Page 18 of To Steal the Sun

“That’s all?” Gwen asked with a lightheaded laugh. “I’m forgiven just like that?”

Miriam shrugged. “We don’t have so many allies that we can afford to throw them away so easily. And you did come back.”

Gwen sobered at the pragmatic response. Sometimes Gwen had forgotten she was a princess and thought of the servants as just her friends. But she doubted they had ever forgotten they were captives. If their plan succeeded, Gwen intended to free the captives as her first act as queen. But at that point, they would likely return home to the valleys.

Some might choose to stay. They had been taken because they were found alone, and some might have no one to return to after so many years in the mountain kingdom. But even if some stayed, Gwen would be their queen. There would always be a barrier and a power imbalance between her and Miriam and Alma and the others.

Gwen owed both duty and affection toward them, but they owed her nothing. If they helped with the rebellion, it would be for the sake of their own freedom. But that was all right. They were allies as Miriam had said, and Gwen could use all the allies she could get.

I suppose this is what it means to be queen, Gwen thought. Gathering allies and weighing how the motivations of others could be used to Gwen’s advantage. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Wasn’t it the kind of thing her mother would do?

Even as she thought it, she rejected the idea. Her mother manipulated the motivations of others in order to gain an advantage over them and use them. Allies sought the places where their motivations converged and worked for the good of both parties. Gwen could be an ally to the captive servants and still hold her head high.

She smiled at Miriam. “I would be honored to have you as allies. And in exchange, I guarantee that when I sit on the throne, you will not only be freed, but you will be released with fair compensation for both your captivity and your labor.”

Miriam’s eyes widened. “You really did come back to challenge the queen, then? You mean to take the throne?”

Gwen nodded. “And I’m not alone.” She considered adding more, but caution held her back. Just as she hadn’t mentioned the captives to Count Oswin, she wasn’t sure if it was safe to mention Easton or the count to Miriam. While she didn’t doubt Miriam or Alma, she didn’t know all the captives equally well. There might be one willing to bargain with information in exchange for Celandine setting them alone free.

“I need to tell Alma,” Miriam murmured. She hurried to the door only to hesitate. “Is there…is there something you want us to do?”

Gwen also hesitated, aware that Miriam’s hesitancy reflected the danger she was in from the queen.

“I’ll let you know when the time comes,” Gwen said at last, hoping her words sounded confident instead of vague.

Miriam accepted them with something like relief, slipping out of the room and locking the door behind her. Was she on her way to return the key to the queen, or had Celandine handed it off to the servants with the intention of keeping Gwen locked away for a long time? With Miriam gone, Gwen kicked herself for not asking such basic questions.

She resolved to be more prepared when one of the servants returned to either collect the tray or deliver another meal. But when the key next turned in the lock, the door was thrust all the way open, and the queen strode in.

For a frozen moment, Gwen was sure she had misjudged Miriam and the servant had already reported Gwen to the queen. But Celandine’s expression had a haughty disinterest that didn’t fit with that theory, and Gwen’s racing heart gradually slowed.

As the queen surveyed the room, Gwen’s heart immediately picked up again, however, as she remembered her earlier resolution. The queen might not be angry now, but a defiant attitude from her daughter would likely change that.

Gwen knew she had to act quickly before she lost her nerve. But as soon as she opened her mouth, the queen spoke.

“Come. It is time for you to meet your husband-to-be.”

Gwen snapped her mouth shut, her planned words forgotten. Her mother intended to take her to Henry? Charlotte’s Henry! Gwen had promised her friend that she’d find him, and now her mother was planning to walk her straight there. Gwen could at least keep her mouth shut long enough to meet the prince and find out where he was being kept.

GWEN

“Yes, Mother.” Gwen bowed her head quickly in submission, hoping the queen hadn’t seen the surge of excitement in her eyes at mention of Henry.

She expected to be led into the depths of the palace—possibly even to the closet that she had once been trapped in. But Celandine walked only three doors along the corridor before stopping again.

The rooms around Gwen’s had been empty for as long as she could remember—silent reminders that her father’s death had also taken away the chance of future siblings. Their silent emptiness was so ingrained in Gwen’s thinking that it had never occurred to her that Henry might be housed in one of them.

For a horrifying moment, she feared her friend had been mistaken in her husband and that Henry was the queen’s guest. Then Celandine withdrew a key, and Gwen’s fears receded. Henry was a captive just as she had been.

Gwen of all people knew that a pretty cage was still a cage.

After turning the key in the lock, Celandine paused, stepping back slightly and gesturing for Gwen to open the door. Gwen frowned but couldn’t think of any reason to refuse the task.

Cautiously she opened the door and stepped inside. A flash of movement made her startle and flinch away as a solid brass candlestick descended toward her head. By the time she sucked in the breath to cry out, however, the candlestick had veered, missing her by an inch and dropping to the carpet instead.

A tall young man stood staring at her, his chest rising and falling with either exertion or strong emotion. Had he prepared himself for a desperate escape attempt only to pull back when he saw her face? Why?

Gwen had the vague impression he was handsome, but the only feature she absorbed were his piercing blue eyes. They first tightened and then widened as he looked at her.

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