‘Phaedra,’ he called out softly. ‘Can you come out here … now?’
Phaedra heard the voices, and was wide awake in an instant.
‘Your Highness,’ she said, crawling out and getting to her feet. ‘You shouldn’t be out here.’
‘Come now, Phaedra,’ Quintana said briskly. ‘We’ve got to go home.’
She sounded like Cora, and Phaedra wondered if she was mimicking her.
Phaedra stole a look at Lucian, who bent to kiss her goodbye, but changed his mind.
‘We’ll speak later, Luc-ien,’ she said.
He stared down at Quintana’s belly. ‘You should be resting, Your Highness. Your birthing time will come soon.’
‘And you’d know that because you’ve birthed a child before?’ Quintana asked.
‘No,’ Lucian said politely. ‘I know that because I live on a mountain with many women. I’ve seen enough of those,’ he said, pointing to her belly. ‘And you don’t have much time to go.’
Quintana rolled her eyes. Lucian narrowed his.
‘Queens and princesses should show more restraint in eye-rolling,’ he muttered. He stepped forward again to kiss Phaedra, but Quintana tugged her hand and dragged her away. Phaedra turned to see him still standing by the shelter. Lucian held up a hand to wave and then disappeared between the trees.
She looked at her two companions, feeling lighthearted despite Quintana’s fingers digging into her hand.
‘You were away too long,’ Quintana said accusingly.
‘What have I missed?’ Phaedra asked.
‘Oh, the usual,’ Florenza said.
‘Cora says no one will marry Florenza now with a broken nose,’ Quintana said.
‘Cora is playing with you,’ Phaedra said.
‘And Ginny is acting strange, snivelling in a corner one moment, disappearing the next,’ Florenza said.
‘You’d think she had never seen a corpse before the hangman’s,’ Quintana said.
‘We’ve all had a shock,’ Phaedra said. ‘Florenza could have been killed and the hangman could have taken you, Quintana. We’ve just got to be patient with everyone’s moods.’
She felt the Princess studying her.
‘What were you doing all that time, Phaedra? Swiving doesn’t take so long.’
‘We were talking, Your Majesty,’ Phaedra said, ignoring the word, knowing quite well that Quintana was only using it to irritate her. ‘We had much to say to each other.’
Quintana was silent for some time.
‘On my last night in Paladozza I lay with Froi and we spoke of everything,’ she said. Phaedra wondered if she was trying to compete.
‘And in the end he asked me who I trusted most in the world and I told him the names of four people and then I asked him who he trusted most in the world and he told me the names of thirty.’
‘It’s a Lumateran thing,’ Phaedra said absently, the memory of Lucian’s hands on her body. ‘They travel in packs and trust each other with all their hearts. It doesn’t mean they have the capacity to love more than us, but they do know how to trust. It’s because of their queen and her father before her and his father before him. The trust of a people comes from the goodness of their leaders.’
Quintana stopped. ‘Are you questioning my family’s failure to rule, Phaedra?’
Phaedra wanted to be mean-spirited. She wanted to hurt Quintana because so much was broken due to her. Phaedra wanted to hide on the mountain with Lucian, but this girl and Charyn’s unborn child stopped her.
‘Your father and the house of Charyn didn’t fail as rulers,’ Phaedra said boldly. ‘They failed as leaders.’
Quintana’s stare was fierce and Phaedra shivered at its force.
‘Well, now you’ve gone and offended me, Phaedra, and I’m not going to tell you what I meant to tell you.’
Phaedra sighed. ‘I haven’t offended you,’ she said, trying to keep a patient tone, because she knew that Quintana had nothing to tell her. It was just a ploy so Phaedra would be forced to beg Quintana for the news. ‘I offended your father and the house of Charyn.’
‘I am the house of Charyn. This,’ Quintana said, pointing to her belly, ‘is the house of Charyn. And you didn’t just mean my father, Phaedra, you meant to insult the whole bloodline.’
‘Your Highness, she didn’t mean –’ Florenza began.
‘
Phaedra stared at her. ‘Yes,’ she said truthfully. ‘I meant your father and his father and his father before him. My own father says that Charyn’s royal bloodline is tainted.’
‘And your father thinks that women don’t have courage,’ Quintana said, ‘and that his grief is mightier than his duty to feed a people. So perhaps you should question what your father has to say about the bloodline of Charyn’s first child.’
‘I didn’t mean to insult your child,’ Phaedra said. ‘Come now,’ she added gently. ‘What were you going to tell me?’
Quintana looked away with an arrogant toss of her head. ‘You’re humouring me now, Phaedra. Placating me like I’m some stupid hound who will be satisfied with a bone. When you learn to respect me, I will speak to you as an equal.’
Chapter 31
Froi spent the rest of the morning with the leaders, questioning Fekra in the castle’s dungeon. He couldn’t help remembering the interrogation of Rafuel of Sebastabol on Lucian’s mountain. That day had begun it all. He would hardly recognise the lad he was back then. Who was Froi, not having known Quintana and Arjuro and Lirah and Gargarin?
Unlike Rafuel, Fekra kept his head down the whole time.
‘Were you there?’ Dolyn of Lascow repeated. He had insisted on joining them all for the interrogation. ‘When Tariq and our kinspeople were slaughtered?’
Fekra finally looked up and Froi saw the bleakness in his eyes.
‘No. But I was there when the men returned. They had lost their spirit.’
‘And that is supposed to appease my people?’ Dolyn asked with anger.
Fekra shook his head.
‘You’re not a soldier,’ he said. ‘You don’t understand orders.’
‘Ah, the defence of all great men. I was ordered to do it,’ Perabo said, looking away with disgust.
‘At first we were told that Tariq of Lascow and his people had planned the murder of the King,’ Fekra said. ‘Months later, a different story emerged.’
‘The true assassin?’ Froi asked cautiously.
Fekra nodded. ‘In a way. Whispers suggested that Bestiano ordered the killings of Tariq of Lascow’s compound because he wanted Charyn’s heir dead. That it had been Bestiano who did indeed kill the King because he had discovered that Quintana of Charyn was with child and he wanted more control over the kingdom. What better way than being regent to a helpless little king?’
Fekra shook his head. ‘Bestiano and those he paid to be his advisors said it was only talk, but a handful of the palace riders began to question the truth, including our captain.’
‘Oh, the noble palace riders,’ Gargarin said with sarcasm.
‘Upon accepting the rumours, our captain attempted to desert but was betrayed,’ Fekra said, and Froi heard anger in his voice. In spite of everything, Fekra was still loyal to the riders. ‘When my captain was dragged back to the camp, Bestiano decreed him a traitor, to be punished by death. And not just the captain. Bestiano ordered him to choose ten riders to die alongside him as a warning to anyone else who would defy him again. It was the longest night of our lives.’ Tears welled up in Fekra’s eyes. ‘Thirty men deciding who would live. Finally, those who had been sent into Tariq of Lascow’s compound volunteered to die alongside their captain, as did some of the older riders who had been present as young men at the slaughter of Serker. They said they lived with shame and they would die
