The Promised Queen by Jeffe Kennedy

Author:Jeffe Kennedy [Kennedy, Jeffe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

14

“I thought Mother Ascendant said Lia would be out soon,” I griped to Sondra. Lia’s ladies and a bunch of other Calantheans, priests and priestesses and folk who’d come out of the woodwork, were all dancing in the mossy meadows, flinging petals and singing songs. Mother had said they were celebrating Calanthe’s return to balance. Certainly the ground had stopped shaking. So that meant Lia had succeeded.

I’d never doubted that she would. Still, if she was done, why hadn’t she come out yet?

Sondra rolled her eyes at me and took the stick Vesno brought her, throwing it for him again. “It hasn’t been that long.”

I eyed the cave mouth, considering going to look for her, took a few steps that way, then paced back again. “I worry about what she’s up to, is all.”

“Hmm. Good point. Maybe she’s doing the nasty with some of the temple maidens,” Sondra agreed, then grinned cheekily. “Maidens no more!”

“You are not helping,” I growled at her. “And why are you so fucking cheerful?”

“I told you. Water of truth is cathartic. Don’t you feel lighter?”

“No.” I paced toward the cave mouth, turned back to find Sondra giving me a sympathetic grimace.

“The truth hurt, huh?”

“Not like that.” Vesno brought me the stick this time, so I threw it for him. “I talked to my mother.”

“Whoa.” Sondra looked appalled. “Like your actual mother? Queen Rynda?”

“If I have another mother, I don’t know about her.” At Sondra’s look I relented. “She seemed to be the real thing—knew stuff my mother knew—and said she watches over me.”

“Ouch.” Sondra rubbed her hands on her pants. Vesno did have a spectacular amount of slobber. “I kind of want to ask how she is, but that seems all kinds of wrong.”

I bit out a laugh. “She seemed … good. Happy. Are the dead happy? I dunno. At peace, maybe.”

“Yeah, well. I didn’t get any conversations with the dead.” Sondra sounded relieved, and I didn’t blame her.

“Did you get clarity?” I ventured.

“Hmm. No, but I didn’t expect clarity. I got … ideas, maybe. Some stuff to work on, to think about. Be a better person, blah blah blah.”

“Yeah.” That made sense.

“Remember what we talked about at Cradysica, when we went to see that whirlpool for the first time?”

“I guess?”

She made a snorting sound of disgust. But hey, we’d talked about a lot of things—I wasn’t going to take the chance of stepping in shit because I guessed wrong.

“I said that it would be nice if we could have paradise, settle down here, but it wasn’t for us, that we’d lost that chance a long time ago.”

“I remember.” And it reminded me uncomfortably of Lia’s words. You would be forever second place here on Calanthe, a land that isn’t Yours.

“I think I was maybe wrong about that.”

“About what?”

“Are you even listening to me, Conrí?”

I tore my gaze from the cave mouth and focused on Sondra. “Yes.”

She shook her head and threw the stick for Vesno. “I’m just saying—and I’m still working this out—but maybe we’ve been going about this wrong.

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