“What’s obvious?” Faun asked Haskel.
Haskel gestured to me. “If our Eury is the only one capable of retrieving this dagger, and it confers the kind of power Liora promises, then guess who’d ride atop the Sylvanwild queen once the trial is done?”
“Her only ally.” Faun’s gaze found me. “The queen she feels indebted to.”
Yes, that had been the trade-off. Liora, my mentor, my ally—the queen behind the queen—in exchange for the dagger.
She knew where it was hidden. Only she, because no other queen was alive both in Carys’s time and in ours. And Carys had trusted Liora more than the other grasping queens of the time.
Carys, the queen of storms. The changeling who’d cursed her own kingdom with acid rain. Who’d cut her fate line from end to end.
I could still feel the dagger in my hand. The pain of its edge on my skin. The reverent gazes of her soldiers—the respect one weapon conferred.
That blade was out there somewhere, waiting for me. The stag had let me taste its power, and now nothing else would do.
Once my body had settled, I stood. “I’m going to accept her offer.”
“You haven’t even heard our advice,” Faun said.
I crossed to the armchair and pulled my robe from atop it. “What choice do I have, Faun? She knows I can’t say no, unless I want the other queens at my back.”
“She speaks true,” Haskel said.
The front door of the guest chambers opened, and Dorian appeared. He took in the scene in a second, his eyes lingering on me as I pulled my robe on. His hair was a mess, his breathing fast. Dorian unclasped his cloak and strode to Faun’s side. His voice was so quiet, I almost couldn’t hear the words. “Gawain is here.”
Faun pressed off the wall, her arms uncrossing. “You’re certain?”
I stopped tying my robe and glanced between the two of them.
“He’s on loan from Maeronyx.” Dorian threw his cloak over a chair. “Been doing Liora’s dirtiest work down below.”
“To what end?”
I stepped closer to them, tied my robe off, and listened.
“I thought Gawain was dead,” Faun said. “You told Rhiannon he was dead.”
“I thought he was.” Dorian crossed to the spread of food, picked up a bread knife, and began cutting into a loaf like an animal’s carcass. It was the first time I’d really seen him go near food since we’d left Sylvanwild.
Faun scoffed. “Look at the state of you. Both of them have already gained from his service.”
Dorian lifted a hunk of bread and tore into it with his teeth. “If she knew what he was, she wouldn’t keep him around. She’d have his head off in two seconds.”
The two of them shared a whole history, an understanding. They spoke so quickly, I could hardly follow. They hadn’t bothered explaining anything to me; I might have been a ghost.
Something Liora had said at breakfast drifted back to me. I’d asked her what it would mean for us to be allies, and she had told me she would teach me to be a queen.
“If your subjects ignore you, let them,” she’d said. “Don’t demand their attention—it’s the quickest way to lose it.”
“But how then do I lead?” I’d asked.
She half-smiled. “You make yourself unignorable.”
I didn’t know what that meant. Not exactly. Not until this moment.
Faun and Dorian didn’t notice when I passed into my chamber. They went on arguing about Gawain and Liora and Maeronyx.
I dropped onto my knees, opened the trunk that had ridden on the back of our carriage all the way from Sylvanwild. My black leathers sat folded at the bottom, left over after all of Mirek’s pretty dresses had been extricated.