The next morning, Arsinoe wakes with her mask askew. She had been so exhausted that she fell asleep without taking it off. She straightens it and turns to Jules, who is rolled on her side facing the wall. But Camden is sitting up, her black tail-tip curling up and down. Jules is awake.
It is hard to believe the things that Cait and Madrigal said last night. Even though Joseph said he saw the branches break off the trees and stab into the ground. Jules, her strong Jules, is legion cursed. Touched with war. The Milones had known and hidden it all this time, with not one word of warning. They had bound the war gift with low magic, they said. But the binding is beginning to fail. And what would happen if it tore loose completely? The legion curse is an abomination, and the legion cursed go mad. Everyone knows that.
“Stop staring at me, Arsinoe,” Jules says. She turns over and blinks her two-colored eyes. Arsinoe has always thought them pretty, one blue and one green, but Cait said the oracle had wanted to drown Jules as soon as she saw them.
“You’ll be all right, Jules. You’ve been all right so far.”
“Of course I’ll be all right.” Jules turns and stares up at the ceiling, dark wood beams and one pretty spiderweb left in the east corner. “Now we both have secrets.” She looks at Arsinoe again. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’d called the bear?”
“I did it after I’d left. I never thought he’d make it in time. He must’ve been looking for me already.” She sits up in bed and peers out the window. Braddock spent the night in the yard, probably trying to figure a way into the chicken coop. Arsinoe grins.
“I can’t wait for Billy to come back so I can show him.”
Jules smiles softly. She stares down at her hands and squeezes them into fists.
“Will you let Madrigal do the unbinding?” Arsinoe asks.
“Do you think I should?”
“I don’t know.”
“Joseph doesn’t think so. He says it’s too dangerous. That the binding might be the only thing holding back the curse. But I keep on thinking of something that Luke said . . . that there must be a reason why the Goddess put me near you. Like I could be strong. Like I could help you win.”
“You don’t need the war gift to make you strong,” Arsinoe says. “You already are. Is there anything else that Cait and Madrigal aren’t telling us? Anything else that the oracle said, something that might help?”
“No. She said I was legion cursed with war, and they paid her to keep the secret. I think it was fairly simple.”
They smile at each other, a bit uncomfortably. Arsinoe does not know what Jules will decide. But she does wish that it was someone other than Madrigal who held the key to the binding.
Ellis knocks and pokes his head in with Jake, who gives a bright bark.
“Up and dressed,” he says. “We have suitors to prepare for.”
“Suitors,” Jules says, and grins.
Arsinoe pulls her light summer quilt up over her head. She had been so focused on Mirabella that she completely forgot about Tommy Stratford and Michael Percy.
“Wake me when it’s over,” she says with a moan.
“Well, if that won’t get you up, how about the fact that on the way back from the southern field I ran into Madge and she said that Billy’s mainland boat put in this morning?”
Billy arrives at the Milone house just after noon, as Arsinoe is walking her bear in the far west part of the yard.
“Well, well,” says Billy. “Joseph told me it was true. I almost didn’t believe him.”
Arsinoe grins. He is such a welcome sight. She had not realized how much she had been waiting for him, how much she missed him while he was away.
“His name is Braddock,” she says.
“Braddock the bear. Seems fitting enough. Is he safe?”
Arsinoe strokes Braddock’s large forehead. She has been with him since the morning, getting him used to the smells and sounds of people. The Milones are naturalists, and their gift puts the bear at ease. But giftless folk will see him at the feast as well, and clueless mainland suitors besides. No matter how docile the bear seems she must take extra care. With his sweet face shoved into her hip, it is easy to forget that theirs is a bond of low magic, not of familiars.
“He is safe for now,” she says. “He’s stuffed full of ripened apples and striped bass. Plus one of the children who came round to spy on him.”
Billy cautiously slides his fingers into the bear’s brown fur.
“He’s . . . ,” Billy says, and swallows. “Softer than I thought. And he doesn’t smell like the last one.”
“The last one was old. Diseased. It was a mistake. Or maybe it was the price for this one.”
“Low magic, right? You never know the price until you’ve paid it.”
Arsinoe shoves him playfully, and Braddock raises his head.
“What would you know about it, mainlander?”
“Less than nothing,” Billy says. Then his eyes lose focus on the ground. “I have some news.”
“News. I’m beginning to hate that word. It is never anything good anymore.”
Billy does not smile or tell her to stop being so glum. But it cannot be so bad when he has just returned.
“I’m afraid I’ve been sold to the Westwoods,” he says.
“What?”
“I’ve been appointed Queen Mirabella’s royal taster. My father’s punishment for refusing to take part in the courting. I’m leaving for Rolanth tonight on pain of disinheritance.” He smiles ruefully. “Always on pain of disinheritance. But he let me come back here to tell you. He gave me that, at least.”
“But,” Arsinoe sputters. “You can’t!”
“I must.”
At her anxious tone, Braddock bobs his head and wanders away.
“Junior! Don’t be an idiot. You can’t be her taster! Doesn’t your father understand the danger? She . . . Katharine is already sending poison to Rolanth. One of Mirabella’s maids has already died in a poisoned dress!”
“It was not a poisoned dress,” Billy says. “It was a poisoned glove. And she did not die. They cut off her hand in time. They don’t even know if it would have killed her or if Katharine is only playing.”
“The Arrons do not play,” Arsinoe insists. “And how do you know all that?”
“My father discussed it with the Westwoods at length.”
Her brow furrows, and he smiles charmingly and slips his hand onto the back of her neck, beneath the fall of her hair. That stupid, mainland bluster, but she cannot seem to move away.
“Do all mainlanders think themselves immortal, or is it just you?”
“I will be perfectly safe! My father wouldn’t put me at risk. And when he’s done being angry, I’ll come back to you, I promise. In the meantime, I can be your eyes and ears on Mirabella.” He caresses her mask with his thumb. “I heard what happened in the woods. You shouldn’t have gone up against her like that. You great half-wit.”
She pushes his hand away from her mask.
“Are you sure that your father wouldn’t make some other bargain? He is always in Indrid Down, with the Arrons.”
“He likes Indrid Down. It’s more like home. Civilized. He’s looking forward to ousting the Arrons when you are queen.”
She rolls her eyes and he laughs, trying to cheer her.
“Don’t be so worried! I’m his only son. And where I come from, that means something.”
“Can’t anyone change your mind?”
“No one,” he says. “Not even you.”
“So you’ll leave. When?”