To Catch a Queen

by Shanna Swendson

  Twenty-four

  The Realm—Approaching the Castle

  A Moment Later

  Sophie nearly lost her footing when she turned to see her sister. “Emily? What are you doing here?” she hissed.

  “We thought you’d been taken by those Hunt groupies, and you had my dog with you, so we came to rescue you. But then we got captured by the guards and rescued by the free fae, and then I talked them into resisting the impostor, we captured one of the queen’s guards, and got him to take us to the fake palace. While some of our people are bringing our army here, we’re infiltrating the crowd around the palace. What’ve you been up to?”

  “We weren’t taken. We simply chose that as an opportune moment to head into the Realm,” Sophie said as she tried to parse the flood of information her sister had just relayed. “We’re perfectly okay and have everything under control.”

  “And yet you appear to be a prisoner.”

  Sophie couldn’t resist raising an eyebrow. “At this moment, so do you. We came along as a way of finding the fake palace. What have you seen here so far?”

  “They seem to be gathering the whole Realm. We’ve seen a couple of courts marched in.”

  “They must be planning to present the fake queen publicly. But why bring the rulers who were present when I took the throne? They’d be able to point out the impostor.”

  “They seem to be taking the rulers somewhere else when they arrive.”

  “That makes sense,” Sophie said with a nod. Emily caught her eye and tilted her head ever so slightly toward Michael. Sophie shook her head, and Emily sighed. Michael wasn’t looking too good, and Sophie was worried that he was regretting his decision. It had already been a long night, and she suspected he wasn’t quite as recovered as he claimed. They might have had Jen home by now if they’d stayed behind at Fiontan’s castle.

  They left the tree line and followed a winding path down the slope to the plain. Michael slipped on some loose rocks, and Sophie instinctively reached out to catch him, holding his arm to steady him. “I stand out like a sore thumb around all these people with fairy grace,” he said ruefully.

  “Just be careful. We won’t get far if you break an ankle.”

  He wasn’t looking at her, though. He stumbled again because he was staring into the distance rather than watching his footing. “What the heck is that?” he asked, pointing.

  Sophie looked where he’d indicated to see a dervish of wind, sand, flame, and glowing red eyes approaching. “That is the Hunt,” Eamon said.

  “They seem to be working security for this gig,” Emily added. “And maybe this is the staging area for whatever they have planned when the queen gives them the go-ahead.”

  “And I thought their groupies were bad,” Michael said with a grimace. “We really need to stop this.” He directed the last sentence at Sophie with a meaningful look, as if to make it clear that he knew he’d made the right decision.

  The Hunt passed, and now they approached a phalanx of armored guards whose ranks parted to allow the procession to enter the grounds. Guards guided their group to one of the last empty spots. Ahead of them, Sophie noticed that Fiontan and Niamh were being escorted away, and she made a snap decision.

  “Y’all stay out here and see what you can learn,” she said to Emily as she handed over Beau’s leash. “We’ll see if we can find where they’re stashing the rulers. The rulers know me, so if I can get them to say something about the impostor, that might help.”

  Before Emily could protest, Sophie took Michael’s arm and said, “Come on.” As they walked, she changed their glamour so that they looked like another pair of guards in the party. That allowed them to enter the castle unchallenged.

  She’d expected them to head into the dungeons, but instead they went up a long spiral staircase into what appeared to be the tallest tower. At the top, the leader of the guards put on heavy gauntlets before unlocking a cell door. Another guard shoved Fiontan and Niamh inside. They shouted protests as the guard hurriedly relocked the door and stepped away with a sigh of great relief. He peeled off the gauntlets as he and his colleagues moved toward the stairs. Sophie quickly moved to stand on one side of the cell door. She caught Michael’s eye, and he stepped into place on the other side. The guards didn’t quibble one bit about leaving them to stand watch.

  “An iron cage. They’re serious,” Sophie murmured.

  “No wonder they wanted out of here,” Michael replied, his voice barely audible.

  Sophie mentally counted until she reached the number of steps she’d noted on the way up before she dropped their guard glamours and turned to look at the lock. She’d become good at unlocking doors with her enchantress powers, but this thing refused to budge.

  “No luck?” Michael asked, watching her struggle.

  “None. It seems to require an enchanted key. Sorry about that,” she called into the cell. It was hard to tell in the darkness how many prisoners there were, as they all crowded as far away as they could get from the iron holding them prisoner. She conjured a ball of light at the same time Michael switched on a flashlight.

  She recognized Niamh and Fiontan, and she assumed the couple in 1930s attire was Niall and Orla, based on Emily’s description. There were a couple dressed in the flounces of the Georgian period and a pair right out of a Jane Austen movie. And then there was Tallulah.

  “There you are, little one,” Tallulah said with a smug smile. She moved forward—not as far as the bars, but much farther than any of the others.

  “I take it you were expecting me,” Sophie said. By this time, she knew better than to be at all surprised by anything her former mentor said.

  “I hoped you might do your duty.”

  Sophie resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she addressed all the occupants of the cell. “Most of you know that any queen being crowned here is an impostor because you saw me take the throne and the crown and bring the real palace back to life. Summer returned to the Realm when I wore the crown. If you, as the leaders of your courts, refuse to bend the knee to an impostor, that may prevent any false coronation.”

  “You are willing to declare yourself in front of the Realm?” Tallulah asked, and Sophie knew she was being tested.

  “I’m the rightful queen, aren’t I?”

  “I don’t see a crown,” Niall remarked from back in the cell. “You could be any human girl with a trace of fae blood. Look at you, standing so close to iron.”

  “I’m also part enchantress,” Sophie argued. To be honest, the iron did make her a little uncomfortable, but it was so pervasive in modern life that she was used to the feeling. It just wasn’t the poison for her that it was for a full-blood fae. She turned to Tallulah. “You know who I am. You practically forced me into this.”

  “I do know who you are, but I also know that the masses will require some proof before they will rise up against an impostor. You will need your crown.”

  A shiver went down Sophie’s spine as she realized what was likely going on. “No, I don’t think so,” she said softly, shaking her head. “That’s what they want. This isn’t about crowning a fake queen. It’s a trap to take the crown. No other queen can be crowned while the crown is safe. But the moment I get that crown in a position where it can be taken from me, that makes it possible for someone else to be crowned legitimately.”

  “If you’re the true queen, you’d be able to defend the crown,” Orla commented.

  “Bringing that crown here would be the dumbest move since someone decided to go alone to check out that noise in the basement,” Sophie argued. “It’s a trap with a giant sign with neon letters blinking ‘trap, trap, trap’ at me. Oh, honey, do you really think I’m that stupid?”

  Tallulah took another step closer to the iron bars. “You can’t defend a crown you refuse to wear, and if you won’t defend your crown, perhaps you don’t deserve to wear it. You can’t expect your nobles to recognize your rule and stand up against an impostor if you aren’t willing to show yourse
lf to be the true queen. The crown will make it very clear who is the rightful queen.”

  Sophie glared at Tallulah. “Seriously, you’re not going to back me unless I bring the very thing everyone wants to get their hands on right into the place where someone’s scheming to get it?”

  “I trust your ingenuity, little one.” With that, Tallulah returned to the shadows at the back of the cell.

  Sophie stood there for a moment, clenching and unclenching her fists. Every instinct she had said that this was a very, very bad idea, but she didn’t see any other way out. Tallulah was right; she couldn’t expect the entire Realm to bend the knee to her and turn away from an impostor just on her word.

  In frustration, she adjusted the dampening glamour she’d been using to hide her true nature and let her power shine. “How about this? Does this convince you?”

  A few gasps from the shadows rewarded her, but Tallulah’s voice said, “The crown will show the difference between the true queen and the impostor. An impostor will not be able to wear the true crown, and you must have the true crown to show that the fake is truly fake.”

  Sophie whirled away from the cell and headed down the stairs. A soft clumping sound on the steps behind her told her that Michael was trying to catch up with her. “I don’t want to hear a single ‘I told you so,’” she warned him.

  “Neither of us knew the situation at the time,” he said diplomatically. “What are you going to do?”

  “I guess I have to go get my crown,” she snapped. “Getting out of here may be the hard part. Otherwise, I can get to the real palace easily, and now that I know where this palace is, I should be able to get back. Just tell the others what’s up, okay?”

  He caught her wrist. “Wait a second, you aren’t going to do this alone, are you? Weren’t you just saying it’s a trap?”

  “How much help do you really think you’ll be?” she asked, then instantly regretted her spiteful tone.

  “I’m another pair of eyes and ears. I’m a third son. I’m now apparently some kind of wise person.” He patted his bag. “And there’s someone out there who still owes me a big favor. At the very least, I’m experienced cannon fodder.”

  That made her smile in spite of herself. To tell the truth, she wanted him along, for all the wrong reasons. It would be one last chance to spend one-on-one time with him before he was reunited with his wife, and although she was fairly certain she could handle whatever came her way, she’d learned that it was nice not to have to go it alone. But those weren’t good reasons for dragging him into the kind of danger she knew she’d face. Just getting away from this castle could be deadly.

  And so, reluctantly, as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs, she adjusted her glamour to make herself look like a guard once more and lost herself in the crowd.

  Twenty-five

  Outside the Palace

  Meanwhile

  Emily glanced around, wondering how her sister had disappeared so quickly. Beau strained at his leash for a moment and grunted once, but then he came back to Emily and flopped down at her feet. “Oh well, at least she has Michael with her,” she muttered.

  “I believe she gave them a glamour. That is why you don’t see them,” Eamon said.

  “And that sounds like a good plan for us,” Amelia said. “What do you think would be least obtrusive here, Eamon?”

  “Something not human. The impostor doesn’t seem to care for humans in the Realm.”

  “In that case, perhaps it would be best if the glamour came from you. Our work might show as human magic.”

  “It would,” he said with a nod. He held his arms to his side, palms facing forward. After a moment, he dropped his arms.

  “I don’t see anything different,” Emily said, investigating her own hands and squinting at the others.

  “I thought it best that we still be able to recognize each other,” Eamon said. “The glamour will work only on the fae. Other than myself, of course.”

  “Now what’s the plan?” Emily asked.

  “We need information,” Athena said. “We don’t have any idea who this queen is or if she has any agenda other than taking the throne.”

  “Isn’t putting herself out there like this a risky move?” Emily asked. “I mean, when Sophie took the throne, there were practically fireworks. You could tell. Everything changed.”

  “That would be easy enough to fake,” Athena said.

  “Yeah, but why hasn’t anyone done it before now? The throne’s been empty for centuries.”

  “I’m not sure anyone would have believed it if there had not already been reports of a new queen being crowned,” Eamon said. “We can feel the change in the Realm, so someone who steps forward to take credit for that may be credible. Before, we knew the Realm was still dying.”

  “And this dog-and-pony show” —Emily gestured at the festive gathering around them — “is their way of sealing the deal.”

  “We do need more information,” Amelia said. “Perhaps we should split up, move through the crowd, and see what we can learn by listening. What do the fae think of these developments? Are any of them here willingly? Do they want a queen? Do they plan to support her? Is there any real opposition?”

  “So, you two and us, meet back here in an hour?” Emily checked her phone. “I have three in the morning, New York time. Wow, and I’m not even sleepy. But we’d better get back to our world before the Friday-night show. One mysterious disappearance may have helped make me famous. I’m not sure I could get away with two.”

  Amelia checked the diamond-encrusted gold watch on her wrist. “My watch says the same as yours. We will meet you back here at four.”

  As the enchantresses moved away, Emily knelt and gave Beau a scratch behind the ears. “Come on, buddy, wake up. Time to go.” The look he gave her when he opened his eyes almost made her feel guilty for interrupting his rest. With a deep grunt, he pushed himself to his feet, gave himself a shake, and looked back over his shoulder as though to ask her what the holdup was.

  She let the dog lead the way. Sophie had said he had good instincts about this sort of thing. He wasn’t the only dog at this gathering, so he didn’t make them stand out. The other dogs were strangely uninterested in him, not that Emily minded. Breaking up a fairy dogfight wasn’t what she had planned for this mission.

  “You know, I’m not sure that performing Les Mis for this crowd will make much of an impact,” she remarked to Eamon. “I’d need a megaphone.” She looked up at the palace and added, “But that balcony would be perfect for doing Evita. I bet that’s what they have planned. They might crown the queen and put her on the throne inside—or pretend that’s what’s going on—and then bring her out on that balcony to show off to the masses. Boom, instant credibility in a Buckingham Palace photo-op.”

  “I have read the Playbill for Evita,” Eamon said with a solemn nod. “That does seem to be an appropriate scenario.”

  From what Emily could tell of the crowd, she didn’t get the sense that most of these people were unhappy about being there. As with any gathering of more than two fairies, a massive party had broken out. There was music and dancing, and even if they’d been marched here at spear-point, they were having a good time now.

  They approached a circle of dancers, and Emily handed Beau’s leash and her bag to Eamon. “Back in a sec,” she told him over her shoulder as she moved toward the dancers. It was easy enough to slip into the circle and join them. They treated her as one of their own. She took that to mean that her glamour was working and her dancing skills were up to fae standards.

  The dancers stopped, laughing, when the music ended. “What do you think’s going on here?” Emily asked the dancer next to her.

  “You don’t know, either?” the fairy woman asked, her brilliant green eyes narrowing.

  “I just know we were marched here, but it seems odd to force us to attend a revel.”

  The woman laughed in a way that reminded Emily of church bells. “It does seem that an i
nvitation should have sufficed.” She gestured at the palace. “I suppose it has something to do with the lost palace being found again. The Realm has come back to life, and we should all celebrate.”

  “Yes, that is worthy of celebration,” Emily said, struggling to keep a straight face. She really should have taken the time to develop a character for this escapade. That would have made it easier to be sincere and in the moment. “But doesn’t it seem strange that such an obvious palace remained lost for so long?”

  “Perhaps it was hidden by enchantment until the true queen was drawn to her throne.”

  “Perhaps. Let’s just hope she provides a feast appropriate to the occasion.”

  Emily made her way back to Eamon. “It sounds like you were right,” she reported. “They’re just assuming that everything’s okay because the Realm came back to life. So Sophie’s really going to have to come up with something good.”

  She jumped at the sound of not-too-distant thunder. Did the Realm have storms? If so, all these people out here were in big trouble. For a moment, she wondered if someone had just royally pissed Sophie off, but then she saw the approaching dust cloud that signaled the arrival of the Hunt. She unconsciously reached for Eamon as Beau growled and backed up against their legs.

  This close, she could see more detail, and it was even more terrifying. The cloud wasn’t actually dust. It seemed to be made up of hellfire smoke that glowed with a reddish haze. The smoke formed shapes of horses with fiery manes and tails and eyes of glowing embers. At the horses’ feet ran doglike beasts, also with glowing eyes. The riders on the horses had stag horns on what she hoped were helmets, but which she feared might be their actual heads. Instead of glowing, their eyes looked like black holes that bored into the dark heart of the universe.

  Something made a whining, keening sound, and she thought at first it might be Beau, but then realized was herself. She was utterly paralyzed, unable to run away, speak, or move.