Page 77 of Fortune's Blade

No, I didn’t suppose so.

“The king was a giant, wasn’t he?” Ray asked, and the queen nodded.

“Yes. I was the captain of his guard. After he was taken from us, I assumed the throne as he had no children, and everything was in chaos. That is what I wanted to talk to you about, in fact.”

She got up to check on her child, wings whirring and tiny forehead wrinkled. Her son was sleeping soundly, making occasional happy gurgling noises, but that didn’t seem to reassure her. She fussed over him for a moment, then came and sat back down.

“They say a crown weighs heavily on the brow,” she told us. “I didn’t understand that at first; it was just a job that needed to be done and I did it. But now . . ..”

“Being a mother changes a person,” Ray guessed, and she glanced at him in surprise.

“How would you know that?”

He shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t know about being a mom, and my own was . . . not real motherly. But I found out after I became a master, and started getting a family, what being a father is like. And I suppose it’s not so different.

“There’s always someone relying on you, somebody looking to you. And they have to, ‘cause they can’t protect themselves. You’re all they got, and you gotta come through, even when it seems hopeless. You gotta find a way.

“There isn’t anybody else.”

She stared at him for a moment, as if reevaluating him. Or as if she hadn’t bothered to evaluate him at all before now. Then slowly nodded.

“Yes, that’s it. That is what I am trying to do now—find a way. But it is not easy.

“It wasn’t for him, either. Kaliphranges, our old king, was a bastard, of course; monarchy practically requires it. I don’t know if it’s possible to be a good king and a good person at the same time. So often you are forced to make hard decisions, to do hard things, to survive and to make sure your people do, too.

“It can turn you into a monster, if you’re not careful.”

“Was he a monster?” I asked, wondering where I stood with her. I had killed her champion, who had been another giant. If they were already vanishing . . ..

She glanced at me, as if hearing my thoughts. “No, although the one you killed could be called such. I gave him a choice: execution for his crimes or the arena. He chose the latter. He stayed alive as long as he won, and would gain his release after fifty matches.

“I would have preferred him dead, but alienating his clan wasn’t smart. It is fortunate for us that you ended him when you did.”

“Fortunate?”

She smiled slightly. “He had less than a dozen fights left.”

“Was that why the dragons showed up?” Ray asked. “Did you call them to end him, before you knew Dorina would?”

“Call them?” she almost choked. “No, I didn’t call them! The bastards have been harassing my people ever since they joined the Svarestri in this stupid war! I suppose Aeslinn was afraid we might join the other side and wanted to keep us busy.

“But we’re not without teeth, either,” she added, baring her own, which were pointier than I’d expected. “They well know it, too. Which is why they usually pass high overhead, start a fire or two, and maybe roast a few people who don’t get to cover soon enough. To remind us that they’re there and what they can do, as if we’re likely to forget.”

“But that’s not what happened this time,” Ray pointed out. “They targeted Dorina. They went straight for her.”

The queen nodded. “Yes, and they came in force. Usually, one or two is enough to keep us in our place, but this wasn’t a mere raid, a show of force at the opening of the faire. This was . . . something else.”

She couldn’t seem to sit still and got up again, flitting about the room as if agitated. But Ray didn’t care about that. Ray wanted answers.

“What else? Because they tried their best to kill her. And came damned close to succeeding!”

I stared at him, as that once again wasn’t the voice one used to a queen. The rippling effect of the waterfall over his face made it seem to morph and change, almost to the point that I didn’t know him anymore. And maybe I didn’t.

When Dory first met him, he was a beaten down nightclub owner still working for his old master, and going nowhere in an organization that valued strength above all things. Ray didn’t have a lot of strength, and struggled even to protect his family. But he did have cunning, bravery and determination.

And now, it seemed, he had something else, some quality I couldn’t quite define, but it was different. He was different. Faerie was changing him, too, I thought, watching him square up to the queen who hadn’t liked his tone, either, and this time, she was in his face.

But she deflated quickly; I didn’t think she wanted to fight tonight. But she did want something. It was in every line of her body.