Page 7 of Queen Takes Triune
He kissed my knuckles. “She wouldn’t have come as far as you already have. She couldn’t. She wasn’t strong enough. But I know what she would tell you if she were here.”
I did too. I heard her voice often in my dreams. Or on the distant breeze. In the whispering trees. A ghost that I couldn’t quite see though I felt her always near. “She’d tell me that I’m Shara fucking Isador, and this queen takes what she wants and fucking keeps it.”
Llewellyn’s lips quirked. “Maybe not quite in those words, though the sentiment is spot on.”
“I take it someone broached the Triune subject while you were on the road,” Gina said.
I groaned and shot a dark look at her, though she merely arched a brow at me. “Let me guess. You’ve already got a file and a to-do list for that too.”
She grinned and reached down to grab a black folder out of her satchel. “You know me so well. Actually, this is a list that Isador consiliari have been compiling for quite some time.”
“Really? Like how long?”
She opened the folder on her lap and picked up the first page. “The original’s stored in the vault, but this page is dated from the Egyptian twelfth dynasty, so it’s well over four thousand years old.”
“Um. Wow.”
She handed the page to me. On the left was a copy of the original document, and on the right were notes and translations. And yeah, one of the first words that jumped out at me was“Triune.”“You’re telling me that Isador queens have been plotting to take a Triune seat for over four thousand years?”
“I’d be surprised if every major Aima house didn’t have such a file on hand, even if their queens have never held a seat.”
I handed the page back to her. “When was the last time an Isador queen sat on the Triune?”
“The lore passed down to me from Grandma Paula is that there’s only ever been one Isador queen on the Triune, Renenet, and that was when the three Triunes were first formed. She ruled for a thousand years as daughters came and went, and when she finally retired, no Isador queen ever rose to her prominence again.”
It finally dawned on me. They all thought I was going to do something that no other Isador queen had done in over four thousand years. Me.
“It’s whispered that it was by choice,” Gina continued. “Isador preferred to work quietly in the background and our house never lost prominence or power despite not sitting on the Triune. Evidently, our goddess has determined that now is the time for Isador to step forward and lead once again.”
“Why now? Why me?”
“Only Isis knows.”
A log popped in the fireplace, drawing my attention to the fire. Flames flickered against the dark stones, a soothing dance that mesmerized me. My magic stirred in response, crackling fire that seemed to want something. Flames reached toward me, licking hungrily at the grate. Maybe it was my imagination, but I’d learned not to discount anything that seemed magical.
As I stared at the flames, the tension in my stomach slowly started to uncoil.
“What am I supposed to do?”I silently asked the fire.“What does She want?”
The fire responded, crackling louder and flaring a moment, as if I’d thrown a balled-up piece of paper into the fire.
As if I’dfedit. With my thoughts, fears, or doubts… Or all of the above.
“I’m scared. I don’t know what to do. I knew how to handle Keisha Skye and even Ra. They deserved to die for their crimes. But the Triune is different. I’m not supposed to go in and kill everybody and bring them to justice. I have to workwiththem. These formidable, terrifyingly powerful queens…”
The fire flickered in sympathy, brilliant tongues of red and orange licking up the stone and flowing like a river over the small logs. Coals gleamed like rubies, pulling me deeper into the heart of the flame. Hotter, here. Blue flames, flickering almost white. So beautiful. The fire didn’t care about what it destroyed. It hungered. It burned. Even if it escaped the hearth and devoured my entire house, it didn’t care.
Fire burned in me. My first gift. Is that what She wanted me to do? Scorch the earth and destroy the Triune?
An image filled my mind. I walked through a forest that felt familiar, as if I’d been there many times, but nothing looked the same. Large, hoary trees had been replaced by blackened, smoldering stumps and charred sticks against a cold winter sky. But as I walked, the sky took on a brighter hue and the air warmed. Brilliant green shoots poked up from the ash. New life would replace all that had been lost, though I still mourned for the ancient trees that had been consumed. What if my grove had to burn?
Even though it was only a vision, I flinched. Beneath my feet, I felt the earth groan in response. My grove’s roots dug deeper, a thick, wide network that acted as sensors, while also supplying the trees with nutrients and water. My grove connected with the surrounding forest, tiny roots touching other trees, and more, further away. An interlaced network buried in the ground like super cables.
Even if a fire destroyed everything above, the roots were too deep to care. They’d send up new shoots. A few drops of my blood would bring the grove roaring back to life. The trees would go on, even the non-magical ones in the regular forest.
New life would return, fueled by the dead wood and ash that enriched the soil.
Just as the Aima nests would go on if I burned my way through the Triune.
