“Surely it is not a complete surprise,” she said coolly. “I understand the two of you have grown quite close during your time together.”
“I would hardly say…” I began, then noticed the subtle movement of Kai’s jaw, as if he were grinding his teeth into paste. Suddenly, I remembered that this test was about complete obedience. If so, I was failing.
She was giving me a chance to pass the dreaded final trial—without bloodshed, without sacrificing the well-being of anyone I knew. Or anyone at all, for that matter. Kai had already agreed, which meant he had weighed options and decided this was safer than facing whatever would happen if he didn’t comply. I didn’t think for a moment this was his idea. His level of sincerity was that of a child who apologizes only because his mother is twisting his ear.
The queen’s chin had risen, her eyes sharply assessing. Kai gave a surreptitious nod, his piercing gaze practically begging me to agree. I knew him well enough by now to trust him. We had no other choice. At least, not now. Not yet.
“I accept,” I breathed, and then a rush of dizziness hit me and I had to widen my stance to stay upright. Even though I knew this was just a pretense, a temporary concession until we could find a way out, saying the words made it seem like a promise, permanent and irrevocable. I had the sensation of being trapped, of a prison cell closing with a resounding clang.
When I’d let myself daydream—and on rare occasions, I had—it had been Arcus’s face I’d seen looking back at me as I recited my wedding vows. It had been his voice I’d heard whispering to me on our wedding night.
Marriage. The word alone made me dizzy.
Not that I would marry Kai. Not that I would ever be able to marry Arcus, either. Not that I knew for sure that I wanted to tie myself to anyone that way. I’d always thought I had years to figure that out. I resented being forced even to pretend that I was ready to bind myself to another for life.
The queen’s smile returned and she clapped her hands together. “What a joyous day! Prince Eiko, you are brilliant.”
I hadn’t noticed the tall figure standing several feet behind her in the shadows. At her words, he stepped forward and took her extended hand in his own. In the flickering light, the planes and angles of his face looked mercilessly sharp. “You give me too much credit, my love.” He bent and kissed her hand.
“You may thank Prince Eiko for the ease of your third trial,” she said, giving him a fond look, “as well as his insistence that you had rightfully passed your second, and that it would be wrong to allow the masters to fail you. He was very persuasive, devising a solution that suits all parties.”
I watched Prince Eiko’s face, scouring it for clues, wondering again just what he was doing. He’d said he wanted to help me, and I hadn’t had to make any life-and-death decisions today. He had spared me that. Perhaps, when looked at in that light, he was on my side. What his reasons might be, I couldn’t imagine.
“But, Your Majesty,” I said, unable to help myself, “it’s hardly a test of obedience if we both want to agree.” Of course, that was a lie, but I wanted to know why the queen had chosen this as our final test. She wouldn’t have let Prince Eiko talk her into it if there was nothing in it for her.
“You could have refused,” she said with a slight hooding of her eyes. “Your agreement shows me that you have truly left your old life in Tempesia behind. This is what I want, Ruby, for you to commit to your new life here. And you will have plenty of opportunities to pay tribute to me by producing children as heirs to my throne and our family name.”
Kai choked and then turned that sound into a cough. I realized my mouth had dropped open. I closed it.
“Your Majesty,” I began carefully, knowing that I might risk both Kai as well as myself if I angered the queen, “I thank you for this… astounding opportunity. But how could I, a commoner from Tempesia, provide your heirs? Kai is, after all, not related to you.”
She put a hand to her chest. “How remiss of me. Ruby, my sweet girl, you still haven’t a clue who you are, have you?”
I blinked at the sobriquet of sweet girl and said, “I believe I know quite well who I am.” But the assertion came out hesitant. I’d had too many surprises to be sure of anything.
“You are my niece,” she said, blinding me with her smile. “My own flesh and blood. Your mother was my dear younger sister.”
EIGHTEEN
MY VISION NARROWED AND MY VOICE sounded strangely wispy and distant. “That’s not… possible.”
I heard the scuff of feet and looked up to see that Kai had leaped over the lava. He put an arm behind my back and I leaned against him because it was either that or topple to the ground.
“Your Majesty, she has had an exhausting few days,” he said, his hand on my shoulder as he looked at the queen. “With your kind permission, I’d like to escort her back to the castle.”
“Indeed,” she replied. “How can I find fault with a display of husbandly concern for your bride-to-be?”
He took my hands, but I resisted his efforts to pull me away. “My mother wasn’t even a Fireblood.” I hadn’t made a conscious decision to speak, but I couldn’t seem to keep the words in. “There’s absolutely no way that I could be related to you. With all respect—”
Without warning, the queen’s hands rose and a geyser of lava lifted from the river and came soaring at me. Kai jerked back, then started to move in front of me, but the lava stopped in midair, hovering over us like a frozen wave. In the breathless moment that followed, I realized that my own hands were raised, my palms aimed out.
I stole a look at the queen. She had an expression of terrible concentration. The muscles in her forearms flexed and the lava moved a few inches toward me. I groaned and focused on it, pushing at it with my mind the same way I would if I were manipulating fire. The wave twisted and roiled in the air before slamming back down into the river. Drops of lava sprayed through the air, sizzling audibly against stone and clothing. One drop landed on my arm, making me gasp with pain.
I stared, incredulous, at the queen. She had controlled the lava. She had tried to hurt us with it. And I—I…
“Do not tell me you are not my sister’s daughter,” the queen said, the triumph in her eyes nearly feral in its intensity. “She was the only other person alive who could bend lava to her will. I began to wonder when Master Dallr told me that he’d watched your first trial from the openings that lead to the surface, and he was certain you’d halted the flow of lava. However, I wasn’t ready to believe. I thought of you as an outsider, someone I could use against the Frost King. I didn’t allow myself to believe you were my niece until after the second trial. I visited you while you were delirious with poison. You sang a song that my mother used to sing.”
“A Sudesian lullaby,” I said weakly, remembering how I’d dreamed of my mother, then the queen, at my bedside. “Surely every child born here knows it.”
“My sister and I made up our own verses, and you sang those, too. Only she would have known that song and must have sung it to you. That was the moment I could no longer deny the truth.” Her eyes, dark and full of such intelligence and determination, held me spellbound. “You are my niece. And so, I have my heir.”
She glanced at Kai. “Take Ruby home and make sure she rests.” She turned and strode proudly to an opening on the other side of the lava stream, her skirts swishing like retreating flames, the masters following quickly at her heels. From somewhere in the dark, I heard her voice. “We will announce your engagement tomorrow. The wedding will take place in a week.”