The captain shook his head with regret. “Bestiano issued an order to every spy, every street lord, and every barbarian outside the province. . . .” Scarpo swallowed hard. “She’s not to live.”
Froi stared at him, his gut twisting.
“If she’s given birth to the child, then grieve Quintana of Charyn,” Scarpo said. “Because it means her throat’s already been cut.”
Almost two days after Donashe’s men stormed their hiding place, Phaedra sat in their prison cave with an arm around Quintana and a tremble in her body that refused to stop. Despite Donashe’s men standing guard outside their cave, she knew that they were prisoners of a man more powerful than the street lord. Harker had been given permission to see them for a short time that day. He had warned them that a messenger had been dispatched to advise Bestiano that the princess was in the valley.
“Will they take us to the Citavita?” Jorja asked her husband.
He shook his head. “They reveal little.”
He glanced at Phaedra. “I’ve sent word to your father. Perhaps an army from Alonso will secure your release.”
“There is no army in Alonso,” she said quietly. “And why would my father believe I lived after being told I was dead all this time?”
Harker ushered his wife and Phaedra to the outer cave under the suspicious stare of Quintana. She had been frighteningly quiet since Rafuel had been dragged away.
“One of the men has also been sent to the Sarnak border,” Harker whispered. “To find a woman with a babe.”
“Why?” Phaedra asked. “Do they think none of us, including Tesadora and Japhra, can take care of a newborn?”
Harker looked away, pained.
“Harker,” Jorja asked. “What does this mean?”
They heard a sound behind them and turned to find Quintana leaning against Cora, her hand clutching her belly.
“She’ll be here to feed my son,” Quintana said. “Won’t she?”
Harker didn’t respond.
“It’s what they do when a mother dies and leaves a babe behind. They find a woman with breasts full of milk.”
Quintana’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’ve become greedy. I’ve always thought it was enough to birth him. But I want to see his face. Promise me I’ll see his face.”
Later, Ginny entered their cave, fear and pity etched on her face. Was it fear of them or of Donashe and his men who guarded the cave outside? She held a large bowl of a thick substance that she placed in front of Quintana.
“You need to eat, Your Highness.”
“Majesty,” Cora hissed. “You refer to her as Your Majesty. She’s your queen.”
Ginny pushed the bowl toward Phaedra.
“They say she must eat. They don’t want the little king dead before his birth.”
Phaedra heard a pitiful sound come from deep within Quintana, and then a mutter of heart-wrenching desperation spoken so fast that all Phaedra understood was the plea in her voice and the name Froi spoken over and over again.
“I meant no harm,” Ginny said quietly. “Gies came searching for his friend when the hangman failed to return to camp. It was chance. It was chance,” she sobbed. “And I was so happy to see him. I told him to keep our secret as Harker and Kasabian and the Mont were allowed to keep yours.” Ginny’s hands wrung. “I would never bring harm to you. To any of you. I’m sorry,” she wept. “I’m sorry.”
Florenza stood and approached Ginny and slapped her hard across the face. Ginny cried out and stumbled, stepping onto the bowl and snapping it in half. Phaedra watched the warm liquid spread against the stone.
One of Donashe’s men entered the cave.
“What’s taking you so long?” he shouted at Ginny. “Clean up this mess.”
Ginny fell to her knees, gathering the pieces in her hands, hurrying to collect the rest. She watched the man leave and looked up quickly.
“They say the Lasconians and the Turlans are camped across the hill from Bestiano’s army, two days’ ride from here,” she whispered before getting to her feet. “And that the Lumateran is traveling with them.”
When Ginny left the cave, Cora placed a bony arm around Quintana’s shoulders, soothing her.
“See? He’s two days’ ride from here. He’s coming for you, and from the way I see it, watch anyone who gets in the way of the Lumateran and his precious girl.”
But Quintana was shaking her head with despair beyond reckoning.
“How long does it take to birth a child, Jorja?” she asked, her voice small and broken.
“Sometimes hours, sometimes almost a day, brave girl.”
“I’m not very brave, Jorja,” Quintana whispered. “Not at all. When they put the noose around my neck, I was the least brave girl in Charyn.”
Florenza crouched before Quintana and took her hands in hers.
“I will cut out the tongue of anyone who says that Quintana of Charyn is not the bravest girl in the kingdom! I will carve it on every piece of stone in Charyn, so everywhere the little king looks he will see the words Quintana the Brave.”
“What if I don’t hold him in my arms?” Quintana lamented. “What if I never get to see his face?”
“You must stop thinking that,” Phaedra soothed. “Froi and his army will be here in two days, and when you give birth, you’ll have all the time in the world with the little king.”
Quintana squeezed her legs tight, and Phaedra saw the water puddle around her. She heard Quintana’s whimper.
“Don’t fret, my queen. There’s no shame in soiling yourself,” Phaedra fussed.
But Jorja stared in horror.
“She hasn’t soiled herself,” Jorja said. “Her water has broken. The babe is coming.”
It was a boy, as they had always suspected. They said he looked as if he was sleeping, and it was the only thing that brought any reprieve to them. It was the cord, they said, that had wrapped around his little neck.
He didn’t remember much about that day except those who engulfed him in an embrace to comfort him, but then they’d weep themselves. And that the women wouldn’t allow him to see his wife until they cleaned the blood from her body and the walls. And then later, people began to arrive on the mountain from Balconio and beyond; August and Abian and Celie arrived from the Flatlands, and then Beatriss and Vestie and the priest-king. His father was coming from the palace, so Finnikin knew it would be some time more before he saw him.
Each time a visitor arrived, the women disappeared inside Yata’s home, and the men stayed outside. Some of the younger Mont lads wept; others paced with fury at an unseen enemy. Lucian stayed by Finnikin’s side. It’s what Finnikin remembered most in days to come. And that the wound at his thigh, created as a pledge among Lucian, Balthazar, and him to protect Lumatere all those years ago, began to seep.
And then Yata was there before them.
“Finnikin,” she said, “you can see them now.” He felt the tremble in the old woman’s hands as she took his. How many children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren had she outlived?
Inside the large chamber, the Mont cousins and aunts stood weeping around a basin, bathing the little, still body in the water they had gathered from the river mixed with the sap of a forest tree and the sage grown on a Flatland farm. It was to prepare the babe for his place in the arms of the goddess who had once come from the ground. Finnikin had told the children of the Rock that story months before. Or was it years? It felt a lifetime ago. One of Isaboe’s aunts placed the babe in Finnikin’s arms, and he pressed a kiss to its brow, a blessing between a father and a son. And then he returned the babe to the priest-king and followed Yata to where Isaboe lay behind the curtain. Her eyes were closed, not in sleep, but weariness. Apart from everything else, she was exhausted. The birthing had lasted most of the day and night.
“Did you see him?” she asked quietly when she opened her eyes.
He nodded.
“I told Beatriss that I want him buried alongside your sister, b
aby Evanjalin. It will be good for their spirits to be together.”
He nodded again.
“Where’s Jasmina?”
“With Aunt Celestina.”
“Good. She’ll be kept happy. You know what your aunt is like. She’ll not let anyone upset her.”
Isaboe looked so small and pale, he reached out to touch her cheek. But still he couldn’t speak. Everyone had told him to be strong for her, but Finnikin didn’t know how to be strong for himself.
He felt one of the women at his shoulder, and Finnikin wanted to shout at them to leave. He wanted to be with his wife. Hold her in his arms.
“And your father? Have you seen him?” she asked.
Finnikin shook his head.
“Make sure you speak to him. You know what he’s like. And Sir Topher, too. They’re not men for talking, and they’ll lock it up inside themselves until it burns a hole in their hearts.”
He nodded again.
“And Tesadora?” she asked, her voice wavering. “Has she come?”
He couldn’t bear to hear her sound so broken.
“They’ve gone down to the valley to search for her,” he said. “Because I can’t imagine anything keeping her away from you.”
Isaboe took his hand and placed it on her belly.
“Look. It’s still so round,” she said. “I’m frightened that I’ll wake in the morning and think he’s still there.”
One of the aunts came to the curtain.
“Finnikin,” she said gently. “Come along, now — let her sleep.”
“Just a moment more,” he said, because he was sick of being strong and talking about the death of their child as if they were discussing the Osterians, and he just wanted to hold Isaboe. He wanted their sorrow to be only theirs, not to share it with the entire kingdom.
“Come, now, Finnikin,” another spoke. “You have people to see outside. They’ve come up to the mountain to express their sorrow.”
And so he left and spoke in polite sentences all the night long, and listened to words that brought him no comfort. That his son was in a better place. A better place than Isaboe’s arms? That Lumatere had another spirit to take care of them. Didn’t they have enough? They had Isaboe’s entire family. His mother. His baby sister. The entire village of Tressor. Lord Selric and his family. Every Lumateran found in a mass grave.
Is that not enough? he wanted to shout.
On the floor of Lucian’s cottage, he closed his eyes and slept briefly. And when he woke, having dreamed the strangest of dreams, he returned to Yata’s home to be with Isaboe, to hold her hands so she wouldn’t wake to place them on her belly.
“Finnikin,” she said softly when she opened her eyes. “I’m going to have to go down to the valley.”
His stomach lurched to hear her say the words.
When the others heard their talk, the women were there hovering around her.
“I’m going down to the valley,” Isaboe said to her aunts and cousins, who gasped and cried out in horror.
“What are you saying, my queen?” Cousin Alda said.
“Rest, beloved,” Yata said.
Isaboe shook her head and sat up slowly.
“I have to go down to the valley,” she repeated, pushing the hands aside and finding Finnikin’s to grip. “It’s what our son told me to do.”
There was wailing and protest, and one of the cousins ran from the room, and soon enough, Trevanion and Perri and Lucian were there.
“Isaboe, you don’t know what you’re saying,” Trevanion said as Isaboe placed her feet on the ground. “Finnikin, help her back onto the bed.”
Isaboe held up a hand to stop everyone. “My son begged me to go down to the valley,” she said firmly, tears blazing in her eyes. “Are you going to have me defy him?”
They turned their pleas to Finnikin, but he couldn’t take his eyes from her.
“Find your queen her clothes, Constance,” he ordered quietly.
He heard more gasps and cries.
“Finnikin!”
“They’ve lost their wits. Both of them.”
Trevanion took Finnikin by the arm gently and led him away from the fussing, crying women.
“She is distraught,” Trevanion said. “You both are. Tell her to rest, Finnikin. She needs to rest or else she will drive herself to madness.”
“We’re going to the valley,” Finnikin said calmly.
“Because you dreamed of your son telling you to do so?” his father demanded, anguished.
“No,” Finnikin said. “I didn’t dream of our son. Isaboe did. I dreamed of Bartolina. My mother came to me, Trevanion. She’s come to you and Aunt Celestina, and I think she’s even come to Jasmina, and although I’ve sensed her in my dreams these past years, she’s never spoken to me. Except for this night. And Bartolina of the Rock said, ‘Finnikin, you must go down to the valley.’”
Lucian led his cousins to the stream. They were flanked by Trevanion, Perri, Aldron, Jory, and at least six other Monts. There was no room for anger, only confusion and sorrow. Lucian had seen the sorrow when Trevanion arrived on the mountain and Lady Beatriss had been there to meet him by the entrance of Yata’s home. She had taken the captain’s hand and led him away to a private place. In Lucian’s cottage, Aldron and Perri had sat with their heads in their hands.
“I feel useless!” Aldron had shouted, kicking a chair across the room.
As confusing as this journey to the valley was for them all, Lucian was grateful for something to do.
“Don’t speak the truth to the Charynites,” Isaboe said quietly. “They’ll see us at our weakest.”
The truth was that the babe had been taken from them. Not in an act of war, or violence, or because of a mistake, or due to an illness. Lady Abian said it had happened to many women before the queen and it would happen again. The gods were cruel, but just. Death chose the powerful and the weak. It chose the seamstress, and it chose the queen. All the wealth in the world made no difference.
“It will make her stronger,” one of the cousins said.
“She was strong enough!” Yata snapped.
Regardless of how strong she was, Perri bent and scooped the queen up in his arms and carried her across the water.
The valley dwellers were frightened to see them all. Lucian imagined it had been a terrifying time since the arrest of the women, and despite their hope in Quintana of Charyn’s child, they had seen too much death here.
Donashe and his men sat on the landing that led to the high caves. And Lucian wanted to kill him. He wanted to kill someone, and the person he hated most in the world was Donashe. He was an idle man unless he was threatening or murdering someone. Lucian’s father had warned him to fear idle men. Without the pride gained from a good day’s work, they were left to their vices and the doubts that crowded their head. Their hatred. Their envy. Lucian saw it each time he came face-to-face with the camp leaders.
Lucian led the queen and their party up the steps toward Donashe’s men. He didn’t want to. He wanted his cousin safe from the malice of idle men, but he had no choice. Donashe and the camp leaders were on their feet in an instant, swords in their hands and suspicion on their faces as they watched Lucian and his people approaching. One of the men whispered in Donashe’s ear, and the suspicion turned to surprise as Donashe’s eyes fastened on the queen.
“An honor for Little Charyn, Your Majesty,” he said to Isaboe when she reached the landing. Finnikin’s arm was around her, and Lucian could see that his friend’s fists were clenched.
“And so close to the birth of your child.”
“The last I heard, this valley is still part of Lumatere,” Isaboe said coldly. “Not Little anything.” She stared up at the highest cave. “I’ve come to see Quintana of Charyn. As a sign of peace between two queens.”
Donashe laughed.
“A queen? You’re mistaken. The girl’s no queen. Just a princess.”
“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” Isaboe said. “My
daughter’s a princess. Are you saying my daughter is unimportant, Charynite? Are you saying she means little to my kingdom? That she holds no power? That she is worthless?”
Lucian could see the unease in Donashe’s expression, the realization that Isaboe could not be charmed into submission. Donashe’s eyes met Lucian’s.
“Then can I stress to you, Your Majesty, as I did when you sent your Mont to discuss the imprisonment of his wife,” Donashe said with a politeness that hid a threat, “that our princess is a political prisoner of the acting house of Charyn, and under no circumstances will she be removed from these caves. Quintana of Charyn is under arrest for the murder of her father, the king.”
“Be careful, Charynite,” Isaboe said. “With news such as that, you’re going to make me like your princess, and I’m here for a peaceful gesture, not friendship.”
Isaboe went to step past him, but he blocked her path. The sound of every Lumateran sword being removed from its scabbard was sweet to Lucian’s ears.
“Regardless of what you choose to do,” Donashe said, failing to hide the twitch of nervousness in his cheek as the swords pointed at his face, “there’s an army of four hundred men belonging to the acting house of Charyn coming this way. They can be here in days to await the birth of the heir and return him to the palace. And if they arrive to find her gone, I can’t promise to keep them off your mountain.”
Perri’s hand was quick, and he gripped Donashe by the throat. It was only Isaboe’s hand on her guard’s arm that made him let go.
“I’m here to wish your princess well and to see my cousin Phaedra of Alonso,” Isaboe said. “So let me pass. I may not go to war with you over the daughter of my enemy, but I will over a Mont leader’s wife.”
Donashe hesitated, but then stepped aside as Finnikin took Isaboe’s hand and Lucian went to follow.
“Only one of you will accompany your queen,” Donashe said, stepping before them. “Who’s to know what your real plan is? Perhaps it’s to murder Quintana of Charyn before she births the child. We don’t take that chance.”
Finnikin shoved Donashe out of the way, but Isaboe held him back.