I could only stare.
She sat back, her lip twitching up on one side. “Now you see why I wondered about you from the first.”
“It still doesn’t make sense,” I said quietly. “My mother’s skin was cool compared to mine.”
“Rota had exceptional control of her gift. She could suppress her heat.”
“Even in her sleep? She used to cuddle next to me for warmth on the coldest nights. I’m telling you, it doesn’t make sense. She didn’t use her fire to defend me when the soldiers came! She would have done anything to defend me. I know that much.”
Queen Nalani shook her head. “That I cannot explain. So much of this is still unknown, and will never be known. It eats at me, Ruby. I hate not knowing why she left. I wish I could talk to her just one more time.”
“I wish that, too,” I said hoarsely. How I’d wished that. More times than I could count.
“Can you begin to understand how her disappearance tore at me? She didn’t trust me enough to tell me where she was going. For a short time, I even suspected her of treason. Our father died of grief within months—she was always his favorite. Then I had to take the throne. In the midst of all that, some of the outlying islands rebelled and I wondered if she was behind the uprising, if she had played the reluctant princess when she really wanted to be queen. But there was no trace of her. Nothing.”
I shook my head, unable to cast my mother in the light of power-hungry usurper. I didn’t understand how Queen Nalani could ever have suspected that. It was almost as if she hadn’t known my mother at all. Or maybe I hadn’t.
Either way, her grief was real. I could see it in the tightness around her eyes, the brittle slant of her mouth. For the first time, I experienced a flutter of pity for the proud queen.
As she caught me staring, her gaze hardened. “So, I’m sure you’ll understand why trust is such a delicate and precious thing to me, Ruby. It’s important to me that when I ask you a question, you answer honestly.”
Nervous heat flooded my veins. “You can ask me anything.” Whether I would answer honestly was another matter. I couldn’t reveal anything about my plans.
“My soldiers have combed the island twice over and can’t find the Frostblood ship. I want you to tell me where it is.”
The blunt words cleaved the veneer of warm reminiscences like an axe. “How would I know that?”
“Come, now. You spoke alone with the king for a quarter of an hour. Surely he told you things. He trusts you, does he not?”
I took another sip of tea, concentrating hard on keeping my hand steady. “Not with everything.”
“But he did trust you with that.”
Always be aware of your surroundings. Never let yourself be maneuvered onto dangerous ground. Who had told me that? Brother Thistle? Kai?
Arcus. After backing me into a fish pond. The memory came fresh and vivid. I could still feel the lily pads brushing against my skin, feel my fury as he stood, untouched and superior, on dry ground.
Well, clearly I hadn’t learned. The queen had softened me up, made me lower my defenses by sharing fond memories of my mother, and then backed me into quicksand. When cornered, there was no choice but to attack.
“If you expected me to interrogate your prisoner, why did you send Kai to drag me away?”
“I sent him for your protection,” she replied smoothly.
“I doubt that. You know the king is no danger to me.”
“I know no such thing. His brother—”
“He’s nothing like his brother. I wish you’d believe me.”
She took another sip of tea. “You may believe what you’re saying is true. Tell me this, then. How many ships are on their way?”
“No more ships. There’s only the one.”
“Why did the king come himself? Why risk the journey? He wouldn’t come on a simple scouting mission.”
“As he told you, it wasn’t a scouting mission. He thought I was in danger. He came for me.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
She put her cup down with a rattle. “The Frostblood king. Came all the way here. For you.”
“Kai tried to tell you how much he cares for me when we first arrived in your court. I know it might sound far-fetched, but—”
“He had no reason to think you were in danger. There was no time for me to send him any message. So, what drew him here?” Her hand cut the air in an angry gesture. “Did he plan to kill me? Although he could simply have hired an assassin…” She shook her head. “If what he says is true and he received a letter, he could have sent messengers to procure my confirmation first.”
“He did send a messenger ship to invite you to diplomatic talks. It never returned home.”
She sat back, pinning me with a steely-eyed glare. “The masters who guard the strait know better than to let a Tempesian ship through.”
Outrage tightened my hands into fists. “So they destroyed it? The people on that ship were trying to help achieve peace.”
She lifted a shoulder and let it fall, as if one ship full of Tempesians was of little consequence. She leaned forward in her chair. “I couldn’t save the Firebloods who died under Rasmus’s bloody rule, but I will avenge them.”
Steel bands wrapped around my lungs, squeezing. “What do you mean?”
She pinned me with her eyes, as if deciding in this exact moment whether or not to trust me. “We’ve been building ships, training soldiers. Recruiting men and women from the outlying islands. In a few months’ time, we’ll start by destroying their navy. Then when the Frostbloods are scrambling, we’ll be ready to invade.”
A tremor ripped through my body. Her plans to attack by sea were one thing, but a land invasion would be suicide. I couldn’t help but think back to King Rasmus, who had also taken foolish risks in his military campaigns.
“The king must have heard of my plans somehow,” she continued, “and he decided to strike first. I just cannot figure out why he came himself.”
“You are so, so wrong about this,” I said hoarsely. “Talk to the king. Not an interrogation. Just speak to him. Discuss this as the rational people that you are. He would never do what you’re saying. He has no desire to conquer you or anyone else.”
She watched me keenly. “He hasn’t told you anything, then.” She sagged backward into the chair ever so slightly. “I think you are telling me the truth. You know nothing.”
I leaned forward urgently. “I know that he would never do what you’re suggesting.”
She swept my assertions away with one manicured hand. “You are no use to me in this. I am disappointed. I must find another way to discover his plans, starting by questioning the king himself.” She nodded, as if she’d asked and answered a question in her mind. “After your initiation, I will persuade him to see reason.”
My blood heated further. “You’re not listening to me. I don’t want—”
“You may go, Ruby. I will see you tomorrow.”
Gripped with anger at her cool dismissal, I spoke before I could consider my words. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
Her head turned slowly, tension straining her jaw. “What precisely do you mean, child?”
I couldn’t let my temper get the better of me. I needed to negotiate. What did I have to bargain with?
She believed I was the princess. That was leverage.
“Who am I to you?” I demanded.
She swept me with an irritated glance. “You are my niece. My heir.”
“I assume you have much to teach me and many things you want me to do in my new role. You want me to be willing to do those things, don’t you? You want me to be loyal, but you also want that loyalty to be genuine. Am I wrong?”
“You’re not wrong,” she admitted.
“So when you talk of interrogating Arcus, how do you think I’m going to respond? He’s been my steadfast ally, whether you want to acknowledge it or not. When you threaten him, it makes me want to defy you.”
She stared at me thoughtfully for a few beats. “Let me ask you this, Ruby. Who am I to you?”