Crown of One Hundred Kings (Nine Kingdoms Trilogy Book 1)

by Rachel Higginson

  I wept for the sister I hadn’t known still lived. And even now, I didn’t know if I would ever see her again.

  27

  Matilda had to drag me from bed the next morning. My eyes were puffy from hours of crying. She took one look at me and cursed the daylight.

  I wanted this crown more than ever. I felt like it was mine more than ever. And yet I could not bear the thought of facing the council another day.

  What would they drag up from my memory today? What fresh horrors pulled from the pits of Denamon would they dangle in front of me now?

  Would they taunt me with Katrinka?

  Or accuse me of murdering my family again?

  “I can’t do this,” I whispered to Matilda as she blended a powder under my eyes. She promised it would take away the dark circles and make me look less like a ghoul.

  She paused her ministrations and settled her hands on my shoulders. “Tessana Allisand,” she said firmly. “That is your name isn’t it?”

  My gaze snapped to hers. “It is.”

  Something like humor danced in her eyes, but her expression remained stony. “I haven’t questioned you once since they told me who you are. I walked into your room and instantly saw a princess, an Allisand with her head tilted high and fire in her eyes. But the council needs to see that too. This entire kingdom must be convinced that you are who you say you are. And it’s not going to be witnesses that show them the truth. It’s you, Princess Tessana. It’s who you are and who your family was. It’s the light inside you that shines brighter than the sun. You are Tessana Allisand of the house of Extentia. Make them believe.”

  I couldn’t help the smile that lifted the corners of my mouth. “Is that all I need to do?”

  She nodded and went back to erasing the black circles beneath my eyes. “For now,” she laughed.

  When Crenshaw swung the door open, I was waiting for him. He moved to grab me, but I held up a hand and told him, “I can walk on my own, thank you very much.”

  He backed up but did not seem pleased. I didn’t care. The first thing I would do as queen would be to fire Crenshaw and escort him to the border of Elysia.

  Unlike yesterday, my heart beat with confidence. I had been so afraid, so meek in my manners, but Matilda was right. The Crown of Nine belonged to me. To my bloodline.

  And it was time I stood up for what was rightfully mine.

  If they wanted to fight me for it, they could. But they would learn what it was like to go up against an Allisand.

  Crenshaw paused outside the throne room doors. He turned to me and with a smirk tilting his thin mouth said, “You’ve been asked to wait here until they announce you.”

  I nodded my reluctant acceptance. This was how it had worked yesterday, only I hadn’t had to wait in the hallway. Maybe they were already interrogating a witness?

  A few stragglers scurried through the closing door and I wondered if not everyone had arrived yet. Something moved in my peripheral vision and I turned to look, but nothing was there. In fact, I was alone. The guards had disappeared. All the attendees had slipped inside. I was left by myself with no one to watch over me.

  I took a step forward, fearing that they were waiting for me and I had somehow been forgotten about. The same flicker of something caught my attention again. This time it was accompanied by a sound. Light clacking. Like claws against…

  I looked up toward the ceiling where I found the most peculiar sight. A bird had managed to get inside the palace. It perched on the ledge of a stained-glass window. I took a step toward it, admiring its sleek black coat and onyx beak. “How did you get inside?” I asked the thing.

  It stared down at me, unblinking. I took another step toward it. There was an infestation of these creatures in Elysia. Absently I wondered if there was anything I could do about it, thin their numbers somehow. Surely, they were detrimental to the crops and—

  The raven opened its beak and squawked. I jumped back and covered one ear, surprised by how much that sound hurt my head. Pain split my skull and I doubled over. It was enough to shake me out of my stupor. Instinct drew my eyes up and I managed to catch a glimpse of the cord holding the gigantic chandelier overhead snapping in two.

  I didn’t even think to scream. The chandelier would crush me beneath all those diamonds and ornate titanium rods. A useless memory flashed in my mind of ten of my father’s footmen working together to lift it back into place after the maids had spent the day polishing it.

  That was what was about to fall on me.

  I threw my hands over my head just as the monstrous thing rushed into my side, knocking me over and stealing the wind from my lungs. I hit the ground with a smack, crushing my shoulder between the smooth marble and the heavy weight of the chandelier.

  No, wait.

  That wasn’t right.

  The chandelier hit the ground a second later, screaming through the corridor with a deafening crash. Diamonds splintered and glass shattered, landing all around me. Screams echoed from inside the throne room and guards rushed to the hallway.

  The chandelier had crashed to the ground after I did. That meant it wasn’t on top of me.

  That meant I wasn’t crushed beneath it!

  I searched for the heavy object compressing me. Taelon looked down, his bright blue eyes wide with fear. Taelon had pushed me to the side. Taelon had landed on top of me.

  Not the chandelier.

  “What are you doing here?” I gasped.

  “Rescuing you,” he panted. “Again.”

  I smacked his shoulder. “I don’t need you to rescue me!” He scrambled back and offered a hand. I could not believe him! “Where have you been? I’ve been rotting in my room and there has been not even a word from you! How could you have left—”

  Two fingers covered my mouth briefly when monarchs started to filter into the hall. “What happened?” Tyrn demanded.

  “Relax, Tessana,” Taelon whispered. “Let me do the talking.”

  I rolled my eyes. Because that had always worked out for me in the past.

  “The chandelier fell, Your Majesty,” one of the guards pointed out.

  “I can see that, you idiot,” Tyrn snarled. “But how did it fall? Look at this mess.” Tyrn’s gaze swung to mine. “What are you doing out here? Did you have something to do with this?”

  Taelon stepped in front of me. “She was nearly pulverized,” he stated crisply. “If I had not been here to intercede, she would have been flattened beneath it. If I didn’t know any better, I’d believe that she’d been set up. Someone didn’t want her to go to trial today.”

  Tyrn’s gaze narrowed. “You’re saying the chandelier tried to kill her?”

  Taelon’s jaw ticked. “I’m saying the chandelier cord was cut by someone trying to kill her.”

  Tyrn looked at me. “Why were you out in the hall? Why didn’t you let the guards escort you inside?”

  “I was told to wait outside.” The fury inside me burst. “Your guards ordered me to wait right there, right beneath the chandelier.”

  Tyrn turned toward Crenshaw. “Is this true? Did you tell her to wait?”

  Crenshaw shrugged. “I needed to inform the herald that she was here. I didn’t know the chandelier was going to fall. How could I have known a thing like that?”

  Tyrn nodded.

  “This was not an accident,” Taelon insisted. “It was a set up. Someone tried to kill her!”

  “So you say,” Tyrn replied calmly. His cold eyes flickered to mine again. “Did you see anyone out here with you?”

  I bit my lip and struggled with the truth. I’d seen a bird. But that was hardly enough evidence to convict anyone. “I didn’t see anyone.”

  “Then it was an accident.” Tyrn declared. He pointed toward the ceiling. “Look where the cord broke. This chandelier is too heavy for anyone to lift or tamper with it on their own. If someone had cut the rope they would have done it from where it was tied to the anchor.” He pointed toward the wall where in fact the cord was af
fixed to a closure. “But a man would need a ladder to reach the ceiling. I don’t see any ladders.” He looked at me again. “Do you? Or rather, did you?”

  “No,” I grumbled. “There were no ladders. But I did hear a snap. Something snapped the rope.”

  “Or it’s old and it snapped on its own,” Ravanna suggested. Her cold black eyes found mine and she murmured, “How unfortunate.” Did she mean the accident was unfortunate? Or that I hadn’t been killed? She raised her voice so that the other sovereigns could hear her and said, “It would appear that our alleged princess attracts tragedy wherever she goes.”

  “Or always avoids it,” I replied.

  Her eyes narrowed and her tongue moved over her front teeth as she sized me up. “I guess time will tell.”

  Another chandelier crashed to the ground halfway down the next hallway. Screams rang all around me and royal guards covered their sovereigns with their bodies.

  After the clattering had ceased and the onlookers had stopped shrieking, King Maksim of Barstus shouted, “Get us out of the hallway, Tyrn, before someone dies!”

  Tyrn stood up tall, shaking off Crenshaw who had tried to cover my uncle’s body with his own. “Yes, I think that is a good idea. In light of the close calls this morning, we shall suspend Conandra for the remainder of the day. In the morning, we will hear final witnesses and concluding arguments. Supper will be served in the great hall this evening with entertainment following.”

  I stood there, speechless, as the monarchs picked themselves up and dispersed to their corners of the palace. While I was locked in my room, fretting over tomorrow’s outcome, they would be enjoying entertainment?

  Were any of them taking this seriously?

  My thoughts must have been all over my face because Hugo and Anatal stepped over. Anatal put her shaking hand on my shoulder, her blue eyes glittering with concern. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” I answered. “I’m a little shaken up, but Taelon saved me from the worst of it.”

  Taelon leaned in and whispered, “That was calculated, Father. I don’t know how, but I know it was planned. She was alone out here. Not a guard in sight.”

  Hugo absorbed this information with a stony expression. Finally, he turned to me and said, “Don’t worry about it tonight. Tyrn is obviously hoping to distract us from the facts of the trial, but I have spoken with several sovereigns who believe you. I do not know if we can count on their vote tomorrow, but I do know that you have done a very good job of revealing your true identity.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered.

  “Girl!” Crenshaw barked at me.

  I let out a weary sigh.

  “Go,” Hugo encouraged. “Tomorrow Taelon will give his testimony and produce the crown. There will be no doubt after that.”

  I returned a shaky smile. That was good news. As long as I could count on Taelon to show up.

  “Now, Imposter,” Crenshaw snarled. “I haven’t got all day.”

  I closed my eyes and said to the Treskinats, “Tomorrow I will have the power to have him flogged.”

  Taelon’s dark laugh contrasted with his parents’ matching looks of horror. I nodded goodbye and turned toward Crenshaw.

  His cruel smile stretched across his face with new life. Something had made him especially happy and if I had to guess, I would bet it was my near-death experience.

  The rest of my guard detail stayed to provide extra protection for the fearful monarchs. As we moved farther and farther from the main hallway, nerves began to prickle at my skin. I did not trust this man.

  He turned down a dark hallway and I realized we were going back to my room a different way than we had come. An icy sweat broke out on the small of my back.

  There was less light in this part of the castle. The hallways were filled with shadowy alcoves that hid statues of dead royals and monuments to the Light. My hands started trembling and I had just decided that Crenshaw was going to kill me when someone called his name from behind us.

  Crenshaw cursed and turned to meet the fellow guard.

  “I have orders,” the other guard said.

  Crenshaw turned to me. “Stay here,” he commanded.

  I nodded innocently. Crenshaw gave me one last look of warning before following the other guard to the end of the hallway. When they disappeared, I spun around in hopes of finding something to use as a weapon just in case I needed to protect myself.

  I walked further down the hallway, anxious for anything I could hide in the folds of my skirts. If Crenshaw was as deranged as I believed him to be, he would not waste this opportunity while he had me alone.

  A flicker of light grabbed my attention. It danced at the end of the corridor, glinting in the otherwise dark space. My fingers turned cold when I realized there was no candle producing it.

  I blinked, hoping it would disappear. When it didn’t, I chased the eerie glow, unable to quell my curiosity. It seemed to wait for me, suspended in midair. Just when I was near enough to reach out and touch it, the light blinked out. My gasp was cut short at the sound of another voice.

  “I am trying!”

  I stilled, grabbing hold of my skirts so they wouldn’t swish against the polished marble.

  “Of course I won’t lose it,” the whisper punctuated the air once more.

  It came from just around the corner. I closed my eyes for a second and tried to talk myself out of eavesdropping, but my feet started moving before I gave them permission.

  Soon enough I found myself at the corner of the intersecting hallway, nearly submerged in darkness.

  “Of course I didn’t plan this!” the whisper argued. “I didn’t know she was still alive, or I would have taken care of it a long time ago.”

  I glanced around the corner. My uncle stood there, next to a mottled window that had been covered in heavy, dark drapes, like all the other windows along this corridor. I couldn’t see another person though. He faced the window and brushed the drape aside with his shoulder.

  “I am trying,” he hissed. “I have a plan. If tomorrow does not go as I expect it to. I’ve asked—”

  I gasped when that familiar clicking sound tapped the windowsill. My uncle swiveled, but I had already ducked around the corner.

  I fled back to the place I was supposed to wait for Crenshaw. My heart hammered as I waited for my uncle to appear and demand to know what I was doing in this part of the castle and what I’d heard.

  What I’d seen.

  But I couldn’t have answered him. I didn’t know what I’d seen. Crenshaw called for me at the end of the hallway and I hurried toward him. Minutes ago I had been worried about what he would do to me if he got me alone, but now he walked me to my room as he always did.

  And all the while I replayed that image of the darkened hallway. My uncle leaning into the window, sharing secrets with a bird.

  My uncle had been speaking to a bird.

  A raven.

  Either that made him mad.

  Or more had happened in the last eight years than I knew.

  28

  The day passed with the slowness of a yellow-backed slug. After the excitement of the morning, my afternoon involved staring at the fire. My evening consisted of Matilda cursing my hair and offering no useful gossip. The night stretched into endless hours of sleeplessness.

  I kept remembering the crashing chandelier, the crushing force of it that would have killed me. How had the rope been cut? Had it truly been the bird?

  What about that strange bodiless light?

  Was my uncle somehow in league with the ravens?

  Ravanna Presydia’s dress the first morning of Conandra popped into my head. Long black feathers fashioned together to make a skirt. Could those have been raven feathers? Was it too much of a stretch to connect the two?

  I jerked my head around on my pillow trying to find a comfortable position. What was I missing?

  I hadn’t noticed ravens in the daytime until the river back in Heprin. But in every on
e of my nightmares, one sat upon the window ledge. I closed my eyes and tried to think back, before my parents were murdered. Had Elysia been filled with ravens then?

  I remembered the page with the raven in the pagan tome that Father Garius had shown me.

  I needed to see the book again. I needed to find someone who could read it to me. But where in all the realm would I find a person willing to admit that they could read pagan? Furthermore, where would I find the words for them to read?

  Where was my mother’s copy now? Had Tyrn found it? Burned it? Was it still hidden within her suites?

  I slapped the covers. I could not remember ever feeling this frustrated. Someone was trying to kill me and while it was easy to believe that someone was my uncle, there was also the mystery of the birds. Even my uncle answered to them.

  Who controlled the ravens?

  My tired eyes fell to the window. I had not bothered to close the curtains.

  The stars twinkled. A cool breeze made the trees sway.

  My pulse jumped when a reflection moved over the glass. I glanced wildly around the room and held my breath so that I could listen for excess noise. But there was nothing other than Shiksa’s rumbly breathing and the crackling fire.

  Still, I could not shake the feeling that I was being watched. I crawled to my knees, reaching for the sword that lay beneath pillows at the end of the bed. My hand felt for the hilt and curled around the familiar leather binding.

  The light from the fire cast a glare on the windowpane, but I could still see the blurry outline of something. I slipped from my bed without making a sound.

  As I approached the window, I noticed the latch was unlocked. How had that happened? Leaning forward, I held out my sword and prepared for the worst. I yanked the window open and inclined against the ledge.

  The person that had been spying on me was pressed against the outside wall of the small balcony as if he could hide himself. I held my sword to the intruder’s throat with a steady hand. “Show yourself,” I growled.