Rootbound

Peta sniffed the assassin at my feet. “Half-breed, I think, which explains the slave whites.”

My anger grew in leaps and bounds. “Well, Bella, time to see if you can smooth this over, then. Time to be a diplomat before I kill someone.”

Bella let out a sigh, but followed me into the hall. She swept her hands over her skirts several times, knocking the worst of the wrinkles out, then swiftly pulled her hair into a loose braid. “I wish you would give me time to properly clean up.”

“No time, you know that. If I have an assassin on me, for all we know . . .” I paused and changed what I was going to say at the last second, “that which we seek has already been snagged by Blackbird.”

“You have to be wrong,” she murmured.

I hoped I was, but an assassin coming after me was no small thing. There was no way Finley would allow it.

Dragging the would-be assassin behind, I stalked toward the throne room.

“You know this isn’t Finley’s doing,” Peta said, her voice rather carefully neutral.

“Why do you say it like that? You think I’m going in there and accusing her of trying to kill me?”

“I hope not,” Bella said.

I stopped and stared at her. “I may be a bad-ass bitch, but I’m not crazy.”

Bella’s lips twitched. “You’re hardly the bitch you think you are. Bad ass, absolutely.”

Peta laughed, though it was under her breath.

At the throne room doors, I didn’t pause, just pushed my way through. The woman I dragged behind me groaned as she came around.

I threw her forward. Her body rolled across the ground, flipping and flopping like a fish out of water until she stopped at the base of Finley’s throne.

The queen of the Deep lifted a dark blue eyebrow. She’d grown up since I’d first met her, both in body and mind. Her blue hair had deepened in color to a near violet and was swept up in a twist that left the lines of her face bare, making her seem older than she really was.

But it was her eyes I watched closely. Her blue eyes held her secrets close and I couldn’t read her, or what she thought about our sudden appearance. To be fair, she’d fooled me even when she’d been a child, so it shouldn’t have surprised me that as an adult she was even better at keeping her face a mask of neutral emotions.

“Lark, I trust you have found something to your displeasure?”

“Do you know this woman?” I tipped my chin in the direction of the slave at her feet.

Finley shook her head, without ever looking down. “No. Should I?”

“She tried to kill me.”

From the edges of the room, Finley’s Enders shifted, appearing to materialize out of thin air. The slave woman groaned again and pushed herself to her knees. “I am a lowly servant. I did nothing, Your Majesty, but bring her towels.”

Finley rose and walked down the few steps so she stood on the floor with me. She tipped her head to one side. “Slave, why would Lark attack you?”

The woman stirred and went to her knees, folding herself in half. “She’s crazy. We all know that. The Destroyer. She is here to hurt us as she hurt the Eyrie.”

I snorted and smiled at Finley. “If she was bringing us towels, she forgot them, since nothing was in her hands.” What a crock of horseshit.

Finley did not smile back. Peta tightened her grip on my shirt. “This is not good, Lark.”

Bella stepped forward. “Your Majesty, I was there. This woman attacked my sister, the heir to the Rim’s throne, without provocation.”

I went stock-still. That was news to me, and not welcome news at that. I’d already turned the throne down once. I would do it again if Bella tried to push it on me. But that was a problem for another time.

The Enders around us shifted again, tightening the circle.

“Queen Belladonna,” Finley said, “I believe you would say anything to protect your family.”

Her implication was clear: she thought Bella was lying for me. This was going downhill faster than an avalanche in the spring melt.

I held my hands up over my head, facing the palms to Finley. “I have never harmed you, Finley. I’ve done nothing but be your friend in all the years we have known one another.”

“You destroyed the Eyrie, Lark. Do not think anyone has forgotten that, no matter that it happened many years ago,” she said. “You could sink the Deep, if you chose to.”

Her words were not the words of the queen I knew. Damn it to hell and back. The sapphire had to be affecting her, and whoever controlled her through it. From the third finger on her left hand it glinted, as if winking at me. “Finley—”

“Queen Finley,” she said, her eyes hardening ever so slightly. “You may stay another night if you wish and feel the need to rest. You and your sister are our guests. But that only goes so far for one as volatile as you. And I make this concession only because of what you have done for me in the past, and because your queen is here to look after you and keep you on a short tether.” As though I were a wayward child.

I gave her a stiff bow, knowing that getting the stone from her was going to be far harder than I’d hoped. Maybe I would have to use the fake sapphire after all. “We will be gone by sunrise tomorrow.”

Finley didn’t incline her head; she snapped her fingers and an Ender stepped forward. His face reminded me of a boy I’d known once. Sting, and his twin sister Ray, had helped me in my battle to defeat Requiem. And here he stood before me, an Ender. His eyes glittered with the same cheeky humor I’d seen in him as a child. He dared to give me a wink, and I shook my head ever so slightly.