Page 76 of A Crown of Darkness
ELODIE
The door remained firmly locked. Once upon a time she and Maryn could have made short work of that. Light, they could have just blasted their way through the door itself. Or the wall. But the power that had once come to them so easily was no more than a flicker now. It felt like being left hollow and empty. Broken.
Elodie worked on the bracelet on Maryn’s arm, trying to open it every way she knew how, but the Aurum would not answer her now. She tried to force it, cajole it, even threaten it. Until finally, in desperation, she spat out a hedge witch charm of opening and the wretched thing twisted open as if made of straw. Elodie stared at it for the longest time, unsure of what to make of that.
Worse still, it didn’t help Maryn. Oh, at first she was relieved but the moment she reached for the light that had always been part of her, nothing answered and she sank back onto her chair, devastated.
‘What are we going to do?’ Maryn asked. And, in truth, Elodie didn’t have an answer.
They had spent enough time pretending she was still asleep now. It had not gained them anything. No one had come save a few guards and they didn’t linger. No one seemed in anyway interested in them. Perhaps Leander was planning to leave Elodie to die in here after all. Perhaps he’d wall the two of them up, let thirst and starvation take them and that would be that.
The kings of Ilanthus had done far more savage things to their prisoners in the past.
Enough. She was done waiting. The element of surprise was all very well, but not if there was no one to surprise.
Elodie made herself push that thought aside as she dressed herself as a queen should dress, and Maryn helped her prepare as if for a battle.
Which it was. And this was a kind of armour as well.
She was Queen Aeryn of Asteroth and this was still her kingdom. She had not allowed Evander of Ilanthus to take it from her and she was certainly not going to allow his nephew to do it instead.
The rest of the maidens had been confined to the Sanctum, guarded by Leander’s personal troops. He had promised that if anyone interfered, they would be the next to be slaughtered. No one doubted it. Elodie took Maryn’s hands in her own.
‘Your majesty,’ said the maiden, and curtsied. For the first time, Elodie felt that title rest on her shoulders as if it actually belonged there. She had run so far and so fast from this responsibility in order to protect Wren but now…now the only way to do that was to embrace it.
So she made Maryn tell the guard that the queen had awoken. And then they waited.
The door unlocked and Elodie turned to face this new threat, head held high and glare ready to destroy whoever crossed her.
But it was just Lynette.
The lady-in-waiting stared at them for a stunned moment, her eyes wide as they fell on Elodie.
‘El—’ Maryn began, in a tone of warning.
Lynette threw up a hand and a blast of wind ripped through the room, hurling Maryn back against the wall. It buffeted against Elodie as well but she held her ground, the assault not directed at her.
‘You said you’d keep her quiet, Maryn,’ Lynette said. ‘Keep her asleep. That was our arrangement. That she could stay alive as long as she stayed out of it all. She’s witchkind in the end, you said, more hedge witch than queen. You promised you’d handle it. It seems like you couldn’t even manage that.’
‘Lynette, don’t hurt her,’ Maryn gasped. ‘Please…’
So Maryn had known. And Maryn had cooperated…
The surge of betrayal and anger was pointless. Elodie swallowed it down. Her explanations and pointless reasons could wait.
‘Lynette, what do you think you’re doing?’ Elodie used the calmest, steadiest tones she could manage. Inside, her heart raced and her stomach churned in shock and betrayal but she couldn’t let that show. Whatever deal Maryn had made, it had been to save her life. But it still hurt that her cousin hadn’t seen fit to warn her that Lynette of all people was involved in all this.
This wasn’t about Lynette, or Maryn, but Leander. He was the enemy here. Whatever the women had needed to do in order to survive, to protect her, Elodie hoped it had been worth it.
But where had Lynette come by that magic? Not from him, surely?
‘I didn’t want to hurt you, your majesty.’ Lynette said the title with complete disdain. ‘You were never meant to wake up and so you would have kept the Aurum trapped and helpless. King Leander agreed to that, because you saved his life. He doesn’t want to hurt you. But you being awake changes everything.’
‘Except the Aurum didn’t stay with me.’ There was no point in pretending. If she knew magic, she’d sense it.
The breeze moving around them both intensified, but still Elodie held firm. It seemed that Lynette’s abilities weren’t having the effect she expected. Or at least not on Elodie. ‘Then where is it?’
‘Why? So you can try and trap it again? Why would you want to do that?’
