Page 127 of Six Wild Crowns

“Am I?”

His two desires – to put her in her place, and to empower himself – are at war inside him. Eventually, one wins out.

“How?”

“Ah-ah.” She shakes her head. “I want assurances, Henry.”

“You’re hardly in a position to make demands.”

“And yet I am. Don’t you love that about me?”

He lowers his sword, and limps towards her. She backs away, until she feels the crumbling edge of the cliff beneath her feet. She holds out the knife Clarice left in the crate. It’s a pitiful weapon compared to his, but it has the right effect.

“What are your demands?”

Boleyn glances towards thesunscína. All five queens are stillthere, leaning forward to hear her. She raises her voice above the wind.

“I want to be your queen again, Henry. Your true queen, raised above all others. When you go into battle abroad and conquer the world, and you will, with my help, then I will rule as regent in your place.”

“Anything else?”

“Elizabeth will be named heir of Elben, no matter how many other children you have, or their gender.”

“You ask too much.”

“Not if what I have found could make you ruler of the known world. And it could, Henry. You will work your way through dozens of other queens, use them up in a year apiece, and you and Elben will prosper. But I will too, by your side. Unharmed. What is your answer?”

The wind reaches inside her clothes, the sea spray flying up towards her from hundreds of feet below as she teeters on the edge of the cliff, on the edge of destiny. She dares not look at thesunscína, to see the effect of her betrayal.

“All right. I promise,” Henry growls.

“Words are cheap, husband. Swear it on this.”

She pulls her wedding ring from her finger, the fairy still trapped inside it, fluttering for eternity, and throws it to him. He stares down at it.

“Is my word not enough, my love?” he says.

“No.”

Henry smiles again, rueful, and Boleyn realises that if he does this, if he swears on the ring, compelled to do all that he has promised, that they could be happy. Even after everything that has come to pass, they could fall in love again. She could scour More’s books to find the right words, or she could work to trick the goddess into helping her. She could will herself to forget everything he has done, to her and to others. They could be the perfect match once more. She could have everything.

“I swear it,” Henry says, and repeats the oath, word for word. The fairy inside the jewel spins and spins until it becomes an impossible,pulsating light. The victory is in Boleyn’s grasp. But it is not the victory that she desires.

“It is done,” Henry says, lifting the ring up, passing it back to her. “Now tell me what I need to do.”

“Thank you for the assurance, my love,” she says, and she turns fully towards thesunscína. As Wyatt did only yesterday, she lifts the wedding ring to her chest and she bows to the watching queens. As she straightens, she catches Aragon’s eye.

Until you can prove to me that you truly work for all the queens, I will die before I join your cause.

That’s what Aragon had told her. She hopes that this is proof enough.

When Boleyn speaks, she knows that the queens will know she speaks to them.

“Tell Elizabeth – tell Elizabeth that I wanted a fairer world for all of us. And whatever else happens – spin her a happy life.”

Her arms open of their own accord, the wedding ring, bright as a star, falling to the grass as she steps back into space. The sea calls to her, the deep cry of the ocean currents offering a cool embrace.

Five queens are all that are needed, and five queens remain.

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