Page 71 of The Kingdom Cursed By Iron

It’s clear she doesn’t like that idea, but she looks as exhausted as I feel, and to her credit, she doesn’t deny that the day’s events have taken a toll. Instead, she rises, pats Ruskin on the arm, and nods to me.

“You come to us in dark days, Miss Thorn,” she says sadly, as she heads for the door. “Our court has fallen so far.”

Once she’s gone I throw all ceremony out of the window, collapsing on the nearest chaise.

Ruskin is still staring out the window, and I find I’m quite happy to lie here, staring at his elegant profile and resting my weary body. My conversation with Halima in my workshop feels like days, not hours ago.

“Some things are more important than others,” Ruskin says, not looking at me. “We need to make finding the source of these attacks the priority. Everything else will follow.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, wondering how much of an answer he’ll give me.

He turns from the window, and I don’t think I imagine the way his expression eases as his eyes fall on me.

“I suspect the founding stone wouldn’t accept Mother because it doesn’t want a change in leadership while things are so unstable. We can argue it’s a gryphon and egg situation, but I think it will remain resistant until it’s sure the court is safe.”

I sit up, debating whether to ask the question on my mind. I risk it.

“And what if the queen still can’t pass the trials?” I think back over the way she cried out during the test, how frail she looked. “She’s been through so much. What if she’ll never be strong enough?” I bite my lip, waiting for his reaction. To my relief, he simply nods.

“Yes, I’ve been thinking of that too.” He comes and sits beside me, and I’m struck by how, for once, we’re positioned side by side, working out a problem together.

“When the time comes, I will name my mother as an heir before she undergoes the trials again.”

I raise an eyebrow. “How will that help?”

“The founding stone likes order, a neat line of succession. Part of the reason it fought Cebba so much was because I was already named as heir when she tried to put her name on it. It has a preference for the person named by the successor, so if I name my mother to it first, things might go more smoothly next time.”

I think of the pulsing power of the black stone and suppress a shiver. There’s something creepy about the way they talk about it like it has a brain.

“And until then?” Halima’s doubts and fears are still spinning round my head. It feels like we keep running up against walls, finding only dead ends where we hope for a way out. But Ruskin smiles at me, and suddenly I don’t feel so afraid. He has a plan, I can tell, and that gives me hope.

“I think we’ve taken your training as far as we can with my and Halima’s limited knowledge of your power. We need to consult with a different source—someone who can give us another perspective.”

A different source? Who could be more qualified than Halima and Ruskin? “Okay, so what next, then?”

“I think it’s time we visited the Unseelie Court.”

Chapter 22

“What?” I blink at him. This is about the last answer I ever would have expected. “Why?”

“I have an old instructor from there. Magister Cragfoot. He used to tutor me here at court back when my father was still alive. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of different magics, especially the more obscure iterations. I think he’ll have as good an idea as any about how we can take your abilities to the next level.”

“But isn’t it dangerous?” Halima already gave me a stern lecture back when I was trying to find a way to just send a message to someone in the Unseelie Court. Actually going there had seemed completely out of bounds.

“Yes. But isn’t everything? And it’s less risky for a ruler like me. They still have to abide by some rules in peacetime. We’ll go in secret anyway. We don’t need King Lisinder’s court to get wind of our troubles here. There’s too many sharks who’d like to take advantage of our current vulnerability.”

“But…” I search around for an excuse, some reason we don’t have to go walking into a foreign land that everyone says is even more dangerous and ferocious than this one. “Can’t you just get this Cragfoot to come here?”

Ruskin shakes his head. “He’d refuse. After my father died, things became too hostile for any Unseelie to come to this court.”

“Okay, but is it all right for us to leave this court? What happens if the iron comes back and neither one of us is here?”

Ruskin stands up, putting distance between us, and I wonder if he’s disappointed I’m not immediately on board with his plan. Down by the founding stone, he said he wants me to trust him. But he has to know it’s not that easy. He has to earn my trust first…and he’s still got a long way to go.

“There was a significant gap between this attack and the last. And this one was triggered by our visit to the founding stone, I’m sure of it. If we postpone a second attempt, the iron may not return any time soon. Besides, you had to fight harder this time, didn’t you?”

I give a reluctant nod. “I’ve gotten stronger, but whatever is causing the iron has gotten stronger too.”

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