The True Queen

by Sarah Fine

  “But don’t expect us to pay for your fancy dresses once you are a pauper,” Agata says.

  I walk slowly toward her, enjoying that I am a little taller than she is. “All the Valtias before me died protecting the Kupari people. I would happily do the same, and perhaps someday I will. You think I am worried about what I’ll be wearing when that happens?”

  Agata has the good grace to look away from me, her cheeks a dusky pink. But she doesn’t take back what she said.

  I turn and look upon the other council members. Many of them have not changed their clothes since the last time I saw them. “Very well,” I say. “We must dig up the temple’s copper and sacrifice it to the earth. I pray to the stars that it is enough.”

  Topias bows his head. “We all do, my Valtia.”

  Of course they do. It would mean they wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything themselves.

  “I am grateful for your support,” I say, unable to completely rinse the acid from my tone. “Please gather a group of strong citizens who might be willing to help unblock the caved-in passages inside the catacombs so that we may bring the copper to the surface and melt it.”

  Agata folds her arms over her chest. “The copper is already buried and we’re still having quakes, but you think digging it up and burying it again is the way to fix things?” She snorts.

  Some of the others have wide eyes at the sound of her disrespect. “I can offer two of my stone crews,” says Livius, a tall man who is known for constructing some of the finest houses within the city wall. “That’s twenty men.”

  “They’re needed to clear debris from the roads,” Agata says.

  Livius stares her down. “And they will return to that task once they do the Valtia’s bidding.”

  “I’m grateful for your loyalty, Livius,” I say.

  He nods at me but does not return my smile. “I just hope you’re right about this.”

  “I am.” Oh, stars. If I’m not, what will happen? I smile serenely, though I am anything but. “You’ll see.”

  “How long will this take?” asks Topias.

  “My men can give an assessment once they take a look at the collapsed tunnels. But they work pretty fast.”

  “Good,” Topias replies. “Because there are rumors of Soturi in the Loputon. It’s all over the city this morning.”

  My stomach drops. “If they’ve crossed the border, they will feel the quakes just as surely as we do. Perhaps it will slow any advance.”

  “Perhaps,” says Topias. “It would be the only good thing about the tremors. More wielders have lost control of their magic, Valtia. I didn’t want to bring it up, but . . .”

  I am opening my mouth to assure him the temple will take them in, but that is when Kaisa comes running along the menagerie fence, her cheeks red with exertion. “Valtia, I’ve been sent for you. There’s news.”

  “What is it?” says Agata.

  I blink at her. “It is temple business.” Does she suddenly think she rules this place? “Please excuse me,” I say to the council. “We can meet again tomorrow, but I believe we are all aware of the plan for now.” I try not to run as I follow Kaisa away from the ears of the council. But as soon as we are out of hearing distance, I grasp the sleeve of her robe and pull her to a halt. “Do we have word from Oskar and Sig? Do they have the Valtia? Are they here?”

  Kaisa grimaces. “They are in the woods south of the city,” she says. “They’ve sent word.”

  My stomach drops. “Why didn’t they come themselves?”

  “I’m not sure they can,” she says softly.

  That strips away any remaining restraint I had. I lift my skirts and run for the rear entrance of the temple, where cracks radiate outward from the arch along the stone wall. I leap over fallen stones and sneeze as I inhale the dust, but I don’t slow until I reach the domed chamber. There waits a familiar figure, tall and thin. It’s Veikko, an ice wielder and a friend of Oskar’s. He looks pale as he stands next to Raimo, towering over the older man. I hold out my hands as I approach, and Veikko drops to his knees and kisses my knuckles before rising once more. “I bring word from the Suurin,” he says.

  I glance at Raimo, trying to get a hint at whether he knows what I am about to hear. He is staring at a point a few inches in front of my feet. I swallow back fear and return my attention to Veikko. “Tell me.”

  “They’re alive.”

  I put my hand on my stomach. “You have to do better than that.”

  He gives me a pained look. “Something happened in the Loputon last night. Just before the most recent quake. A group of us were traveling south after Oskar rode past our camp and let us know where he was going. Our mounts were tired—we couldn’t follow at their pace. And many were shocked to see that Sig—”

  “He was taken by Kauko, but he returned with knowledge of the Soturi.”

  Veikko nods slowly. “Oskar did say that he and Sig were hopeful some kind of peace could be negotiated.”

  That was the story we agreed Oskar would share. To tell everyone they were going in search of the true Valtia would only cause fear and possibly panic—because in that case, who am I? Even the cave-dwelling wielders believe I am the true queen. Until we have a good replacement, I must fill the spot.

  “And did they say whether they succeeded?” My voice is sharp. Desperate. If Veikko is not bringing word that they found her, where is she?

  Veikko shook his head. “We found Oskar and Sig just inside the forest after the quake. Thus far they haven’t been able to tell us what happened to them. But—” Veikko winces.

  “They’re injured,” Raimo says in a hollow voice. “And it’s bad, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Veikko says. “We carried them to the camp where Maarika could take care of them. But we didn’t think it safe to bring them into the city in such a vulnerable state.” Now he looks angry. “We’ve heard stories of citizens throwing rocks at wielders. Threatening them with scythes. If not for my love for Oskar, I wouldn’t be here myself.” He pulls his cloak more tightly around him.

  “I’m grateful for that love,” I say. “And I know Oskar is too.”

  “Can you help him?” Veikko asks. “I know you have before.”

  But that was just when Oskar needed me to siphon his excess magic, not when he was actually hurt. I give Raimo a desperate look. Our first attempt to heal Oskar’s dead hand didn’t work, but I can’t abandon him now. I could never abandon him. “Of course I’ll help him.”

  Raimo looks conflicted. I lean forward and look him in the eye. “We need the Suurin,” I remind him quietly.

  “I know,” he mutters. “The timing couldn’t be worse, though. If anyone hears that the Valtia is leaving the city when the people are in such desperate need . . .”

  “They won’t know,” I tell him. “We’ll go help them, and then we’ll return, and in the meantime Kaisa and Helka and the others will help preserve the illusion of my presence in the temple.”

  “What of the Saadella?”

  I close my eyes. I hate leaving her unprotected, but taking her with me into the outlands—putting her even closer to the Soturi if they truly are in the Loputon—seems even riskier. And she is our future. “Her guards are loyal to her and will protect her with their lives, and besides, I do not think the people would hurt the Saadella. She is sacred.”

  “Nothing is sacred these days,” says Raimo. “Look at how they treat you.”

  But I am not the Valtia. I’d say it aloud if Veikko weren’t standing next to me. “They’re scared. I don’t blame them. This is a problem magic can’t fix.”

  “I’m not sure,” Raimo mutters.

  “What?”

  He leans heavily on his staff. “I’m still searching the texts. I found Kauko’s private library—it was revealed last night when the wall in his old chamber collapsed.”

  My heart leaps. “So there might be a magical solution?” If we do find the Valtia, she could be the key to healing our land. She’s the key to everything. />
  Raimo doesn’t look as hopeful or happy as I feel. But he merely shakes his head. “One thing at a time. Let’s go see what we can do for the Suurin—and perhaps get them to tell us what’s happened.”

  Energized with possibility, I pace while my attendants quickly and quietly prepare three fresh horses. I am given an old priest’s robes while Raimo instructs Kaisa and the other temple dwellers on what to do in our absence. We don’t plan to be gone long. With any luck, we’ll have Sig and Oskar back on their feet quickly and will return to the temple together. They can easily defend themselves if they are well.

  As soon as the sun sets, we sneak out a side entrance of the temple and then follow Veikko through narrow, rain-rutted streets. Some of them are blocked with collapsed buildings, but no one is better at sneaking in and out of the city than Veikko—except Sig, of course. We lead our horses through a breach in the city wall and ride into the wood, and the moon is still high when I inhale the scent of smoke and know we’re nearing a camp. We pass several uprooted trees, torn from the ground by the shaking and twisting of the earth. Veikko explains that the cave dwellers are in this small forest now, seeking shelter under trees. A cavern collapse could kill so many, but it seems the wielders in the outlands have fared slightly better than the city dwellers, because they don’t sleep within stone walls, under stout timbers and slate shingles.

  Finally, when my nerves can take no more, we sight the distant glow of campfires. I grip my horse’s mane and urge it on.

  As we reach the edge of camp, I take in the pinched faces. All of them look shaken and tired. It reminds me of the toll the unsteadiness in the land has taken. We dismount and Veikko leads us through the tangle of people around the central fire. The closer we get, the more familiar faces I see, and when I see Maarika, her face shining with sweat and her eyes haunted, a lump forms in my throat. She opens her arms and I walk into them.

  “How is he?” I ask. “Where are they?”

  She jerks her head toward a lean-to on the other side of the fire. “I’ve done my best for them, but . . .” She lets out a choked sound.

  I feel like I’m going to be sick, but I focus on being steady and calm as I peel myself away from her. “Take us to them.”

  Veikko goes to stand by some of the other young wielders, including Aira, a fire wielder who used to be in love with Oskar. For all I know she still might be, but she has let any enmity between us die in the fire of common purpose, and has been a good ally for Oskar as he recruits wielders to defend Kupari. I nod my respect to her as we rush past, and she does the same.

  I brace myself as Maarika pulls aside the blanket that serves as the lean-to’s entryway, but it still doesn’t prepare me for what awaits inside. Raimo curses as he sees our Suurin, our sword and shield in the great prophesied battle. They lie side by side, nearly touching.

  “It was the only way to keep Sig cool and Oskar warm. Otherwise I think they would both be dead,” says Freya, Oskar’s younger sister. She rises from her position at Oskar’s side, where she was mopping his frostbitten brow. I enfold her slender body in a hug. It is hard to let go. I feel like I need someone to hold me up.

  Oskar and Sig look as if they both walk the tightrope that spans life and death. Burns, from fire, from ice, cover their faces and exposed skin.

  “Are they asleep?” I ask. Both lie so still.

  “No,” Oskar whispers, his eyes opening just a crack. “Elli.”

  Tears start in my eyes as I sink down at his side. “I’m here, my love. I’m right here.” I touch his chest, the least damaged part of him.

  Sig’s brown eyes also open, and they look me and Oskar over before falling shut again. He doesn’t say a word.

  “We need to know what happened,” says Raimo. He looks at Freya and Maarika. “We must have privacy.”

  Oskar’s family looks aggrieved, but they obey when he nods. “It’s important,” he says in a strained whisper.

  Once they are gone, Raimo and I lean close, because it seems to hurt the Suurin to speak.

  “We tried to reach the Valtia,” Sig says. “But . . .”

  “There are Soturi in the woods.” Oskar sounds so tired. His eyes are closed again. It hurts me to look at his face. Half his beard has been burned away.

  “We knew that,” says Raimo. “Isn’t the Valtia with them?”

  “Two groups,” says Sig. “It was chaos. And then Kauko and some of his protectors ran through a clearing.”

  Oskar sighs. “We thought we could destroy him. But he has gotten much stronger.” He moans as Raimo examines an oozing wound on his thigh.

  “Because he drank the blood of the Valtia,” says Raimo, sounding disgusted.

  Sig nods, then grimaces, then lets out a shudder as it pulls at the blisters on his face. “We almost got him.”

  “Did he do this to you?” I ask, my voice breaking over my hatred for the elder.

  “No,” says Oskar. “We have a new enemy.”

  I blink down at them in horror. “The Valtia?”

  “She is unbelievably powerful,” Sig says raspily. “And unbelievably out of control. We were lucky to escape the forest alive. Only the earthquake stopped her from killing us.”

  “Why?” It bursts from me, one agonized note. “Why would she hurt you like this?”

  Sig opens his eyes, and all I see there is desolation. “Because, thanks to Kauko, she probably thinks we killed the one person in the world she loves. And I know her. Now she will not stop until we are dead too.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Ansa

  The Torden will be the death of me. I swallow its murky depths before coughing them up once more.

  “Ansa, this is for your own good!”

  I buck, turning my face away from the liquid sloshing out of the wineskin Jaspar tries to press to my lips. But I can’t go far—I am weak as a nestling and chained to a cot. Warm broth trickles down my cheek and along my neck; I can smell it now, salty and rich. Hunger burbles inside me.

  “I’m going to keep at it until you’ve downed at least half of this,” he says in an exasperated voice. “Kauko says he can heal your skin, but he can’t keep you from wasting away. That’s my job.”

  “Let me die,” I croak. Tears sting my eyes. “Thyra . . .” I don’t mean to say her name aloud, but it bleeds from me all the same.

  Jaspar’s jaw clenches. “I know, Ansa. I know.”

  I glare at him. “You hated her.” It’s such a broken whisper that I’m surprised he seems to understand.

  “We had our differences. But—” He bows his head abruptly, and when he raises it, I am shocked to see the shine of emotion in his eyes. “She was my cousin, and she did not deserve to die like that.”

  “You saw her?”

  He nods. “We were camped on the very northern edge of the great forest, and we saw the fires in the woods. Kauko said it was magical. He was worried that the Kupari wielders were coming for us. Then we realized—they were attacking someone else.”

  I close my eyes in complete weariness as I recall the hours I spent protecting our warriors from the magical onslaught. “Thyra thought it might be Kauko who attacked us.”

  “We would never have attacked you! My hope since fleeing Vasterut was to reclaim a homeland for our tribes, and to reach out to Thyra again.” He sniffles. “I realized she was right all along.”

  “How stupid do you think I am?”

  He lets out a grim chuckle. “Fine, Ansa. Have it your way. But we didn’t attack your camp. You know we’d rather stand with you than against you. I could have had my warriors lay siege to the tower in Vasterut. Even with the fighters from the other city-states, we would have had a long and terrible battle if I’d ordered it. But instead we left the city, and surrendered my father for you to decide his fate.”

  “He’s dead,” I snap. “And he perished knowing you had abandoned him.”

  There is something unreadable in his eyes, something deep and broken. “Did Thyra kill him?”

&
nbsp; “No. I did.”

  His lips twitch upward at the corners. “That was my next guess.”

  “So now you can have your revenge.”

  His pained smile disappears. “Krigere against Krigere is wrong, Ansa. Believe whatever you want of me, except that I would turn against my own brothers and sisters. I know that the last time we were together, we fought. But please remember that I wanted you on my side. I care for you. I always have. You must believe that.”

  “I believe you want power, and nothing matters more to you.”

  He touches my chin, and I open my eyes to see him leaning over me, his shaggy blond hair framing his face. “Yes, I want power, Ansa. Power to protect my tribe, and power to enable them to raise their young as rulers. Our numbers are dwindling. I’ve lost good warriors and andeners to sickness and starvation. We have no haven but Kupari.” He sighs. “It seemed possible. Kauko said they have no fighting force of their own, and no allies that will come to their aid like Vasterut did. The only thing standing in our way was this impostor without magic, and a few powerful wielders. We had no idea they would be so aggressive.”

  Neither did Thyra. “So they came to the forest to keep us from setting foot in their land.” And Sig was with them. It is so hard to accept, but how else could they have known exactly where we were?

  “They rained hell on you, judging from the damage.”

  “Our warriors?” Suddenly I remember—they fled, on my orders. “Where are they?”

  “No idea. I took only a few scouts with me to find out what was going on. We had almost reached you when two things happened at once—fire and ice billowed through the wood, forcing us to take cover. And then another quake struck. When both went quiet, we found the clearing, and you and Thyra in it, half concealed by torn-up earth.”

  “Her body,” I whisper.

  “We buried it, Ansa. With her daggers on her chest.” He holds his palm out, showing me a bandaged cut. “I bled over her grave. I know you would have if you could.” He strokes my cheek. “I thought I was going to lose you,” he says, his voice cracking. “I carried you back here. When you are strong enough, we can go in search of your lost warriors. I know it will take time for you to trust me again, but when you do, we can unite our tribes and take Kupari for ourselves.”