Page 131 of The Iron Flower

She nods, her calm suddenly breached, her blond brow tensing. I know Diana wants it to be her people who save the Selkies. But I also know that Gunther Ulrich is reluctant to inflame an already turbulent relationship with the Gardnerians.

“Perhaps the Amazwillhelp them,” I say, glancing toward Marina, desperate for this to be true. Marina is curled up on her bedroll, fast asleep, her glimmering hair splayed out on her pillow. She looks so frail. So wan and easily broken.

“They might,” Diana says, looking to Marina as well, an uncomfortable note of doubt in her tone. That hint of disbelief is unsettling and kicks up the nausea already welling inside me.

“I don’t feel so well,” I tell her, shivering slightly from the small draft that’s working its way in under the door.

Diana scrutinizes me. “Are you cold?” she asks. “You look cold.”

I gaze over at her, feeling pathetic. “Yes.”

Diana slides under her blanket, lifts up the edge and beckons to me with an impatient wave of her hand. “Come. Come lie by me.”

Feeling morose, I clumsily slide over to curl up against her. As I lie there, safe and warm with my dangerous friend, my roiling stomach starts to calm. I snuggle in closer to Diana, and she pats my back comfortingly. She’s always so different in the evening, her haughty, painfully blunt air giving way to this strong, soothing presence.

“Diana?” I ask.

“Hmm?”

“What happened to Maiya’s other Branches? You said there were three.”

She’s quiet for a moment. “They were destroyed by the darkness.”

Silence hangs over the room.

“What happened to the people who had those other Branches?”

Again, she hesitates. “They were destroyed, as well.”

“So, there’s only one more branch.”

“Just the one.”

The silence gathers and solidifies.

Ni Vin is quietly and steadily watching me from where she’s lying, and her uneasy face is the last thing I see before I close my eyes and fall asleep.

CHAPTER EIGHT

QUEEN’S COUNCIL

The next morning, we assemble in the queen’s council chamber, a side dome just off the main Queenhall.

Diana, Marina, Ni Vin and I are facing the council members, all of them gray-and white-haired older women. They’re seated in a semicircle, talking in low tones among themselves as we patiently wait for Queen Alkaia to arrive. Behind the council, a sizable contingent of heavily armed Queen’s Guard soldiers are also seated.

Valasca is standing near us, just off to the side. She arrived at dawn to bring us to the Council’s chamber, her manner aloof and all business. She avoids looking in my direction, but that’s quite all right with me. I’m a little mortified to be around her after telling her every last romantic secret of my life, and I imagine she feels the same way about me at the moment. Especially with Ni Vin standing right here with us.

My head feels like a village blacksmith is pounding it into a new shape, and I’m filled with a jangling apprehension, hoping against hope that Queen Alkaia will agree to help the Selkies before it’s too late.

She has to help them. How could she not?

Valasca abruptly straightens, then kneels as Queen Alkaia is ushered in, the queen’s frail body supported by two young soldiers. I follow Valasca’s lead and get down on my knees, bowing to the floor, Marina following suit. Diana and Ni Vin both remaining stubbornly upright.

It takes a moment for Queen Alkaia to get settled, but once she does, she motions for us to rise to our knees and turns her intelligent, piercing gaze on me.

“Elloren Gardner,” she says. “The Council met this morn to discuss your appeal.”

Something about her expression, how her lips are curved into the very smallest of smiles, makes me feel hopeful. My heart lifts.She’s going to say yes.

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