Red Hood's Revenge (12 page)

“Maybe.” Snow rubbed her fingers against the base of her skull. “The gown carried the sprite’s essence. Trying to remove it could have freed the sprite.”

“Charlotte died well,” Roudette said. “She died fighting them.”

“Shut up.” Danielle pushed back her sleeve, exposing her bracelet. “Fairytown will be told exactly what the Duchess did today. If Trittibar earned exile for saving your lives, the Duchess has earned far worse.”

“What about Roudette?” Snow asked.

Danielle swallowed, her uncertainty clear to anyone who knew her. She glanced at Talia, who nodded and adjusted her grip on her knife. Danielle straightened. “Would you like a moment to pray and prepare yourself, Roudette?”

Roudette kept perfectly still. “Kill me, and the three of you will never see another sunrise.”

Talia dug the edge of her knife into Roudette’s throat. “Not even the Lady of the Red Hood can kill us after she’s dead.”

“You think it’s me you need to fear?” Roudette smiled. “I’ve lived with death as long as I can remember. It holds no terror for me anymore. But kill me, and before morning comes, you’ll wish I’d turned you over to Queen Lakhim.”

“I’m willing to take that chance,” said Talia.

“Do you believe that final fairy spared your life out of kindness, all those years ago?” Roudette asked.

Danielle lowered her sword slightly. “What are you saying?”

“She’s saying whatever it takes to stay alive,” Talia snapped.

“Poor Sleeping Beauty,” Roudette said, smiling up at Talia. “Cursed to die upon your sixteenth birthday, until that curse was altered by the final fairy’s wish. Instead of death, you would merely sleep. Only you weren’t the only one to fall into that enchanted sleep, were you?”

Snow’s breath caught. She leaned closer, pain forgotten in her excitement. Why had she never seen it before? “The fairy lied. That last wish wasn’t supposed to break the curse. It
dispersed
it!”

Roudette’s lips pulled back in a grimace. “Instead of killing you, the curse blanketed the palace. Everyone within the fairy hedge slept for a hundred years, all triggered by the prick of a spindle.”

“By a zaraq whip,” Talia corrected her. “An assassin’s weapon. The tip was poisoned.”

“Who made that poison?” Roudette asked. “What mortal toxin could plunge an entire palace into a century of cursed sleep?”

“You’re saying the fairies planned this,” Snow breathed, awestruck by the elegance of the plan. “The final two fairies worked together to prepare their curse.”

“The assassin was human,” Talia protested. “He was—”

“He was a fairy slave.” Roudette rose, ignoring the weapons pointed at her. “They wouldn’t have sent one of their own, knowing what was to come. Why condemn even the lowest fairy to such a curse when a human would do the same for mere gold?”

“Why?” asked Danielle. “What would they gain from such a spell?”

“Chaos.” Talia stepped back. She kept her knife ready, but her gaze was elsewhere. “In a single day, they removed the entire ruling line of Arathea.”

“One hundred years of war and rebellion and death,” Snow whispered, thinking back to the history of Arathea. “Leaving fairykind free to do whatever they wished.”

“It’s worse,” said Talia. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the knife. “For the next hundred years, every family with a drop of royal blood sent their sons and brothers to try to penetrate the hedge. All died, impaled upon the thorns. They eliminated my family, and then they removed every male heir who might have taken the throne and reunited Arathea.”

“And who helped to save your land from that century of darkness?” Roudette asked. There was no mockery or cruelty in her tone. She appeared almost as pained by the revelation as Talia. “Who spread throughout Arathea to help the poor humans, to build new cities, to advise the tribes and factions?”

“The fairies,” Talia whispered.

Snow turned toward Jahrasima. History described the lake cities of Arathea as gifts, but few fairy gifts were truly free. More than half of Arathea’s population lived in these nine fairy-built cities. Within each one, fairy advisors stood behind every ruler, guiding their path.

“Do you remember what it was like when you awoke?” Roudette pressed. “How deeply they had infiltrated your culture? Today the lowest fairy is higher than any human. But it’s not enough. Despise your mother-in-law if you’d like, but she’s managed to unify this country under human rule again. For that alone, the fairies would see her dead. Her and all her kin. Or if not dead, at least removed from power. Eliminated just as your own family was.”

“The curse.” Talia stared at her hands.

“The fairies mean to use you against Lakhim,” Roudette said. “To trigger your curse a second time. I was to bring you to Lakhim. Alive if possible, so her sages could study your curse. Dead if necessary.”

“Why kill Talia?” Danielle asked. “If Lakhim discovered this plot, why not kill the fairies behind it?”

“They’ve tried,” said Roudette. “A century ago, such a plan might have worked. The fairy who cursed Talia was hunted by the people and burned to death. But today, Lakhim wouldn’t dare move openly against the ‘saviors of Arathea.’ ”

“So why not cast a new curse?” Snow asked.

“That has been tried as well,” said Roudette. “Time and again, without success. With one of the original fairies dead and Talia gone, they’ve been unable to duplicate the exact spells used in her curse. They will do anything to claim her.”

Snow shook her head. “The Duchess prepared the fairy sprite you meant to use. Why would she work against her own kind?”

“Fairies are no more united than humans.” Roudette spat. “In this land, they say fairies are creatures of fire who betrayed the gods and were banished from Heaven. They were
born
of treachery. Don’t ask me to understand their twisted alliances and betrayals. I was told the Duchess would help. I didn’t question what she would receive in return.”

Talia was staring toward the city. She didn’t appear to be listening, but when Roudette fell silent, Talia whispered, “Who leads the fairies in Arathea?”

Roudette pushed Danielle’s sword away. “The one you want is called Zestan-e-Jheg. Spare my life, and I’ll help you kill her.”

R
OUDETTE SAT BOUND BY THE THIN LINE of Talia’s zaraq whip. Testing the whip had done nothing but cut her wrists, so now she waited in silence as they debated her fate. She might have been able to break the whip, but Talia was watching her. By the time Roudette freed herself, Talia would have planted one knife in Roudette’s chest and would be throwing the second.

So she waited. Waited and listened, using the wolf’s senses.

“Roudette is a murderer,” Danielle was saying. “How many people has she killed today alone?”

Snow chuckled. “When Danielle Whiteshore says you can’t trust someone, it’s time to listen.”

“She’s telling the truth about what the fairies did to me. What they did to Arathea.” Talia’s eyes narrowed as she watched Roudette. Did she suspect Roudette could hear them? Talia lowered her voice further. “I can’t let it happen again.”

If Roudette were in their place, she knew what her answer would be. Faith and trust got you killed, and Talia knew exactly how dangerous Roudette could be.

Death didn’t bother her. Roudette had accepted the possibility of death the first time she donned the wolfskin, the same day she killed for the first time. What frightened her was the idea of dying without being able to finish this final task. Talia held the key to everything Roudette had worked for these past thirty years, but if she fell into Zestan’s hands, all Arathea would suffer.

“What about a binding?” asked Danielle. “The spell Snow used on Rumpelstilzchen kept him under control.”

The hair on Roudette’s neck and arms rose. Not since she was a child had she allowed magic to be used upon her.

“Even with a binding, I don’t trust her,” said Snow.

“Neither do I.” Talia was watching Roudette’s face. “But you saw the way she spoke of the fairies. I trust her hate.”

That seemed to settle the matter. Talia held her sword ready as Danielle approached to say, “You have a choice. Accept Snow’s spell, which will bind you to your word. Or refuse and accept the punishment for your actions.”

In other circumstances, Roudette might have chosen death. Instead, she stood and pushed back the shoulders of her cape, exposing herself to Snow’s magic.

Snow placed a thumb in the hollow of Roudette’s collarbone. Roudette’s skin grew cold, then numb. A thread of smoke rose from beneath Snow’s thumb, smelling of new-forged metal.

“By this mark, I charge you to protect the three of us with your life,” Snow said. “You will not raise a hand against us, nor will you allow us to come to harm. Your contract with Queen Lakhim is broken. When Zestan is dealt with, you will surrender yourself to Lorindar. At no time will you stray more than fifty paces from either myself, Danielle, or Talia. Should you break this bond, your blood shall boil within your body.”

Danielle grimaced. “That’s a little gruesome, don’t you think?”

“It’s a standard fairy clause,” Snow said. To Roudette, she asked, “Do you accept this mark?”

The tip of Talia’s sword pressing against her neck left little choice. “Yes.”

The skin of her collarbone burned to life, but even as Roudette yanked away, the pain was dying. Roudette used her bound hands to pull back her shirt, examining the mark.

A spot of silver the size of Snow’s thumb marred her skin. Roudette dug a fingernail into the mark, and was rewarded by a dark crescent of blood. Gouging the skin wouldn’t remove the spell beneath. Wordlessly, she extended her hands. Talia untied the whip.

“You didn’t ask for how long,” Danielle said softly.

Roudette tilted her head. “Excuse me?”

“Most people, upon being given such a curse, would want to know how long it would last. How many years you would remain our prisoner, and whether you would ever be given your freedom.”

Danielle was more perceptive than Roudette had realized. “Most people spend too much time thinking about what is to come. I trust my path will lead me where I’m meant to go.”

They didn’t return her hammer, but Roudette hadn’t expected them to. It made little difference. Roudette could kill almost as effectively with her bare hands. She pulled her cape back into place. The runes on the cape protected her from external magic, but the fairy mark was within her now. The cape couldn’t remove it.

But it might slow the effects. Not for very long, but perhaps it would be enough to do what she must.

She watched Snow and Danielle closely. She knew Talia, but these two were new. Danielle appeared soft, yet she hadn’t hesitated to join the battle back at Whiteshore Palace, even though Roudette could have killed her as swiftly as a thought. As for Snow, her magic had held off fairy wolves and diverted a fairy ring, two things Roudette had thought impossible.

They were an impressive team. It was a shame she would have to destroy them.

 

Danielle sat with her back to a tree as she waited for the mirror on her bracelet to respond to her kiss. Talia had left them at the edge of the lake, where the thicker trees and grasses provided cover from the dust and wind, not to mention concealing them from the city.

“Danielle?” Prince Armand looked up at her from the tiny mirror. “Are you all right? What happened? Where did you—”

“We’re safe,” Danielle said. “We’re in Arathea, outside the city of Jahrasima. Talia has gone ahead to find us a place to stay. Is Jakob—”

“He’s here with me,” said Armand, tilting the mirror so Danielle could see her son. “He wants to know when you’re coming home.”

“As soon as I can. I promise.” Danielle braced herself. “Armand, what of Charlotte?”

“Dead.” Armand’s voice was cold. “According to witnesses, it was a quick death.”

Tears filled her eyes. Roudette had said as much, but still Danielle had hoped that somehow Charlotte might have survived. Even though Charlotte had always hated Danielle, she had also been the last survivor of Danielle’s childhood, the only piece of her former life. “Before the fairy ring took us, Jakob said Father Isaac had been hurt.”

“Burned, but he’ll survive.” He was choosing his words carefully, trying not to upset Jakob. “The protective spells in the chapel saved his life. The sprite couldn’t attack him, but its mere presence was enough to set his robe afire. Tymalous is seeing to his care.”

“It wasn’t Charlotte’s fault,” Danielle said. “She controlled it as long as she could.”

Armand didn’t answer.

Danielle watched Roudette pacing through the trees. “How many others were killed?”

Her anger grew as Armand recited the list of the dead. Eight guardsmen had died today, not including those killed earlier when Roudette attacked Rumpelstilzchen. Melvyn the rathunter and three of his dogs had also fallen to Roudette’s hammer. A young woman and her mother were killed by Roudette’s wolves at the southern gate. Eleven others had been injured and brought into the palace, where Tymalous was doing the best he could to keep them alive. “Father Isaac is helping as well, against Tymalous’ orders.”