Maybe I wasn’t supposed to cry for him. He’d kidnapped me and been a traitor to the Green Hoods, but when he told me he needed money and had a family to feed, I believed him. I didn’t think he deserved death.
“Don’t bother,” Esmon said, sensing my mood. “He was a traitor.”
Annalie squeezed my hand. “I understand,” she said. “I don’t think he was a cruel man.”
Keyelle shook her head. “He took a dangerous job for financial reward and paid the price. That’s why I hate war, and I hope to be done with it as quickly as we can.”
I couldn’t agree more. It didn’t seem fair at all that King Luka, the one who inflicted such torture on Erris, had died in his bed past the age of fifty, having seen all his sons reach adulthood, while Ordorio held on to life by a thread so he could see his daughter in the summer.
THE COURTYARD GARDEN, TELMIRRA
“I’m really doing you a favor, Belin,” Tamin said. They stood beneath the bower. The stars were beginning to come out above them, and all the fairies were still in the dining hall except Belin, his brothers, and a shivering Violet.
“A favor?” Belin cried. “How can you possibly say you did me a favor? You just implied to the entire kingdom that I killed our father!”
“As if they aren’t already wondering,” Ilsin said. He opened a case tucked in his waistcoat and took out a cigarette.
“I keep telling you, Belin, a king can’t simply hide off in his own house and carve deer. Especially us. Father was ruthless, and you’ve got to be ruthless too, and that’s all there is to it. If you can’t stand up to me, how are you going to stand up to the half of the room who want to follow a Tanharrow?”
“That’s what
“That isn’t enough, and you know it. You know the rumors. There are more uprisings… talk of a whole network of rebels. They may have started here and there without much threat besides singing some old ballads, but look at that man Calden. He killed two of our tax collectors. Sure, the old ballads make such a deed sound heroic, but I doubt their widows think so. Father wouldn’t have tolerated that. You need to show them you won’t tolerate it either.”
“I’m supposed to drag him out here and have him killed in front of all those people after you made them think I killed Father?” Belin’s voice was quite a bit louder than Tamin’s. Any lurking spy would have had no trouble with him.
“So what if you did kill Father?” Tamin said. “Not to sully his memory, but think about the things Father himself has done. If they don’t fear you, you won’t last a day. None of us will. Ilsin and I will follow you if you show us it’s worth our while, all right? But we’re not going to let them get rid of us and put this imp on the throne.” He gave Violet the briefest condescending look.
Ifra dreamed of strangling Tamin. Belin could say the word, and Ifra could wipe that smug expression off his face in a moment.
Violet’s bottom lip was trembling.
“Oh, don’t take it personally,” Tamin said. “It’s just politics, you know.”
“I’m not marrying Belin!” Violet burst out. “I don’t want anything to do with any of you! I don’t care if every fairy in the world rots! I just want to go home!”
“Shh!” Belin jostled her again, cowing her into silence. There were three men, so much older than her, none of them sympathetic. And silent Ifra. He couldn’t even let them see that he cared for her. He just had to look to the distance, a silent bodyguard.
“All right,” Belin said. “Bring Calden. My jinn will kill him.”
Ifra’s fingers coiled into fists. It was all he could do not to show further reaction.
“But if I hear even a whiff of betrayal from you again, my jinn will kill you next.”
Tamin actually grinned at this. “That’s exactly what I want to see.” He turned to go, while Ilsin lingered, but Belin shooed them both away.
Violet started crying, but Belin didn’t pay her any regard. He watched his brothers walk away. Tamin left through the side of the garden, while Ilsin strolled slowly, smoking his cigarette, glancing back a few times as if to make sure Belin wasn’t going to change his mind. Time seemed to crawl, so slowly, and Ifra forced his mind blank. He would not think about killing a man in front of hundreds of eyes. In front of Violet.
The door shut behind Ilsin.
Belin was pacing the garden path, but now he turned to look at Ifra. “I thought this was what I wanted,” he said. “To be king. How grand it sounds. A chance to make everything right. But I can’t, can I? It doesn’t matter what my father did right. My brothers and I can never be good kings because of what he did wrong.”
“Erris?” Violet whispered, looking between them. “Are you talking about Uncle Erris?”
“Yes,” Belin said. “Father wanted me to kill Erris after I married you, and… Tamin doesn’t believe I’m ruthless enough to do it. Well.” He looked to the door of the Hall of Oak and Ash. “He’s right.”
Chapter 26
The lights of the palace of Telmirra loomed ahead through the dark woods. I recalled how Hollin had described this place to me so long ago-an attractive city with gardens but no gas or electricity or other modern amenities.
Telmirra, in fact, hardly seemed like a city, surrounded by miles of woodland. I assumed the residential and shopping districts were removed from the palace so the nobles could have forest to roam in, but it gave it the feel of a storybook castle one might stumble across, except that it wasn’t stone like a storybook castle, but wood. Elegant silhouettes of spires and neatly stacked stories were dark against the moon, but golden light shone through windows.
Five of the Green Hoods had accompanied us, including Keyelle and Esmon. We stayed off the paths, and when we heard horses pounding nearer, we crouched behind brush. A rider on a lovely white horse, much like the one the jinn had ridden, was heading the way we had come, followed by four more men. They carried magic lanterns, casting a soft light that caught the fair flax and copper tones of their hair but did not reach us. I hunched still lower.
“That’s Prince Tamin,” Esmon whispered. “They must be coming for Calden. I hope he’s had enough time to put distance between them. That means we have to hurry.”
“Do we have enough time?” Keyelle’s eyes gleamed wide in the moonlight.
“Yes, yes, let’s just go,” I said. I could hardly bear looking at the palace where Erris had grown up, knowing I might be so close to finding him. I crept forward, and the Green Hoods moved with me.
We hovered at the edge of the woods, taking stock of the situation. A guard roamed the side of the building, and perhaps more looked from the darker windows-we had no way of knowing. The guard paced, occasionally glancing up at the moon.
“How do we get past him?” I asked.
“A diversion?” Annalie said.
“Nothing that will attract too much attention,” Keyelle said.
“King Belin invited people from all over the realm to this feast,” Esmon said. “Do you think we could just pretend to be late-comers?”
“Not the way we look!” Keyelle said. “Glamours?”
Esmon shook his head. “No, they’ll be trained to see through them, or what sort of guards would they be?”
“I could divert him with my spirits,” Annalie said. “Diverting one man is easy. If there are more guards
