Page 47 of Return of the Vengeful Quee

“And serpanicite is your medicine?” She stepped back as he crouched beside the child’s pallet.

“You know that it is.” He gave the small Rakuuna a swallow of liquid.

“I didn’t know that until just now.” She glanced at Tal, and he shook his head. He hadn’t known, either.

“Many die.” The physician rose to his feet, towering over Charis. Anger filled his voice as he shoved the water pitcher in her face, shaking it slightly for good measure. “Almost out of serpanicite. Nothing stops the sickness without it. This makes you happy?”

“Of course not.” Why was he angry at her and not at his monster of a queen who was busy invading and crushing kingdoms instead of bartering for the medicine she needed to save her species?

Choosing her words with care, she said, “I can see that your people are dying. What I don’t understand is why, instead of helping them, your queen is off killing my people instead.”

“You had the chance to help us, and you refused!” The physician’s voice rose, scraping against Charis’s ears.

When had she had the chance to help Te’ash with this horrifying disease? The only time the Rakuuna had ever approached her was through Ambassador Shyrn of Rullenvor with their offer to help defeat Montevallo in exchange for an indefinite pass to set up camp in Calera with access to Tal’s kingdom.

Access to the serpanicite they needed.

She frowned. Why not just tell her the situation and ask for safe passage to Montevallo where they could bargain with King Alaric for what they needed?

Unless they didn’t have a way to pay for the gems.

Or unless there was still something Charis was missing—some crucial piece of information that would help her make sense of everything that had happened.

Facing the physician as he stooped to give medicine to another sick Rakuuna, she said softly, “If your queen had simply told me the situation, things would be different. I would have helped, had I known. She made the wrong decision, and it cost many Rakuuna their lives.”

Behind her, Tal sucked in a little breath and then stepped forward as if to angle himself between the physician and Charis. Whatever he intended, it was too late. The Rakuuna sank his claws into Charis’s shoulder and shook her until stars flickered at the edge of her vision.

“You will never come to this room again,” he snarled. “You’re lucky my queen wants to kill you herself. The blood of my family is on your hands.”

He shoved her, sending her stumbling into Tal, who quickly steadied her and then guided the two of them out of the sick bay.

Charis’s shoulder stung, and dizziness came in waves, but even though she hadn’t learned what the poison would do to open wounds, she had something just as valuable. She knew why the Rakuuna wanted serpanicite from Montevallo, and she knew that someone—clearly Lady Channing—must have told the queen not to be honest with Charis about their true situation—a lie by omission that had set in motion the chain of events leading to Calera’s ruin.

This would end either with Alaric paying the Rakuuna enough jewels to get them to leave or with Nalani’s armada destroying the monsters. Charis just needed to stay alive long enough to see this through.

Eighteen

THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, Charis was at the bow of the ship, clinging to the railing as the vessel climbed a massive swell before plunging down and sending a spray of icy water onto the deck. The sky pressed close, an ominous bruised indigo full of thick, metal-gray clouds. Just ahead, the skyline blurred, as if the ship was hurtling toward a curtain of rainfall.

“Your Majesty.” Reuben’s voice beside her was unsteady. “We’re sailing into a storm. We should go below.”

“Soon.” She didn’t want to go below. Everything inside her was stretched too thin, scraped too raw, and if she had to spend the hours between now and nightfall trapped in a cabin with Tal and Holland, she was going to break.

Staying in a different cabin wasn’t even worth considering. She’d tried staying with others on her crew, but they all looked at her with such deference and hope in their eyes.

It was the hope that gutted her.

They saw their fierce, indominable queen, who was only imprisoned because she chose to become bait and outsmart their enemy. Imprisoned, but not conquered. Temporarily inconvenienced, but still viciously capable of winning.

Charis knew the truth.

If she was the conquering Rakuuna leader, she would never allow Calera’s queen to survive. Especially when that queen had become a symbol of resistance to the people whose subservience she needed.

Charis had been dead the instant the Rakuuna ship found them on the open seas.

The ship shuddered as it plunged down another long swell and slammed into the valley below it. Charis gripped the railing harder as Reuben bent over and vomited.

“It’s done.” Tal’s voice spoke directly behind her, nearly startling her into losing her grip.

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