Page 19 of Queen Takes Triune
I looked back at her, unsure what she wanted, but I didn’t want to be rude. “Thank you.”
She bobbed her head at the crow closest to me and he nudged the blue scrap toward me. I guess they wanted me to pick it up. I reached out and touched the tip of my finger to the scrap, and an image filled my mind.
A silken scarf wrapped around a woman’s neck. It was a gorgeous scarf, light and soft with an old-gold fringe. It seemed very expensive and old, like a treasured antique. It was her favorite item in her extensive wardrobe, the kind of accessory that always made her feel beautiful and special. Just by touching the scrap, I could feel the wave of pleasure and fondness welling up inside her each time she wore it.
I had no idea who she was, but she felt like me. Another vampire queen.
I picked up the scrap and closed my fingers around it, trying to gain a better sense of its owner. A better connection. Nothing changed, even with the scrap wrapped completely in my hand.
Maybe a little of my blood would help.
Carefully, I punctured my left palm with my right index finger. Blood welled on my skin, flooding me with heightened senses. Every color seemed more vivid. I could feel the gentle breeze outside the tree, even through the thick, stout walls of the chamber. My bonds gleamed in my mind, not stretched or strained despite the distance from the rest of my Blood. In fact, they felt so close that I could smell their individual scents.
Even more, I could suddenly see the passageway we’d traveled through, and the rest of the complex network that led from my heart tree to all over the world. For a moment, my mind rebelled. It couldn’t grasp the directions or distances, because they were impossible. The paths lay on top of one another but went to different places. It was like trying to picture four or five dimensions at once, rather than a normal three-dimensional space.
I had no idea how the passageways worked exactly, only that I was pretty sure I could get to anyplace in the world in a matter of seconds.
Pushing the impossible pathways out of my head, I focused on the scrap in my hand. With my blood scenting the air, I could almost see the woman who owned the scarf. Her hair was short and very curly. Her face young, as if she was only in her mid-twenties, though I sensed weight to her, as if she was very old. Warm brown eyes. A wide, generous mouth with laugh lines.
I saw her walking down a street wearing the scarf. Details were faint, though. I had an impression of dark, old buildings. It all felt old-world with cobblestones and bricks stained by many years.
I set the scrap back down on the floor and took a deep breath to clear the image away. Then I picked up the piece of water stained paper. Immediately, I could tell it washerpaper. The same woman. She’d written the words herself, sitting at an old-fashioned writing desk in front of a large window. I could hear the scratch of the fountain pen’s nib on thick, elegant stationery. Violet ink in a gorgeous hand. But I couldn’t read the words. They looked foreign. French, maybe.
I touched Guillaume’s bond and shared the image of the writing with him.:Is this French? Can you read it?:
Several long moments went by and he didn’t answer, though I felt his rising intensity in my head. He could see the paper and understood it perfectly. As he read it…
His bond weighed heavier in my head and took on a sharp, deadly edge like his favorite sword.
:What is it?:I asked.:What’s wrong?:
:The signature,:he finally replied.
At the bottom of the page, only a swirling D was written in calligraphy with thick, elegant swipes like the first letter in a medieval manuscript.
:Desideria? Was this hers?:
:No. I’d recognize her handwriting anywhere, and this is too delicate for her. She would have signed her full name and her stationery always bore her house name at the top. This paper only has a seal, but it’s one I recognize well.:
At the top of the page was a blue-and-red fish.
:Not a fish. A dolphin.:He waited for my reaction, but I could only mentally shake my head. I had no idea why a dolphin would be significant.:The royal seal of the Dauphine.:
Oh crap. The other elusive Triune queen, who hadn’t been seen in years.
:Try centuries,:Guillaume said grimly.:We know she’s still alive, but no one knows where her nest is. She disappeared well before the French Revolution, but I don’t have an exact date. Gina would be able to find out.:
:What does the letter say?:
:She’s writing to a contact in Quebec, likely a sibling though she keeps it very vague in case the letter is intercepted. She says a sighting has been made in the United States. Focus activity toward the south while she works northward.:
I still didn’t know why he was so concerned. This didn’t sound that bad. A sighting of what?
:You.:His voice rumbled with the strident neigh of his hell horse.:This letter is dated just before Christmas.:
Before I’d “come out” so to speak as the Isador queen. Rik and Daire had found me a week before Christmas just miles away from here. I’d had no idea what I was until they’d come to me and saved me from the thralls that had surrounded me.
My mind raced frantically. I’d been so focused on Marne Ceresa this entire time, but maybe the Dauphine had always been closer. Marne hadn’t known about me until after New Year’s, when I’d made Mayte my sibling and returned to Eureka Springs. She might have suspected what I was when she saw the footage from Christmas Eve, when I’d taken Leviathan, but she’d sent Byrnes to me with a message when I returned from Mexico.:Does it say where the sighting happened?:
