A Kiss for Queens

  “I will see to it,” Hans assured her, and Sophia knew that he would.

  Sophia turned to Ulf and Frig. “You two will take a small force close to the river gates. If the men I sent made it inside, those will open. Your job will be to help them hold it until the rest of us can attack. The main fleet will land, and we’ll move in under cover of the ships’ cannons.”

  It sounded like a good plan. She hoped it was, at least. The alternative was that she’d just condemned men she commanded to death.

  It is a good plan, Lucas sent to her.

  I just hope it works, Sophia replied.

  A third voice joined them then, coming in across the water. It will. I’ll make sure it does.

  Sophia turned and saw a smaller cluster of ships approaching. They had a disreputable look to them, seeming like the kind of things mercenaries or bandits might have chosen. It was her sister’s voice that rang out from them, though.

  Kate? You’re here?

  I’m here, she sent back. And I brought the most disreputable free company there is with me. Lord Cranston says that he will be honored to serve.

  That thought cheered Sophia almost as much as the presence of her sister there. It wasn’t just the extra fighting men, although Sophia would take all she could get right then. It was the fact that her sister was back with the fighting company she’d enjoyed being part of so much, and…

  Is Will there? Sophia asked.

  He is, Kate replied. Sophia could feel the happiness there. I will see you soon, my sister. Save some enemies for me.

  I’m sure there will be plenty to go around.

  “Kate is coming,” Sophia said to Lucas.

  “I know,” her brother said. “I felt her thoughts. I’d thought I’d have to wait until we returned to finally meet her.”

  “And find our parents after that,” Sophia said. She knew she shouldn’t be thinking so far ahead yet. She should be concentrating on the battle to come, but it was almost impossible to keep her thoughts there. She was too busy thinking about everything that might flow from it. She would get Sebastian back. She would free the Dowager’s people from the crushing weight of her rule. They would find their parents.

  “Kate will be as excited as we are to find our parents,” Sophia said. “More. I’m not sure she even has memories of them to keep her going.”

  “Soon, we’ll all have more than that,” Lucas said.

  “I hope so,” Sophia replied. She couldn’t help worrying though. “Do you have it?”

  Lucas nodded, obviously understanding what she meant. He brought out the flat disc made from interlocking bands of metal, glowing with bright, jumbled lines as he touched it. When Sophia brought her hand to rest on the metal too, the segments of the device spun into place, revealing the outlines of landmasses, from the Dowager’s kingdom to distant shapes that must have been the Far Colonies and the Silk Lands. It was tantalizingly close to telling them what they needed to know; there just wasn’t anything to tell them where their parents might be now. Sophia guessed that would come when Kate joined them. She hoped it would.

  “Keep the device safe,” Sophia said. “If we lose it…”

  Lucas nodded. “I have protected it this far. I’m more concerned about keeping you and Kate safe.”

  Sophia hadn’t thought about that. The three of them were about to head into the middle of a battle. If one of them were to fall in that battle, they might never find their parents. It would be a double blow, losing the promise of their mother and father even as they mourned a brother or sister.

  “You have to stay safe too,” Sophia said. “And I’m not just saying that because I want to find our parents.”

  “I know,” Lucas said. “And I will do all I can. Official Ko had me trained well.”

  “And Kate learned plenty from the witch who tried to claim her,” Sophia said.

  “If she’s half as deadly alone as she was when she was throwing me around the castle, she’ll be fine,” Lucas said. “The question is you, Sophia. I know you have Sienne, but will you be safe in the middle of a battle?”

  “I won’t be in the middle,” Sophia promised. She put a protective hand over her belly. “But I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure my child has a father.”

  “She will,” Lucas said, and there was something about the certainty of it that made Sophia look at him. She knew that she’d seen glimpses of things in her dreams. She wondered if Lucas had too.

  “Did you see something?” Sophia asked.

  Lucas shook his head. “I have some talent for it, but I think you got more of it. What I mostly see for tomorrow is blood.”

  That was easy enough to see even without the magic that brought dreams to both of them. Sophia looked out again, and now there was a coastline on the horizon, a speck of a city sitting in it.

  “Ashton,” Sophia said. She hadn’t seen it in what seemed like forever.

  The city spread out like a stain on the landscape, its buildings old, its expanse sprawling beyond its walls. Part of their fleet was already breaking off, Hans moving to land further along the coast and take the outskirts.

  The rest of them moved closer, signal flags flying to coordinate their movements. They anchored well out of cannon range, and small boats lowered, complete with messengers and the demand to surrender. Sophia knew that Ulf and Frig would be preparing their own small boats to sneak close to the city before the battle started, ready for the river gates to open to them.

  Sophia could see the ships waiting there, ready for war in response to whatever messages had reached them. Not enough to stop a fleet their size, not pinned against the shore like that. As they approached closer, Sophia could hear trumpets sounding, see signal fires being lit.

  She looked past it all to the palace and the noble quarter. Sebastian was somewhere in there, held in a cell, waiting for her rescue.

  “We could still charge in, the way Cousin Ulf wants,” Lucas said.

  Sophia looked at the sky. The sun was already falling, sending red fingers across the horizon. She had to force herself to shake her head. It was one of the hardest things she’d ever done.

  “We can’t risk a night attack,” she said. “We need to stick to the plan.”

  “Then we attack at dawn,” Lucas said.

  Sophia nodded. At dawn, everything would be determined. They would see if she got her family’s kingdom back, along with the man she loved, or if they were all condemned to death.

  “We attack at dawn,” she said.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Kate stood with the sea breeze running across her face, feeling truly free for the first time that she could remember. Seeing Ashton approaching in the distance brought back memories of the life she’d had there for so long as one of the Unclaimed, but those memories didn’t own her anymore, and the anger that came with them felt more like a dull ache than anything fresh.

  She felt Lord Cranston approaching before he reached her. That much of her powers had come back. That was hers, not something that Siobhan or her fountain had given her.

  “We’re attacking at dawn, my lord,” she said, turning.

  Lord Cranston smiled at that. “A traditional time for it, although there’s no need to call me that now, Kate. We’re the ones sworn to serve you, your highness.”

  Your highness. Kate suspected that she would never get used to being called that. Especially not by the man who had been one of the first to give her a place in the world where she fit in.

  “And there’s really no need to call me that,” Kate countered.

  Lord Cranston pulled off a surprisingly elegant courtier’s bow. “It’s who you are now, but all right, Kate. Shall we pretend that we’re back in the camp, and you’re learning tactics from me?”

  “I suspect I still have plenty to learn,” Kate said. She doubted that she’d learned half of what Lord Cranston had to teach in the time she’d been a part of his company.

  “Oh, undoubtedly,” Lord Cranston said, “so, a lesson. Tell
me, in the history of Ashton, how has it been taken?”

  Kate thought. It wasn’t something that their lessons had covered so far.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted.

  “It has been done by treachery,” Lord Cranston said, counting the options on his fingers. “It has been done by winning the rest of the kingdom, so that there is no point in holding out. It has been done in the distant past through magic.”

  “And by force?” Kate asked.

  Lord Cranston shook his head. “Although cannon may change that, of course.”

  “My sister has a plan,” Kate said.

  “And it seems well done,” Lord Cranston said, “but what happens to plans in battles?”

  That, at least, Kate knew. “They fall apart.” She shrugged. “Then it’s a good job that we have the finest of the free companies working for us to fill the gaps.”

  “And it’s a good job that I have the girl who can summon mists and move faster than a man can follow,” Lord Cranston replied.

  Kate must have hesitated just a second or two too long before replying.

  “What is it?” Lord Cranston asked.

  “I broke away from the witch who gave me that power,” she said. “I… don’t know how much is left. I still have some skill for reading minds, but the speed, the strength, is gone. I guess that kind of magic is too.”

  She still knew the theory of it, still had the feeling of it in her, but the paths to it felt burned raw by the loss of connection to Siobhan’s fountain. It seemed that all things had their price, and this was one she was willing to pay.

  At least, if it didn’t cost all of them their lives.

  Lord Cranston nodded. “I see. Can you still use a sword?”

  “I’m… not sure,” Kate admitted. That had been something she’d learned under Siobhan, after all, yet the memories of her training were still there, still fresh. She’d won what she knew through days of “dying” at the hands of spirits, over and over.

  “Then I think that we should find out before a battle in earnest, don’t you?” Lord Cranston suggested. He stepped back, giving a formal duelist’s bow, his eyes carefully on Kate, and drew his sword with a hiss of metal.

  “With live blades?” Kate said. “What if I don’t have the control? What if—”

  “Life is full of what-ifs,” Lord Cranston said. “Battle, even more so. I’ll not test you with a training blade only to find that your skill falls apart when there’s real risk.”

  It still seemed like a dangerous way to test her skills. She didn’t want to hurt Lord Cranston by accident.

  “Draw your blade, Kate,” he said.

  Reluctantly, she did so, the saber fitting neatly into her hand. There were the remnants of runes etched into the blade where Siobhan had worked on it, but those were dull things now, barely there unless the light caught them. Kate took her guard.

  Lord Cranston thrust at once, with all the skill and violence of a younger man. Kate barely parried it in time.

  “I told you,” she said. “I don’t have the strength or speed I used to have.”

  “Then you must try to find a way to make up for it,” Lord Cranston said, and immediately sent another thrust at her head. “War is not fair. War does not care if you are weak. All it cares about is if you win.”

  Kate gave ground, cutting an angle to avoid being pressed back against the railings of the ship. She parried and parried again, trying to protect herself from the onslaught.

  “Why are you holding back?” Lord Cranston demanded. “You can still see every thought of attack, can’t you? You still know every move that can be made with a blade, don’t you? If I make the Rensburg feint, you know that the response is…”

  He made a complex double feint. Automatically, Kate moved to bind his sword halfway through.

  “You see, you know this!” Lord Cranston snapped. “Now fight, damn you!”

  He attacked with such ferocity that Kate’s only option was to fight back with all her skill. She watched his thoughts as best she could, seeing the flickers of coming movements, the patterns of attack. Her body didn’t have the speed it once had, but it still knew what to do, putting the blade where it was needed, beating and parrying, disengaging and pressuring.

  Kate took Lord Cranston’s blade and felt the slightest of weaknesses in the pressure as he presented it. She circled with the bind, applying more pressure, and his sword clattered to the ship’s deck. Her own sword swept up for his throat… and she managed to stop just a hair’s breadth short of his skin.

  He smiled at her. “Good, Kate. Excellent. You see, you don’t need some witch’s tricks. You are the one who has learned this, and you are the one who will cut the enemy to pieces.”

  He clasped Kate’s hand then, wrist to wrist, and Kate was surprised to hear clapping from below on the ship. She turned, seeing other members of the company there, looking on as if she and Lord Cranston were players there to entertain them. Will was there with them, looking relieved as well as happy. Kate ran down the steps from the command deck to him, kissing him as she got to him.

  Of course, that got a different sort of cheer from the others there, and Kate pulled away, red-faced.

  “That’s enough, you lazy dogs,” Lord Cranston yelled down. “If you have time to ogle, you have time to work!”

  The men around them groaned and got on with their preparations for the battle. Still, the moment had passed, and Kate didn’t want to risk kissing Will again in case any of them were still watching.

  “I was so worried about you,” Will said, with a nod up toward where Lord Cranston stood. “When the two of you were fighting, it looked as though he was really trying to kill you.”

  “It was what I needed,” Kate said with a shrug. She wasn’t sure that she could explain it to Will. He’d joined Lord Cranston’s company, but there always seemed to be a part of him that wanted to be back, working in his father’s forge. He’d joined up for the chance to see the world, the chance to go somewhere else.

  For Kate, it was different. She needed to push into the spaces where things didn’t feel safe, or she wasn’t sure that she felt alive. She didn’t feel like she could deal with the extremes of the world unless she went out and did it. Lord Cranston had understood that, and he’d pushed her into the place where she’d truly been able to test herself.

  “Even so,” Will said, “I thought that there would be blood on the deck before it was done.”

  “There wasn’t though,” Kate said. She hugged him, simply because she wanted to. She wished that there were enough privacy on the boat for more than that. “That’s the important thing.”

  “And you were amazing up there,” Will admitted. “Maybe we shouldn’t bother attacking tomorrow, just send you to fight them all one by one.”

  Kate smiled at that thought. “I think it might get a little tiring after the first few. Besides, would you want to miss out on the action?”

  She saw Will look away.

  “What is it?” she asked, resisting the urge to read his thoughts and find out.

  “Honestly? I’m scared,” he said. “No matter how many battles we fight in, it never seems to get easier. I’m scared for myself, for my friends, about whether my parents will be caught up in it all… and I’m scared for you.”

  “I think we just found out that you don’t need to be worried about me,” Kate said.

  “You’re better with a sword than anyone I know,” Will agreed, “but I still worry. What if there’s a sword you don’t see? What if there’s some random musket shot? War is chaos.”

  It was, but that was part of what Kate liked about it. There was something about being at the heart of a battle that just made sense in a way the rest of the world sometimes didn’t. She didn’t say that, though.

  “It will be all right,” she said, instead. “I’ll be fine. You’ll be working with the artillery, not at the heart of any charges. Sophia would never allow her people to loot, or to attack ordinary people, so your pa
rents will be safe. It will be all right.”

  “Just… stay safe,” Will said. “There are so many things I want to have time to say to you, and do with you, and—”

  “We’ll have time for all of them,” Kate promised. “Now, you should go. You know Lord Cranston gets annoyed if I keep you from your duties too long.”

  Will nodded, looking as though he might kiss her again, but didn’t. Another thing that would have to wait until after the battle. Kate watched him go, stretching out what there was of her talent to take in the thoughts and feelings of the soldiers there.

  She could feel their fears and their worries. Every man there knew that the world would erupt in violence come the dawn, and most were wondering if they would come through that chaos in one piece. Some were thinking of friends, others of families. A few were going through possibility after possibility, as if thinking of the danger ahead would stop it from happening.

  Kate was looking forward to it. In battle, the world made a kind of sense.

  “Tomorrow, I will kill the people who hurt my family,” she promised. “I’ll cut through them, and I’ll take the throne for Sophia.”

  Tomorrow, they would go into Ashton, and they would take back everything that was supposed to be theirs.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  From the steps of the Masked Goddess’s temple, standing poised at their summit as he waited for the start of his mother’s funeral, Rupert watched the sunset. It spread in shades of red, hues that reminded him too much of the blood he’d shed. It shouldn’t bother him. He was stronger than that, better than that. Even so, every look down at his hands brought with it memories of the way his mother’s blood had stained them, every moment of silence brought back the memory of her gasps as he’d stabbed her.

  “You!” Rupert said, pointing to one of the augers and minor priests who crowded around the entrance. “What does this sunset portend?”

  “Blood, your highness. A sunset like this means blood.”

  Rupert took a half step forward, planning to strike the man for his insolence, but Angelica was there to catch him, her hand brushing across his skin in a promise he wished there was more time to make good on.