Seize the Crown Read online

  Sad, because since she’s gone the place seems smaller, colder, scarier, quieter.

  I’m not good at being by myself.

  I wonder if Millard comes in and I fall at his feet, and tell him I only wanted him to be King. How handsome I always thought he was. How much better he was than Macsen, would he take pity on me? Keep me alive?

  Or just kill me anyway?

  I reckon he’d kill me anyway.

  There is nothing I can say or do now that will save me. I made a big bold gesture by pushing Addyson out of here. But in saving her life I have ended my own.

  I feel it in my bones.

  I have shown Millard that I am on Everleigh’s side. I have made him look stupid.

  I feel stupid. Since when do I make big, bold gestures?

  Never!

  I look after myself. I keep quiet and let others talk. I do as I’m told. I’m a doer not a thinker.

  I don’t know what I was thinking. Trying to make amends I guess. Trying to make myself feel better and look better.

  I have too much time to think.

  Some of it is nice. Remembering all the years I have looked after Everleigh, bathed her, washed her hair, dressed her in the most beautiful clothes. I remember how she loved me and looked after me. All the clothes and jewels and furs she passed on to me. She was never rude to me. Never anything but polite. Like princesses are. Just perfect.

  She made me feel like we were sisters, that we were equal. That I mattered.

  I knew it wasn’t true but it didn’t matter. I felt it. I felt happy.

  Will I ever feel happy again?

  Oh, I know I’m a right moaning old misery and maybe everyone would be better off if they left me in here. I won’t starve. The guards don’t speak to me or look at me. Just open and close the door. Unlock and lock the door. Grunt and spit and cough.

  I lay on the hard floor, watching a spider cross the ceiling. How did he get in? How will he get out? If I was tiny I could follow him, crawl through the cracks and escape.

  If I was a spider Millard wouldn’t kill me, or would he?

  I hope he kills me quick. Painless and quick.

  Just chops my head clean off. Like he did with Macsen.

  13

  GINATA FINDS WILL TURNING somersaults outside the great hall and falls in with his audience, laughing and clapping at his antics. He sees her and grins, throws himself on the floor and plays dead. The crowd, used to him and his father before him, watch for a second in case some sort of grand finale to his fooling is coming, but when he stays still, they happily wander away.

  “She’s fine. Della and her brother are looking after her. Addyson is fine too. We had an idea. We are going to meet here tonight and give the tower guards a sleeping draught. Get Lanorie out.”

  Will can’t help himself. He gives a whoop and jumps in the air. Anyone who sees him smiles. Being the fool means that no one expects him to behave normally.

  “We’ll speak after supper.”

  Ginata goes in to the hall to take her place at the top table, up on the dais, where the royal family sit, so everyone can get a good view of them.

  Millard is sitting on the throne, his crown heavy on his head, deep in conversation with Wolf. Neither man looks happy. The King looks icily furious, while Wolf looks miserable. This time a week ago, the table had the King, Macsen, Millard, Everleigh, Addyson and Halfreda all sitting happily, enjoying their food. Now it holds one angry King who has either killed or isolated everyone who should be sitting around him, enjoying his new Kingship.

  Except Wolf.

  Ginata feels a shiver every time she sees him, remembering him standing outside her cottage when he pretended his alliances were with the other prince of the Realm. How could Millard trust someone who turned his coat like that? She would never trust him and tried her best not to even look at him, never mind talk to him.

  She bows to Millard before taking her place three seats up from him. He calls her over.

  “Sit beside me.”

  She cannot refuse and so sits. Millard clicks for a little maid, who rushes forward and pours wine into a goblet for her. Holding it gives her something to do. It is nice to be waited on, that’s one thing she won’t mind getting used to, while serving Millard and then Everleigh.

  Pages start bringing forward dishes for the King to try. He chooses what he wants and sends the rest to the other diners. Ginata chooses a few things and fills her plate, but isn’t feeling hungry.

  The hall is full of people, all still eager to see this crazy new King. Aware of their eyes on him once more, he is smiling and waving, sending out good dishes, ignoring Wolf, who stares at his plate.

  “Have you had any luck today? Trying to see where Everleigh is?”

  Ginata shakes her head. “Sorry, my King. I have tried. I saw Addyson-”

  “Ah, how is she?”

  “Upset, but understanding of your position, I would say.”

  “Good. My position...I like that. Shall I see her tomorrow?”

  “Let me see her again. Let me see how she feels first.”

  “I’m happy with that. Little cursed thing. I don’t like seeing her much to be honest. When I think of how she killed my mother...”

  Ginata says nothing. She cannot argue with this man. Addyson didn’t kill the Queen, not really. No baby can be blamed if their mother dies during childbirth, but of course, poor Addyson killed a Queen; hence her curse. Her curse is what she is known for. What marks her out. Identifies her.

  “So, you haven’t found Everleigh. Wolf hasn’t found Everleigh. I am failed by all of my closest allies.”

  “My King. I am trying. I spoke with Addyson. I made up a fire. I think because she is hidden I cannot see past it.”

  “She is hidden because someone in the Realm is betraying me. If they have helped her and hidden her, then they work against me. They are traitors. And traitors will hang.”

  Ginata gulps down some wine so she cannot answer. She is a traitor. Will is a traitor. Lanorie is a traitor. She has even made Della and Finn traitors. Will they all hang for this?

  Millard broods as he eats, then remembers the eyes of the crowd on him and smiles, trying to act nonchalant, then he broods again, and so on until his plate is clear. He clicks for a page and whispers something to him. Within minutes a trio of musicians start playing and he smiles as he listens. He is nothing if not changeable this new King of the Realm.

  Ginata lets the music wash over her and thinks about her predicament. She has to keep Everleigh alive and get her on the throne, get the crown on her head. It’s what she promised Halfreda she would do. And if she has to work for somebody in her position as wise woman, she would much rather work for Everleigh. She knows she is more likely to keep her head that way.

  Millard is nodding along to the music. Wolf is miserable and Ginata is watching them both warily. What will Millard do next, if he cannot find Everleigh? Will he let her go, figure that she has escaped for good, or will he keep looking? If he gets Wolf to search the villages as he has warned, then he will find Everleigh and Addyson in her cottage and work out pretty quickly the part she has played in all of it. Her head will roll or her body will hang.

  What a choice.

  She is determined to keep Everleigh safe and her head too.

  EVERLEIGH IS SITTING with her knees tucked up to her chest, back against the fence, watching the flames die down. Addyson is inside the cottage with Della. Everleigh wanted her to take a sleeping draught to help her sleep a dreamless sleep but she refused. She wants to know what happens with the rescue. Everleigh hopes she will fall asleep before they get back but she knows that she will be safe with Della either way.

  Finn smiles down at her. “Ready?”

  She jumps up, straightening her skirt, and her cloak. “Yes.”

  She will feel better when Lanorie is safe.

  The walk to the castle is different tonight from last night. Last night she had been filled with anger and hatred towards her brot
her. Tonight, she is calm. They will rescue Lanorie and then on Saturday she will take her brother’s crown. In the five days between then and now she will lie low and wait. Keep herself and everyone else safe.

  If only she had been able to do the same for Halfreda and Archer.

  She cannot think of him; as soon as she does she feels a helpless ache inside and wants to drop to the floor in a hopeless puddle of tears. That won’t help, though, not yet.

  “I used to think you were brave, when I was a boy. But now I know it,” Finn says after a few minute’s silence.

  Everleigh shoots him a sharp look. “You don’t know anything.”

  “I do. I was there yesterday.”

  “I wasn’t brave yesterday. I was useless.”

  Finn shakes his head. “What could you have done?”

  Everleigh stops and spins, facing him, hands on her hips. “Watch this.”

  She starts muttering under her breath, loud enough that he can hear her, but too fast for him to make out the words. She calls louder. “Rain. Rain. Rain. Now.”

  He looks up at the clear sky, shaking his head.

  “Rain.” She repeats the word firmly, and closing her eyes, she holds out her hands.

  Finn watches the sky, his eyes widening in amazement. Light fluffy clouds, change before his eyes, filling the sky, deepening to grey and then black, filling the air with the damp heat you get before a storm.

  “Rain.” She says it one more time and the clouds burst. Within a second they are both drenched and Everleigh stares at him defiantly. “I did that. But I let everyone I love die.”

  Finn wipes a hand across his mouth, pushes his wet hair off his face. “That was amazing. I have never seen anything like it. Magic?”

  Everleigh nods. “That and being Queen. Almost Queen.”

  “But that wouldn’t have saved anyone.”

  Everleigh shakes her head. He’s not getting it. She searches the floor, finds a rock, passes it to him. “Throw it.”

  “What?”

  “Throw it at me.” She backs away from him, stopping after ten feet. “Throw it at me.”

  “I can’t.” His hands remain at his sides.

  “Do it,” she calls.

  Finn shrugs and lifts his hand, he hesitates for a second but then throws the rock. He flinches as it hurtles towards her and he runs forwards as though he could catch up with it.

  When it’s a foot from her face she twitches her head to one side and the rock follows suit, hitting a tree and dropping to the floor. Finn stops dead in his tracks, silent.

  “I’m magic,” she says. “But when Millard stabbed Archer through the heart I did nothing to stop it. I should have stopped it.” She’s crying before she realises it. And Finn is holding her before he realises it.

  “Everleigh. What you just did was amazing. Have you always been able to do it?”

  “No. Just a week.”

  He throws up his hands. “So, is it any wonder you couldn’t help them?”

  “I should have.”

  “Maybe.” He shrugs. “But I don’t think anyone would blame you for not being able to. It was madness at the castle yesterday. You wouldn’t have been thinking straight. Millard was quick and vicious.”

  “I will never forgive myself for not stopping him.”

  “You probably won’t, but you should.”

  They walk along in silence. Everleigh lifts her face up to the rain, washing away her tears. Then she calls it off.

  When they get closer to the castle Everleigh lifts her cloak over her face, and Finn does the same. They head to the island and sit on the bench, quietly waiting for Ginata.

  Ginata

  WHEN I ARRIVE AT THE island I can see Everleigh has been crying and they’re both soaking wet. “Everything alright?” I ask and they both nod. I don’t even push it. We have a job to do and I want to do it quickly.

  I feel anxious after spending time with Millard. He’s in a strange frame of mind, swinging between moods like the child that he is. He told Wolf to come to his rooms tomorrow at first light and then dismissed him. I kept my eyes down and kept out of it. He poured my wine and tried to be a good host, the affable King, but I cannot help but be wary of him.

  As soon as I was able, I excused myself. I told him that I wanted to raise a fire, to look for clues of Everleigh’s whereabouts once more and he was happy to let me go. If he saw me now it would be the end of my life, I know.

  I am wearing one of Halfreda’s old cloaks, and I have two sleeping draughts in my pocket. “Let’s go.”

  Everleigh is going to hide by the wall again, like she did last night. She is going to wait for a little maid, like she did last night, and she will ask for help, like she did last night. Any one of the little maids will help her; I have no doubt.

  Once the guards have been given their drug-laced drinks we will wait five minutes before storming the tower. Well, not quite storming, as we don’t want anyone to hear us and we have no weapons and no army and just Everleigh and Finn, hoping for the best.

  I won’t hang around; I cannot risk being caught.

  Everleigh and Finn will steal the keys, head up to the top of the tower and free Lanorie. By the time morning comes, the guards will have awoken and believe they have lost Addyson. No one will ever know about the switch and we can all rest until Saturday.

  So simple. And yet I feel a twist in my guts; is it going to work? We can only try.

  I will be glad when it is all over.

  There is room for the three of us by the wall and we silently wait, watching the kitchen for signs of life. It’s not as late as when Everleigh came last night, but it is dark enough to aid our adventure.

  “I hope this works,” I say, more for something to say than any belief that it won’t. It’s a good idea. The guards are always boozing on wine and ale and will be happy to be brought a drink. The sleeping draught is undetectable; it has no smell and no taste.

  Once the guards are asleep Everleigh will easily be able to get the keys and with Finn’s help she can shift the guards one way or another if she needs to get them out of the way. Lanorie has no injuries and will be able to walk out of the tower and down to my cottage before the night is even half over.

  I will slip off to my bed soon, and prepare to look shocked in the morning. I know how furious this will make Millard and I do not relish having to face him. But I am good at hiding my true thoughts and my true feelings, just as easily, really, as I can see them in others. Most of the time.

  We sit in silence the three of us, squashed in a row, waiting for some help. The moon is covered in cloud and the air feels damp and just as my leg starts to cramp, a little maid comes past us whistling for the dogs. She has a bowl of meat scraps. I shrink back as Everleigh steps forwards. “Hey.”

  The little maid turns and smiles. “You again. Did you speak to the King yesterday?”

  Everleigh smiles at her. “Yes. I did thank you. Can you help me again? I want to see my sister in the tower.”

  The little maid shakes her head, fear passing across her features. “I don’t know.”

  “Please.” Everleigh’s voice is soft, and when Everleigh reaches for the little maid’s hand, I see her face change. She will not refuse her princess or her Kingmaker. Even if she wants to.

  “I just need two mugs of ale for the tower guards. They won’t get hurt, just fall asleep.”

  The little maid nods and darts back to the kitchen.

  “I’m going to move back a bit.” I tell them both once she’s out of sight. I pass Everleigh the sleeping draughts and back away from the wall. I cannot be seen here and I cannot help. I am sure nothing will go wrong and yet...

  I try to concentrate my mind on Lanorie, on her freedom, on her happiness and I cannot. Maybe the walls of the tower are too thick for me to penetrate. I don’t see death but I sense danger.

  But then this situation is dangerous. Everleigh being out of hiding is dangerous. Me being near her is dangerous. Lanorie swapping plac
es with Addyson is dangerous.

  Yes, there is danger in the air. It smells like a fire that’s just gone out, sharp and acrid, but not unpleasant to me.

  I close my eyes. Everleigh will not die tonight. Lanorie will not die tonight. Finn will not die tonight. Neither will I. That may be the best I can do.

  The little maid comes back and now I cannot hear what she says, but she does have two mugs of ale. Finn helps Everleigh to undo the bottles and pour them in.

  The little maid nods and walks carefully across to the tower, a mug in each hand. I can just make out the shadowy figure of the first guard as he leans against the tower door.

  He will be glad of a drink I am sure. Pleased with the diversion. It must be a boring job.

  The little maid stops in front of him and I can see her hold out a mug. Then I hear her scream.

  And all hell breaks loose. The guard is yelling, though I have no idea what he’s saying. He has hold of the little maid and I can see her struggling. I hear dogs barking and the sound of people running, men shouting. Everleigh and Finn have both shot up from their hiding place and I can see Finn’s hand on her arm. I run forward. Whatever is happening here, she cannot help.

  “Finn, take her back to the cottage.”

  “No!” Her voice is fierce.

  “This may be a trap of some sort. We can’t risk your capture or death. I’ll go to help her.”

  The fight goes out of Everleigh and her shoulders drop. Finn takes her hand and leads her away.

  I run over to the guard. “What is going on here?” My voice is sharp and hard, but I am scared.

  He has hold of the little maid, tightly and roughly, his arm across her neck. Her face is red and tears stain her cheeks. She looks petrified. “Unhand her.”

  “I hold her on the King’s orders.”

  “I will be responsible if you let her go. She will promise not to run. Where would she run to?”

  He loosens his hold but doesn’t let go. This is one of the castle maids, probably ten years old. From one of the neighbouring villages, she has more than likely worked here since she was six or so, her duties changing as she has grown up. She is hardly an equal opponent for a man of his size and strength and were she to run home she would, no doubt, get a clip around the ear off her father for abandoning her duties.