than we were. I thanked him and mounted the horse with Roland. My body remembered how to do it without difficulty, and I was again pleased to be regaining my former agility. The horse moved slower with two, but our speed was much better than if we’d been on foot. The guard who’d ridden ahead had long since beaten us, so we found a crowd waiting for us at the castle’s entrance.
I climbed down from the horse ungracefully—reminding me I shouldn’t be
“Jasmine!” I exclaimed, rushing forward.
My sister stood wrapped in a fur-lined cloak, her face pale. It flooded with relief when I caught her in a big hug. She returned it with more fierceness than I would’ve expected, considering we weren’t usually so touchy-feely. “Thank God you’re back,” she said into my shoulder. “Now we can fix all this.”
I wasn’t ready to tell her yet that I wasn’t sure I
After a few greetings and nondescript assurances, Roland and I were able to leave the crowd and meet Jasmine in a cozy sitting room. When Aeson, this kingdom’s former ruler, had been in charge, the land had undergone seasons, and the castle had been built to accommodate winter. That had made for miserable conditions once I turned the land into a desert, often making this keep feel like a kiln. Now, that design paid off. The sitting room was small, with no windows, and held the heat coming from a blazing fire. I was pretty sure it was the first time I’d ever seen one of the fireplaces in use here.
Jasmine told me she’d sent word “to the others,” whatever that meant. She then gave orders for food and drink to the servants before finally settling into a chair. There was a maturity to her that hadn’t been there before, likely the result of being forced to take charge of so much so quickly. She kept her cloak on, but I was ready to remove my layers. I was still cold but felt heavy and encumbered. Roland must have felt the same way because he too stripped off his winter wear. We both found chairs and dragged them as close to the fire as possible. Jasmine sighed.
“I don’t know if it’s because I grew up in the desert or if it’s just because this weather’s such a bitch, but I swear—” Her jaw dropped as she did a double take at me. “You ... you’re not pregnant!”
I thought it had been obvious right away, but I suppose the coat might have been deceptive. “Nope, not anymore.”
“But you ...” Her words died again, and I could see her mentally crunching numbers in her head. “You shouldn’t be due for a few more weeks. Did you��”
“Everything’s fine,” I said quickly, seeing panic start to overtake her. “They just came early. About a month ago. They needed lots of medical help, but everything looks great for them.”
She relaxed, but her blue-gray eyes were still wide. “Then you’re ... wow. You’re a mom. And I’m an aunt.”
I smiled. “Yup. Their names are Isaac and Ivy.” I wasn’t going to say a word, not even to her, about their location, but their names were safe enough. That revelation got an even bigger reaction. Jasmine filled with delight.
“You named her after me!”
I frowned, not entirely sure where that leap of logic had come from. Because of shared botanical names? “Well, I—”
“Oh, Eugenie!” She jumped up from her chair and hugged me again, leaving the cloak behind. “You’re so awesome. Thanks so much!”
She seemed so happy that I figured it wasn’t worth mentioning the plant names were coincidental. Just as my un-layered state had surprised her, I was astonished to look at her now and see how skinny she was. I could feel her ribs when she hugged me.
“What happened to you?” I exclaimed, once she’d sat down again. “You’re skin and bones!”
Jasmine glanced down with a scowl and picked at her too-loose dress. “Oh, that. Well, there’s not a lot of food anymore. Plus, trying to keep the lands alive takes a lot out of me.”
Guilt ran through me. I certainly knew communing with the land took a fair amount of energy, but it hadn’t occurred to me until now that doing so in these conditions would be extra taxing—especially since she was just the substitute. Maybe that bonding wasn’t solely responsible for her weight loss, but I didn’t doubt that keeping the land in check played a role in some of the gauntness in her face.
“Jasmine, I’m so sorry—”
She waved it off. “Don’t worry. It had to be done, right? Besides, once it’s charged, the land can go a while in these conditions. And you did what you needed. Everything’s okay with Isaac and my namesake, which was the whole purpose.”
She then proceeded to give us an account of how things had been in both kingdoms. Jasmine didn’t use quite the technical language and statistics that Shaya might when describing people and resources, but she did a much better job than I would have expected. In filling in for me, Jasmine had ended up taking on a lot more responsibilities than just being the lands’ caretaker. Her report gave me more specifics on the situation here, but the big picture wasn’t much different from what Roland had described. As close as Jasmine was to Pagiel, she hadn’t accepted any of his stolen goods—though she was undecided on whether what he was doing was wrong.
My kingdoms had, much to her chagrin, done some trading with the Yew Land. We were one of the few kingdoms that had a steady stream of resources unaffected by the cold: a thriving copper supply. We couldn’t eat copper, of course, and had no other significant food sources. The crops in both kingdoms favored warm weather, and the animals in the Thorn Land hadn’t been able to survive at all. The Rowan Land had some winter-ready game that had provided meat for the people, but even those animals were struggling. With limited food and a lot of copper that no one else could afford to buy, trading with the Yew Land had seemed like the only option.
“I’m sorry,” said Jasmine. “I wish we didn’t have to— especially since those bastards are probably responsible for this mess.”
“It’s okay,” I assured her. “You had to feed the people, and the copper was doing us no good.”
A servant arrived just then to announce a group of guests had arrived: Dorian, Shaya, Rurik, and Pagiel. “How’d they get here so fast?” I asked, once the servant went to fetch them. Jasmine had said she’d sent word, but even with magical communication, the trip from Dorian’s land would’ve taken a while.
“They were all in the Rowan Land,” explained Jasmine. She nodded toward Roland. “He gave us a heads-up that you might be coming one of these days, so Dorian’s been hanging out there. He brought Pagiel because he figured you’d want to talk to him.”
“He was right,” I said. Despite his quirks, Dorian always had a good feel for what I was thinking.
My heart leapt when I saw him. After the dreariness of the blight, Dorian’s presence was a breath of life and excitement. He swept in grandly, as though this were an ordinary state visit. He wore his typically rich, brightly colored garments, with the centerpiece being an emerald green cloak made out of satin and adorned with gold embroidery. It matched the green of his eyes and made his long hair look like a wave of fire that gave the illusion of warmth. Neither he nor any of the others were wearing heavy outerwear, so they must have shed it before entering the room. Probably whatever Dorian had for the cold weather wasn’t fashionable enough for him.
He held my eyes for a moment, and I was suddenly flooded by a million thoughts. How we’d said good-bye. The memories of his body that had haunted me these last couple of months. The way I’d missed him. And again, the knowledge that he maybe loved me again.
“The wayward queen returns,” he said as though none of those other matters existed. A quick assessment revealed to him what Jasmine had also discovered. “Considerably less of her.”
His tone was light, but I could tell that, also like Jasmine, he was uncertain of what had become of my
