The Crimson Crown (31 page)

“As it stands, Hunts Alone is a danger to you, daughter,” Averill said. “And he may be a danger to everyone. We have been following his activities. Did you know that he’s been elected High Wizard?”

“I do,” Raisa said. “I asked him to seek the post. I need a High Wizard I can trust.”

“And you chose
him
?” Nightwalker tightened his fists, the muscles standing out along his arms. “He’s supposed to
oppose
the Wizard Council, not direct it.”

“Has it occurred to you that my goals might be different from yours?” Raisa said. “My goal is to bring the peoples of the Fells together. I am not in opposition to the Wizard Council unless they work contrary to me.”

“It is their nature to work contrary to you,” Elena said, jabbing her finger toward Raisa. “Hunts Alone is supposed to be working for us, not—not—”

“Not for me?” Raisa said. “Does that mean that
you
are working contrary to me?”

“Briar Rose, how can you say that?” Averill said, stricken. “You are my daughter, and we are all Demonai.”

“I am queen first,” Raisa said. “If I dismiss Alister as my bodyguard, I’ll be more vulnerable than ever.”

“I can protect you,” Nightwalker said. “If you would only give me a chance.”

“Nightwalker will be Patriarch of Demonai Camp when Averill is gone,” Elena said. “He is the most capable Demonai warrior alive today. He has proposed marriage to you, granddaughter, and I think you should accept.”

Averill nodded agreement. “Nightwalker has been assisting Captain Byrne’s guards, but he isn’t always on duty. As consort, he can be with you constantly.”

Averill’s words clamored in Raisa’s ears. Suddenly she knew—she didn’t want that. She didn’t want what Marianna had—a sensible marriage. At least Averill had loved Marianna, even if she never loved him back. Raisa didn’t love Nightwalker, and she suspected that his interest in her was more political than personal. She was a means to an end for him—whether it was thwarting the Bayars, influencing the queen, or introducing more clan blood into the Gray Wolf line.

Raisa found it difficult to spend an undiluted afternoon with Nightwalker. She just couldn’t contemplate spending the rest of her life with him.

She looked at her father and grandmother, wishing she could tell them the truth. Wishing that someone could be totally on her side. But even here, even now, she had to tread carefully.

“Reid Nightwalker,” she said, slowly and deliberately, “you have honored me with a proposal of marriage. And I told you at the time that I was not ready to give you an answer. That is still the case. Should you wish to withdraw the offer, we will never speak of it again. Should you press me for an answer now, I would have to say no.”

“Granddaughter!” Elena blurted. “Do not make a hasty decision.”

“That is exactly what I am trying to avoid,” Raisa said. “I can think of ten women from three camps who would leap at the chance to marry Nightwalker. But I cannot afford to leap into a marriage, tempting as it might be. I am seventeen years old. As queen of the realm, I shouldn’t have to marry someone to ensure my own safety.” She turned to Nightwalker. “And I shouldn’t have to marry someone in order to secure his loyal service.” She met his eyes, and he looked away first.

“I did not come here to be harangued about marriage,” Raisa went on. “I want to know why you chose Hunts Alone to serve the clans when you clearly don’t trust him. I want to know what you’re hiding. What do you know about him that I don’t?”

“Very well,” Averill said, with a heavy sigh. “We will tell you the truth about Hunts Alone.”

“Lightfoot,” Elena said, putting her hand on his arm. “I don’t think we…” She tilted her head toward Nightwalker.

“Nightwalker will inherit my role as patriarch,” Averill said. “He deserves to know what is at stake here.”

Nightwalker inclined his head. “Thank you for your confidence in me, Lord Demonai,” he said. “The more I know, the better I will be able to protect our interests. And those of Briar Rose.”

“But, Captain Byrne…” Averill hesitated, embarrassed, unable to meet Amon’s eyes.

“He stays,” Raisa said, growing impatient. “Now, what is it? How did Han Alister come to be working for you if he is such a dangerous person?”

Elena and Averill looked at each other as if each hoped the other would take on this task. They looked almost…guilty.

“Bear with us,” Elena said. “This is a secret that has been kept by the clan elders for a thousand years.”

Raisa spread her skirts over her knees. “Well?” she said, worry sharpening her tongue more than usual. “Maybe I know this secret already. Like the fact that Alister was elected High Wizard.”

“Hunts Alone shares your bloodline,” Elena said abruptly.

“
My
bloodline?” Raisa shook her head, certain she couldn’t have heard right. This was not the sort of secret she was expecting.

“The boy you call Han is also a descendant of Hanalea,” Elena said.

Suddenly, the similarity between the names clicked. “You’re saying…you’re saying Han is related to me?”

“Only very distantly. Very tenuously,” Averill said quickly, as if to undo what had just been said.

“But how is that possible?” Nightwalker said. “He is a jinxflinger!”

Averill rushed on without answering Nightwalker’s question. “My point is, there are some who might say that Hunts Alone has a claim to the Gray Wolf throne.” He said it softly, as if not wanting the world to hear.

“Wait a minute!” Raisa raised her hand, palm out, to stop him. “Even if he had some relationship to the line, there’s no way he could be in the direct descendancy.”

“Queen Alyssa had a twin brother,” Elena said.

“A twin brother?” Raisa shook her head. “No. Alyssa was an only child, the daughter of Hanalea and that consort she married after the Breaking—what was his name?” She should know; she’d studied this history for too long.

“Alyssa’s twin was named Alister,” Averill said.

“Alister! Why have I not heard of him?” Raisa looked at her grandmother, her father.

“Alister was gifted,” Elena said. “He presented a danger to the Gray Wolf line.”

“But…Hanalea never had any gifted descendants,” Raisa said. “Anyway, if Han came from a line of wizards, he wouldn’t have been living in Ragmarket.”

“His powers were suppressed,” Averill said.

“What do you mean, suppressed?” Raisa asked suspiciously.

“Those silver cuffs he wore. They kept his magic from manifesting. He didn’t even know he was gifted until a year ago.”

The story was disjointed and sketchy enough to be true. If it was a lie, they would have done a better job in the telling. But Raisa could see that they were measuring out their words—telling her only enough to serve their purposes, trying to avoid some dark and significant truth.

“But…why would the first Alister be gifted?” Raisa persisted. “The gifted trait isn’t compatible with the Gray Wolf magic, so it couldn’t have come from Hanalea, even though her father was a wizard. And Hanalea’s consort wasn’t a wizard—that wasn’t allowed after the Breaking.”

“Alister and Alyssa were fathered by Alger Waterlow,” Elena said finally, as if the words tasted bad.

After a long stunned silence, Raisa said, “That’s a lie.” She folded her arms across her chest like armor.

“It’s the truth,” Elena said. “Hunts Alone carries the blood of the Demon King.” She pronounced it like a curse. “It is apparently powerful enough to counter Gray Wolf magic.”

“You are saying that the jinxflinger living next door to Briar Rose is the get of the Demon King?” Nightwalker looked from Elena to Averill. They nodded. “How could you let this happen?” he demanded. “And why is he still alive?”

“If what you’re saying is true, then I’m his descendant also,” Raisa said.

“But you are not a jinxflinger, Briar Rose,” Nightwalker said, as if that made all the difference.

Raisa ground the heels of her hands against her temples, trying to release the tension. “Listen to me. He couldn’t be of the true line and be gifted. Gray Wolf magic is incompatible with high magic. So the Gray Wolf line passes through Alyssa, not Alister.”

“We know that, daughter, but some might ignore that, for political reasons,” Averill said. “The jinxflingers would like to do away with the Nǽming. How better to accomplish that than to put a wizard on the throne of the Fells, claiming that he is the lineal heir?”

“I suspect that some of the Bayars would like to do away with the line,” Raisa said. “But Han despises the Bayars, and the feeling is mutual. I can’t imagine they would collaborate on this. The Bayars want power for themselves. There’s no way they would allow Han to claim what they want so badly.”

“Are you sure of that, Briar Rose?” Elena said. “The Demon King was a skillful liar. He even fooled Hanalea for a time. Why shouldn’t we expect that his descendant shares his talent for dissembling?”

“Does Han even know about this?” Raisa asked. “How can he be plotting and planning if he doesn’t know he shares my blood?”

“He knows,” Elena said heavily. “We told him when we removed the silver cuffs I put on him when he was just a baby. I removed them when he agreed to serve us. I had to—he couldn’t use high magic otherwise.”

“You took them
off
?” Nightwalker shook his head in disbelief. “It would have been better to kill him as soon as you knew he was gifted. I told you at the time that recruiting a wizard to fight wizards was a bad decision.”

“You did,” Averill said. “And you were right.”

No, Raisa thought. No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no.

It too closely mirrored what Fiona had said—that Han claimed to be a marriage of royal lineage and magic. But there was no way Han would conspire with the Bayars.

A voice in her head said,
Then why would he tell them, and not you?

“So,” Raisa said, bile rising in her throat, “he’s known this story for a year, and he never told me.”

“We ordered him not to tell anyone, Briar Rose,” Averill admitted grudgingly. “But we should have told you. We shouldn’t have allowed you to walk blindly into danger like this.”

This is unfair, Raisa thought. This is unfair to Han, who isn’t here to defend himself.

But she couldn’t help herself. It did kindle a question in her mind. Han had once as much as told her he loved her. Shouldn’t the fact that he was her distant relative have surfaced at least once in a conversation?

Why wouldn’t he tell me? If he loved me, why would he keep this from me?

Looking back from this new angle, she saw a whole sequence of lies told to her by Han Alister. And very little truth.

Cat had told her that Han was good at keeping secrets. Apparently, she was right. Could Raisa afford to trust someone who had so much to hide?

I don’t know, Raisa thought. I don’t know, I don’t know.

“Whatever his bloodline, Alister has done everything I’ve asked. I was the one who asked him to stand for High Wizard, and he did. He didn’t seem happy about it, either. Is there any evidence that the Bayars or anyone else know who he really is?”

“The Bayars do not confide in us,” Elena said tartly.

I have to buy myself time to think, to figure this out. There has to be an explanation.

“I have listened to everything you’ve had to say,” Raisa said. “Captain Byrne has already launched an investigation into the allegations against Lord Alister. In the meantime, I won’t take foolish chances.”

Such as falling in love with him?
a sardonic voice said in her head.

“Listen to me, daughter,” Averill said. “You must dismiss Alister as your bodyguard. Do it now. He should not be housed so close to you. If you don’t take action, we will.”

“What do you mean by that?” Raisa said, her throat gone dry.

“We are Demonai warriors,” Elena said. “We know what to do with jinxflingers who present a danger to the Gray Wolf line.”

Raisa looked up, and all she saw were implacable, unforgiving clan faces staring back at her. They will do it, she thought. They will do it and they will tell themselves they are doing it for love of me.

And suddenly she couldn’t stand to be in this conversation a moment longer.

She drew herself up. “You are my father,” she said to Averill. “And you are my grandmother,” she said to Elena. “And you are duty-bound to me,” she said to Nightwalker. “If you take action against Hunts Alone without my permission, we will be at war.”

After the final meeting between Alger and Lucius, Han stayed another day at the cabin on Old Woman Creek. The longer he stayed away, the greater the likelihood of Bayar mischief—he knew that. He hated to leave Cat responsible for Raisa’s safety, but there was business to do before he returned to town.

He hoped to go back with the armory as his bargaining chip. He visited Aediion twice more, looking for Crow, but Crow wasn’t there. Worry pinged through him. Han had kept his part of the bargain—would Crow keep his?

Dancer helped him go through Lucius’s sparse belongings. They found a will that Speaker Jemson had prepared for him, which designated Han Alister his sole heir. The old man had left Han everything he owned—his cabin, his distillery, his fishing gear, his dog, and the library of books he’d never read.

The place seemed desolate now, with Lucius gone. Han kept expecting the old man to come banging out the door, calling, “Boy! That you, boy? Got me some product to go to town!”

Lucius had done terrible things. He’d betrayed his best friend and the woman he loved, and he’d lied to Han. He was weak—but he was also one of the few pegs Han’d had to hang his life on, growing up.

Was there any way to change a story that had been told for a thousand years? Han imagined himself going before the deans at Oden’s Ford, explaining that he and his dead ancestor, the Demon King, had interviewed the drunk hermit of Hanalea and it turned out Alger Waterlow wasn’t a fiend after all. That the powerful Bayar family had caused the Breaking, then remade history to blame it on a love-struck young wizard who didn’t know when to give up.

Dog moped about, inconsolable. Han didn’t really know what to do with dogs. He’d never had a pet of his own—to Mam, that was one more mouth to feed. He allowed Dog to sleep at the foot of his bed, and woke in the morning to find himself crowded to the edge, Dog’s nose pressed into the small of his back.