Kingsbane

Eliana awoke.

Her eyes flew open. Five ringing seconds passed before she was able to catch her breath. The alien angles of the world slowly turned familiar—the vaulted ceiling above her, painted a rich dusk-dark violet and spangled with silver stars. The thick, beaded quilt of her bed. The arched sleeping alcove lit quaveringly by an inch of melted candle.

She was in her bedroom, in the Astavari palace called Dyrefal—the home of Kings Tavik and Eri Amaruk, and of their son, Malik, and three other children, working to aid Red Crown in distant waters, far from home.

And their youngest daughter, Navi.

Navi.

Eliana pushed herself upright, swung her legs out of bed, and padded across the midnight-blue rug toward the far wall. She peeked through a door that stood ajar, and at the sight of Remy sleeping peacefully in the adjoining room—embers glowing softly behind the fire grate, fur-trimmed blanket pulled up to his chin—some of the tension in her shoulders abated.

Soon, she would have to tell him about their mother’s death—some of the truth, if not all of it. He deserved to know, even if she couldn’t find the courage to tell him how Rozen had died.

But not yet.

She pulled the door closed, slipped on her boots, threw on a heavy velvet dressing gown over her sleeping shift, and steeled herself before opening her bedroom door.

The two guards stationed in the corridor, standing against the opposite wall, snapped to attention and bowed their heads.

One of them, a short, solid woman with dark-brown skin and close-cropped white hair, stepped forward.

What was her name? Eliana searched her memory for the answer, but could only think of dream images: A scream behind a locked door. A soggy carpet foaming red between her toes.

“Is there anything we can help you with, my lady?” asked the guard. “Shall we send for the captain?”

At the thought of seeing Simon in her current state, Eliana blurted out, “God, no!”

Then, collecting herself, she managed a polite smile. “I simply wanted to go for a walk. Please, as you were.”

But as Eliana walked away, the guards followed her.

She turned to face them. “As you were, I said.”

“Begging your pardon, my lady,” said the guard, “but we’ve been ordered to accompany you, should you need to leave your chambers.”

Meli. That was the woman’s name.

With considerable effort, Eliana softened her expression. “Meli, isn’t it?”

The woman straightened, clearly pleased. “Yes, my lady.”

“Well, Meli, while I do appreciate your devotion, surely, after everything I’ve done for your people, you can allow me this one small thing?” She placed a gentle hand on Meli’s forearm, which made the woman flinch. She stared at Eliana’s hand as if it were a star that had fallen expressly for her to enjoy.

“Of course, my lady,” Meli said, bowing her head once more. “I apologize.”

“I don’t need your apologies. I simply need an hour or so to roam the halls undisturbed.”

With that, Eliana left the guards behind. She felt the press of their awestruck gazes upon her back long after she had turned the corner and tried to stifle her annoyance. If they insisted upon looking at her that way—as if she really were some long-awaited queen come at last to save them from the world’s evils—then they could do so. Their adoration did nothing to change the truth: the power she had summoned that night on the beach had not returned.

And she was in no hurry to find it.

• • •

After three-quarters of an hour, having wandered through the palace’s corridors, each one dark and velvet soft, dimly lit by candles from within and the night from without, Eliana stepped into the windowed gallery that connected the palace proper to Navi’s tower. The ceiling arched high overhead, bracketed torches throwing shivering arms of light across the polished stone floor.

She hesitated.

Then, in the corner of her eye, a flutter of movement. A flash of color against the obsidian glass.

Eliana turned, and a body slammed into her, knocking her to the floor. She managed to twist, landing on her side, but then a fist connected with her jaw. Her head snapped back against the floor.

She lay there, gasping. Once, she would have been able to clear her vision with a swift shake of her head and launch herself to her feet, but now she remained breathless and immobile. Bright stars sparked across her eyes. Pain reverberated through her skull, sharp and hot. She touched her scalp; her fingers came away red with blood.

Remy’s words from the previous week returned to her: Your body could heal itself, and we never knew why. But it was because all that power was trapped sleeping inside you, and it didn’t have anything to do, so instead it fixed you up whenever it could.

And now?

She tried to push herself up, but her head was spinning viciously, an unfamiliar and utterly disorienting sensation, and she stumbled back to the floor.

A wild shriek cut the air, just before a weight slammed into her once more, smashing her flat. A body straddled her; two hands closed around her throat.

Eliana blinked until her vision focused on Navi, glaring down at her with glittering eyes, her face rage-twisted.

“Navi?” Eliana gasped.

Navi’s hands tightened around her neck, her fingernails digging into Eliana’s flesh. She growled gibberish words, and Eliana clawed at her friend’s arms, tried to push her off, but the pain in her own head was a spreading fog, dumbing her senses. Her head filled with blood; her face felt ready to burst.

Running footsteps approached. Someone seized Navi, yanked her away. Eliana gulped down air, coughing and gagging. She looked up, eyes watering, and saw Navi crouched several feet away, teeth bared in Simon’s direction. He circled her slowly, hand hovering at the holster hanging from his belt.

“Don’t,” Eliana croaked. “Don’t hurt her.”

His gaze flicked sharply toward her, and that beat of time gave Navi her opportunity. She launched herself off the floor and flew into Simon. He slammed into the nearest window, cracking the glass, then staggered away, shaking his head with a slight snarl.

Navi ran back for Eliana, but she was ready. She let Navi pin her once more to the floor, keeping her arms still at her sides.

“Navi, it’s me,” she said. “It’s Eliana.”

Navi’s gaze flickered across Eliana’s face, animal and unseeing.

Simon lunged for Navi once more, but Eliana shouted at him. “No, wait!”

He obeyed, fists clenched at his sides.

“Listen to me,” Eliana said firmly to Navi, blinking away the black crowding her eyes. “‘Tell me something real.’ Remember?”