The Crimson Crown

by Cinda Williams Chima

  “Hmmm,” Han said. “Well, I hope that means you have flash on board, because I’m nearly out.”

  “Don’t worry,” Dancer said vaguely, patting Han on the arm. “All will be well.”

  I hope you’re right, Han thought. Right now, I just don’t see it.

  C H A P T E R E L E V E N

  MEETINGS AT

  MIDNIGHT

  Raisa rattled the dice in the cup and slammed them against the wall. Coming up on her knees, she leaned forward to examine the result.

  “You’re dead, Your Majesty!” Cat crowed. “All bones. Again.” Scooping up the dice, she plopped them back in the cup.

  “I think there’s something wrong with those dice,” Raisa grumbled.

  “It’s all in the wrist,” Cat said smugly. “Bred into us in Ragmarket and Southbridge.”

  “That’s why it’s unseemly for the queen of the realm to be playing nicks and bones.” Magret spoke from the hearth corner, startling them. Raisa had thought she was asleep in her chair. She’d been drinking sherry for her aching bones again. “Caterina, you should ask Queen Raisa to teach you hunters and hares. That’s more suitable to a lady. And a lady’s maid.”

  Cat shrugged. “She asked me to teach her,” she said. “I can’t help it if she’s unlucky. My mam used to say, you’re either lucky in the boneyard or lucky in love.”

  And I’m not lucky at either, Raisa thought.

  “You want to play on, or are you ready to pay up?” Cat asked, shaking the cup under Raisa’s nose enticingly. “Your luck may be ready to turn.”

  “I’ll pay up,” Raisa said, yawning. “It’s late, and I’ve died too many times tonight already.”

  It was late—after midnight—but Raisa was stalling, waiting for Han Alister to return from wherever he was hiding out this evening. She’d scarcely seen him since their peculiar, desperate dance at Marisa Pines. She’d left for Chalk Cliffs before Han had returned from meeting with the Wizard Council. After three days of inspecting the fortifications along the Indio with Amon Byrne and Char Dunedain, she’d come back to a relentless series of meetings. Though she would feel the heat of Han’s gaze from across the room, there was no chance to talk privately. And in the evenings, when she was free, Han was always missing.

  Is he seeing someone? Raisa did her best to squelch that thought.

  She couldn’t allow him to avoid her tonight. She needed to speak with him before the next meeting of the Wizard Council.

  As she glumly counted out crowns and coppers, she heard a soft footstep in the corridor, a muted greeting from the bluejackets on guard outside, the click of the latch next door.

  Both Magret and Cat looked at the door that connected Raisa’s and Han’s rooms, then at Raisa. Magret scowled, and Cat smirked like a fox with a mouthful of feathers.

  Tired of smirking, scowling servants, Raisa said, “You both can go on to bed. Lord Alister seems to be back, and I won’t need anything else tonight.”

  “I can stay, Your Majesty,” Magret and Cat said, almost in unison, but likely for different reasons.

  “No,” Raisa said. “I’ll be fine. Cat, I know Hayden Fire Dancer is back in town. Maybe you’d like to go find him?”

  “If you’re sure, Your Majesty,” Cat said, unable to hide her eagerness. “He’s likely already in bed, anyway. That one rises and sets with the sun.”

  “And you’re asleep on your feet, Magret,” Raisa continued. “There are four guards in the hallway. I’m tired of having people underfoot,” she added, when Magret opened her mouth to object.

  When she was sure Magret and Cat were gone, she pounded on the connecting door. “Han!”

  Han dragged it open immediately, as if he’d been standing just on the other side with his ear to the door. “What’s the matter?” he demanded, stepping past her into the room, his hand on his amulet.

  Raisa blinked at him, taken by surprise. His appearance was something of a shock, after weeks of seeing him in court garb. He was barefoot, his shirt undone, so she must have caught him in the midst of disrobing.

  His clothes were fine enough, but they were torn and soiled—ruined, really, as though he’d used them to sweep up the street. He wore a velvet cap pulled down over his brilliant hair, fingerless gloves on his hands. Three pendants rested on his bare chest—the serpent amulet, the Lone Hunter amulet, and a clan talisman, the figure of a dancing piper carved in rowan.

  He stank strongly of drink, and the cuffs of his sleeves were stained dark with a substance that almost looked like—

  “Where’s Cat?” he said, scanning the room as if looking for intruders. “What’s happened?” He looked and sounded totally sober.

  “Nothing’s happened,” she said. “I just needed to…Where have you been?”

  “I’ve been down in Ragmarket,” he said, almost defensively. He yanked off the cap and stuffed it into his pocket.

  “But, you look—”

  “Shabby,” he said, a preemptive confession. “Dirty. I know. I didn’t plan on anyone seeing me. I didn’t expect you’d still be up.”

  He looked weary and worn down—vulnerable. It was more than his clothes. Purple shadows smudged his eyes, and his face was streaked with dirt. It almost seemed like the spark of optimism that always burned within him was failing.

  Impulsively, Raisa reached up and laid her palm against his cheek. “What’s wrong?”

  He pressed his hand over hers, took a deep breath. “They found another dead wizard down in Pinbury Alley. Older woman name of Hadria Lancaster. Do you know her?”

  Raisa nodded. “Slightly. She didn’t spend much time at court. Last I knew, she was in residence at her country home. I wonder how she ended up in Ragmarket.”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it? I wish I knew.” Han met her gaze directly, as if awaiting whatever judgment she meant to impose. She closed her eyes, but his image was imprinted on her eyelids—his golden hair, burnished by lamplight, the faint zigzag scar over his cheekbone, his predator’s grace under the mucky clothes.

  Raisa reluctantly withdrew her hand. “Do you have time to talk now?”

  “Now?” He looked down at himself, brushing at his clothing as if embarrassed. “Are you sure? I’m sorry. I just…I’m filthy.”

  “I know you’re tired,” Raisa said. “But I’ve been gone, and you’ve been unavailable. I need to talk to you before the next meeting of the Wizard Council, and I don’t even know when that is.”

  “Can I clean up a little first?” he asked, scrubbing vigorously at his chin with the heel of his hand.

  “All right,” she said. “But make it quick. I’m tired, too.”

  Five minutes later, he knocked softly, then pushed the door open.

  He was still barefoot, but he’d changed into a loose linen shirt and clean trousers. The cap was gone, his hair finger-combed, and he’d washed his face. He looked almost boyish in this fresh-scrubbed state.

  “Could you please erect some barricades against eavesdroppers?” Raisa said.

  Han circled the room obediently, muttering charms, sliding his hand under his snowy linen shirt to grip his amulet.

  When he had finished, Raisa motioned him to the chair opposite hers at the table. He sat, his hands resting on the table, his expression guarded and yet somehow vulnerable. Now that his hands were clean, she saw that the knuckles were skinned and scabbed over. When he noticed her staring, he thrust them under the table, too late.

  “What happened to your hands?” she blurted.

  “I got into a scrape down in the market,” Han said, grimacing. “I’m a bit out of practice.”

  “Why do you go down there?” Raisa asked. “Is that where you’re spending all your time?”

  Han shifted his gaze away. “Just trying to work out who’s hushing wizards, trying to catch somebody doing the deed. I have eyes and ears down there, but if it’s a wizard doing the killing, there’s no way my people can stand up to flash. And even if they witness something and survive, it’d
be their word against the killer’s.”

  “You think it’s a wizard, then?” Raisa said. “Not a street gang?”

  “I don’t really know. But if it was a gang from Ragmarket, Cat would know by now.” He nibbled at a ragged nail. When he was exhausted, his trader face and court manners sometimes slid away. “All they take is flash—they leave the other swag behind. So it could be wizard-on-wizard killings—that’s one way to deal with the shortage of amulets.”

  And then it came to Raisa—what he was up to.

  She half rose from her chair, fear and fury edging her voice. “Admit it—you’re walking the streets all night, hoping the killer comes after you!”

  He hunched his shoulders against the verbal assault. “It’s a good plan. Eventually, I’ll get lucky.”

  “It’s a terrible plan! I forbid you to make yourself a target.”

  Han tilted his chin up, the picture of obstinacy.

  “I’m serious.” She cast about for something that would sway him. “Please. I can’t afford to lose you. You’re supposed to be my bodyguard. You should be here with me, not—not—”

  “You had something else you wanted to talk about?” The set of his jaw told her that further argument would get her nowhere.

  This conversation is not over, Raisa thought. But it is late. She cleared her throat. “I wanted to give you fair warning. Next month I will name Sergeant Dunedain as general of the Highlander Army, replacing General Klemath.”

  Han looked puzzled for a moment, and then his face cleared. “Oh. Right. I met her at one of our morning meetings. She came with Captain Byrne. So…you’re putting a bluejacket in charge of the regular army?”

  Raisa nodded. “Captain Byrne has been reviewing military finances. I have found some accounting irregularities in the area of procurement that suggests our general has been lining his own pockets for years. Plus there’s the matter of the mercenaries.”

  “Where he’s also likely to be on the daub,” Han said.

  “I don’t expect Klemath will take the news gracefully,” she went on. “Nor will the direct reports who are loyal to him, since most are from the down-realms. Captain Byrne and General Dunedain have been developing a list of candidates to replace officers who might refuse to accept this change, but that will take time. I think we can look forward to a difficult few months.”

  “Especially because Klemath was hoping to marry off one of his sons to you,” Han said.

  “Right,” Raisa said, wondering, How did you know about that? Are you somehow keeping track of my suitors? Which made her think of Marisa Pines.

  “What was that all about, anyway?” she blurted. “At Marisa Pines.”

  “What was what all about?” Han asked, furrowing his brow.

  “Your behavior. That dance.”

  Han conjured a wounded look. “Well, nobody else volunteered, and so I thought…”

  “And the note.”

  Now he looked genuinely puzzled. “What note?”

  “The note you put under my pillow at the Matriarch Lodge,” Raisa said. “Warning me away from Nightwalker.”

  “I didn’t put any note under your pillow,” Han said. He paused for a heartbeat, then added, “Though avoiding Nightwalker seems like a good idea to me.”

  “It’s a match my father favors,” Raisa said.

  “Then your father is wrong,” Han said. “Nightwalker thinks the world sprouted from his bunghole.”

  Raisa dismissed this image with some difficulty. “Then you did leave the note!”

  “I did not. It just sounds like somebody else shares my opinion.”

  “I won’t be marrying for love,” Raisa said. “I’ll have to make the best match politically if we’re going to get out of this fix.”

  “So you’ve said.” Han cocked his head back and looked down his nose at Raisa.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.

  “What?”

  “That look on your face.”

  “I’m thinking that you’re the queen of the realm. If anybody can marry for love, it ought to be you.”

  “You don’t understand how I—”

  “You’re right. I don’t. I’m just a jumped-up streetrat in a velvet coat. Now can I go to bed?” He made as if to rise.

  “Not yet,” Raisa said, thinking, We have to get off this topic. “Let’s talk about the Wizard Council.”

  “What about it?” Han said, easing back into his chair.

  “How did the first meeting go? How did the members react to Lord deVilliers’s death? Are they planning any response to the murders in the city?”

  Han looked at Raisa for a long moment, as if trying to read the meaning behind her words. “If they are, it’s under the table. Not discussed in open council.” He paused for a heartbeat, eyes narrowed. “Lord Bayar is already trying to blame them on me.”

  “On you?” Raisa sat forward. “Why would you be out killing wizards?”

  “Didn’t they tell you about me?” Han’s eyes seemed to pin her in place, the color shifting from sapphire to lapis, to deep indigo. “I’m a killer. Need to get a little practice in now and then. And the bodies have been found on my turf. Open-and-shut case.”

  “Did anyone believe him?” Raisa asked, worry pinging through her. “That you’re the one responsible?”

  Han scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “Those that hated me before believe him. Those that hate the Bayars think it’s likely them—or the Demonai.”

  “Could it be the Demonai?”

  Han shifted his gaze away. “I don’t know what to think. It could be. It’s the easy answer.”

  “Could it be wizard politics?” Raisa asked.

  “Maybe. But it seems like the killers are picking at random. If it were the Bayars, for instance, you’d think they’d use this opportunity to hush their enemies and blame it on me.”

  “Well. Maybe they know that would be too obvious,” Raisa said.

  “Maybe.” Han looked unconvinced.

  “Are there any on the council who support me?” Raisa said. “Any I can count on?”

  Han thought about it. “Well,” he said. “Dean Abelard prefers you to Mellony as queen, or Micah Bayar as king.”

  “I suppose that’s something,” Raisa said. “What about Adam Gryphon? Where does he stand?”

  “I don’t know,” Han said. “The Bayars tried to push through a vote for High Wizard, and he wouldn’t go along. But I don’t think he’d go against them in a key vote.”

  “I want a High Wizard I can trust,” Raisa said bluntly.

  “Sure you do,” Han said. “The trick is how to pull that off. The High Wizard is elected by the council, and you know how the council members are chosen.”

  “I can’t have a High Wizard whose loyalty rests with the gifted alone,” Raisa said. “I don’t need someone who is more focused on wizard politics than the good of the realm. I need someone I can work with.”

  “So you want to change the role of the High Wizard,” Han said. “Is that it?”

  Raisa shook her head. “I want the role of the High Wizard to be what it should have been all along—the magical arm of my government. Integrated with it, not in opposition to it.”

  “I agree with you, but there’s only so many fights you can pick at a time.” Han sighed, looking glum. “Right now, I’m guessing the new High Wizard will be Micah Bayar. If not him, Mina Abelard. Which one of them do you prefer?”

  “Neither,” Raisa said. “I want you.”

  “Me?” Han stared at her as if blindsided. “Seriously?”

  “Why would I joke about this?”

  “I just told you that Lord Bayar accused me, in open council, of murdering wizards,” Han said. “At least some on the council believe him. It’s not going to be easy—to get elected, I mean.”

  “Nobody said it was going to be easy,” Raisa said, twisting the wolf ring on her finger.

  “No matter how you do the numbers, they don’t come out.”
<
br />   “Then you need to build alliances with the other council members. You were the one who wanted this post. I can’t bring pressure directly to bear—that’s likely to have the opposite result.”

  “No!” Han said, giving his head a decisive shake. “They can’t know you actually support me for High Wizard.” He sat thinking, chewing on his bottom lip, fingering his hair. Finally, he looked up at her. “Let’s be clear on this. You want me to do whatever it takes to make this happen? Things you might not like?”

  It was like he was requesting an unconditional pardon for crimes not yet committed. There was no way Raisa could agree to that.

  “Well,” she said, “I don’t want you killing anyone.”

  “Short of that?” Han persisted.

  Raisa didn’t know how to answer that. So she didn’t. “I need to gain influence over the council,” she said, “if there’s ever going to be peace in the queendom.”

  “Got it.” Han sat thinking for a moment, then looked up, his trader face on. “If I am elected High Wizard—and I’m not saying it’ll happen—I want to choose who replaces me on the council.” When Raisa opened her mouth to object, he put up his hand. “We had a bargain. I agreed to be your bodyguard, and you agreed to appoint me to the council. As High Wizard, I’ll lose my vote except as a tiebreaker.”

  “I would need to approve your choice,” Raisa countered. “Who is it?”

  “Hayden Fire Dancer,” Han said, as if he’d had the answer ready.

  “Fire Dancer!” She stared at Han. “He’ll never agree to that! He hates the city. He can’t wait to go back to the mountains.”

  “He’ll agree,” Han said. “I’ll convince him.”

  Raisa recalled what Micah Bayar had said, the day he’d asked permission to court her. The day he’d told her she was in grave danger.

  Take this whole business of naming a street thief to the Wizard Council. The council is enraged. They take it as a lack of respect. They think you’re tweaking them on purpose.

  “What about the council?” Raisa said. “How are they likely to react? A mixed-blood named to their most important decision-making body?”