Page 57 of Her Cruel Redemption

I was supposed to be thinking about Gwinellyn’s strategy going forwards, but instead I found my mind racing over that turbulent sea, imagining what it would be like be tossed about on it, to board a ship and traverse it. To stand on a deck at night and see only black around you, with no sense of where the water ends and the sky begins. To enter an enemy port in the dark.

Anticipation fired along my nerves, leaving me jittery. I left the windowsill to pace, needing to expel some of that nervous energy. The negotiation would surely be held in the next day or so, now that there’d been such a violent push into Oceatold territory. What was Draven hoping to achieve with his demand that I sit at that table with him? Surely it was some sort of trap. Did he want to tear apart my story of enchantment and cast yet more doubt on whether or not I was loyal to Gwinellyn? Surely no one would believe a word that came out of his mouth if he did. But even that wasn’t my greatest concern. What I was most afraid of was having to be still while I was near him. The last time I’d seen him had been so full of fear and violence, two emotions that thrived on action, that demanded movement and burned with purpose. There had been no time to feel anything quieter throughout the encounter, driven as I had been by instinct and adrenaline. What would it be like to sit in the same room as him with no onus to run?

What if I couldn’t hold onto my rage?

Crossing from the sitting room into the bedroom of the suite, I rifled through the drawer by the bed until I caught sight of a glint of red and gold. Daethie had said I wouldn’t be able to see him, that the magic in his blood made time bend and warp around him, just as it made it bend and warp aroundme. But I had three fat, gleaming bloodstones left unused in the necklace, and the temptation to try was strong. I mulled over the possibility for a few moments, before dropping the necklace back into the drawer, disgusted with myself. I hadn’t crossed the threshold before I turned back, my mind now rolling down a different path, thinking back to that little boy I’d seen in the king’s chamber. It was odd that Senafae hadn’t reached out to me. My presence at Bright Keep must have been whispered about all over Sarmiers by now, especially after my outrageously public annulment ceremony. When I’d last seen Senafae, she’d offered to help me. She’d known I was in some kind of trouble. And then she’d left Lee Helse with the Oceatold delegation without a word. For her to not reach out now to explain herself… call it an intuition, but it just didn’t feel right.

Drifting back to the drawers, I found the necklace again and rubbed my thumb over the surface of one of the stones. Was it a stupid reason to use them? Perhaps. But the memory of the little boy gnawed at me, and the silence from Senafae was deafening. Picking it up, I chose one of the still-red stones. I thought of Senafae, touched the stone, and was swallowed by grey mist.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ikept scanning the words on the page before me over and over, as though they might spell out something different if I stared at them for long enough.

‘Is something the matter, princess?’ Lord Faucher asked me, offering me a kindly smile as I glanced over at him. ‘We’ve been over the terms many times now. I assure you there’s nothing in there you ought to worry yourself over.’

I bit my lip, preparing myself to disagree with him, with all of them, as I glanced at the door again. Where was Rhiandra? When she’d said she didn’t want me to agree to the engagement to Tallius, I thought she would help me find an alternative way forward. But she’d left me in the middle of the chaos the invasion of Port Howl had caused, and now suddenly the pressure to sign off on this alliance was at a boiling point and she wasn’t here. Was she trying to teach me a lesson? I was the one who was going to have to be queen, after all. Maybe she wanted me to figure this out alone.

I put down the pen that had been poised above the paper and cleared my throat. ‘Isn’t there a way we can secure Oceatold’s support without the engagement to Tallius?’ I asked, my voice painfully tentative. Around the room, faces turned stony.

‘King Esario demands the security of an engagement if he is going to expend the effort and the resources it will take to help resurrect the Brimordian throne,’ Dovegni replied from next to Lord Faucher, his smile twitching slightly at the corner.

Something about that claim was starting to sit uncomfortably with me. I remembered what Rhi had said the day before, about the cards I held. ‘I think I have more to offer than that.’

‘With all due respect, Your Highness,’ Dovegni drawled, ‘you do not. The princess of a dismantled kingdom is hardly a prize for any prince. Your value rests entirely on—’

The door sprung open, severing the end of his sentence. It slammed against the wall with a force that sent a ripple of startled motion through the gathered nobles. Rhiandra strode in like she belonged here, like she wasn’t an uninvited storm ripping through carefully laid plans. Her scarred face was unreadable, her dark eyes sharp with purpose as she swept her gaze over the room as the air seemed to thicken and pop, like she was a surge of static and barely constrained energy.

Behind her, two guards stepped forward as if to intercept her, but she barely glanced their way. ‘Try it,’ she murmured, and something made them hesitate.

Lord Faucher rose stiffly from his seat. ‘This is an official—’

‘I need to speak with Princess Gwinellyn. Alone.’

Murmurs rippled through the gathered council. Dovegni scoffed, leaning back in his chair. ‘You’ve stormed in here like whatever you have to say is more important than a full-scale invasion.’

Rhiandra didn’t even acknowledge the comment. Her focus remained on me. ‘It’s urgent.’

I excused myself as I rose to my feet and followed Rhi into the hallway. ‘I’m so glad you’re here. They want me to sign off on the alliance, and I…’ My words faltered when I realised how shaken she looked, her eyes red and her cheeks blotchy with colour. Had she been crying? ‘What’s the matter?’

‘I need you to see something.’ She extended a hand, revealing a metallic glimmer. Jewellery. A heavy whirl of gold set with odd stones that were grey in colour, though one or two gleamed brilliant red. The gold was blackened in places, almost corroded.

‘Is it a necklace?’ I asked, tucking my hands under my arms without touching it. Something about it made me hesitate to pick it up.

‘There’s magic in them. They can show you a glimpse of another time or place, and they just showed me Prince Tallius ordering the murder of the mother of his child.’

I cringed away from them now, digging my hands deeper into my arms. ‘Oh Rhi… that’s… I don’t… why do you want me to see that?!’

‘Does your alliance with Oceatold still hinge on your marrying Tallius?’

‘Of course it does! It‘s been made perfectly clear that I have no other options! You don’t really think he could—'

Rhi snatched my hand, tugging it from beneath my arm, and pressed one of the stones into it. Instantly, my vision darkened. My head spun, and the strangest sense came over me, like I was leaving my body, whirling away from it through a dizzying space that I couldn’t see but could feel as a deep emptiness all around me. Light broke before me, clearing away the black, and I was standing in a bedroom, watching Prince Tallius speaking with a slight blond woman I was sure I’d seen somewhere before. I sucked in a loud breath, shaken and stunned at the sudden scene change, but they showed no sign of having heard me.

‘Don’t leave here tonight. I need to keep everyone together,’ he said to her.

‘Of course.’ She took his hands and pressed them to her mouth. ‘Thank you, Tallius. Thank you.’

‘I’ll have someone draw you a bath,’ he replied, withdrawing, and I felt my own fingers squeezed as I suddenly realised Rhi was still standing next to me, clasping the necklace between our laced hands.

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