Page 71 of Knightfall
“What does that have to do—”
“Declan will have to verify, of course, but if the cows are desperate due to lack of rain and they’re drinking water with sulfates … that could be a big part of the problem. Why didn’t Declan just make more rain for them?”
I sighed. “Something to do with the fact that I believe the opposite of rain is earth. He was worried he’d cause a giant sinkhole. Though he did work on control yesterday. I wonder if I could come back with him and he could try just a small area. One bit at a time.”
“So, you admit that me coming out here was useless. Why the ploy? And don’t lie to me Bloss. I can feel your emotions. I can tell when you’re lying,” Connor’s eyes blazed.
I took a step backward. “I … um…” the truth spilled out without my meaning to say it. “They want me to seduce you.”
“What?”
“Declan wants me to seduce you. He wants to get married. All of us.” I shook my head. “They won’t listen when I tell them I can’t be queen. They’re determined …” my heart swelled at the thought of my three sweet, idiot husbands. There. I even thought of them as my husbands. Gah!
They had argued with me long into the night that they could prevent war and stop my power from eviscerating us all. They were so naive.
I glanced back up at Connor, who was staring at me in shock. I shrugged. “They want me to seduce you, but I don’t know how. How do you seduce someone you’ve just always loved?” My voice broke a little, though I tried to hide it.
“How do you know we were ever in love?” Connor’s voice rang out bitterly. It felt like it echoed through the empty field.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, your mother’s spelled every other damn thing in our lives. How do you know that wasn’t a spell, too?”
My mouth dropped. My heart dried up and shriveled. It felt like a peach stone hanging in my chest. Dead. I’d thought leaving Connor at eighteen had been hard. This was worse.
I stood still as a statue and watched Connor tromp away from me, across the field. I didn’t call out to him because I had no answer for him. Because I honestly had no idea. Was everything we’d shared just an illusion?
Chapter Eighteen
The trip back was made in painfully awkward silence. I carried water and earth samples, so we could have Wyle test them and let us know what was hurting the cattle. My arm held Quinn’s waist as lightly as possible. I swallowed tears the entire flight.
I was so grateful to see Quinn when we landed. Immediately, I went over to him and grabbed his hand.
I’m not the emotion-reader in the group, but he doesn’t look happy, Dove.
I clutched at Quinn’s hand.He thinks Mother spelled us to be in love.
Quinn raised an eyebrow as he turned to escort me into the main hall.Well, that puts a damper on things.
Just a bit, yeah.
I came out here to tell you that the Sedarian ambassador has burst into your mother’s chamber.
I took off at a run.
Ass! Mother’s too ill for that, I thought.
Quinn and Connor followed, so I assumed Quinn filled Connor in, but I didn’t bother to ask as I hurried, in an unqueenly fashion down the great hall. I ducked around a corner and shooed a few guards out of the way so I could enter the secret passages. I hurtled up to Mother’s hallway and exited, panting.
“—with aar enemies! Thaar haave been blatant attacks! Blatant! And you’ve taarned a blind eye! Did yaar think it would go unnoticed?”
I stopped, wiped my forehead, and tried to catch my breath. Then I turned the doorknob and stomped like raging giant into the room.
I glared down at Meeker, who had been waving his fist at my bedridden mother. “What the hell are you doing, you gnashdab! Why are you in the Queen’s chambers when there are plenty of knights you can jabber on—”
“Those knights of yaars are all locked up. Planning a waar, it’s whispered.”
I snorted. “Coudn’t be the ball that’s coming in two days time with the arrival of Abbas, could it? Couldn’t be that my own husbands—whom I haven’t seen for four years in a quest to keep your wretched hide safe—might also be planning something special for us on that night? You are aware, you ole’ windbag, that we never did have a wedding ball of our own?”
