Page 9

H ellebore sat beside her new husband in the middle of a long table, facing the rest of the ballroom where the guests sat eating.

There were quite a few exotic foods on her plate that would normally interest her simply for the fact that of discovering if there could be an alchemic use for them, but she was preoccupied.

Taiyo was silent, eating quietly while his sister sat on his other side. Haruko was thankfully too busy helping her husband entertain the nobles and keeping their son from growing fussy to keep up her glare at Hellebore.

There wasn't much opportunity for Hellebore to speak to Taiyo anyway as every few minutes another noble was let through to pay their respects to their king and his new queen consort.

Hellebore didn't miss the strain in their smiles or slight pauses before addressing her or acknowledging her.

Queen Hellebore.

Ugh. She hated the sound of it.

“King Nyrunn and Queen Idonea of the Star Elves,” the herald announced, and this was one visit Hellebore did want to pay attention to.

King Nyrunn and Queen Idonea approached and Hellebore set down her glass of wine, sitting up a little straighter at their approach. King Nyrunn inclined his head respectfully. “Congratulations, Your Majesty, on your wedding, and I hope your new alliance with Chymes is prosperous.”

Taiyo nodded his acceptance and started talking, but Hellebore was focused on the only creature somewhat close to her kind.

“Queen Idonea, it is an honor to have you at my wedding,” Hellebore said, catching the half-elf slightly off guard. She wasn't nearly as good at masking her emotions as her husband beside her.

Idonea gave her a soft smile, but her eyes were somehow both curious and old. “This is a historic occasion. Despite the short notice, my husband and I had to come witness it. I have somewhat of an interest in history, and for a formal marriage alliance between the Sun Elves and the alchemists? I know of little else that matches that.”

“Ah, so you came to make sure the big bad alchemist princess didn't steal his blood and magic during the ceremony?” Hellebore gave a light laugh.

Next to her, Taiyo stuttered over his words, but otherwise was immersed in his conversation with King Nyrunn.

Idonea didn't seem to find the joke as amusing, as she eyed the knife on Hellebore's plate and said, “Something like that.”

Not even the half-human was sympathetic.

Then again, historically the Star Elves had always aligned with the witches against the alchemists, so they weren't her allies either.

No one was.

“I'm honored everyone thinks so highly of my intelligence and skill in alchemy that I could be capable of such a feat as killing my husband at the altar.” Hellebore laughed, clinging to the cold numbness. At least the elves thought she was skilled enough to be feared. “Really, I don't know what I've done to earn such respect.”

A hand landed on her knee, squeezing it even as the owner was still intently listening to King Nyrunn.

A warning.

Her heel slamming into his ankle caused him to startle and wince, drawing Idonea's attention and cutting Nyrunn off mid-sentence. Hellebore smirked as she lifted her glass to her lips while Taiyo made an excuse about banging his knee into the leg of the table.

When the other monarchs left, he fixed his gaze on her and lowered his voice. “Was that necessary?”

Through her wide, fake smile, she replied in Iubian, “Since no one ever taught you to keep your hands to yourself, yes.”

Taiyo raised an eyebrow. “And you were taught that such macabre, treasonous jokes were appropriate?”

“You know…” Hellebore leaned in closer, voice soft but sharp as she gave him a cold grin. “I think that was the lesson right behind the one about kings who kidnap their brides and treat them like prisoners.”

Taiyo scoffed, sitting back in his seat. “And here I thought you might want to enter our marriage with a fresh start, given your hands aren't clean either.”

“Don’t mistake my acquiescence for agreeableness. Maybe I'll get over it when you get over the sedative and thank me for saving your life.”

“Spent the morning brushing up on your vocabulary? Soon you’ll be fluent. That seems agreeable to me. But no, I don't see myself thanking you for botching your escape and nearly killing me in the process anytime soon.”

“Then maybe I should have left you there. The great Sun Elf king killed by a little princess playing alchemist. It’d be the start to a bloodier war than any in history, but if you're the Sun Elves’ leader and representative of Iubar’s strength, then I like my chances.”

Taiyo shook his head and looked back out at the crowd, that pained smile from before returning, but there was no light in his eyes. She heard him mutter, “This was a mistake.”

Oh, now he was regretting it?

He couldn't have thought that last night?

It was then that music started up, and she did her best to restrain a sigh while Taiyo’s brow pinched. Haruko gave them a pointed look, and Taiyo rose from his seat, holding his hand out to Hellebore, and said, “Our dance?”

She ignored it and pushed herself out of her seat and said, “If we must.”

Although, what she really needed were answers. Maybe it was time to get them.

Her skirts billowed around her as she followed Taiyo to the dance floor where he gave her a stern look and she let him take her hand and set his in the proper position on her waist. He’d at least chosen a dance they had in Chymes that she knew.

Of course, because elves had magic, they had to show off with it as well. So that was why Taiyo’s fingers on her waist kept shifting slightly to twirl the threads of sunlight he left in their wake as they began moving. Hellebore understood the necessity of the spectacle as part of the Sun Elves’ traditions, but the feel of his fingers darting against her side was maddening in its distraction.

She wasn’t an excellent dancer in the first place, so if she was going to live up to expectations and not embarrass herself as well as interrogate her husband, she needed to focus.

Her hand rested on his shoulder, and she spoke beneath the music, keeping her eyes on the crowd. “You may at any point, but preferably now, inform me why you’re doing this. I still don’t understand why having me would be in any way a victory for you.”

“You make me sound like a monster.”

“Pardon, I forgot. That’s supposed to be me, isn’t it?” Hellebore ducked under his arm as he spun her before pulling her back in. She looked up at him. “Which again simply proves my point, and yet all you do is avoid answering.”

“You’re the one who had no interest in any discussion and insisted upon moving forward in ignorance.”

Hellebore let out a scoff as his sunlight kept weaving a path behind them. “Like you would have been honest with me when there was a chance I could find a way out. I saw through your facade and didn’t waste our time. You were determined to marry me at any cost. You slung me over your shoulder and threw me in a carriage.”

Taiyo’s jaw clenched, but he said nothing.

“But now… You’ve got me. There will be no escaping on my end anymore. You win,” Hellebore said right before he spun her out again and pulled her back in, this time her back to his front and his arms encircling her. She looked up at him from the corner of her eye and whispered, “But what exactly did you win? I’m not a fool. What did you do all of this for? You can’t have lowered yourself and gone to all this effort just because you think the Moon Elves are a little antsy. What is this really about? Revenge? The desire to humiliate an alchemist? Something to do with whatever you’re hiding on these grounds that is rotting to death?”

His eyes widened, and instead of finishing the move properly, he shoved her away from him.

It had been the last move of the dance anyway. She recovered easily enough and flashed a smile at a crowd that at best feared her and at worst wanted her to drop dead. Most wanted both.

Then a hand brushed the small of her back and she watched Taiyo recover, stepping up behind her and smiling at his people, who finally applauded for his sake. His breath brushed over her ear as his hand clenched into the fabric of her dress. “Believe me, I’m not trying to humiliate you. As much as revenge might be justified, I would rather have nothing to do with your kind ever again.”

So it was the last.

Then his hand slipped into hers. The sun had just started to set.

“Come with me.”

She let him take her hand if it would get her answers, and it was better than him hovering over her and causing her heart to race from hypervigilance.

Hellebore kept up with Taiyo as he led her out to the courtyard again. She took a deep breath and the faint scent of rot returned.

Everything was painted in a stunning, ethereal golden glow of the sunset, but her new husband did not seem to enjoy the view, especially since the setting sun ebbed his energy and strength.

But Hellebore’s energy came rushing back all anew with the promise of answers and a dying specimen. If there was something dying, she wanted to have her hands on it. Alchemists always learned the most when they studied the dying.

It didn’t matter what her father ordered in his letter. She could no sooner forget about alchemy than she could forget about breathing.

Taiyo, however, didn’t lead her into the courtyard but along the wall of the palace until they reached another small door, hidden in the shadow of a large shrub. Taiyo pulled out a key and unlocked it before reaching back and pulling her into the passage, swiftly shutting and locking it.

The only explanation he offered was, “I’m the only one with the key.”

“I hope you mean to wherever this passageway leads, because otherwise, I’d hardly consider this something worthy of a king’s attention.”

Taiyo snorted as he held one hand out, creating tendrils of sunlight to illuminate the corridor before he took her hand in his other and pulled her along.

Shortly they stepped back outside again and into a courtyard, but this one was much smaller than the garden they’d been married in. She looked up to see it was expertly hidden, the terrain and the hedges all perfectly arranged so that none of the windows above could peer down into it. A private courtyard.

Hellebore could smell the rot before she saw the source. Taiyo sent his sunlight into the space as they stepped out into it.

It wasn’t a garden. It was a graveyard.

All save for one sole surviving patch that was still clinging to life in the middle of the garden. Amidst the dead plants and decay was a patch of Sunrise Irises.

She took a few more steps, feeling the silent weight of Taiyo’s gaze on her. She looked at them, analyzing, and even they weren’t untouched by whatever disease had taken hold of the space. A few of their leaves were yellowing. She looked at all the death and decay coating the ground in brown and black. She gestured at the remains as she looked back at Taiyo. “Were these all Sunrise Irises?”

He nodded, jaw tightly clenched.

When he said nothing, she whispered, “What happened?”

He stared at her for a moment before slowly unclenching his jaw. He gestured to the side of the garden closest to the castle and farthest from the still living patch. “Some time ago, the irises started rotting here first, slowly. We’ve done everything we can to save this garden. When that failed, we tried to protect the irises it hadn’t spread to. Six months ago, the last healthy patch there caught it. Years ago, one of our enemies introduced the disease and it’s been slowly spreading throughout Iubar ever since.”

“It’s affecting your whole kingdom,” Hellebore’s voice softened. “When I crossed the border, I saw a few flowers that were sick and rotting before I found the iris.”

He nodded.

“And this…” Hellebore gestured, feeling a little out of place amidst the decay in her vibrant wedding dress. “This is why you married me?”

“You were right. It wasn’t just because of the Moon Elves starting to move aggressively. In ordinary circumstances, we would be equipped to handle them. These circumstances are far from it. Neither I nor the most skilled of my kingdom have been able to use any means magical or mundane to stop this rot. The eclipse is coming. The Star Elves successfully strengthened their magic with the passing of their comet last year, which only leaves us the weakest link.”

“So while this whole marriage was your idea…” Hellebore took in a sharp breath. “This is what you meant by not having a choice?”

“This eclipse, we’ll be weaker and more vulnerable than we’ve ever been. In the past, we strengthened ourselves and survived eclipses by having the Sunrise Irises to bolster us. Without them, and a weak, poisoned land…” Taiyo’s shoulders shifted back as he gestured at the mess. “You see the predicament.”

Hellebore looked around once again. And then she laughed.

It overtook her whole body as she devolved into hysteria. This. This was what she’d been ripped from her home, from her future, from everything she’d worked so hard to achieve, for. This was why she’d been thrown over his shoulder and dragged kicking and screaming and why he would not have ever let her go.

She stumbled back and hands grabbed her, trying to keep her upright, but she brought them both to the ground, crushing her skirts and getting the dirt and decay all over the vivid orange and soft pinks as tears spilled out from her eyes as she kept laughing.

“Hellebore? Hellebore!”

Then she caught herself on Taiyo’s shoulders as he knelt in front of her. She did her best to control her laughter, muffling it with her hand as she said, “You did all of this to me not because you needed a wife, but because you need an alchemist. You stole me, have secured my vow and have taken my hand and the rest of my life from me, because you, King Taiyo of the Sun Elves, need an alchemist to save you.”

His hands tightened on her shoulders and he jostled her slightly, glaring at her. “Hellebore! If I had any other option left, I would have taken it.”

She couldn’t help her snort as she leaned forward and took his face in her hands, beaming at him as she said, “Oh, I know , and that’s what makes this so wonderful. You came crawling to my kingdom, desperate, begging for the help of your greatest enemy. Only you were so prideful, you couldn’t admit it and instead hid it behind the guise of a marriage alliance. You were willing to lower yourself to marrying a creature you despise just as much as you need. And you hate yourself for it.”

He snapped, “And what about this is so joyful to you?”

“You might have trapped me and bound me to you for the rest of my life, but it’s not going to be as a wife in anything but name. You need a King’s Alchemist. I can be your alchemist, and I take great delight in how much you need my skills when you hate me for them.”

Taiyo stared at her for a moment before reaching up and taking her wrists, still a little red, brushing his thumb softly over her pulse and whispering, “Please, Hellebore.”

She took another look around then back at her husband. “Lucky for you, I do so love rotting things. And I’ll need something to occupy my time. I’ll do it.”

And then to her surprise, he pulled her into his chest, crushing her to himself as if she’d taken a great weight off him.

This might not be the king she’d had in mind, but she’d been born to be a King’s Alchemist. Much more than she’d been born to be a wife or a queen. Plus, it was so satisfying to have a Sun Elf begging for an alchemist’s help.