The Twiceborn Queen (The Proving Book 2) (27 page)

“I bloody hope so.”

He looked so miserable I gave him a quick, hard hug on impulse. It felt like hugging a rock. The guy was solid muscle. “Cheer up. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

“We could all die?”

“Okay, the second-worst.” He still didn’t even crack a smile, and he hugged me back with a firmness that bordered on desperation, as if he thought he’d never see me again. I felt his lips brush my hair. “Oh, come on, Garth. Have a little faith.”

Not that I had much to spare. Hope was in pretty short supply too, but I wouldn’t give up as long as I could see any glimmer of it. Whatever it took to keep Lachie safe.

“It’ll take more than faith—we need a bloody miracle.”

“Then it’s lucky we have Kasumi to work one for us.”

“I don’t like how much you’re relying on her. It’s dangerous.”

“Being alive is dangerous.” But the alternative was unthinkable. I thumped him hard on the shoulder. “You just concentrate on staying that way, and I will too, okay?”

His gaze softened. “Okay.”

I left him there and hurried back downstairs. Kasumi waited in the foyer.

“Ready?” she asked, her deep voice catching me by surprise again.

What had I been expecting? That she’d still sound like herself? That wouldn’t be at all obvious, would it? Of course she’d take on her new persona’s voice as well as his looks. But knowing there was a woman inside that body felt so weird.

She wound a length of silver chain around my body several times and padlocked it shut. Not that that would hold me. The chain would snap like string, padlock and all, once I took trueshape.

Despite the heat I wore a long-sleeved shirt, to disguise the fact that the silver wasn’t raising the usual welts on my skin. Apart from the heaviness and the occasional clanking as I moved, I felt quite comfortable. Though I’d expected that, it was hard to forget a lifetime’s aversion to silver. It seemed like a miracle. I decided that was a good sign. This was meant to be.

We went out to the car.

“I’m sorry,” Kasumi said as she opened the hatch, “but you’ll have to ride in here. It wouldn’t look right otherwise.”

“No problem.”

Kasumi laid the back row of seats flat to make room for her “prisoner”. She helped me in, and I lay down awkwardly, the carpet tickling my face. The slam of the hatch closing reverberated through my skull. As the car moved off I watched treetops and sky swing past from my odd vantage point. I had to brace my feet against the side wall as we took the first corner.

The upside-down trees rushing past made me queasy, so I shut my eyes and focused on the plan. Elizabeth would be keen to make a spectacle of me; she’d probably have me dragged into the throne room as soon as we arrived, to ensure the greatest number of people witnessed my downfall. A crowd could certainly work to my advantage once the fighting started, with so many people shocked and panicking.

The big flaw in the plan was weapons, since Kasumi wouldn’t be allowed to bring any with her, and if they found one on me our cover would be blown. Of course, not finding welts on my skin would do that too.

I should probably do something about that. I opened myself to a trickle of power and urged my body into a new shape. Unlike Kasumi the chameleon, I only had two to choose from: my regular human and dragon shapes. But I knew that each could be adapted slightly, and one form could bleed into the other, like my dragon claws appearing when the rest of me wore human form.

I focused on the areas where I could feel the chain digging into me, and pushed for something ridged like scales, but still made of soft human flesh. I wouldn’t know how successful I’d been till later, but hopefully it looked enough like welts to pass a cursory inspection.

At last the car turned and slowed to a stop. I knew it wasn’t just another red light when I heard Kasumi’s assumed voice, deep and gravelly.

“Bill Watson to see the queen.”

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Bill,” another voice, presumably the gate guard, replied. Well, that was a relief. We would have been screwed if Bill was already here. I lay still, eyes closed, as if I were unconscious. If I hadn’t had dragon hearing I wouldn’t have been able to hear the guy over the rumble of the engine. It sounded like he stood a good distance from the car. Perhaps he hadn’t left the gatehouse. “Sorry to hear about your lord. You been laying low?”

“Something like that. You know how it is when a dragon dies. Everyone’s looking for someone to blame.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No. But I guarantee she’ll want to see me. I’ve brought her the abomination.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No.”

“Seriously?” A new note of respect entered the guard’s voice. “Show me.”

“Sure.”

The car door slammed and footsteps approached the rear of the car. Then the hatch opened. Through slitted eyelids I saw the gate guard leap back as if bitten.

“She’s not gagged! Are you crazy?”

“Relax. Those chains are made of silver. She couldn’t even compel you into taking a cruise to Hawaii.”

The guard chuckled a little nervously, then stepped forward and laid a tentative finger against the chain. He snatched his hand back and inspected the blister forming on his fingertip with satisfaction.

“Well done.” He slammed the hatch and walked away. “You’ll have to tell me how you managed it some time. I’ll buy you a beer. I bet it’s quite a story.”

Kasumi laughed. “Sure is.”

Then she got back into the car for the short trip up the driveway.

Next time the hatch opened I was more prepared. Kasumi’s strange male face grinned down at me. A familiar mansion bulked behind her, and I could smell the tang of salt on the air.

“Show time,” she said.

Like a stone dropped into a pond, ripples spread out from us. The moment we stepped into the cool of Elizabeth’s foyer the whispers started. It was as if the blast of air-conditioned air that greeted us carried the rumour of our presence around the house. I heard doors, not slammed exactly, but closed with a sharp sound that spoke of haste, and voices passing on the news with various degrees of excitement.

The abomination was here! Captured and brought before the queen for punishment. People found reason to be in my path to sneak a peek, and I heard footsteps tapping down the tiled hallways before me, everyone rushing to get to the throne room in time for the big showdown.

Too bad I looked so ordinary—much more soccer mum than Satan. If they expected horns they were in for a disappointment, though hopefully the show I had in mind would be worth staying for. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. I took a deep breath and forced them away. Now was the time for Leandra’s steel, not Kate’s feelings.

Kasumi glanced sideways at me as we strode through the halls, flanked by two guardsmen. The gate guard must have phoned ahead with the news, as they’d been waiting for us at the door, all guns and attitude. No doubt the guns were loaded with silver. They’d already inspected the chains before letting us in. My fake welts had drawn smiles of satisfaction, so they must have been convincing. Suspicion was a healthy thing when dealing with dragons. They were a bunch of backstabbing bastards.

I didn’t look at her, keeping up my act of beaten-down captive. To be honest it was easier if I didn’t look. I found her ability to be absolutely anyone fascinating, and could easily forget to stop staring once I started. As far as I could recall, she was a perfect replica of this Bill Watson guy, from his short grey hair right down to his chewed-off fingernails. Her new aura still astonished me, glowing that soft wyvern blue as if she were born to it. Auras were fundamental to a shifter’s essence; that her magic could affect this as well seemed more amazing than the rest of the transformation. Would she actually be able to shift into his trueshape? I had no idea how far the kitsune’s abilities went. I was prepared to believe her capable of anything by this point. As long as the real Bill Watson didn’t turn up no one should be any the wiser.

I stared at the intricate patterns of the tiled floors until we stopped before double doors, and one of our guards disappeared inside. Last time I’d waited at these doors had been the night of the Presentation Ball. Someone had died that time too—my sister Monique, dead before the proving was more than a few hours old. I’d narrowly escaped sharing her fate. Let’s hope my dodging skills were up to the challenge today too.

The guard beckoned us in, and we entered the enormous throne room. Long and narrow, with bifold doors all down one side standing open onto an even larger paved terrace, the room offered a magnificent view of a golden sweep of sand below, and blue water stretching to the horizon. A cooling sea breeze brought the scent of salt and the faint sound of children’s piping voices from the beach below. With a location like this, the place must be worth a fortune. Nothing but the best for the dragon queen of Oceania.

At the far end of the room my dearest mother sat on a carved chair that was unashamedly throne-like, raised above the crowd on a marble dais. Very old-fashioned. I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise, given she was one of the oldest queens still living.

Though not for much longer. We paced the length of the long room, and the closer we got, the more clearly the signs of her great age showed. I’d last seen her less than a year ago, and the change in her was shocking. Even if my plan today failed, it was clear she’d be lucky to see out the year.

Her hands clutched the arms of her chair like claws, the flesh wasted away. You could have cut glass with her cheekbones, they were so sharp, and veins showed clearly through paper-thin skin. Her eyes were a fierce but faded blue, and pink scalp gleamed through the snowy strands of what had once been a chic bob. She didn’t look old as a human looks old, all wrinkles and age spots and shaking limbs, but old like a dragon, burned out by the inner fire, fading to transparency.

That was how it worked with dragons; our decline, when at last it came, was sudden. I guess it beat lingering in a nursing home, gumming mushy food while you slowly lost your mobility and your marbles.

A short, rotund man stood beside the throne: Gideon Thorne, the spymaster. Sadly he showed no signs of age yet. Oceania would be a better place without his forked tongue whispering in the queen’s ear. Was he frightened by Elizabeth’s decline? He should be. There’d be no place for him at court when I took the throne.

There were perhaps twenty other people in the room, though judging by their auras he was the only other dragon. Thank God for that. Most were humans or goblins, though I saw one leshy and a couple of sea people in the crowd. Thorne bent to murmur in Elizabeth’s ear as we approached, his flat, expressionless gaze never leaving my face.

“Halt.” Her voice, at least, was still commanding. “That’s close enough, Mr Watson. I can’t abide her filthy human stench in my nostrils.”

“That’s a little harsh, Mother. I’m sure even you wouldn’t smell like a bed of roses chained up in this heat.”

Her eyes flashed. “I am
not
your mother, abomination.”

“What, you only want to claim the winners? You’re running awfully short of daughters in that case, with Valeria gone, and Monique and Ingrid too. Just me and Alicia left now.”

“You will not speak, filth.”

Damn. I’d been hoping for some gloating revelation about the rumoured sixth sister. If only this were a James Bond movie, where the baddie laid out his whole evil plan in the moment of his triumph. Instead the compulsion in her voice rocked me where I stood, as I tried to stand tall in the teeth of a mental gale. Her power was still immense.

But not strong enough to cow me. Whatever she chose to believe, I
was
her daughter, after all.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Mother.” I lifted my chin and glared at her, ranging my own mental forces against her. Surprise flickered in her eyes at my resistance. “You’re breaking your own law, you know, interfering in the proving like this. Not very sporting to send bounty hunters after me. What do you think the penalty should be?”

The portly little man at her side stirred restlessly.

“You’re right, Gideon,” she said, though he hadn’t spoken. “This creature is beneath our notice.”

“Shall I dispatch it, Your Majesty?”

She inclined her head, and he stepped down from the dais and strode across to the wall where an array of weapons hung. Swords of every length, some curved, some straight, spears, maces—but nothing since the invention of gunpowder. It was like a shrine to the good old days, when dragons ruled the earth and peasants could be mowed down without consequence by every jumped-up lordling. A murmur whispered through the crowd like a wind sighing through leaves as he took down a massive axe.

A headsman’s axe, not a battle axe.

I held myself still, though my pulse quickened as he made a theatrical swing with the great axe. I was confident, but hell, confidence only goes so far. Kasumi stood like a rock by my side, holding the end of my chain as if I were some dog on a leash. She hadn’t moved a muscle. I drew a deep breath and tried to emulate her calm.

“Don’t be afraid.” Thorne followed the direction of my gaze with a smirk. “It’s very sharp. Your head will be rolling across the floor before you even realise you’re dead.”

He swished the damn thing through the air a couple more times, his grin growing wider. Elizabeth hunched forward on her throne like a vulture anticipating a feast.

“Your Majesty.” Kasumi stepped forward and bowed deeply. “A favour, I beg of you.”

“Yes, Mr Watson?”

“She killed my late master.” She shot me a look of hatred so convincing it sent chills down my spine. All of Garth’s gloomy warnings echoed in my ears. “I invoke the Right of Retribution. May I be the one to wield the axe, in his name?”

A long moment passed while Elizabeth deliberated. Carl Davison had been dead before I even arrived at the rendezvous, and I had no idea who’d killed him, or why. Perhaps someone had wanted to stop him telling me whatever he’d been going to tell me. But his death could have been completely unrelated. It wasn’t as if most dragons were short of enemies. If Elizabeth had asked for proof that I really had been responsible, Kasumi would be on shaky ground.