Page 148

He would wait for me, and I would be there.

“What about your oath as Pythia?”Pritkin asked, watching me.

That took all of about a second as well.

“What oath?My elevation to the position was so weird that nobody ever got around to administering one.And frankly, having seen what takes place if we lose, I’m fine helping to make sure that future never happens.”

“Agreed.”He clinked goblets with me.

“It doesn’t have to,” Zara said.“Thanks to Rhea, we know the where and the how of the gods’ invasion, and before he left, Mircea gave us the when.Plus, we now know how to kill those bastards!No wonder they murdered everyone who had command over multiple elements.They feared we’d figure out that we had a weapon against them after all, one that actually works!”

I didn’t say anything.

But as usual, my poker face sucked.

“What is it?”Bodil asked, and I was grateful that, for once, she didn’t just pluck it out of my mind.

“It’s just… my plans never go quite like I expect.”

“As long as they work,” she said serenely.

“We’ll make them work,” Pritkin promised and squeezed my hand.

“Here’s to crazy plans,” Alphonse said, and everyone clinked glasses around the table.

Everyone but me.

Epilogue

The wedding was epic, as I supposed befitted a king and his new queen.It took place, not in some grand ballroom as I’d expected, probably because there wasn’t one that would fit all the guests.But at oceanside in the same area where we’d been staying, an old summer palace of Nimue’s.

The entire court had come except for Felton and his supporters, who were currently kicking their heels in lock-up, where they’d stay until after the war.That was okay; nobody was missing them.All of the ex-slaves had come as special guests of the king and queen, and so the entire clifftop was covered in people, with the hoi polloi mixing freely with a lot of disturbed-looking nobles.

But those weren’t the only two groups, and the great mass of Nimue’s people, it turned out, hadn’t belonged to either of them.I’d gotten a skewed perspective, as all I’d seen of her lands was the palace until now.I’d spent most of the last three days watching wagons roll in carrying pink-cheeked types from the countryside, while curious Margygyr heads kept poking above the waves and then ducking back down again before anyone thought they actually cared.

But I guessed some did, because the ceremony was being held seaside so that both the realm’s land and sea peoples could attend, which I thought was damned kind of Enid, who had been enslaved by the one and disowned by the other for her entire lifetime.

I guessed a queen had to be politic.

But that was probably why Rhosier, her friend and fellow runaway slave smuggler, was giving her away.She looked radiant in a dress of the palest shade of blue littered with tiny seed pearls, like ocean foam, all along the edges, and with a train so long and so gauzy that I honestly couldn’t tell where it ended and the tide began.And unlike the elaborate headdresses common at court on such occasions, her abundant red hair was down and blowing in the wind as the two walked to meet Æsubrand.

“It’ll never last,” Alphonse said, from beside me.

“Shh!”

“They’ve known each other, like, what?A week?”

“Something like that.”Preparations for the wedding had been rushed because Æsubrand insisted it take place before he left to join the army, so Enid could rule in his stead with Lady Bodil’s help.But I didn’t think it mattered.I’d never seen two people more besotted.

“I give it a year,” Alphonse said sourly.

“Is that why you’re hanging around?”I asked.“I thought you’d be off chasing Tony.”

“Tony’s dead.Got eaten,” he said with some satisfaction.

“Future Tony.What about the one in this era?”

He grabbed a glass of something vividly teal from a passing waiter’s tray while he thought about it.That wasn’t as rude as it sounded, as fey marriages took days, and what we were watching from the stands for special guests was only one of a myriad of ceremonies, rituals, and banquets planned for the next week.The Blessing of the Sea, I thought this one was called, and everyone pretty much drank their way through all of them.