Volusian tilted his head as though listening to something. “Yes. I can probably reach the Oak King. Do you want me to go now?”
“No, not until I have a plan to—”
There was a click outside my door as the lock was undone. I hissed for Volusian to disappear as I shoved my half-ass wand into my satchel. I’d placed the broken chair as far as it would go into a corner earlier and hoped no guards would notice it.
They didn’t. Their concern was getting my chains back on. Maybe Varia didn’t think I’d do anything drastic with my friends’ lives on the line, but that didn’t mean I could walk around her palace free and unencumbered. My guards escorted me back to the main floor and then into what could only be called a throne room.
I didn’t have a throne room. My predecessors might have, but I’d ordered my people to strip down the rooms in my castles and make them utilitarian. When I had official visits, it was usually in cozy sitting rooms with little pretension. Dorian didn’t technically have a throne room either, though he did have a raised throne sitting high in his dining hall, which he would sometimes sit in when he wanted to look impressive.
But this ... this was another story. The room was huge and could have doubled as a ballroom. Larger-than-life portraits of past monarchs lined the walls. The wide, smooth floor was made of more damarian jade, and pillars lined the room in a way that drew the eye toward the front. There Varia’s throne sat, even higher than Dorian’s dining room throne. The chair itself was fantastically huge, its back made of elaborate gold filigree and bedecked with gems. Despite the room’s enormity, that throne was the only furniture in the entire place. It again made sure all attention went to the front—and that those who came to see the queen were uncomfortable.
I had a feeling this room probably filled up regularly with petitioners and courtiers. Today, it was just me and my guards. Our footsteps echoed around the room as we approached the stairs leading up to the throne. I refused to be awed by the throne and instead studied the paintings on the walls. The names were meaningless until I saw Ganene again. Only, she wasn’t alone in her portrait. An inscription read Queen Onya and Her Daughters, Ganene and Nissa. Queen Onya was a stern-looking figure with a giant crown, providing a contrast to the woman on her left. That one was young and delicate-looking, very beautiful with a nervous expression. The woman on Onya’s right had a hard look to her and a very strong resemblance to the woman sitting before me.
That would be Varia. She was seated grandly on her throne, wearing a dress of ruby red velvet with a skirt far too big for practical movement. I suspected servants had spread it out and draped it over the throne in an artful way. She had brown eyes and brown hair arranged in another of those high hairstyles I kept seeing among Yew women. Her age was difficult to guess, but she was certainly older than me. Jewels adorned almost every free spot: fingers, wrists, neck, ears, and hair. It was a dazzling display that walked a very, very fine line between regal and gaudy. On her lap were two tiny, furry little dogs that looked suspiciously like the annoying yappy kind I despised.
“Kneel,” one of the guards said. He started to shove me down, but Varia made a small, delicate motion with her hand, and he immediately stopped.
“No need for that,” said Varia, stroking one of the dogs. She pitched her voice in a way that was well received by the room’s acoustics, something she’d probably practiced quite a bit. “Queen Eugenie here is a fellow sovereign. We don’t kneel to each other.”
“Do we often take each other prisoner?” I demanded.
She smiled sweetly. “Well, now, that depends on whether or not we are staging coups into each other’s lands. You can hardly expect me to take no action when you and your cohorts come with plans to assassinate me in some feeble attempt to end the Winter Enchantment.”
“We call it the blight,” I said. “‘Winter Enchantment’ sounds like some kind of ice-skating show.” I didn’t really expect her to catch the reference. What had seized my attention was her accusation that we’d been coming to take her out personally. She didn’t know about our actual plans. She didn’t know about Volusian’s help and the deductions we’d made about the gifts she was holding.
“It makes no difference what you call it,” she declared. “And don’t flatter yourself by thinking you’re the first monarch who has tried to take matters into her own hands. The watchers I keep in my lands have descriptions of most of the kingdoms’ royalty. That’s the charming thing, you see. Monarchs who plan to surrender send emissaries. Monarchs with grand plans of rebellion come in person. Some delusion of personal greatness, I suppose.”
“Or,” I said bitterly, “maybe it’s because those monarchs care about their people and are willing to risk themselves.” I was guessing Varia and her dogs rarely dirtied their hands.
Varia shrugged. “Perhaps. Whatever the reason, it’s foolish. Far smarter to join my united kingdoms. I was quite disappointed when I heard reports that you and King Dorian had entered my lands with your nefarious plots. You’re both quite conspicuous, you know. I’d hoped you two—particularly you—would come to your senses and join me. Especially after the kind offer my ambassador made you.”
“To run away from my problems and hide out here?” I scoffed. “No thanks.”
“From what I hear, that’s exactly what you did do, however. You just picked a different venue and were probably on guard the entire time.” She gestured around her. “Had you been here, you could have relaxed and enjoyed the final months of your pregnancy. Perhaps if you hadn’t been so stressed and afraid, your children wouldn’t have been born early and in danger.”
I stiffened, not liking the implication that my actions were responsible for the twins’ risky delivery. “That’s not why they came early. It just happens with twins sometimes.”
“So you say. I’m a mother too, so I can relate to these niceties we try to convince ourselves of. And as a mother, I was quite sincere in my invitation to protect you. I think it’s appalling what the Willow Queen and others tried to do to you. Appalling and cowardly. I would’ve helped you on principle alone. That, and I have so wanted a friend I can talk to and be on equal terms with.”
“Ilania mentioned that too,” I said, not really buying it. “Some kind of female-solidarity thing?”
“I need to talk to someone, don’t I? Aside from my little darlings here.” She paused to scratch the dogs’ chins. Both had jeweled collars and little bows on their heads. “And men have proved far too disappointing. I gave up on them years ago, except for the necessary pleasures, of course. Mostly, they bore or irritate me. I would greatly welcome smart female companionship. It’s lonely having all this power.” There was a wistful, melodramatic way to her delivery of that last line that made me want to punch her.
“Sorry if I don’t feel bad for you. It’s hard for me to muster a lot of empathy for someone who’s been responsible for so much innocent death and destruction.”
Varia laughed merrily. “Innocent? There are few who can really claim that. And what would you think if I told you that I can focus the Winter Enchantment more harshly on specific kingdoms? You find me cruel, but the enchantment as it currently stands still allows life to go on in your kingdoms.” The laughter died, and she leaned slightly forward. “I have the means to focus the spell and increase its intensity. If you liked, I could focus on the Willow Land and completely destroy it.”
I gaped. “You’d completely destroy a kingdom full of innocent people?”
“Including Queen Maiwenn,” she pointed out. “That would be terribly convenient for you. And a nice bit of revenge after all she’s done to you—she certainly hasn’t balked at hurting innocents. Why not return the favor?”
I didn’t have a great opinion of the person who’d created the blight, but this conversation was making her credibility deteriorate even more rapidly.
“There’s revenge ... and then there’s madness and cruelty,” I said. “And I would never kill off her entire kingdom for what she’s don
e.”
“Easy to say with your children alive and well. Still, I hope it emphasizes what a great friend I could be to you. Believe me, I really do prefer it that way. This situation only has a couple of possible outcomes for you, and you willingly signing on as my ally would be preferable to all of us.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I said, not bothering to hide my sarcasm. “And all you’d ask in return for these friendly feats of destruction is us being pals and having a little girl time now and then.”
Varia’s lips quirked. “Well, as an important ally, I have no doubt you’d want to help me out now and then.”
Gentry wheeling and dealing. At least it was familiar territory.
“Here we go,” I said. “Let me guess. You want to help lead my son’s armies when we conquer the human world?”
“Human world?” She shook her head in amazement and looked as though she was ready to burst into laughter again. She lifted one of the dogs and peered into its face. “Did you hear that, Lady Snowington? How silly.” She returned the dog to her lap and looked back at me. “Why on earth would I care about humans when there’s plenty to entertain me here in this world? This is the world I want. The problem is, it’s such a nuisance keeping my subject kingdoms in line. Even though they surrender and allow my forces within their borders, I’m constantly having to reassert my power with dramatic shows of force. It’s very tiring.”
“How terrible for you.”
She continued, either not noticing or no longer caring about my sarcasm. “That’s the nature of the game, however ... unless I had a more permanent way to bond to all of these lands, one that would give me unbreakable authority without the constant maintenance.”
I gave a harsh laugh. “Sounds pretty easy then. Just kill off all the monarchs and take the lands’ bonds and—” My smile faded, as a terrible, sinking realization hit me. “That’s it. That’s why you want to be my ‘friend.’ You want the Iron Crown.”
Varia didn’t deny it. “It makes things so much simpler.”
What made the Iron Crown so deadly was that it broke the bond between a monarch and his or her land. As I was constantly reminded, that bond ran deep. It was tied into my life and being, and short of death or a monarch inexplicably losing power, there was no way to end that bond or pass it on. If there had been, I likely would’ve given the Thorn Land away when I first won it. Then, the discovery of the Iron Crown had changed everything. With the Iron Crown, I’d ripped away Katrice’s connection to the Rowan Land. Left unclaimed, the land had then been ripe for me to bond with it and take control.
My earlier joke had been right to a certain extent: Varia could just kill off all those monarchs. But that wasn’t easy, seeing as monarchs, by their nature, were usually among the most powerful magic users in their kingdoms. It would make for long, taxing battles, and no matter how badass Varia wanted to seem, I knew she wasn’t all-powerful. Magic for magic, whatever hers was, I doubted she was stronger than me. What made her remarkable was that she had a league of magic users to work with, creating the kind of power that had led to the blight. Organizing a group for a passive enchantment was one thing. Getting them all together to go hunt down monarchs in outside kingdoms was an entirely different matter.
“No. There is nothing you can do that would get me to give you the Iron Crown—not that I could if I wanted to,” I added. “It can only be used by the person who won it.”
“So I hear,” she said. “But that’s fine. I’d only need you to shatter the bonds. I’d take care of the rest.”
I thought about all the kingdoms near me and the many I’d heard about under her control. “You can’t bond with that many. It’s not possible. No one’s that strong, not even you. Two is taxing enough.”
Varia looked at me like I was crazy, which was saying something. “Well, of course I wouldn’t bond them all! That’s absurd. I’d simply make sure they were claimed by those I could trust. My daughters, for example, would make excellent queens. If you stayed on my good side—and I must admit, you aren’t endearing yourself very much right now—I might give you a couple.”
“No,” I repeated. “I’m not using it on your behalf. I’m never using it again, and I’m not telling you where it’s at. You want it? Kill me off so it’ll return to its resting place. Then you can go get it and do whatever you want.”
“That’s hardly practical, and you know it.” The Iron Crown’s resting place was in a land packed with so much iron that most gentry couldn’t set foot in it.
“Well, then, we’re at an impasse,” I said triumphantly. “I have something you want, and there’s no way I’m giving it to you. End of story.”
“No, child,” she said, shaking her head with mock sympathy. “That’s where you’re mistaken. Really, you have nothing at all—and I have everything.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Like your friends in my dungeon.”
I went perfectly still. “What are you saying? That you’ll kill them if I don’t use the crown for you?”
“It’s certainly an option. The fact that you have yet to attempt any magic to fight me has already given away how much they mean to you.”
“Yes,” I said, my heart sinking. “But they would all willingly die to prevent the enslavement of countless other kingdoms or abuse of the Iron Crown.” I knew the words were true as I said them, but they still hurt. I’d held back on using magic, not just because my friends’ lives were on the line, but also because I didn’t have an entirely clear plan on what to do with my magic. But something like this? Varia’s world domination? No question. None of my companions would be able to live with themselves knowing the scope of what their freedom had cost others.
“At some point, you have to decide what number of lives tips the scale. So, you’re saying these, what, six or seven individuals aren’t worth the crown’s cost? What about your kingdom? Kingdoms? What I offered to do to the Willow Land—by focusing the enchantment—can be done to yours instead.” Her smile grew particularly cunning. “Or maybe it’s less about quantity than quality. Your children are out there somewhere. Do you think they can stay hidden forever? Even in the human world, I can find them. I have many subjects, and you and your sister aren’t the only ones who can pass through with ease.”
The room threatened to spin around me, and I had to focus myself to stay calm and not give away how hard her words had hit. “Are you really so heartless?” I demanded. “Listen to yourself! You’re threatening to wipe out two entire kingdoms and hunt down my children!” Seeing her smirk, I had to restrain from clenching my fists. “Do you enjoy this? Do you get some kind of sick thrill from these kinds of psycho threats?”
“No,” she told me, still smiling and petting the dogs. “I simply take satisfaction out of pointing out the obvious, and it’s exactly as I already said: you hold nothing here, and I hold everything.”
Chapter 20
Then, much as though I were a naughty child, Varia told me she was sending me back to my cell to “think about what I had to do.” Before I left, she added, “And lest you think me too lenient, let me emphasize to you that I’m most anxious to have this friendship of ours settled. I don’t like loose ends. Besides, some of these kingdoms are becoming an absolute nuisance. Much tidier for all of us if we can take care of this soon.”
“Noted,” I muttered as the guards grabbed my arms to lead me away.
“And so,” she continued, “when I say I’m going to emphasize the point to you, I mean that I will soon start taking action to encourage you to do the right thing. Starting with the elimination of your lesser companions. Then moving on to your kingdoms. Then your children.”
“My friends haven’t done anything to you,” I said, panic seizing me over how quickly the threat had escalated. “They’re potential subjects.”
Varia shrugged. “I have plenty of those.”
“Can I at least talk to them?” I asked. “Make sure they’re okay so I know you haven’t killed them already?”
She gave me a tight
, knowing smile. “My dear, how foolish do you think I am?”
And with that, I was led out of the throne room. At the door, we ran into a slight traffic jam. A number of petitioners were lined up to see Varia, but a sentry held them all back and explained why they couldn’t be allowed entrance.
“Her Majesty has a meeting with the Oak King,” the guard said. “That takes priority. She will see no one else until after that—and that’s if she feels up for it. She’s had a very taxing day, so you may have to wait until tomorrow.”
The Oak King. I would’ve killed to be a fly on the wall for that audience and wondered if Dorian would opt for charm or mockery. Sometimes with him, there was a fine line between the two. I was also skeptical of just how “taxing” Varia’s day had been. Considering the impracticality of that dress, it didn’t seem like she could even walk without assistance. I really wouldn’t have been surprised to learn she and her dogs were carried around in a sedan chair.
Among the disgruntled petitioners were my “pals” from the Hemlock Land. They appeared as though they too had done a bit of hasty cleanup but otherwise possessed the same worn appearance they’d had on the road. Orj’s face hardened at the sentry’s words but nonetheless managed stiff politeness.
“We were told that if we assisted Her Majesty in her task ...” His eyes flicked nervously to me and then back to the guard. “We were told she’d release our king and allow him to return to our land. We did all she asked.”
The guard looked unconcerned. “Then you’ll get him tomorrow. Or the next day.”
Alea stepped up beside Orj. “But he’s been imprisoned for two months! He and the land are both suffering from being apart. What good is it being freed of the curse if our land is simply going to die off this way?”
“If it makes no difference then,” said the guard, “I’m sure Her Majesty would be happy to return the Winter Enchantment to you.”
I heard no more because my guards finally managed to push me through the bottleneck. I was taken without incident to my cell, but as the guards unlocked it, I glanced at the other closed doors in the hallway. I knew Dorian was there somewhere. Was the Hemlock King as well? These were the “nicer” chambers, after all. How many monarchs were imprisoned around me? It may have been egotistical presuming all these guards and magic users were just for me. Varia couldn’t maintain her subjugated kingdoms without the monarchs occasionally bonding with the land, but keeping them apart for great lengths of time certainly created a new element of vulnerability that she could manipulate. She also now had a hostage system that probably worked well to keep the conquered kingdoms in line. Most gentry loved their rulers with fierce devotion and, as Orj had shown, would go to considerable lengths for them.
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