Connor held up a finger. “Wait,” he sniffed, and crawled. And sniffed again.
I held in my laughter, but only just.
“Here. Come smell here.”
I stood and walked over to him and then bent down to the earth again. I sniffed. There was a hint of something … “Is that sulfur?”
Connor snapped his fingers. “Yes! That’s what it is.” He stood and brushed off his pants, then helped me stand. “Perhaps they have hot springs running under this area. Or sulfate salts in the ground.” Connor began to walk and look at the ground.
“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?”
Meeker stopped. He froze, torn between his anger and a bit of doubt. But anger won out. The old man pointed a finger at me. “Yaar hosting our enemy.”
“Enemy? There’s been one confirmed instance of aggression this past year, I believe,” I stared Meeker down, grateful for all the tutoring sessions with Declan.
“One confirmed, but you and I both know thaar’s been many more than that. Thaar an enemy.”
Connor and Quinn strode up behind me at that point. And Connor did what Connor does best. He read Meeker’s emotions and played the old man like a fiddle.
“You’re right, Meeker. We are bringing Abbas here. But they say to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. What an opportunity to get one of the princes, on his own, away from his brothers, ripe for … questioning,” Connor raised an eyebrow.
A slow, devious smile spread across Meeker’s face. “Ahh. Now I see.” He strolled toward us.
Connor clapped an arm across Meeker’s shoulders. “Come, have a drink with me, and we can discuss everything we aim to find out during this ‘visit.’”
Meeker rubbed his hands together like a play-actor portraying a villain onstage. He nearly forgot to bow to my mother on his way out.
“Apologies, Yaar Majesty,” Meeker’s hair flipped forward when he bowed.
I turned to my mother, who maintained pretense until Meeker was out of the room. But she collapsed onto her pillows as soon as he was gone.
“Are you alright?” I rushed to her, ignoring my fathers’ protests.
I grabbed her hand and held it, in a way I hadn’t since I was eight.
Mother coughed. Peter dabbed at her mouth with a handkerchief. He folded it over, but I could see it was speckled with blood.
She took a drink of water from a cup Gorg held out. And then she inclined her head to me. “You two offset each other well.”
I pinched my lips together. “He doesn’t think so.”
She shook her head. “You always have. You always will. It’s meant to be.”
“He thinks you spelled him to love me—”
Her hacking cough cut me off. Blood didn’t just drip from her lips that time. It sprayed out. I was forced backward. I reached for a handkerchief, but Gorg waved me off. “Go, little one. Let us take care of her.”
My heartstrings were already stretched tight from the confrontation with Connor earlier. Seeing how frail my mother was just reminded me the end was near. And my chest grew as taught as a violin. It felt as if one more thing, one more tiny minuscule thing, would be all it would take for me to snap and break.
Quinn took my arm and led me away. He could tell my mind was elsewhere, because soon, the woodland creatures popped out of the walls to play.
We passed several doors with woodpeckers chewing the wood and spraying bits onto the floor. And at the end of mother’s hall, a guard stood on duty. Another woodpecker hammered steadily at his helmet. That finally drew a smile.
I pulled Quinn around to face me and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. Thank you.
He smiled. Will you come with me to see Wyle? I need to pick up some things—
Oh! Perfect. I need to drop off the samples we got today. Oh, wait— I patted my wrists. I’d had a little coin pouch with the samples in it.
Shite! I must’ve lost it when I ran, I thought.
You need this? Quinn held up a pouch and smiled. We followed you. Connor figured you’d lose it. Apparently, it was a habit growing up?
My cheeks reddened. I always forgot my assignments. I’d set them down somewhere and forget. Connor always found and brought them for me. The memory took on a bitter tinge. Now that I wondered if the sweet gesture might not have been his at all.
When we reached Wyle’s room, our exchanges only took a few minutes. He said he’d have some test results back to me in a few days. And he handed Quinn a new set of Flight and Invisibility potions and a closed crate.
Stocking up for the prince’s visit, Quinn winked at me.
I followed Wyle to his work bench.
“How are you doing on breaking all those spells mother set?”
He sighed. “It’s on the list, Princess. But I did have to finish these orders from Quinn and your fathers placed a few more about chains and rings and whatnot. Everyone’s in a tizzy over this visit. I’ll get them finished soon.”
It was the best I could hope for. I nodded. “Thank you.”