Dain is the High King, his spies can haunt the shadows of Elfhame with only
Dain himself to keep us in check.
“In some of the lower Courts, a king or queen’s murderer can take the
throne,” Dulcamara says. She goes on to tell us that she is part of the Court of
Termites, which has not yet joined Eldred’s banner.
Although she is not wearing armor, she stands as though she’s used to the
weight of it. “And that is why Queen Mab bargained with the wild fey to make
the crown King Eldred wears, which can only be passed down to her
descendants. It would be tricky to get it by force.” She grins wickedly.
If Cardan were to try to stop her lesson, she looks like she would eat him
alive and crack his bones for marrow.
The Gentry children look at Dulcamara uncomfortably. Rumor has it that
Lord Roiben, her king, is planning to swear to the new High King, bringing with
him his large Court, one that has held off Madoc’s forces for years. Roiben’s
joining the High Court of Elfhame is widely considered to be a masterstroke of
diplomacy, negotiated by Prince Dain against Madoc’s wishes. I suppose she’s
come for the coronation.
Larkspur, one of the youngest of us, pipes up. “What happens when there
are no more children in the Greenbriar line?”
Dulcamara’s smile gentles. “Once there are fewer than two descendants—
one to wear the crown and the other to place it on the ruler’s head—the High
Crown and its power crumble. All of Elfhame will be free from their oaths to it.
“Then, who knows? Maybe a new ruler will make a new crown. Maybe
you’ll return to warring with smaller Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Maybe you
will join our banners in the Southwest.” Her smile makes it clear which of those
she would prefer.
I stick my hand up. Dulcamara nods in my direction. “What if someone
tries to take the crown?”
Cardan gives me a look. I want to glare, but I can’t help thinking of him
sprawled out on the ground with those girls. My cheeks heat all over again. I
drop my gaze.
“An interesting question,” Dulcamara says. “Legend has it that the crown
will not allow itself to be placed on the brow of anyone who isn’t an heir of
Mab, but Mab’s line has been very fruitful. So long as a pair of descendants try
to take the crown, it could be done. But the most dangerous part of a coup would
be this: The crown is cursed so that a murder of its wearer causes the death of
the person responsible.”
I think of the note I found in Balekin’s house, about blusher mushrooms,
about vulnerability. After the lecture, I go down the steps carefully, remembering taking them at
a run after stabbing Valerian. My vision blurs, and I feel dizzy for a moment, but
the moment passes. Taryn, coming behind me, all but pushes me into the woods
once we’re outside.
“First of all,” she says, tugging me over patches of curling ferns, “no one
knows you weren’t home all last night except for Tatterfell, and I gave her one
of your nicest rings to make sure she wouldn’t say anything. But you have to tell
me where you were.”
“Locke had a party at his house,” I say. “I stayed—but it wasn’t, I mean,
nothing much happened. We kissed. That was it.”
Her chestnut braids fly as she shakes her head. “I don’t know if I believe
that.”
I let out my breath, perhaps a little dramatically. “Why would I lie? I’m not
the one hiding the identity of the person courting me.”
Taryn frowns. “I just think that sleeping in someone’s room, in someone’s
bed, is more than kissing.”
My cheeks heat, thinking of the way it had felt to wake up with his body
stretched out beside mine. To get the attention off me, I start speculating about
her. “Ooooh, maybe it’s Prince Balekin. Are you going to marry Prince Balekin?
Or perhaps it’s Noggle and you can count the stars together.”
She smacks me in the arm, a little too hard. “Stop guessing,” she says. “You
know I’m not allowed to say.”
“Ow.” I pick a white campion flower and stick it behind my ear.
“So you like him?” she asks. “Really like him?”
“Locke?” I ask. “Of course I do.”
She gives me a look, and I wonder how much I worried her, not coming
home the night before.
“Balekin I like less well,” I say, and she rolls her eyes.
When we get back to the stronghold, I find that Madoc has left word he will
be out until late. With little else to do for once, I look for Taryn, but although I
saw her go upstairs just minutes before, she’s not in her room. Instead, her dress
is on the bed and her closet open, a few gowns hanging roughly, as though she
pulled them out before finding them wanting.
Has she gone to meet her suitor? I take a turn around the room, trying to see
it as a spy might, alert for signs of secrets. I notice nothing unusual but a few
rose petals withering on her dressing table.
I go to my room and lie on my bed, going over my memories of the night
before. Reaching into my pocket, I remove my knife to finally clean it. When I
bring it out, I am holding the golden acorn, too. I turn the bauble over in me hand.
It’s a solid lump of metal—a beautiful object. At first I take it only for that,
before I notice the tiny lines running across it, tiny lines that seem to indicate
moving parts. As though it were a puzzle.
I can’t screw off the top, although I try. I can’t seem to do anything else
with it, either. I am about to give up and toss it onto my dressing table when I
glimpse a tiny hole, so small as to be nearly invisible, right at the bottom.
Hopping off my bed, I rattle through my desk, looking for a pin. The one I find
has a pearl on one end. I try to fit the point into the acorn. It takes a moment, but
I manage, pushing past resistance until I feel a click and it opens.
Mechanized steps swing out from a shining center, where a tiny golden bird
rests. Its beak moves, and it speaks in a creaky little voice. “My dearest friend,
these are the last words of Liriope. I have three golden birds to scatter. Three
attempts to get one into your hand. I am too far gone for any antidote, and so if
you hear this, I leave you with the burden of my secrets and the last wish of my
heart. Protect him. Take him far from the dangers of this Court. Keep him safe,
and never, ever tell him the truth of what happened to me.”
Tatterfell comes into the room, bringing with her a tray with tea...