A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna

Author:Sangu Mandanna
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781510733817
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Published: 2018-08-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

It’s the post-dinner lull, when we usually all sit in the warm, snug, book-filled family parlor and read or talk or walk outside in the terrace gardens. I have a spot by the window and I look out at the star-stained sky, the red and gold of the Scarlet Nebula, the orb of the planet Winter. My mother and brothers are in a city somewhere on that planet preparing for a war.

The mother who wanted me gone. The brother at least two gods believe will kill me.

I rub my arms to keep warm.

I sense Rickard behind me before he speaks, his voice deep and gentle. “What is it, Esmae? What’s happened?”

How can I tell him? Here is where the broken trust between us shines brightest, like light so sharp it’s unbearable to look at. How can I tell him that my choices and his curse could soon have me spitting blood onto grass as I die?

And so I don’t.

“Esmae,” Elvar says from behind us, “would you like to join an old man for a walk in the gardens?”

I help him to the doors, my hand on his arm to guide him across the room. Rickard goes to play dice with Guinne and Sybilla. Beyond them, the old queen dozes ungracefully by the artificial fire and Max is mostly hidden behind a copy of The Three Stolen Queens. It’s a peaceful time of day, so peaceful that I can’t quite believe there are so many thorns and such bitterness buried just under the surface.

The gardens outside the parlor are built on an enormous terrace, a maze of wild hedges with beautiful flowers strewn across the paths. Above and around us, the skies seem endless, a harsh black-blue dotted with stars and stained to the east with the crimson of the nebula. Starships zip across the skies.

“Have I told you about the time your father and I stole a starship and tried to fly to Tamini?”

I smile. “How far did you get?”

“Our mother found us before we left the dock.”

We laugh. After a few minutes of walking, we stop to rest on a bench. Elvar turns his face toward the stars. “We were so brave as boys, Cassel and I. I sometimes wonder if everyone grows afraid as they grow older. Kali is not a place for the old and the tired and the fearful.”

“You are none of those things, Uncle Elvar,” I say, but we both know that’s a lie.

“May I ask you a question, Esmae?”

I nod out of habit, then remember he can’t see me. “Of course.”

“You lived on Wychstar almost all of your life. You knew the royal family well. Do you think King Darshan will join Alexi’s army? Do you think he’ll come here with him just to render Titania useless?”

So that’s the new terror plaguing his mind. I wonder what Lord Selwyn hopes to gain by putting it there.

“King Darshan is too clever and too fair to do that, Uncle. He may offer Alexi silver or troops if he thinks it’s worth his while, but he won’t involve himself directly.

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