The Crown of Embers
Page 3“I’m fine, Mara,” I say into her hair. “Truly.”
“The animagus could have killed you,” she whispers.
“But he didn’t.”
She’s the first to pull away. When she straightens, her lips are pressed into a resolved line.
“Hector,” I say.
He uncrosses his arms and stands at attention, but he regards me warily.
“I can’t leave all those people out there. They’ll work themselves into a terrified mob.”
He frowns. “You want to open the gates.”
“They should know that their queen will protect them, no matter what.”
“To reverse the order of a Quorum lord, you must give the command in person.” He puts up a hand to keep me from rushing out the door. “But you need a proper escort. We should wait until Lady Ximena and the other guards return.”
“People are mobbing the gate now.”
He considers a moment, then nods reluctantly.
To Mara, I say, “Will you check on Prince Rosario?” Treading strategically means protecting my heir.
She reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze. “Of course. Please be careful.” She doesn’t let go until I squeeze back.
Hector and I hurry into the hallway and immediately stop short. Soldiers pour from an adjoining corridor and run off ahead of us, a cacophony of clanking armor and creaking leather. They wear the plain cloaks of palace garrison—General Luz-Manuel’s men. “Hector? What—”
“I have no idea.” But he draws his sword.
Another group approaches from behind, and we step aside to let them pass. They move with such haste that they fail to notice their queen staring at them as they go by.
The soldier bringing up the rear is a little younger, a little shorter than the others. I grab him by the collar and yank him backward. He whips his sword around to defend himself, but Hector blocks him neatly. My ears ring from the clash of steel on steel, but I manage not to flinch.
The soldier’s face blanches when he recognizes me. “Your Majesty! I’m so sorry. I didn’t see . . .” He drops to his knee and bows his head. Hector does not lower his sword.
“Where are you going?” I demand.
“The main gate, Your Majesty.”
“Why?”
“We are under siege.”
Hector and I exchange a startled glance. It must be the Inviernos. How did they sneak into the city unnoticed? How could so many—
Oh, God. “You mean we’re defending the palace against our own people? Tell me who gave the order to lock down the palace.”
He folds in on himself a little. “It—it was Lord-Conde Eduardo.”
“By sealed message or in person?” Hector asks, and it takes me a moment to understand: If it was a sealed message, the parchment might still exist.
“His adviser, Franco, relayed the message.”
Franco. I’ve made it a point to memorize the names and positions of every person in my court, but I don’t recognize this one.
“I require your escort to the palace gate,” I tell him as Hector nods approval. “Quickly.” I gesture for him to lead the way, preferring Hector at my back, and lift my skirts to keep pace.
The dusty yard teems with palace garrison—archers up along the palace wall, light infantry in a row, ten paces back from the gate. Spearmen stand at the portcullis, swatting at grappling hands with their spear points, barking warnings to the people on the other side. From the swelling noise, the crowd has at least tripled.
“Thank you,” I tell the young soldier. “You may join your company.” He bows and flees.
Hector points to the wall above the gate, to a space between crenellations. “It’s Conde Eduardo.”
Sure enough, a figure stands tall, hands on hips, observing the crowd beyond.
“Let’s go.”
Hector bellows, “Make way for the queen!”
Soldiers scurry out of the way as we rush forward and take the stairs to the top of the wall two at a time.
The conde’s eyes widen slightly as I approach, but a blanket of composure drops across his features quickly. He’s an almost-handsome man with broad shoulders, sharp eyes, and a black close-cropped beard that cedes to gray along his temples. “You shouldn’t be here, Your Majesty,” he says. “It isn’t safe for you.”
“Did you order the palace lockdown?” I ask, breathless from the quick climb.
“No. The mayordomo did.”
I peer into the conde’s face, trying to read any deception or nervousness there, but he is as preternaturally calm as always.
“I want the gate opened,” I tell him.
“I’m not sure that’s a good—”
“They’re our people. Not our enemies.”
“They’re panicked. Panicked people do horrible things.”
“Like dropping the gate against those we’re supposed to protect?”
His nostrils flare as he takes a deep breath. He leans forward, eyes narrowed, and I resist the urge to flinch away. Do not back down, Elisa. Below, the mob has quieted. They have no doubt spotted me. They’re waiting to see what I’ll do.
I lift my chin to address the command toward the crowd. “The citizens of Brisadulce are most welcome. Raise the gate!”
The cry echoes throughout the yard. Gears shriek as the portcullis grinds upward. The garrison soldiers make way as the people of my city rush into the yard. But the initial panic blows itself out quickly, and after a moment, everyone filters through with orderly haste. My shoulders sag with relief. Until this moment, I was only mostly sure of my decision.
If the conde has a reaction to the quieting crowd, he does not show it, “There is much to discuss regarding today’s events,” he says.
“Indeed,” I agree with equal calm. “I’m calling an emergency meeting of the Quorum.”
He bows from the waist, then turns on his heel and strides away along the wall.
I watch him go, wondering about the flicker on his face when he first saw me, at his hesitation to follow my orders. Then I turn my back on him and the crowd gathering in the courtyard to look out over my city. I need to feel wide-open space, cleaner air.
I sense Hector beside me. He leans his elbows onto the wall so that our shoulders almost touch, and he says, “This is your first major crisis as sole monarch. You are weathering it well.”
“Thank you.” But I clutch the wall’s edge with misgiving. I gaze out across the flat rooftops of Brisadulce. They hug the downslope like massive adobe stairs, lush with garden plants and trellises. Beyond them, the ocean horizon stretches and curves, as though someone has thumb-smeared the bottom of the sky with indigo paint. “Hector, you know how when clouds roll across the sky, everyone turns an eye toward the docks to see if the water will leap over them and flood the streets? To see if the coming storm is actually a hurricane?”
“Yes.”
“I fear that’s what this is. Merely the heralding surge.”
Chapter 3
I hate Quorum meetings.
Calling one is the right thing to do; we must deal with this incident decisively. But the lord-general and the lord-conde have been in power for decades. I’m the upstart—a seventeen-year-old queen reigning by royal decree rather than inheritance. On a good day, they talk over me as if I’m not there. On a bad one, I feel like a pesky sand chigger in danger of a swift swatting.
I’m the last to arrive. My entourage of ladies and guards stops at the threshold, for only Quorum members are allowed inside. Mara forces an encouraging smile as I swing the huge double doors shut and slide the bolt home to lock us in.
The Quorum chamber is low ceilinged and windowless, like a tomb. Candles flicker from sconces set in dusty mortar between gray stones. A squat oak table fills the center, surrounded by red cushions. The air is thick with unyielding silence, and I feel as though the ghosts of weighty decisions and secret councils press in around me, telling me to hush.
Hector is already seated on his cushion, looking stern. We always arrive separately, for it would be gauche to flaunt our close association. He lifts his chin in cold greeting, giving no hint that there is any warmth between us.
General Luz-Manuel, commander of my army, rises to welcome me, but his smile does not reach his eyes. He’s a small, hunched man, unimposing enough that his rise to military prominence seems puzzling. Because of this, I know better than to underestimate him.
“You were right to call this meeting, Your Majesty,” he says.
Beside him sits Lady Jada, who clasps her hands together and smiles as if in raptures. “Oh, Your Majesty, I’m so delighted the lord-general invited me again!”
I blink at her, marveling at her seeming unawareness of the moment’s gravity. Jada is wife to Brisadulce’s mayor and a temporary addition to the Quorum. We have been minus a member since I allowed the eastern holdings to secede, but we dare not meet with fewer than five, the holy number of perfection. Lady Jada is neither clever nor interesting, and therefore an unintimidating choice until we decide on a permanent replacement.
“I’m delighted you accepted,” I tell her sincerely.
Conde Eduardo bows his head in greeting, then calls the meeting to order by quoting God’s own words from the Scriptura Sancta: “Wherever five are gathered, there am I in their midst.”
I settle onto a cushion at the head of the table.
“Is an empty threat,” Hector says. “They were beaten badly. Her Majesty destroyed nine of their sorcerers that day.”
“And yet one remained,” says General Luz-Manuel. “Who knows how many others lurk in our city? How many more in their mountains? He claimed their population to be more numerous than the desert sands. Could they launch another army at us, even bigger than the last? We would not survive another such onslaught.”
Hector frowns. “You don’t actually believe we should give in to their demand, do you?”
I shift on my cushion, dreading the general’s response.
After an awkward hesitation, he says, “Of course not.”
“We should attempt some kind of diplomacy,” Eduardo says. “Our greatest weakness has ever been that we know so little about them. And I’m sure our queen could charm them—”
“Their ambassadors were never forthcoming.” I jump in, mostly because I’m already sick of being talked over as if I’m not here. “Short of sending a delegation to Invierne, I don’t know how we’ll find out what we need to know. But they always refused offers of a return delegation from my father.”
“It was the same here,” Hector says. “King Alejandro offered delegations several times, only to be rebuffed.”
I know what my sister, Crown Princess Alodia, would counsel. “We need spies,” I say.
General Luz-Manuel shakes his head. “We can’t outfit spies over such a long distance. There’s nothing left in the coffers. And we’d have no way of communicating with them. It’s too far, even for pigeons.”
The helpless expression on everyone’s face makes the chamber feel even tighter, even hotter. I wish I’d brought a fan with me.
“We have a more immediate problem,” Conde Eduardo says. “Five months after the Battle of Brisadulce, our nation was finally beginning to heal. This is a terrible blow. Several people were killed today in the ensuing chaos.”
My heart drops into my stomach. I remember the panic, the crowd, the runaway carriage. I hadn’t realized people were dying around me. Maybe that was the Inviernos’ plan all along, to frighten us into hurting ourselves.
Conde Eduardo adds, “Some misguided souls may even call for the queen’s head.”
“Surely not!” Lady Jada protests.
The conde shrugs. “If they believe giving Her Majesty over to Invierne will save their brothers and sons and wives, they will demand it be done. You saw how they nearly stormed the palace this morning.”
The same people who cheered me along the parade, who chanted my name and hailed me as a hero. Ximena was right.
Lady Jada turns to me. “Can’t you just”—she makes an obscure gesture with one hand—“do something with your Godstone? Defeat them like last time?”
I wilt a little on my cushion. “If only I could, my lady. I had an amulet then, and several old stones from long-dead bearers. Now I’ve only my own. Father Nicandro and I are working together to figure out how to channel its power.” I choose not to mention that, aside from bringing a warm glow to the stone, I’ve accomplished nothing.
General Luz-Manuel leans forward, eyes gleaming. “I have an idea.” He is a consummate politician, and he allows an exactly perfect stretch of silence before adding, “Your Majesty, we must discuss the issue of your regency.”
I wipe my suddenly sweating palms on my knees. “I am not the prince’s regent,” I tell him, pretending to misunderstand. “It is wholly my choice whether or not to hand the throne over to Rosario when he comes of age. The king named me his unequivocal heir and Queen Regnant.” I’m proud of my steady voice.
“The king was on his deathbed and suffering tremendously, perhaps not in his right mind. You are so young, Your Majesty; not yet come of age yourself. And foreign. Many doubt your worthiness to rule. Add to that today’s terrifying incident, and you must consider that you need a regent. It would go a long way toward assuring the populace.”