The Fanged Crown

by Jenna Helland

  At the end of the tunnels, Majida stopped at a plain wooden door, which she unlocked with a key from the chain that hung from her belt.

  “So much for communal living,” Harp remarked, nodding at the key.

  “My kin think books should be used for kindling,” Majida said, pushing open the door with her hip. “And the only use for metal is for swords.”

  They stepped into a cramped chamber at the bottom of a tall, narrow shaft with spiral stairs leading up through the rock. As Harp followed Majida up the stairs, his head brushed the bottom of the steps above him. At the top, Harp climbed into a dome that was built on the top of a rocky peak. The walls of the mountaintop observatory were almost translucent—Harp could see the ridges and formations of rocks on the outside. The color and sheen reminded him of an ivory plate that was so delicate it seemed his breath alone could sunder it.

  “What is that?” Harp asked, brushing his fingertips against the smooth walls, which felt cool under his touch.

  “Actually, it’s metal,” Majida said. “I made some adjustments to it.”

  Majida turned a crank and half of the domed ceiling opened with a squeak that sounded very metallic. The little room was open to the air, and Harp had an unhindered view of the night sky. The observatory was the closest he’d ever been to the stars, and their vastness made him feel light-headed.

  “Are we on top of the Crown?” Harp asked, staring out at the moonlight.

  “Yes. I built my observatory on a drake nesting site. But they leave the mountains at night to hunt, so they shouldn’t trouble us. Although a young bull tried to stick his snout in here once.”

  “What happened?”

  “I left a scar, and he never came back.”

  Harp turned his attention to a brass contraption on the far side of the room. Almost as tall as Harp and twice as wide, it had a circular bronze base that held a series of concentric brass rings attached on the same axis inside a metal skeleton. Harp had seen similar devices—although on a much smaller scale—used for navigation on ships. Their purpose had something to do with shadows and angles—Boult had explained it once, but Harp had forgotten the extensive equations and numerology necessary to understand how it worked. Harp preferred to navigate with his own eyes and the polar stars. Of course, as Boult pointed out, that didn’t work so well when there was cloud cover.

  A low cabinet housed hand-held navigational devices, such as a metal quadrant and a handful of hourglasses, each with different colored sand. Shells and fossils were neatly labeled and ordered in a glass box with many small compartments, and there was a half-empty potion chest open against the wall.

  “Your observatory is impressive,” Harp told Majida. “Have you learned all there is to know about the stars?”

  “Unfortunately, no,” Majida replied. “I am coming to believe that the answers I seek are found inside the body rather than the vast planes.”

  Harp shuddered. “I’ve heard that before.”

  “Have you?” Majida said, not sounding surprised at all. She lit a stick of incense in a wooden bowl on the table, and the scent of flowers floated through the air. Majida sat cross-legged on the green threadbare rug in the center of the floor and waited until Harp sat down across from her.

  “When the sun rises, we’ll go back down. Zo will show you a hidden tunnel that will take you to the entrance of the ruins. There’s a magical barrier around the ruins, but Verran will be able to get you inside. I don’t know whether you’ll find Liel or not, but I can tell you that the Torque is below the entrance hall of the golden dome. It won’t be easy to get.”

  “If we get the Torque, should we bring it to you?” Harp asked.

  Majida was quiet for a moment. “No,” she said finally. “If you get the Torque, drop it in the deepest ocean you can find.”

  “I can do that. I just happen to have a ship.”

  “I know.”

  “Liel told you about my ship? When we were together on Gwynneth Isle, we talked about getting one. But I didn’t think she knew that it happened.”

  “She knew.”

  “Why did she never contact me? I know her father helped get me out of Vankila, and I was grateful for that. But I don’t even know if that was his sense of honor or hers.”

  “She asked him to help you. He didn’t stop until it was done.”

  “Still …”

  “Cardew threatened your life if she tried to see you.”

  “The Husk-Liel said some things. Things that only Liel knew, but they were twisted.”

  “Seeds of truth, Harp, but the fruit of manipulation,” Majida said quietly. “Did you love her?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did she know that?”

  “I hope so,” Harp said emphatically.

  “I hope you get another chance to tell her.”

  The sun was inching over the horizon, casting the sky in deep purple and rose. A salt-scented breeze swept in from the opening in the roof, and Harp wished he were on the Crane listening to the crack of the sails and feeling the swell of the water rock the boat under him.

  “I can rid you of your scars,” Majida told him.

  Harp shook his head. “Like I told you before, I’ve tried everything. I’ve been to casters up and down the coast. No one can get rid of them.”

  “Then I have something they don’t.”

  Harp closed his eyes. Majida waited a long time for him to speak.

  “I’m not offering because they are horrifying, Harp,” she finally said. “I am offering because they were inflicted on you, like a brand. If you want to keep them—”

  Harp’s eyes flew open. “I want you to take them off. I want you to make me what I was before.”

  “Then what gives you pause?” Majida asked.

  “I wonder when Liel saw me. I wonder what kind of man she saw.”

  It was four against one, and Harp was too drunk to defend himself.

  “Ghoul,” the biggest one said, slamming his fist into Harp’s face. Harp fell back into another man, who held his arms behind his back while the big one punched him in the stomach. “So ugly they had to sew you back together.”

  When they had dragged Harp out of the pub into the back alley just minutes before, Liel had lost of them in the crowd. She caught sight of them from the street and strode down the alley to them. By the time they saw her approaching, a blast of fire had shot from her hand and singed the big man’s shoulder. He stumbled back against the wall, clutching his arm and moaning while his friends backed away. They dropped Harp to the cobblestones. The four men bolted down the alley leaving Liel alone with Harp.

  The narrow alley was filthy, and she could hear the rats scurrying behind the rubbish bins. It reeked of alcohol and rot, and was the last place she wanted to be. It was the last place she wanted Harp to be. She crouched down beside the body at her feet. Unconscious, Harp lay in a twisted heap, his breathing shallow and labored.

  She had been trailing Harp through the city for a couple of days, trying to figure out what to do. She thought about talking to Kitto, but he was always with Harp or the gaunt dwarf, whoever he was. Liel had seen Harp’s scars from a distance, but it was the first time she’d seen them up close—thick, red lines crisscrossing his face and hands like a grotesque jigsaw puzzle. His shirt was tangled around his chest, and she could see the scars on his back and stomach.

  Cardew had done that to him. Her husband’s threats had been real. The Branch of Linden had spies everywhere, and if Cardew even knew she was in that wretched city, he would come after Harp. Liel had never felt so trapped. She didn’t know how far her husband’s reach extended. If she left Cardew, he might focus his ire on her father and the elves of the Wealdath. Besides, she and Harp had parted in anger. For all she knew, Harp hated her. The safest thing she could do was to leave Harp in the safekeeping of his friends.

  She pulled him close so his head rested against her chest. If she didn’t help him, he would die in the alley, drunk and bleeding. She couldn’t l
et that be the culmination of his life.

  How the human had managed to take root in her soul, she would never understand. Until that moment, she had told herself that what she felt for Harp was just a construct of desire, something easily shattered or sacrificed. But she’d never been good at lying to herself, and as she held him, there was no denying what she felt for him.

  She forced herself to block out the stench of the alley, the wretched buildings, and the filthy city that corrupted the force of life. With his warm body in her arms, she could finally hear the rustle of leaves, the call of the birds, and the pulse of the faraway forest. She found her strength to mend his broken ribs and to heal the shattered bones in his hands. The gash on his forehead closed, but still the scars remained. When his breathing was deep and even, she pulled him to his feet.

  She half-carried him down the road to the dodgy boarding house where he was staying with Kitto and the dwarf. She lowered him onto the doorstep, knocked loudly on the door, and disappeared into the shadows before anyone saw her. Still, there was something else she could do. Liel headed to the docks, where she had seen Harp talking to a fat man about a boat called the Crane. That ship might be his best chance for something that resembled happiness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  2 Flamerule, the Year of the Ageless One

  (1479 DR)

  Kinnard Keep, Tethyr

  Sitting in the soft chair closest to the fire, Cardew rested his elbows on his knees. He stabbed at the burning logs with the fireplace poker, making the flames crackle higher and sparks hiss and pop as they flew up the chimney. Cardew crossed the room to the collection of liquor bottles and poured a glass of the amber liquor that had been imported from the midlands.

  Enjoying the sweet, warm taste, Cardew looked appreciatively at the wall tapestry showing a flock of sheep in a green meadow, the high shelves filled with leather-bound books, and the glossy mahogany desk and matching chairs. Officially it was Tresco’s study, but he rarely used the room, and Ysabel had long claimed it for her own.

  “Why do you look so pensive, Master Cardew?” Ysabel said from the doorway. She was dressed in a dark navy dress with a high neck. Gone was the girlish braid, and her blonde hair fell loose around her shoulders. “You look beautiful,” he told her.

  She smiled and came to sit in the chair next to him. “How was your business in town?”

  “Boring. Just details about an estate I plan to purchase near the capitol,” he told her.

  “I hear you and Uncle are going fox hunting.”

  “Is that what he told you?” Cardew said. “I hadn’t heard what the old scoundrel had planned for us. What would you like to drink, Bella?”

  “Whatever you’re having,” she replied.

  Cardew poured a second glass of the amber liquid and came to sit beside her again.

  “What time will dinner be served?” he inquired, glancing at the closed door.

  “Shortly.”

  “Will Tresco be joining us?”

  “No,” Ysabel said tersely.

  “How interesting.”

  “Isn’t it?” Ysabel agreed.

  “I don’t know if I’ve ever been fully alone with you,” Cardew mused. “Tresco has kept you so well guarded.”

  “For my own safety.”

  Cardew frowned at her coyness. “Can we speak freely or not?” He reached over and laid his hand on her thigh. “Are we free to do as we please?”

  Ysabel pushed his hand away. “We can speak freely, Declan. But you are not free to do whatever you please.”

  Cardew was surprised and a little hurt. “Did you get the spellbook I left for you?”

  “I did. It was quite elementary. Of the same level as the spellbooks you brought me when I was a child.”

  “Really? You must have advanced quite a bit since we last talked. Does Tresco know what you’ve been up to?”

  “Of course not,” Ysabel said crossly. “You know how he feels about the subject.”

  “Well, maybe you’ve become so adept you don’t need me to bring you any more books,” Cardew said. He stood up to refill his drink. When he turned around, Ysabel was standing directly behind him. His drink sloshed over the side of the glass and onto his hand. Irritably, he set the drink down on the table and dried his hand on a linen napkin.

  “I appreciate your attentiveness, but I am ready for something more … fulfilling,” Ysabel said.

  Cardew reached for her, but she stepped away. Cardew let his arms fall to his sides.

  “Why are you acting this way, Bella? Last night … I thought …”

  “Acting like what?” she said petulantly.

  “As if you don’t know me,” he said reaching out to stroke a lock of her hair. He wound it around his finger and gave it a little tug. “As if we’re not planning to be together forever.”

  “Forever?” she asked, arching an eyebrow.

  “Yes, Bella. That’s what people do when they’re in love.”

  Ysabel turned away from him and walked across the room to the bookcase. She ran the back of her fingers along the row of colorful spines until she reached a black leather tome, which she pulled out and held against her chest.

  “The history of the Dragon Coast,” she announced, tapping the cover. “It was written by a bandit who lived near Nathlan and was more erudite than most so-called intellectuals of the court.”

  Cardew didn’t give a fig about the Dragon Coast. “No one doubts you’re a smart girl …” he began.

  “Did you know that I’ve read all of those volumes?” she continued, gesturing at the shelves behind her. “Philosophy, geography, history. All of it very dry, none magical of course. Uncle keeps the good books locked away.”

  “What are you saying?” Cardew demanded impatiently.

  “I’m tired of people treating me as if I were a child,” Ysabel said, not bothering to disguise the anger in her voice. “Tresco’s kept me as if I were a pet. I’ve been under lock and key and constantly watched by guards. He has restricted all my schooling and refused to let me develop my spellcasting.”

  “I helped you with that, didn’t I?” Cardew pointed out.

  “You did,” she acknowledged. “And I’m eternally grateful. But we’ve reached a fork in the road, if you will.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I am a good listener, Declan. I have heard and understood a great many things from my vantage point as a prisoner chained to the wall.”

  “You haven’t been chained to the wall,” Cardew said impatiently. “Don’t be dramatic.”

  “This is not the time for that discussion,” Ysabel said with a hint of bitterness.

  “Then what are we discussing?” Cardew asked crossly. The conversation was not going in the direction he had expected. During his ride home from town, his mind had played through a series of tantalizing fantasies about what he wanted to do with the princess just as soon as he got her alone.

  Ysabel sat down on the chair in front of the fire and patted the chair across from her. After a moment’s hesitation, Cardew sat beside her, hoping to recapture the mood of the night before.

  “I need to know some things, Declan,” she said quietly. “About my Uncle and about you.”

  “What sort of things?” he asked suspiciously.

  When she reached out and took his hand, he felt a jolt of energy surge through his skin. The desire before fulfillment, when a simple touch felt electrifying, was his favorite part of courtship.

  “I know you plan to marry me, with Tresco’s blessing. But if you want me to be your wife, I need you to talk to me.”

  Cardew took a deep breath, feeling as if his feet were back on solid ground. Such discussions seemed typical for women. He never understood how chatting made them more interested in rolling around in the sheets, but who was he to question why.

  “Of course, Bella,” he said agreeably. “If we are to marry, I want us to be honest with each other. Ask me anything you want.”

  “I know th
at this is delicate. But I need to know about your first wife. How did you meet?”

  “Liel?” Cardew was surprised at the question. “I met her after the massacre. I was wounded, and Anais sent me to be healed by her father, Avalor. I spent several months in their care.”

  “Did you love her?”

  Cardew signed. “Queen Anais felt that our marriage would help heal the rift between men and elves. She was wrong, of course. But how could I refuse the queen?”

  “Queen Anais is naïve,” Ysabel agreed. “But you didn’t answer the question. Did you love Liel?”

  “I was bewitched by her beauty, which was substantial, although nothing compared to yours. Of course, you were just a child then. So you can’t be jealous.”

  “I’m not,” Ysabel assured him. “She was kidnapped by pirates, was she not?”

  “Where did you hear that tale?” he asked “Yes, while we were engaged, but before we married, she was kidnapped and taken to sea.”

  “Who instigated it?” Ysabel asked.

  “We never found out.”

  “Was her coin paid?”

  Cardew hesitated, not sure why any of it would matter, but there didn’t seem any harm in answering.

  “No, it wasn’t. As fate would have it, one of the pirates mutinied against the captain and fled the boat, taking her with him. They traveled to the Moonshae Isles and then she was returned safely to her father.”

  “How fortunate! You must have been grateful to the man for saving her life.”

  “Well,” Cardew said, hesitating as he sought the appropriate words. “I may have misrepresented his intentions. He took her with him as capital. He planned to barter her freedom in exchange for a pardon of his crime of mutiny. It was less than honorable, you see.”

  “Yes, I see. What happened to him?”

  “I have no idea,” Cardew said, his brow furrowing. “Why does it matter?”

  “It doesn’t. It’s a sweet story, though. A pirate saves a beautiful elf and returns her safely to the loving arms of her fiancé. Don’t you see the appeal?”