Twiceborn Endgame (The Proving Book 3) (30 page)

“The kitsune will not stand for another foreign dictator,” Kasumi warned, a scowl marring her pretty face.

“I realise that.” Toko had left me in no doubt of the kitsune’s desire for autonomy. “But that’s dragons for you. None of them will respect the kitsune’s wishes, and then there will be bloodshed and upheaval. But I could annex it myself, and not interfere in the local politics, other than making sure the male dragons toe the line.”

The scowl only lifted slightly. She didn’t seem to like that idea much better, but it seemed the best solution in the short term for the Japanese shifters. And the kitsune had already worked with me, and declared themselves eternally in my debt. I was sure we could work something out.

“So what’s the problem?” Garth asked, ignoring Kasumi.

“I suspect my sisters will object to me taking a whole new domain and still insisting on keeping New South Wales out of Oceania.” And there was no way I was giving up Sydney. “They may even think that the Japanese domain ought to be added to the pot to be shared out.”

Kasumi glowered even more ferociously at that suggestion. Even Mac looked disconcerted, probably seeing all her good work hammering out an agreement disappearing down the drain.

“You never know,” I consoled her. “Maybe they won’t see it that way.” Yeah, and pigs might fly. “Let’s hope it doesn’t derail our agreement.”

Three days later Hope was only half-convinced, but we were out of time. All the overseas queens had flown in for the coronation, and I wanted them out of my domain again as soon as possible. I felt like a minnow holding a party for a pack of hammerheads. I didn’t want to give them time to decide I’d taste good on the menu.

In a private room at the Hilton Hotel I faced my sisters. Faith was missing, of course, but it was the first time we’d all been together since the night at Gideon Thorne’s mansion. Let’s hope the evening ended a little better than that one had.

They wore evening gowns again, and looked serenely beautiful, even if one or two were a little hot under the collar. Hope had grudgingly agreed to accept dominion over Indonesia, but she was still unimpressed about my annexation of Japan.

“The Philippines are closer to Indonesia than they are to Japan,” she said. “And your precious kitsune can’t possibly have any interest in them. I can’t see any reason you should have them too.”

“The Philippines have been a part of the Japanese domain for centuries.”

“So?” She arched one supercilious eyebrow at me, looking so much like Faith it was as if Faith were still with us. “This whole deal is breaking with tradition. What difference does one more thing make?”

She had a point there, but I’d had enough of the petty demands of entitled dragons.

“Let’s see how you manage Indonesia first. Then we can talk.”

She might find she was busy enough with what she had. Not that dragons, even young ones, had a very good concept of what was “enough”. Greed was practically a defining trait.

“Moving on …” She might cause trouble for me down the line, but that was a problem for future Kate. Today I just needed to get through this damn coronation. I nodded to Steve and he turned on the big TV he’d set up in the room. The screen showed us a view of the ballroom downstairs, where eight thrones had been set up in a large circle. In six of those thrones a queen waited, with her retainers grouped on chairs behind her. It made for quite a crowd. Two thrones remained empty. One supposedly would be mine. The other was Daiyu’s.

My gaze was drawn to the Chinese queen, Daiyu’s sister. She wore white, the Chinese colour of mourning, in patterned silk, and her dark hair was piled high on her head. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking, but her black gaze strayed frequently to her sister’s empty throne.

All the queens would have heard by now that Daiyu was dead. They all had their spy networks and news travelled fast. They might not be clear on the details yet, but that wouldn’t matter. Each one of those six dragons would be busy plotting already how to turn the event to her advantage. My coronation held little interest compared to the opportunities that had just opened up. They probably couldn’t wait to get stuck into their backstabbing, murderous games. It was a wonder they were still here.

In the centre of the circle of thrones, the crown of Oceania rested on a plush cushion atop a small circular table. The cushion seemed a little over the top, but Luce had assured me that a certain amount of pomp and ceremony was expected, so pomp and ceremony had been laid on. Privately I thought the crown itself was garish enough without the cushion, encrusted as it was with rubies as big as eggs. That sucker was going to be heavy. Thank God I didn’t have to wear it any more after today.

A second table stood next to the one bearing the crown, but it was draped with a golden cloth which covered several intriguing bumps. This part wasn’t regulation, and I could see the French queen frowning at it, no doubt wondering what was underneath that cloth. Traditionally the queen to be crowned was surrounded by the other queens for the coronation. Each touched some part of the crown as it was raised and settled on the new queen’s head. Must be kind of awkward. Today the program would work a little differently. The French queen would find out soon enough what was under that cloth, and the part it would play in my highly unorthodox ceremony.

“You ladies will wait here with Garth and your attendants until we’re ready for you.” I was counting on Garth to keep them in line. He wasn’t the type to be cowed by imperious teenagers. “I need to have a chat with the queens first. Deliver a few home truths.”

Valiant smiled. “That will be fun to watch. Can we get some popcorn?”

I liked Valiant more and more as I got to know her. She had a sense of humour, and that was pretty unusual in dragons. They were normally too pompous to laugh at anything other than the total destruction of an enemy. She seemed a little more human in her thinking. Hopefully that was a good sign for our future partnership.

“I’d better get down there. They look like they’re getting restless.”

Garth walked me to the door. “You know you look hot in those glasses.”

I was wearing Blue’s goblin glasses, just in case. There were a lot of shifters in the queens’ entourages, and I didn’t want any nasty surprises.

“I look like a librarian.”

His breath tickled my ear as he leaned closer, sending a shiver through me. “A really hot librarian.”

“Idiot.”

I headed for the ballroom with a grin still on my face. I expected some argument from the visiting royalty—probably just for the sake of arguing—but no real objection to my plans. The queens would probably think I was weakening the domain by splitting it, and see opportunity for themselves in that weakness. Being dragons, it wouldn’t occur to them that we sisters might band together to support each other.

The lift doors opened on the ballroom floor, and I nodded to the guards stationed outside the doors. Thralls of mine mostly, with a backup of hired trolls. Two of them opened the double doors, and I paused in the doorway for effect. At least I hoped that my sisters would work together. That was the plan. I was confident of Valiant, and probably Virginia, Justine and Prudence too. Not coincidentally, all the younger ones. They were realistic enough to know their chances of going it alone weren’t good, and pretty enthusiastic about the idea of holding some part of a smaller domain rather than dying in the proving. Hope, as the oldest now, had a better opinion of her chances in a proving. Not a high enough one to think she could beat me, which was why she’d reluctantly agreed to the plan in the end, but perhaps high enough to harbour some backstabbing plans of her own later. I’d have to keep an eye on her.

The assembled queens all rose at my entrance, as protocol demanded. This was their first look at the new human-tainted queen. Some of them wore crowns even more preposterous than the one waiting for me. Maria del Fuente wore a golden monstrosity that towered above her head. It looked like half the Incan treasures had been melted down to make it, and my ruby-encrusted effort looked positively mean in comparison. Lucky dragons were strong. That thing would have snapped the neck of a human wearer. It was hard to believe this woman headed one of the great fashion houses.

“I greet you in the name of Oceania,” I began, sticking to the traditional script for the moment, “and welcome you as its new queen by right of proving. Elizabeth Anne is no more, and I claim her throne as my own.”

Six pairs of eyes watched me. I met them all in turn. Some were calculating, some looked bored. Xu held mine in challenge.

“Where is our sister, Daiyu of Japan?” she asked.

As if she didn’t know. But I was happy to spell it out for her.

“Daiyu is dead.” Probably in a body bag on its way back to Japan right now. None of the Japanese contingent were here. I could just imagine the turmoil that would be going on over there right now, with the kitsune scattered, and no young queenlings to fight out a proving. The Japanese dragons would be running for cover if they knew what was good for them, hoping that when the dust settled and their new mistress showed up they might be able to crawl into her new court.

Xu pinned me with an accusing glare. “Did you kill her?”

“I wasn’t even in the country when she died.”

“Don’t play games with me. You ordered her death.”

“Rubbish. It was her own harsh treatment of the kitsune that led to her downfall. One of them turned on her.”

“Really?” Maria drawled. “And where were you? It seems an unusual time for a new queen, as yet uncrowned, to be taking an overseas jaunt.”

She smirked, as if she’d managed to catch me out. Well, I had news for her, the evil old lizard. I was not going to be intimidated by these creatures.

“As it happens, I was in Japan.” Her superior smile faded. She hadn’t expected me to admit it. “Helping to liberate the kitsune. And no, I didn’t order Daiyu’s death, but I’m not at all sorry for it. If she’d stayed home and minded her own business, I wouldn’t have gotten involved, and she’d still be alive. She was here trying to steal my throne, so I’m happy to return the favour. Happy to return it for anyone who tries that stunt on me, actually.”

Ooh, you’d think I’d hurled a firecracker into the centre of the circle of thrones. They all stiffened at the threat. No one looked bored any more.

“So I consider Japan mine by right of conquest. Any objections will be met with force.”

Makeda, whose domain covered the whole of the African continent and stretched into the Middle East, spoke up. “You’re a forthright little thing, aren’t you?”

“I see no point beating around the bush. Japan is mine, and I’m prepared to defend it.”

Xu’s eyes narrowed to furious black slits. “But can you hold it?”

“Ask the kitsune. I think you’ll find that they won’t tolerate any interference from the other domains.”

And stick
that
in your pipe and smoke it, lady.

Xu seethed quietly, having no answer to the problem of the kitsune. The Chinese queens had always looked at their smaller neighbour with greed, anticipating the day when they might incorporate the little domain into their larger one. She’d probably thought it was a done deal now her sister was out of the way, but the kitsune were a thorny problem indeed.

The French queen, Celeste, waved a languid hand, as if the disposal of one of the eight great domains of the world was merely a side issue. Perhaps it was, for her. She may have started as the French queen, but she now held all of Europe, including Great Britain, plus most of Scandinavia. Despite competition from the North American domain, hers was probably still the wealthiest of all of them. A tiny little domain like Japan was barely a blip on her radar.

“So you claim two domains?” she asked. “I fail to see how you can hold even one of them after the hornet’s nest you have stirred up among the humans.”

“We should kill you just for that,” Xu spat. “And now our names are known!”

“That wasn’t my doing,” I replied, in the mildest tone I could manage. Xu was a serious pain in the butt. “I would hardly release a list that had my own name on it.”

“I have had nothing but paparazzi and people yelling in the streets since the news broke,” said Maria, looking at me with distaste. “If you had not flaunted yourself so brazenly on New Year’s Eve, this would never have happened.”

New Year’s Eve had hardly been my fault. With Valeria taking off with Lachie in her clutches, I’d had no choice but to pursue her, but I refused to explain myself to these bitter old women. They had no dominion over me, and I was not going to offer excuses with my tail between my legs.

“What’s done is done. Dragons were seen, the names were released—it’s pointless to play the blame game now. The world is changing, and we have to change with it.”

That didn’t go down well. The world had been organised to suit them, after all, and they weren’t interested in giving up any part of their cosy arrangements, thank you very much. There was even some murmuring from the entourages assembled behind each queen.

I strode to the second table and grabbed a handful of gold fabric.

“And speaking of which …” With a flourish a magician would have been proud of, I whipped the gold fabric aside. No rabbits underneath, but six brand-new gleaming crowns. The murmuring grew louder. I let them exclaim for a moment, turning on the spot to check out each queen. Xu glowered at me, but the others looked intrigued.

“You may have heard that Elizabeth laid a second clutch, which produced a further seven royal daughters.” Of course they’d heard it; it had probably been the talk of the dragon world since that particular bombshell had been revealed. “One of those has since died, but my remaining sisters and I have agreed to share the domain of Oceania between us.”

Forget polite murmuring. An uproar greeted this announcement.

“You can’t be serious,” Maria said when the noise died down enough for her to be heard. “How can seven of you share one throne?”

And why haven’t you killed these upstarts already?
said her shocked expression. I could tell she thought less of me for not finishing my sisters off. It was the dragon way. Each of these women had arrived at her throne drenched in the blood of her sisters. They couldn’t conceive of anyone wishing to do anything else.