Page 145 of Crown of Darkness
There’s a horrible look in her eyes. “You called it the Crown of Shadows. But whatever that thing in your bag is, it’s not the real crown.”
The breath slams from my lungs. “How would you know that?”
Her gaze meets mine. “Because the Crown of Shadows sits on Mother’s head.”
Everything goes silent, leaving only a ringing in my ears. “No.” The Asturian royal crown is an elegant gold piece I’ve seen a thousand times. I’ve even touched it once, though Mother slammed the door of her dressing chambers open and demanded to know what I thought I was doing.
It didn’t feel like it had any sort of power.
“Itis,” Andraste insists. “She told me that if anything ever happened to us—if your husband ever attacked the castle—then I needed to get the crown out safely. I needed to bring it to her, no matterwhatI had to do.”
This must have been what she wanted to tell me in secret.
And what was it the oracle said?
That I would understand everything…. Not that I would have the crown in my possession.
Suddenly shouts echo through the halls. My mother’s warriors. Andraste’s attention jerks upward, and then she backs away. “Go. I’ll cover you. I’ll tell them it was me. That I set this entire affair off.”
“What about Mother?” I ask sharply.
The expression melts off Andraste’s face. “I’ve been lying to her for years. What’s another lie? I’ll tell her I was meeting a male for a secret assignation.”
My eyebrows rise. “You’ve been lying to her for years? You?”
She hesitates and then tips her chin up. “We all have secrets, Vi.”
“We never used to have secrets.”
Andraste gives me a sad little smile. “Sometimes it’s the only way to protect those we love. I hope one day you’ll understand that.”
What does that mean?
“Down here!” Someone yells.
“We need to go,” Eris says, grabbing my hand.
“Come on, come on, come on.” I slice my hand with the dagger, searching the columns for runes I might recognize.
Is this even going to work?
There. I see Valerian’s glyph and dart toward it, before skidding to a halt. The rune is half-crumbled.
“Be ready,” I yell at Eris. “This might be a rough ride.”
And then the world turns inside out and plunges me straight into darkness.
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Chapter Twenty-Nine
The plan is reckless. It’s dangerous. It relies upon the fact that I can trust my sister to keep her mouth shut about our need for the crown, when the past has proven such trust to be worth so little.
It’s barely been two days since the revelation at Briar Keep, and it’s taken me every second of those two days to convince Thiago to risk this stealthy assault. Especially after he found nothing at Clydain except for an empty keep.
Eris, surprisingly, was the one who convinced him.
“I don’t think the Princess of Asturia was lying,” she told him last night. “I don’t think she’s telling the entire truth, but Andraste had multiple chances to turn Vi over to their mother and she didn’t take it.”
