“Yes, she’s well, Mother. She’s here. You’ll see her at the trial.”
Lady Tess drew in a breath. “Alive and well,” she whispered, blinking back tears. Duke Bion squeezed her hand. “Go on, son.”
Jackrun’s voice dipped when he told them about the queen’s murder, about Lady Olivia’s true identity, how I nearly burned for her crime. I looked from one astonished face to another. We all stood a moment, listening to the distant waves when he was done.
Lord Kahlil dug his long claws in the sand and fixed his golden gaze on Lady Tess. “It is not our way to regret the past,” he said, “but you know my part in this.”
I wondered what he meant by his part. Lady Tess stepped closer and placed her hand on the jagged scar along the dragonlord’s neck. “Did you see the future when you rescued Tanya from Adela’s witch pyre, sir?”
He tipped his head as she stroked his neck. Lord Kahlil was Tanya’s rescuer?
“I saw many possible futures, Tessss.”
Duke Bion joined his wife. “Tanya chose her path, Kahlil. You had nothing to do with that.”
Jackrun and Tabitha stood wide-eyed. I must have looked the same, taking in the revelation. If the dragonlord had not rescued her, she wouldn’t have lived to take her revenge on the queen. But if I’d had the courage, I would have run my hand along Lord Kahlil’s neck as Lady Tess was doing now. I agreed with her and Duke Bion, it was not the dragonlord’s fault. Tanya had made her own choices. Not even the fey folk had guessed what she would become.
Lady Tess turned to Jackrun. “Is it safe to bring Kip to shore now?” she asked.
“It’s safe, lady Mother.”
She waved to the knight, who carried the little boy down the gangplank and along the beach. Lady Tess sent me a look of gratitude as she took the sleepy child from Sir Geoffrey’s arms. It was good to see him again, especially now that I knew he was innocent.
Duke Bion glanced north along the cliffs. “We should go support my brother. I cannot imagine the agony he’s experienced these last few months, first losing his son, then his wife.”
Jackrun mussed his little brother’s hair, wavy like his own, but a lighter shade of brown. “King Onadon asked King Arden to hold the inquiry on the castle green so there would be enough room for the dragons to participate in the trial.”
“Jackun,” Kip said, yawning and stretching in his mother’s arms.
“It’s a ways back,” Jackrun said. “We should borrow some horses here in the harbor so we—”
“Ride dragonback,” said Lord Kahlil. “A few can double up.”
Sir Geoffrey made a swift bow. “The rest of you ride. You are all needed at the trial. I will come on my own and catch up with you.” I wasn’t sure if he declined out of courtesy or fear, having never flown before. But one less rider would be easier on the three dragons. I sidled over to Vazan. Her wing was still on the mend. She would hiss if I said she must only take one rider, but I didn’t have to. Tabitha climbed on Babak with Jackrun. Lord Kahlil took Jackrun’s parents and their younger son. Kip squealed with delight as we all took off, the great wings pounding like thunder.
• • •
IT DRIZZLED WHEN we began to gather later that afternoon on the green. There were seven dragons in all, including four from Dragonswood. King Arden invited King Onadon to join his privy council for the trial. A half-fey woman who had lived in DunGarrow, even if it was only for a year, was on trial. Both kings would sit in judgment of her.
Lady Tanya’s crimes had brought all the factions of Wilde Island and Dragon’s Keep together in one place. Dragon, human, and fairy encircled the fire pit in the pavilion tent as the sky outside let down its rain. Jackrun sat with the fairies closest to his grandfather King Onadon. Duke Bion and Lady Tess took their places by Princess Augusta. Somber as this day was, Lady Tess and her husband could not help exchanging grateful looks now and again knowing Augusta was alive and well after hearing nothing from her for so many years.
Vazan and I sat close to the dragons, but not with them. As much as Vazan had been willing to fly into the sanctuary to help me, she did not consider herself a creature of Dragonswood. We were, as always, set apart from the rest. But I stole glances of Jackrun, as he did of me.
Castle servants had propped up His Majesty’s mirror between the kings’ thrones so we could all see the face of anyone seated on the white oak chair. In Euit traditions, the oak is a wizened tree—a tree of truth. And here, the English were also using oak to seek truth. How strange to think that there were ancient beliefs that the Euit and English shared, beliefs that were bigger than our differences.
Bianca was summoned outside first.
I glanced around the circle. Many looked relieved to see the same girl with milky skin and hair of spun honey in the glass that they’d always seen. I was not surprised. She’d peered at my vanity in the Crow’s Nest more than once.
Bianca struggled through tears to answer the questions put to her the first half hour. She shook visibly later when King Onadon asked, “Did you know your mother killed Prince Desmond?”
Bianca looked down at her clenched hands.
“Answer me, Bianca.”
“I didn’t, Your Majesty.”
“You had no idea of her intentions when she sailed to Dragon’s Keep?”
She shook her head vehemently. “No.”
“Did you know she planned to poison the queen?”
“I didn’t. How could I know . . . believe she would do such a terrible—” She broke down again. The council members looked uncertain, but I believed her. She had always obeyed her mother, first courting Prince Desmond, and later Jackrun.
No doubt her mother was angry with her when she didn’t win Jackrun’s affection. But there was a quicker way for Bianca to be crowned, if the queen were dead. When had her mother discovered the king’s interest in her daughter? Had she found the sapphire bracelet, cornered her and asked questions? I couldn’t guess what had gone on between mother and daughter, but I was sure Bianca was innocent of murder. She had no cruelty in her.
The girl slumped in the oak chair, weeping. For the first time since she’d entered the pavilion, King Arden allowed himself to glance in her direction. His expression swirled from grief to love to fury, and finally regret until his face broke, and he had to look away. He did not speak as the rest of the council conferred together, heads tipping this way and that.
When Bianca was dismissed, she stood unsteadily. Suddenly, she threw herself at her lover’s feet. King Arden looked down miserably as she cried, “Please, Your Majesty, please spare my mother’s life. She’s done evil things, m-many evil things, but please don’t . . .” She choked, unable to finish, kissed the ring on his hand, then wiped her golden hair across his boots.
The king blanched white, rigid as one of his onyx chess pieces. Duke Bion leaned forward and spoke gently. “Bianca, you must leave us now. Go with the guards.”
I did not reach out to comfort her when she passed my bench. Her mother would have let me die in her place. Tanya had ended two people’s lives, nearly three, nearly mine. That was not Bianca’s fault, I knew. Still, I could not put out my hand.
• • •
THREE FEY MEN brought Tanya in, staying close to her lest she try and use magic to escape. She was still guised as Lady Olivia, walking with regal steps to the oak chair. Once seated, she scanned the council members, dragons and fey in the great circle. I shivered when her cold blue eyes landed on me before moving on to King Arden.
His Majesty glared back at Lady Olivia, then turned to see Tanya in the glass. His fingers tightened around the throne’s clawed armrests.
King Onadon began the questioning, and Tanya shifted her focus to him. “You have already confessed to two murders,” he said. “We are here to question you further and hear your side of things before we pass sentence.”
?
??My side?” she scoffed. “Who was ever interested in my side? Did you listen to me when I begged you to bring me here to Pendragon Castle when I was a girl? Did you give me the chance to become queen in my own right? No. You were too afraid King Arden would see my burns in the mirror. I proved you wrong, didn’t I? I lived two years in Pendragon Castle guised as Lady Olivia and no one was the wiser. Only one man found me out, and I silenced him in his sleep.”
The lute player.
I blinked back tears thinking of the poor spit boy who hanged for her crime.
“What were your intentions when you came two years ago to live in Pendragon Castle?” asked King Onadon.
“I intended to give my daughter the chance I never had.”
“To marry a Pendragon king?”
“Why not? She was Prince Desmond’s age. My daughter came here as a pure maiden. Her father was fey,” she added with a glance to King Onadon. “She would have fulfilled the prophecy you’ve all longed for if she married a Pendragon.”
“If you had that in mind, why kill Prince Desmond?” King Onadon asked.
“Would you let your daughter marry a cruel womanizer? He tried to rape Uma,” she said, nodding in my direction. Heat stormed my cheeks. I looked down at my hands. “Tell them what you discovered back on Dragon’s Keep, Sir Geoffrey,” she commanded.
Sir Geoffrey stood up, uncertain.
“Sit!” King Arden ordered, and he dropped to the bench again. “You are not in charge of this trial, Tanya!” A hush fell on us all. I heard small rustling noises of cloaks and clothing as people shifted on their seats.
King Onadon said, “Did you think I would condone your twisted methods to put fey blood on the throne? If any fairies plotted with you on this, they went outside my authority.”
“I didn’t need anyone’s help. I have my own powers.”
Jackrun said, “You are no doubt a woman of tremendous power. Not every half fey can command the kind of wind you used to push my cousin off the cliff.”
Jackrun knew how to win her attention. A slow smile crept across her face.
He went on. “Did you also use your fairy magic to hex the queen? To keep her ill?”
I found myself holding my breath, grateful for the question as much as frightened by it.
“Hex her?” Tanya raised a brow. “No.” I felt my insides folding up like a fan. “Adela was infertile and going mad all on her own,” said Lady Tanya. “All I had to do was stand back and watch.”
“Enough,” said King Arden. “You sicken me to death. I don’t want to hear any more.”
Tanya leaped up.“I sicken you? Your wife was no innocent. Look what she did to me.” She yanked up her sleeve, showing her ruined arm, then tugged her thick skirts up to her knees to show the ropy burn scars on her legs.
“I made sure to show Adela who I was while she was dying. She saw the scars she gave me when she burned me. And I told her I killed her son.”
• • •
IT WAS NIGHTFALL before the kings and council reached a decision. King Onadon proposed taking Tanya back to DunGarrow, and imprisoning her in a cell of mirrors with no escape from her reflection and no means to shatter them. It seemed an apt punishment for one who had hidden so much for so long. But King Arden had lost his son and his wife. “She must be beheaded,” he said. No one crossed him.
Chapter Forty-eight
Castle Green, Wilde Island
Full Dragon Moon
October 1210
AFTER THE SENTENCING, they dragged Tanya away. I stepped out of the tent and saw Dragon Moon rising full and bright in the darkening sky.
The flames of the long-poled torches roared in the wind, flying sideways like bright orange flags. We were in the twilight hour when there was no daylight to cast our shadows and we became shadows ourselves.
Across the green, Jackrun stepped out from under the awning with King Onadon. He was talking, gesturing. The crowd had broken into many small groups around the lawn. I could not hear him.
Vazan flew down and settled on the grass. “We will leave tomorrow,” she said. I heard the longing in her voice, for home and for her first good meal in six months. I stroked her scaled neck. She let me touch her now. So much had changed between us since the day I’d stitched her wing. I had removed the stitches, but I could still feel rougher skin in the place where it had torn.
“It’s strong,” she said.
“I can see that. But strong enough to fly all the way to Devil’s Boot with a rider on your back?”
“Yessss.”
I should be overjoyed at the thought of going home at last. “The king’s soldiers are still there,” I said to her.
“We’ll ssssweep them off our land,” she said with confidence.
I would arrive in Devil’s Boot with my own terrible news. No one back home knew Father was dead. I would have to tell Mother.
“Uma?”
Augusta had stepped beside Vazan. I’d been too distracted to sense her approach. It surprised me to see Vazan lowering her head to greet the princess. Vazan did not bow to anyone, not even my father when he was alive.
Augusta nodded. “Rivule Vazan.” I felt a pang of guilt for suspecting her when I’d first met her in Dragonswood.
The princess had her eyes on Jackrun. “He used his dragon power well the other day,” she said. “He told me you encouraged his gift.”
I nodded, suddenly shy.
“If I’d remained on Dragon’s Keep, I would have helped him. No one else in his family did. But I think that will change now. He deserves the freedom to grow into his dragon power.” She did not say as I’ve grown into mine. She did not have to say it. I saw animal power and dragon beauty in her. I saw the way she balanced the different parts of herself. I felt a sudden kinship with her, as I was beginning to do the same.
“Princess, I’m wearing the gown you loaned me when I stayed with you.” I fingered the mysterious soft green cloth that seemed almost a living thing; the gown had welcomed me, but it was hers. “I can return—”
“Please, keep it, Uma. You look beautiful in it, and I have plenty. The fairies make my gowns now.”
“Thank you.” Did she truly think I looked beautiful in it?
Jackrun stepped across the lawn to talk with King Arden.
“Princess, your brother the king seems to have accepted you back in the Pendragon family now. It means you can visit your family here and on Dragon’s Keep if you like.”
“Yes, but I am not planning to stay among men, Uma. I do not want to try to fit in, not anymore. I live in Dragonswood.”
“The queen is dead,” I said, “and her son. The ones who hurt you are gone. Are you sure you want to live apart?”
“Uma,” Vazan said, “you do not understand.”
The princess rested her hand on Vazan’s chest. I felt a wave of envy when Vazan did not hiss and back away. There was something the dragons seemed to know about Princess Augusta; even Vazan knew it, and she did not count herself a creature of Dragonswood.
“Uma does not have to understand to be a friend, rivule,” said the princess. She turned her copper eyes to me. “I’m happy in Dragonswood. Well loved. It is not where I was born, but it’s become my home.”
I heard contentment in her voice, and the challenge in it. “Vazan mentioned you’re returning to Devil’s Boot,” she said.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“I found my home in an unexpected place. It was not where I grew up, but a place where I could grow,” she offered.
Across the lawn, Jackrun was laughing with his grandfather, his head thrown back. “How many hearts will you break if you go?” asked the princess.
“Princessss,” hissed Vazan.
“Let Uma answer, rivule.”
I could not answer. Too many tears filled my throat, blocking my words.
&nbs
p; “Uma,” she said, lifting my chin. “Think on it not only with your head but with your heart.” She turned and walked away with Vazan. The dragons on the far side of the green bowed their heads as the princess approached. Even Lord Kahlil bowed. They did not hold their heads down long, dragons would not, but the gesture showed the love they had for her.
• • •
THE FIRST FEW stars appeared as Jackrun crossed the green, his stride long, his arms swinging. His hair had tugged free of its leather strap. I drew in a long breath as he moved closer, as if my breath were pulling him toward me.
“Veritas vos liberabit,” he said.
“What?”
“It’s Latin for ‘The truth shall set you free.’” Jackrun stepped closer. “I need . . . I have to swim,” he said. “Will you come with me? Do you mind?”
We went out the gate, taking the road between castle and graveyard, leading to the cliffs beyond the amphitheater. Farther south, we climbed down the zigzag stairs to the deserted beach below.
“I won’t be long,” Jackrun said. “Sorry, Uma. I’m too full of everything that’s happened. We can talk once I’ve . . .” He left the rest unsaid, hurriedly pulling off his cloak and shirt. His muscled skin shone in the full moonlight.
Someone in Dragonswood had removed the stitches from his arm. The small, even patterns in the scales matched perfectly. A scar line would remain, but there would be no distortion. I smiled to myself. I’d done well by him.
“You’re healing quite quickly,” I told him.
“I am, thanks to you,” he said, pulling me close to him. “Now, no peeking.” He jumped out of my arms and ran toward the water, where he pulled off his breeches. I was surprised to see a second, longer scale patch running down the back of his right leg. He had been too far away the other times I’d watched him swim for me to see this second patch. Jackrun raced for the water, strong limbed and swift footed on the uneven sand.
I slipped out of my shoes, lifted my skirts, and headed for the water’s edge as he dove into a curling white wave. The sea swirled around my ankles. I was used to steaming pools at the base of our mountain, not this freezing ocean. I couldn’t go in after him. I didn’t think he wanted me to.