“Enough of this. Has there been any word of the Milone girl? Any word of Arsinoe’s body?”
“None. And no one expects any. The naturalist knows her woods. If she hides the corpse away or buries it, no one will find it except for the bugs.” Genevieve raises an eyebrow. “It is the Milone girl who is the real problem. So strong and legion cursed? And with the war gift of all things. Something must be done.”
“Something will be done,” Natalia says. “But not yet. The legion curse is an abomination. It is my guess that the temple will take care of her for us. Which will give us a chance to keep our hands clean with Wolf Spring.”
Natalia presses her forefingers to the bridge of her nose.
“You will not be able to do this for much longer, sister,” Genevieve says.
“Do what?”
“Hide away in your hilltop manor. Soon, Katharine will be living in the east tower with her king-consort, and you will have no more excuses to avoid your Council seat.”
“Do not remind me.” Natalia narrows her eyes at a rider approaching up the long, tree-lined drive. A messenger. Riding fast. Katharine intercepts the letter, and tears it open. Natalia tenses. She rushes from the room when Katharine begins to scream.
Katharine pats her new stallion’s neck. Together they led Pietyr and Nicolas on a merry chase through the woods, and the stallion does not want it to end. But she keeps her hands firm on the reins until he quiets.
“Shall we go in for tea?” she asks the boys. “And later to the city, to buy sardines to feed my poor sister’s bear?”
“I do not like you so near that thing,” Pietyr says, and she rolls her eyes. During the parade back to the city, Pietyr flinched every time it fought against its ropes. “It is not happy with you, Kat, for what you did to its mistress.”
“Truly, Pietyr, I thought the same at first. But I have fed the bear many times since, and whatever anger it had is gone. It is as if it does not care at all.”
“Perhaps it’s no longer a familiar, now that she is dead,” Nicolas adds. “In any case, I enjoy seeing it, Queen Katharine. And perhaps hunting it, at this year’s Beltane Festival?”
She smiles, a little nervously. “Perhaps.”
Hoofbeats make them pause. They stop their mounts and wait for the messenger to canter up the drive.
“Good afternoon, Queen Katharine,” the girl says, breathless from her ride. She bows as deep as she can in the saddle. “I have a message for Mistress Arron.”
“I will take it.” Katharine holds out a gloved hand, and the messenger gives it over. She salutes them before riding away.
Katharine breaks the Black Council’s wax seal and opens the letter. Another letter is folded inside and falls out onto the ground. She dismounts to collect it, and Pietyr takes her stallion’s reins. When she turns the letter over, it reveals the blue-and-black wax of Rolanth. Of her sister Mirabella.
Katharine reads it and starts to scream.
“Kat!” Pietyr quickly dismounts. “Kat, what is it?”
She crumples the letter from Rolanth in her fist. It was not addressed to her. It was not addressed to anyone. It was a notice, found tacked to the gates of the Volroy.
Pietyr takes her by the shoulders, but she breaks free, screaming so loud she spooks the horses, and her new stallion bolts for the safety of the stables. Nicolas struggles to keep his mare still, his expression confused.
“Katharine!” she hears Natalia calling, running to her across the courtyard. “Kat! Are you all right?”
“How many of these are there?” Katharine shouts. She stalks toward Natalia and Genevieve and holds up the crumpled paper in her fist. “How many? You must have known! When were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?” Genevieve squeaks as Natalia pries the letter from Katharine’s fingers and reads.
“It is a challenge,” Natalia says. “Mirabella has challenged Katharine to a duel, to be held at the great arena in Indrid Down.”
“What?” Pietyr asks. “When?”
“At the next full moon.”
Genevieve moans. That is less than two weeks away.
Natalia grabs for the accompanying letter from the Council.
“It says they are everywhere,” Katharine says. “Tacked to every board and signpost in Indrid Down.”
“How did she manage it?” Genevieve asks shrilly. “It must have taken a small army to pull off such a stunt!”
“Then she must have used a small army,” Natalia replies.
Katharine grits her teeth. She recites the challenge from memory in a bitter voice.
“A duel. To be held the day of July’s full moon, in the arena in our great capital of Indrid Down. All are welcome to bear witness to the end of the Ascension and the beginning of a new elemental reign . . . !’” Katharine grabs at her hair and shrieks, tearing it loose of its bun. “Who has seen these?”
“There is no way to know,” says Natalia. “But if it were me, I would dispatch riders to every corner. I would make sure that the entire island hears of the challenge.”
“Must everyone be here to witness this?” Genevieve hisses. She throws her hand up at Pietyr’s mare, who has fled only a few paces away. “Even the horses? Shall I call the kitchen staff and the maids?”
“This is not the way.” Katharine begins to pace, biting at her nails and muttering to herself. “It is not what we planned. Not what we hoped. We would see her disgraced in her own city.” She spins angrily and points to the letter. “‘All are welcome to bear witness.’ Bear! Is that some slight against me and the way I dispatched Arsinoe?”
“If it is, I do not see how.”
Katharine takes a deep breath. She smooths her mussed hair. Mirabella will not get away with this. The supreme brat will live only long enough to regret ever coming to the capital.
“Kat,” Pietyr says gently, “a triumph is still a triumph, whether in Rolanth or Indrid Down. This will be even more gratifying in many ways, as it will be before all of those in the city who have watched you grow from a child. Mirabella’s boldness will only make it easier. And sweeter when she loses.”
Katharine pauses. Then she exhales, and the shoulders of everyone around her relax slightly.
“Perhaps you are right. Either way, she will be dead. Here we can arrange things the way we like. And I will not have to disturb the bear by making him travel.” She grabs the notice from Natalia and tears it down the center, smiling sweetly as the halves float to the gravel drive. “I will hold a ball, the night before. To welcome her.”
“Yes,” says Natalia. “That is a fine idea.”
Katharine nods, and blinks at them. They look terrified.
“Natalia, I am so sorry! I did not mean to carry on so!”
“It is all right, Kat. Though you must control your temper. What has come over you? You are behaving like an elemental.”
Katharine lowers her head. She curtsies to Natalia and walks alone toward the house. But it is not long before Pietyr catches up to her.