Page 12 of A Crown of Darkness

‘Well of course I do. I’m not an idiot.’

‘You didn’t see it all this time,sister.’ The word dripped with animosity.

‘I am almost drained of my magic. He was unconscious. Anything I could do now would risk my life without help from another. It was all I could do to heal him. And you didn’t notice either. You were too busy blaming us for everything. You and your regent.’

‘Stop,’ Finn told them wearily. It was too much and he felt like some kind of prize they were fighting over. ‘Tell me what you do know, or what you can see. Please.’

Maryn huffed. ‘Well, now I know for sure you aren’t Leander, it makes more sense. As much as it can make sense. I see the Aurum’s light in you, and also…not. Like an afterimage fromstaring at the sun. The othersight is confusing at the best of times but this…this makes no sense.’

‘Leander always was unnaturally talented,’ Hestia said softly. ‘He studied magic by whatever means he could and stole what he couldn’t master, even old magic. What did he say to you in that room before he…’

There had been light, the light of the Aurum. Wren had been trying to save him, even then. She couldn’t work the magic herself but perhaps she had reached out through him. And Leander had held the pendant and…

‘His blood was on my pendant, where he touched it. He was dying. The Aurum’s light was alive in me, swamping me. Wren raised it, or it tried to use her, or…’ Finn gave up. He didn’t know anything helpful. ‘He said something. Gibberish.’

‘Othertongue,’ Hestia finished for him. ‘Not gibberish. It had to be. He tapped into the spell in the pendant and piggybacked on it. That’s not part of our magic.’

‘Nor ours,’ Maryn replied, thoughtfully. ‘But some witchkind can slip between their own minds and those of familiars. How would your crown prince have learned that?’

No need to ask why he did it. Leander had wanted to live, had wanted Wren, and he’d wanted the crown which had been denied him. Now…now he had it all. Finn felt as if someone had punched him in the guts at the thought.

‘He has friends in the College of Winter,’ Hestia said bitterly. ‘They still use old magic, those who can harness it. Although “friends” is probably too warm a term. Some of our sisters have relatives there, after all, men who fled the blade or those who didn’t want to serve. Lady Oriole, for example, who had his training in her hands. Divine darkness, is this the meaning of my vision? The crown on Finn’s head but not—’ Finn couldn’t miss her tortured expression.

‘What vision?’ Maryn snapped.

‘Of Finn as the king of Ilanthus, a king who would save us from this madness and unite our people, ushering in a period of peace and prosperity.’

‘That certainly doesn’t sound like Leander,’ Maryn said bitterly. ‘What did you see? What exactly?’

‘A battle in the Sanctum, a boy’s hand on a dark crown, Finn on the Ilanthian throne… The details are unimportant.’

‘I’ve found that with visions the details are often the most important thing of all. And your sisterhood, do they agree with you? Could they have done this?’

‘But I can’t believe the sisterhood would have a hand in this. We were trying to build an alliance. The king saw no harm in my mission here.’

Maryn’s hands knotted together as she kept studying Finn’s face, like she was looking for a thread to unravel. She shook her head slowly. ‘No harm at all. I never took Alessander for a fool. But then I never took the College for traitors either. Cold and distant, perhaps, and far too interested in taking magic apart to work out what makes it powerful, and obsessed with old magic. But we are all witchkind. Oh, this is not good. What are they up to?’

‘They?’ Hestia asked.

‘The College. I thought they might have an answer about Elodie, something old magic could help with, or one of their healers… I sent word but they have not yet replied. The chancellor was always a helpful enough sort but there has been some political upheaval brewing of late so I just thought he was too busy to?—’

Behind them a door banged open, making all three of them jump, and Lady Ylena entered, followed by her entire retinue. The lady regent looked like an incarnation of wrath and it was all Finn could do not to drop to his knees. It was purely an instinct of self-preservation.

‘Have you discovered anything useful?’ Ylena snapped without preamble.

Finn expected Maryn to instantly tell her all but the maiden turned to face her mother, her shoulders taut. ‘He knows nothing, lady regent.’

‘Or he refuses to speak of what he knows. He’s an Ilanthian, Maryn. He lies as easily as breathing. They both do. I have indulged your bleeding heart long enough. Your courtesy to Lady Hestia is one thing but he’s conscious now, recovered enough. Find out what he knows or I’ll have others put him to the question in more definitive ways. It would be a shame to undo all your good work but needs must.’

Hestia’s hand tightened on Finn’s arm. There was a tremble buried in that grip and he wondered what they might have done to her while he was unconscious. Courtesy to Hestia, Ylena had said. That had to mean Maryn had protected her somehow.

‘I’m not your torturer, Mother,’ Maryn growled, distaste evident in her expression.

‘You’re whatever I tell you to be. Or I will replace you.’

The maiden let a slow smile spread over her face, a smile without any warmth at all. ‘Sadly for you, my lady, only the Aurum can do that.’ She glanced at the empty hollow where their holy flames should have burned. ‘And it’s not available right now.’

‘Because of them! I tire of this. Take him to the dungeons and wring answers from him.’

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