Page 162 of Curse of Darkness
Time to ease a shield between her and the land.
“Where is the girl?” Thiago steps forward as if he heard my silent plea. He’s the perfect distraction, because she’s always seen him as the larger threat.
A dozen guards set hands to the hilts of their swords.
Mother lifts her chin. “Somewhere you will never find her. Somewhere you will never get to her,” she hisses. “You made a grave mistake today. I will kill May before you ever set eyes upon her.”
“Boring, Mother,” I tell her with a fake yawn, trying not to flinch as a vine curves its way around my calf. “We’ve heard all your threats a thousand times before. Do try and conjure something new.”
“You little fool. I have you right where I want you. I have youbothright where I want you.” Her gaze cuts to Thiago. “Asturia attacked Evernight barely an hour ago. I needed to keep you off the field long enough…. Well, long enough for some of my allies to arrive.” She laughs. “It’s done. And now, you’ll be too late to save your people. Your kingdom.”
“I assume that means your friends among the goblin horde have advanced.” Thiago smiles, truly a chilling thing. “Or are you referring to Angharad and her forces? You’re right. If Asturia attacked, then it would be too late to save my people. They would be caught between the pincers of three separate forces.Ifthey attack.”
Mother stills, practically lashing her nonexistent tail.
“The problem with the Asturian forces is that Asturia’s best general lives in the border lands between Asturia and Evernight,” I tell her, slapping my gloves against my thigh. “The Duke of Thornwood holds command. He has only ever lost one battle, and of all your generals, he alone can stand against Eris or Baylor. Indeed, he’s the only one who wouldn’t flinch to do so. And while he doesn’t care for you at all—something about you murdering his brother all those years ago—you have held his daughter at knifepoint in Hawthorne Castle for years in order to inspire his loyalty. He doesn’t dare defy you.”
“Perhaps you should take heed of such a lesson,” she purrs. “Keep your friends close and your enemies in shackles.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Mother. I did take heed. You spent all those years trying to teach me how to play the game of politics. You berated me constantly because you said I had no heart for it. I wasn’t ruthless enough. My compassionate nature would be my downfall. And for so many years, I believed it.”
Her nostrils flare as if she’s starting to sense the trap herself. “Get to the point, Iskvien.”
“The point is this. I spent all those years watching. I spent all those years listening. And I know, that without the Duke of Thornwood leading them, Asturia is done.” I smile now, letting her see the victory in my eyes. “Take out the duke and the Asturian army collapses.”
“You don’t have the heart for murder.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” It’s so telling that her first instinct leads her there. “But I finally realized I don’t need to be ruthless to be a good queen. I don’t need to bury my heart to help my husband rule. We don’t have to kill Thornwood in order to take him from the field. All we have to do”—my gaze shifts to the castle in the distance, noting the column of red smoke pouring from the northern tower—“is remove the knife from his throat.”
The blood runs from her face as she whips her head around to see what I can see.
“Halvor,” she snaps, her attention shifting to the scarred Deathguard warrior who swore to kill me. “Shut down the castle! Make sure—”
“You’re too late.” It feelssogood to say it. “Lady Aleydis was rescued by Baylor as we walked in here. That red smoke says he just took the Hallow directly to Eidyn to deliver her to Thornwood. He will present her to the duke as a gift of good nature in order to establish our terms to him.”
“Thornwood has no liking for Evernight,” she snaps. “And he considers his word to be sacrosanct. He swore he would serve me. He willneverattack his own troops—”
“That’s why we sweetened the deal a little.” I share a smile with Thiago. “And we didn’t ask for him to betray Asturia. We only asked for him to hold them back until this is all done.”
“The lands that Thornwood and his cohort of border barons hold have long been the bone of contention between Evernight and Asturia,” Thiago tells her. “Maybe it’s time I relinquished all claim Evernight has upon that strip of border lands to the border barons. Maybe it’s time they ruled themselves.”
She stares at him in horror.
Because she could never relinquish her hold over those lands the way we have done.
She would never concede her authority in such a way. Never let them rule themselves, the way they’ve always longed to.
And so, she would never see it coming.
“Evernight formally recognizes the right of the borderlands to secede from our kingdom, and will welcome the duke into the Seelie Alliance if he wishes to apply.” I can tell by the way Thiago says those words that he’s enjoying this too. “You had three armies, Adaia. Right now, only two of them will still take the field.”
“Angharad,” I muse, “who is a queen in her own right, and therefore unpredictable and uncontrollable.”
“And Urach, the pretender to the goblin throne,” Thiago says to me. “Whatever are we to do abouthim?”
“It’s such a shame that we have no allies among the goblin horde,” I reply. “Someone like… my sister. Who was sent north to marry a goblin king. I wonder, what did happen to her? I heard she didn’t make the wedding. Urach’s a little frustrated about that, is he not?”
“According to Thalia,” Thiago replies in a conversational tone.
