by Jody Hedlund
Finally, the cart rolled to a stop. A moment later, it bobbed as Irontooth descended. The rise and fall of Mikkel’s chest stopped. His body tensed around mine. And he held himself motionless.
Though some of the hay had fallen away, we were still hidden. No one would know we were underneath, not unless they’d followed us from the castle.
“You can come out,” Irontooth said. “We’re safe for now.”
I sat up and broke through the hay, shoving and kicking it away. Before I could crawl off the cart, Mikkel caught me and pulled me back. This time I landed on his lap, and before I could say anything, he cupped my cheeks and pressed his lips to mine, kissing me greedily, as though he’d been waiting for the past hour to do this very thing and couldn’t go another second.
I responded, letting my relief well up into the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck, right where I wanted to be in a place I never wanted to leave.
“You can kiss later,” Irontooth said, his tone gruff but laced with humor. “This is as far as we can go in the cart. We have to keep moving in order to stay ahead of the queen’s soldiers. And we need to make it to the rendezvous spot, where we’ll meet up with Gregor and the others.”
I broke away from Mikkel. For a moment, we rested with our foreheads touching and breaths mingling.
Mikkel was the first to lean away. As he did, I became aware of our surroundings, the foothills rising in front of us, the boulders surrounded by yew and juniper, the dark forest of evergreens farther up the slopes.
I recognized the area north of Kensington beyond Wraith Lake. The terrain was rocky and rough but consisted of many hiding places. Clearly, Irontooth was familiar enough with Warwick to know where to go, or he’d gleaned the information while plotting the escape.
“We’re traveling by foot the rest of the distance,” Irontooth continued, “so we can move faster.”
I climbed down from the cart and brushed the hay from my gown. Mikkel crawled off and took the cloak Irontooth held out to him. He started to wrap it around his bare torso, but I grabbed it and forced it away. “I shall clean and doctor your wounds first.”
“We’ll have time for that later.” He started to drape the cloak again.
I wrenched it from his hold. “I shall do it now.”
“And risk capture again?”
“We have no need for haste.”
“Why not?”
“The queen’s soldiers will not follow us.”
“And how can that be when the queen has condemned you to death?” He crossed his arms over his bare chest, drawing my attention to his rounded muscles.
A flush moved into my cheeks, and I hastily returned the cloak. I waited for him to cover himself before continuing. “The queen no longer has need of my heart and has better use for me alive than dead.”
Mikkel’s light-blue eyes were intense, filled with all the fervor and determination I loved. “And why did the queen need your heart in the first place?”
I explained all I’d learned since arriving: how Mikkel had been right about Grendel, how the queen kept the monster for her own purposes, how she’d used the hearts of maidens in her alchemy to create jewels, and how she believed the heart of a royal maiden was the secret ingredient in alchemy for making gold.
As I spoke, the furrows in Mikkel’s forehead deepened. “If your heart can aid her alchemy, why does she no longer have need for it?”
“Because the heart must belong to an unmarried young woman.”
“Then our marriage saved you?”
I nodded.
Perched on a boulder, Irontooth guffawed. “Does this mean you’ll be rewarding me for forcing you into the marriage?”
Mikkel managed a grin. “I shall declare you a national hero for your deed.” Even as he teased Irontooth, his expression remained guarded as though he sensed there was more to my explanation.
I shifted, tangling in my ruby gown and wishing I could free myself from the heavy garment every bit as much as I could free myself from the bargain I’d struck with the queen. The more I considered my deal, the more ashamed I was of what I’d done. I didn’t want to tell Mikkel, but I’d already deceived him with my veil and had to move forward with truth henceforth.
“I told the queen I would bring her another royal heart.” I confessed my deed before I lost the courage. “A heart belonging to Queen Aurora of Mercia. Since my mother has been attempting to find and kill my cousin since birth, I told her I would help her find Aurora.”
Mikkel didn’t react and instead waited as I explained everything I’d spoken to the queen about—the two months remaining to find Aurora as well as my suspicion that she was in Inglewood Forest.
“’Twas the only way to save you,” I finished. “And ’twill be the only way the queen agrees to release Ruby to me.
“But . . .”
“But I cannot betray Aurora and deliver her to the queen. However, if I do not, she will never give me Ruby.” I held up my hands, the helplessness of my situation settling upon me. “Tell me what I must do, Mikkel.”
He stared off into the distance for a moment, his brow pinching. “We must find Aurora right away, not only to protect her, but to gain her cooperation in the fight against the queen.”
“We?” I shook my head. “No, I shall do this alone. You must go back to the Isle of Outcasts and finish your Testing.” I couldn’t allow him to give up becoming king for me.
Irontooth shook his head. “He’ll never be accepted back now that the truth is out about who you both are. I won’t either and neither will the others who came with me.” Irontooth explained how someone had found one of the notices the queen had posted offering the reward for Pearl. It hadn’t taken long to connect the notice to Pearl’s reason for traveling to Warwick and to understand who she really was. Irontooth, Felicity, Toad, Humphrey, and a few others had remained loyal. But as a result, the rest of the outcasts had joined together and forced them to leave.
“I regret causing so much trouble for you,” I said once he’d finished his tale.
“It worked out for the best.” Irontooth stood and stretched. “After how you sacrificed yourselves to help me save Felicity, I knew I needed to come to your aid.”
We talked for a few more minutes about Irontooth’s plans for the future, and he insisted he would stay with us wherever we might go until we were able to rescue Ruby. Then, as though sensing my need for a moment of privacy with Mikkel, he wandered over to the mule and began to unhitch the cart.
I nodded my thanks before facing Mikkel. “You must find a way to finish your Testing.”
He grasped my hands as though he never meant to let go. “I’ve learned that I can do my Testing anywhere, that it’s not the place that matters but doing the hard things that help us grow.”
“But you are meant to be a king—”
He brought a finger to my lips and silenced me. “If God wills it, he will bring it about in his time and in his way. And if he doesn’t, I shall accept my fate. In the meantime, I shall fight beside you as we seek to do what is true and right.”
I paused to take in his declaration, still uncertain whether I should allow him to abandon the Testing. He’d shown himself to be a man of honor and principle who would sacrifice much for others. How could I deny him that? “What if we cannot find Aurora?”
“We shall enlist Kresten’s aid. He has lived in Inglewood Forest for his Testing these many months and will be able to help.”
“And what if Aurora has no desire to join our fight against the queen?”
“Surely she will once we tell her how Queen Margery has discovered the secrets of alchemy. If Queen Margery’s alchemy is left unchecked, she could become one of the most powerful queens in the world. As such, she would pose an even greater threat to Mercia and many other countries, including Scania.”
Everything Mikkel said was as wise as always. The battle against the queen wasn’t simply about freeing Ruby. It was much more serious than that. “She must be stopped.�
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“And Aurora is the one to help us do it.”
“Then you are not angry with me for bargaining on my cousin’s life?”
“Of course not.” He reached for my hands again and drew me nearer. “You thought quickly and used the queen’s greed to your advantage.”
“She will not hold to her end of the agreement. She has never been trustworthy.”
The hard set of his jaw told me he’d learned that lesson all too well the day of the feast when she’d locked us both away. “She may be a hypocrite and full of lies. But we do not have to follow that path, and I pray we can have honesty between us henceforth.”
I nodded. He was referring to my veil. “I am heartily sorry for any untruths in the past and vow I shall be honest from this day forward.”
“And do you vow never to rush off without me again? That whatever peril or challenges the future may bring, we will face adversity together, side by side?”
“I vow it.”
Though he winced at the brush of his cloak against the wounds on his back, he held himself with the bearing of royalty, his back straight, his chin lifted, his lips firm with determination, reminding me of how he’d looked that day he’d run the gauntlet on the island. He was a strong man, one who only made me stronger in return.
I pressed my hand to his scruffy cheek. Overwhelming love for him swelled inside. “I didn’t mean what I said at the feast. I do love you.”
His lips curved into a smile, and he pulled me into his arms. “I know you do.”
“You do?”
“You have loved me since the first day we met.”
I swatted him but couldn’t contain a smile of my own. “You think too highly of yourself.”
“I am right, am I not?”
“No—”
“I admit to starting to fall in love with you the first day we met.”
After the months of wearing the veil, I’d felt strangely bare the past few days and was self-conscious as his attention lingered on my face. “And I admit I am relieved to know you care more for who I am than what I look like.”
“I have learned that what lies beneath the surface is much more important than appearances.” He brushed a finger down my cheek to my jaw, sending tingles over my skin. “But I cannot deny I am just as beguiled by your outer beauty as I am with who you are on the inside.”
I leaned in to his touch. “Shall I go back to wearing a veil so I do not beguile you, my lord?”
“Don’t even think about it. For then I shall not be able to do this.” He angled in and captured my lips in a kiss, one that took away every coherent thought.
“Aw, come on now.” Irontooth’s call broke through our kiss. “I said you can kiss later.”
“It is later,” Mikkel murmured through another kiss. “It will always be one moment later.”
I leaned away from him, my smile widening. “Does that mean you will always be kissing me?”
“Yes, always and forever.” As he pressed his lips to mine again, I lifted up on my toes to kiss him back, showing him I would accept those kisses and love him always and forever too.
Chapter
26
Queen Margery
I caressed the golden box, tracing the intricate ancient engravings that covered it. The white stone inside was shaped and sized like a young maiden’s heart. The candelabra on the chapel altar made the stone glow, revealing all of its beauty. Though as clear as a diamond, it contained hues of precious gems and was woven with intricate threads of gold.
Little had I known during my early years of searching to uncover its mysteries that many clues were deep in the stone itself, clues I’d discovered through too many failed experiments and trials.
As much as the beautiful stone beckoned to me, I didn’t dare touch it. I’d witnessed the power it had over the servants we’d used in our experiments. In every single instance without fail, anyone who came into contact with the stone itself always fell into a deep sleep of unconsciousness and eventually died.
The stone had a life and will of its own. Though many kings and queens before me had claimed it was cursed, they’d comprehended that the cost for its destruction was too high.
I’d learned the cost for its fulfillment was also high. But over the years, I’d determined to pay the price so that I might earn the distinction of being the first to make gold.
For so long, I’d hoped to avoid using Pearl’s heart when she came of age, had increased my efforts to find my niece instead. But with every passing year of failing to locate Aurora, I’d closed myself off to Pearl and hardened my heart toward her. Eventually, I’d accepted the fact that I would have to sacrifice Pearl if I had any chance of accomplishing what no one else had ever been able to do.
I wanted to think I would have been able to go through with the beheading, that I wouldn’t have given way to the pressure building inside my chest to call off the execution. But when she’d delivered the news of her marriage to Mikkel, a strange tension had eased from my body. Had I been relieved? Was there still a part of me that I hadn’t been able to harden toward my flesh and blood?
Was that why I’d so readily agreed to her plan and set her free? And why I hadn’t gone through with beheading her as I should have? After all, she’d made clear enough that she understood the secrets of my alchemy—had likely learned them from Ruby. That alone was enough to silence her.
Instead of the beheading today, I should have sent her away to be murdered as I’d done for last year’s hunting expedition when a part of me had known I wouldn’t be able to watch her die, not even in the yearly sacrifice to Grendel.
With a sigh of frustration, I traced the rim of the golden box and gazed upon the white stone, trying to absorb its power and life. Today I’d shown a moment of weakness, and I couldn’t let it happen again. After all, the ancient parchment in the secret compartment of the box stated that only the hardest of hearts could ever do what was required to make use of the white stone.
“Are you ready, Your Majesty?” My priest bowed his tonsured head and waved a hand toward the velvet-lined chest that was cushioned inside another chest.
I ran my fingers along the engravings of the golden box one last time, and then carefully lowered the lid, securing the white stone inside. “Yes, I am ready.”
I took a step back and allowed the priest and his companion to lift the golden box from its sacred pedestal and lower it into the awaiting chest. A special cart was ready for the golden box, one I used for transporting the white stone during the yearly trip to the Gemstone Mountains and the mine pits.
This year, however, we wouldn’t be journeying up into the mountains. Instead, we would go north to Inglewood Forest and Boarshead Hunting Lodge.
And I was ready. I’d failed with Pearl. But I wouldn’t with Aurora.
Already, my elite knights were following Pearl and Mikkel. They would make use of every clue Pearl unearthed in hunting for Aurora. And they would find the young queen first. They must. I knew Pearl was too soft and sentimental to carry through in delivering Aurora over to me.
“Ruby is ready to go, Your Majesty,” said one of the guards from the chapel’s doorway.
“Very well. You must deliver her to Boarshead Hunting Lodge without any incidents.”
The guard bowed, his armor clinking in readiness for his mission. Though I’d wanted to leave Ruby behind and far away from Pearl, I suspected I would have need of the girl in one form or another.
Prince Mikkel would likely seek out the aid of his brother Prince Vilmar and perhaps even the help of his youngest brother, Prince Kresten—though I had yet to learn where he was conducting his Testing. If I could lure the Scanian princes to Boarshead Hunting Lodge, then I would have a greater chance of eliminating them, especially now that Mikkel and Vilmar knew the secrets of my alchemy.
I was familiar enough with the rules of the Testing to know that King Christian couldn’t break with tradition to come to the aid of his sons by sending his forces to Warwi
ck to rescue them. While I might incur King Christian’s wrath for killing his sons, I wasn’t concerned. Making an enemy of him wouldn’t matter once I had the power to make gold. I wouldn’t need Scania or any other nation’s friendship. Instead, they would grovel before me.
The priest finished securing the golden box and then motioned toward the two chapel guards to come carry the chest.
As they lifted the container with utmost care, I preceded them, the white stone never far from my presence. “Let us be on our way.”
I would find Aurora and the Scanian princes, and I vowed to destroy them once and for all.
Jody Hedlund is the best-selling author of over thirty historicals for both adults and teens and is the winner of numerous awards including the Christy, Carol, and Christian Book Award. She lives in central Michigan with her husband, passel of busy young adults, and five spoiled cats. Learn more at JodyHedlund.com
Young Adult Fiction from Jody Hedlund
The Fairest Maidens
Beholden
Upon the death of her wealthy father, Lady Gabriella is condemned to work in Warwick’s gem mine. As she struggles to survive the dangerous conditions, her kindness and beauty shine as brightly as the jewels the slaves excavate. While laboring, Gabriella plots how to avenge her father’s death and stop Queen Margery’s cruelty.
Beguiled
Princess Pearl flees for her life after her mother, Queen Margery, tries to have her killed during a hunting expedition. Pearl finds refuge on the Isle of Outcasts among criminals and misfits, disguising her face with a veil so no one recognizes her. She lives for the day when she can return to Warwick and rescue her sister, Ruby, from the queen’s clutches.
Besotted
Queen Aurora of Mercia has spent her entire life deep in Inglewood Forest, hiding from Warwick’s Queen Margery, who seeks her demise. As the time draws near for Aurora to take the throne, she happens upon a handsome woodcutter. Although friendship with outsiders is forbidden and dangerous, she cannot stay away from the charming stranger.