Page 219 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“I don’t know, but they sound smart.”
There was much to do in Avalinth in the meantime. The dead were buried now, although Venus’ funeral had yet to be held. Owen and his men were preparing to move out. Hawthorn and his family, too, would be gone within the week.
And Caer with them.
She sighed. Nothing stayed forever.
“What are you going to do about Flora?” Bell asked.
Minerva tensed. She had delayed punishing her, partly due to the other business requiring her attention, and partly because she couldn’t stand to think about it. Flora had attached herself to the hospital after the battle, and Minerva would not remove her whilst she was useful.
But the dead were dead, now, and those healing could be helped by others.
“I suppose it’s time. I shall visit her this afternoon.”
“You will not,” Bell said. “You are queen, now. She should come to you.”
Flora was summoned to the throne room later that day. It felt wrong to be sitting on the throne, staring down at the woman she’d known her entire life, who’d gone from tutor to advisor to friend to… to this wordless thing they now were.
And yet Minerva knew she would never be able to forgive her, not fully.
Flora stared up at her, her wrinkled face a perfect mask of civility.
“Am I to be executed?” she asked, as if the answer were neither here nor there. “Treason against the queen, and all?”
“I wasn’t queen when you turned on me,” Minerva said placidly. “So no. All you are guilty of is betrayal.”
To this, Flora said nothing.
“Why did you do it?”
“The odds were stacked against us.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Venus only wanted her family back, Min. She agreed that she would spare the rest of you. I did what I thought was best.”
“Caer could have died.”
“The boy’s strong,” she said. “I had my hopes that he would live. I don’t much care for the wars of mortals and fae. They could kill each other for all I cared.”
“This doesn’t sound like you.”
Flora sighed. “Do you know why I came with you to the mortal world?”
“You said you had no one left in Avalinth.”
“That’s right. No one. No family. Everyone I’d ever cared for was dead and gone, and the few remaining leaving. A simpler life, Bell said. No monsters. I thought I’d get to live out the remainder of my life amongst friends, that I’d never have to see another die. And then you decided we’d have to come back here, for a boy we barely knew.”
“You didn’t have to come with us.”
“How could I not?” She shook her head. “I’d been friends with Fort for a century, and she died. She died, and we carried on, like we always do, like death isn’t a festering thing we carry in our hearts. No more, I promised myself—if there was any way to prevent it.”A silence stretched out between the two of them, as long and as painful as Minerva had ever known any silence between them to be. “What will you do with me?”
Minerva sighed. “Owen will be heading back to the mortal world, soon. The long way round, since the Mirror is broken. I’m going to ask him to take you back to the cottage. You’ll get your wish, Flora. You’ll never have to watch another person die. You’ll never have to watch anyone do anything ever again.”
“Banishment, then?”
“Yes.”
