses me on the mouth, and I don’t dare resist. ‘Come. I’ll escort you back to your rooms.’

  We don’t speak on the way back up through the Citadel. But just before we turn the last corner into the corridor where my apartment is, he pulls me into a dark alcove. ‘I’m returning to L’Ammergeia in two days to attend to some business. We may not have much time together between now and the wedding, so remember: this is our secret. Not a breath of it to anyone. Just carry on as usual, and let events take their course. And don’t forget what you owe me.’ He pulls a vial of the potion from a pocket and holds it in front of me. ‘I hold your life and your dominion in my hand, just as surely as I hold this elixir. One word to Convocation, and your deception will be laid bare. You’ll lose everything, my love.’

  ‘Please …’ I barely murmur the word.

  Siegfried smiles in the darkness and puts the potion away. ‘You understand me. I knew you would.’

  We continue on our way. Siegfried opens the door to my rooms for me and bows. I go inside, shut the door, lock it and stand with my back against it for a moment, before sinking to the floor.

  But fear won’t allow me to rest. I pull off my dress and my underclothes, determined to shift my shape; if I can transform on my own, Siegfried’s main hold over me will be broken. Everything else is just his word against mine. So, by the faint glimmer of starlight, the darkness of the new moon, I try. I try again and again. But with each failure my despair grows and the point of transformation seems further and further away.

  What have I done?

  And what am I going to do?

  The grey light of early morning finds me still awake, sitting in the chair that overlooks the fjord. I’ve not slept. Instead I’ve been planning – or trying to plan – and thinking. Thinking about power, mostly, and how men like my uncle, and Siegfried, and Patrus, use it to take whatever they want. How their power corrupts them, and everyone who comes within their orbit. For am I not also tainted? My uncle’s action led me to seek revenge, and Siegfried’s actions enabled me to take it. There is blood on my hands: the blood of the flightless who died in Lower Farne; the blood of the noble who died last night; perhaps others. Siegfried was right: there is a canker at the heart of the kingdom. But it is not just the king, for whom I can spare no pity. It is all of us.

  Odette, I trust, will see the need for change, and take action. But I have to give her that chance. I have to stop Siegfried from seizing the throne. I have to protect my mother’s legacy – protect the Atratys that she and my father fought so hard to create. My cousin will hopefully be able to save the kingdom. I just want to save my dominion. And perhaps, if I’m able to, myself.

  The day passes. As Siegfried ordered, I spend it exactly as had already been planned. I keep all my engagements, and I am careful to say and do nothing that will excite any interest, or suggest that I am in anyway preoccupied. Each time I look at the clock I will the time to pass faster, so that I can be alone again and relax my guard. The hours drag on. But eventually my last appointment – with an artist: sketches are being made for a portrait of the wedding party – is over. I return to my room and ask Letya to send Lucien to me.

  He arrives. I bar the main door behind him, beckon him into my bedroom and shut and lock that door too. He blushes; I’d find it amusing if I wasn’t so nervous about what is to come.

  ‘I’ve something to tell you, Lucien. Something to confess.’

  His blush deepens. ‘If this is about you and Lord Siegfried …’

  A ripple of annoyance makes me clench my fist
s. ‘It is. Though it is not what you are so obviously imagining.’

  He ducks his head. ‘Forgive me, Your Grace. Please continue.’

  I open my mouth – and pause. I’m uncertain where to begin. I’m reluctant to reveal things that must destroy whatever regard Lucien has come to have for me, things that might bring to mind the promise that he made to Turik.

  But this is about Atratys now, not me. I want to save my cousins. But I have to protect my dominion. So I clear my throat and lift my chin.

  ‘You wanted to know the reason that Siegfried left court just after the king fell ill; he was absent on business that concerns me. I found information that suggested a hawk family might still be alive and dwelling in Olorys. So, at my request, Siegfried went looking for the men who killed my mother.’ Lucien has been watching me, but at this he turns away, shaking his head. I force myself to continue. ‘Late last night, Siegfried returned. He took me to a room somewhere deep in the Citadel, where he had under guard one man – one survivor – one of the two hawks who attacked me and ended my mother’s life. I talked to this man, asked him why he did it, and who sent him. He told me he was paid by the king. Then I watched while Siegfried killed him. Afterwards, Siegfried told me that the king is being poisoned by him and will soon die. He plans to marry Odette, dispose of her, then marry me.’ Bile rises in my throat at the thought of it. ‘He will directly control over half of Solanum if he’s not stopped.’

  Lucien is frowning down at the floor. There’s a muscle twitching in the side of his jaw. ‘The king? The king had your mother murdered?’

  ‘Yes.’

  He swears and runs his fingers through his hair, seemingly more angry than surprised. ‘Why did Siegfried tell you all this? Are you sure it isn’t a trap?’

  ‘I don’t think so. He believes I will support him. That I wish to be with him.’

  ‘Of course he would think that.’ His words are clipped. ‘After he helped you take revenge for your mother’s murder …’ Finally, he looks back up at me. The disappointment in his eyes sinks my heart, makes me wish I could disappear. ‘I asked you to let it go, Aderyn. You saw what happened to Lord Hawkin, just for mentioning your mother –’

  ‘It’s worse than that.’

  He exclaims with disbelief. ‘How can it possibly be worse?’

  I swallow hard and stand up straighter. ‘Siegfried has a friend who is a chemist. He created a potion … I don’t understand exactly how it works, but it forces our kind to transform. Siegfried plans to give Odette this potion to trap her as a swan. In the meantime, he’s been giving it to me. It’s how I’ve been able to fly.’

  Lucien draws away from me. ‘You mean, your ability –’

  ‘Hasn’t returned. I can only shift my shape when Siegfried gives me the potion. I can only shift back when he gives me the antidote. Without him, I am still earthbound. Without him, I may as well be flightless.’

  For a long moment, Lucien stares at me, as if he can’t take in what I’ve just said.

  ‘Well done, Your Grace.’ He pushes away a chair that stands nearby, shoves it so hard it falls backwards against the hearth. ‘Well done. At best, you’ve embroiled Atratys in attempted treason. At worst, you’ve handed the entire dominion to a monster.’

  Twelve

  ‘But what was I to do?’ I spread my hands wide, pleading. ‘I have to be able to fly by the wedding, or the king –’

  ‘The king is, by your own account, about to die.’

  ‘Well … but if I hadn’t asked Siegfried for help, then who’s to say that he wouldn’t have done the same thing? He’s still planning to marry Odette. He could force me to fly at the wedding, and claim Atratys when I can’t.’

  Lucien waves a hand impatiently. ‘Could have … Might have … I’m not going to argue with you over things that haven’t happened. The point is, you’ve pursued your own interests – as usual.’ He thumps his fist against the wall and stands there, glaring at me. ‘You’ve acted with no thought for Atratys, no thought for the people who are dependent on you, no thought for anything apart from your own immediate desires. If you had come to me –’

  ‘I would have come to you, the day after Hawkin died. But Letya couldn’t find you. And after the first time I flew with Siegfried, I wanted to tell you the truth, Lucien, I really did but I –’ I break off. I’m not going to remind Lucien of what he said to Turik that night in the garden. He already looks as if he would happily kill me.

  ‘You what?’ His voice is glacial.

  ‘Siegfried was kind to me.’ Had seemed kind, at least. ‘He talked to me, and spent time with me and offered me his help.’

  Lucien drops his gaze. ‘So you fell in love with him?’

  ‘No. I never loved him. I thought we were friends, that’s all. At least until that night in Deaufleur.’

  ‘Deaufleur? What happened in Deaufleur?’

  Weariness is making my brain foggy. I try to bring the conversation back to Siegfried’s plotting. ‘It doesn’t matter. Nothing. What matters –’

  ‘What happened, Aderyn? Did he hurt you?’ Lucien strides nearer, his eyes blazing. ‘I swear I’m going to kill him if –’

  ‘Nothing happened, Lucien! He kissed me, I told him to stop, and he did.’ I don’t want to remember how I felt sorry for Siegfried, let alone talk about it. My shoulders are aching; I reach up and try to massage away the knots. ‘Why do you care, anyway? I was stupid enough to go there with him.’

  I glance at Lucien, questioning.

  He shrugs. ‘To offer insult to you is to offer insult to Atratys. I would have felt honour-bound to seek satisfaction.’

  Lucien and his honour – I wonder if he actually cares about anything else. But I’m too tired to argue any more. ‘You couldn’t help me fly, Lucien. And I didn’t know where else to turn.’ He’s staring down at the carpet and doesn’t respond. ‘Stopping Siegfried: that’s what matters now. You can berate me for my lack of judgement afterwards, if we’re both still alive.’

  Lucien sighs and drags both hands through his hair. ‘You’re right, for once.’ He picks up the chair but moves to lean against the wall, his arms and his ankles crossed. ‘Well, Your Grace?’

  ‘I’ve been thinking –’

  ‘Not before time,’ Lucien mutters.

  ‘– there are two things we have to do. First, find some tangible evidence of Siegfried’s plans. I could go straight to Convocation, but then it’s just my word against his. And I don’t think they’ll listen to me. Not when everyone is convinced that Siegfried and I are lovers.’ The word tastes bitter in my mouth.

  Lucien clamps his lips together, as though he is only restraining himself from making an acidic comment through heroic effort. ‘Quite. Can you find the room that he took you to last night?’

  ‘I could try, but …’ I shake my head. ‘Probably not. I didn’t know what he was planning, when we were walking down there, and afterwards …’ I hear again the sickening thud of flesh on stone as the Oloryan guards throw Flayfeather’s body into the cellar – guards who shouldn’t even have been there. A ripple of remembered horror crawls up my spine. ‘I’m going to search Siegfried’s rooms instead. He told me he’s returning to Olorys the day after tomorrow. I’ll find a quiet moment and slip in.’

  Lucien is shaking his head. ‘It’s too dangerous. If you’re caught –’

  ‘If I’m caught, I’ll say that I forgot he was going away, that I wanted to see him, and that I decided to leave him a note; something like that.’

  He looks at me doubtfully. ‘But what do you think you’ll find? He won’t leave incriminating evidence scattered about his bedroom. Siegfried is clever.’

  ‘He is.’ I shake my head. ‘How the king could have been so deceived as to have thought him stupid, I’ll never understand.’

  ‘He wanted to believe it,’ Lucien replies. ‘That’s half the battle.’

  ‘I suppose so. But I’m relying on the fact that Siegfried is arrogant too. He thinks he knows everythin
g, controls everything … he might be careless enough to leave some trace of his activities. One of the leaves he used to kill the hawk, for example.’

  ‘Leaves?’

  ‘Some sort of dried plant. I don’t …’ I squeeze my eyes shut as Flayfeather’s frantic moaning echoes through my head. ‘I don’t remember what he called it.’

  Lucien’s expression is solemn; no trace now of the sympathy he showed after Patrus attacked me.

  I stand and walk to the window so I don’t have to look at him.

  ‘Describe it to me,’ he says. ‘I’ll go and search Siegfried’s room.’

  ‘No. I have more reason to be there. And I want you to go back to Merl. Tell Lord Lancelin what is happening, get the key to the laboratory and go through my father’s books. Look for a recipe for something called a counter-active, and bring it back here. I’m hoping it will protect Odette from the effect of the potion – if we don’t manage to stop Siegfried before he gets that far.’

  Silence. For a moment I wonder if Lucien will suggest that we give the medicine to my uncle too …

  ‘Very well. I’ll leave after the banquet tonight.’

  No mention of the king; I’m glad. There remains just enough of my appetite for revenge for that.

  Lucien comes and stands next to me at the window. ‘Your Grace …’ He pauses, running the edge of his thumbnail across the soft wood of the sill. ‘My lady, if we survive this –’

  ‘I know. I don’t expect forgiveness. Or mercy.’

  He frowns, the expression in his eyes unreadable. ‘Well, then … until this evening.’

  A bow, and he is gone. I have a while before I need to dress, so I go back to staring out of the window. But what I’m seeing is my mother, rubbing my back and watching me anxiously as I throw up the mildly poisonous berries I’d eaten in the garden in a rare unsupervised moment, and my father hovering nearby, writing in one of his notebooks and saying, Don’t worry, my love, I’m working on a medicine we can give her, if she does it again …