“No ma’am,” I answer for the both of us.
“Ariah and I were just admiring the decor, Mother.” Morren spins on his heels and walks off to join his guests.
Gravel crunches behind me and I turn just in time to see Queen Cayleen step from around a bush.
“Lover’s quarrel?” she asks before grinning. I bow as she comes closer and notice she extends a hand to me holding a glass of pink champagne. “I saw you two arguing from afar, thought maybe this would help settle the anger. Or maybe ignite it. Either one is useful I suppose.”
Taking the glass, I watch a few bubbles rise to the surface and I discreetly try to sniff it for any poisons.
“Don’t insult me.” Queen Cayleen takes a sip from her own glass, leaving a deep red lip stain behind. “Killing you would provide me with nothing.”
I down the drink in one go. The fizz satisfying a craving I didn’t know I had.
While I finish my drink, she opens the massive locket around her neck and her touch sets it aglow. I double check my glass and sniff again for poison, before blinking a few times to make sure my eyes aren’t deceiving me.
“It’s enchanted.” Queen Cayleen examines whatever she’s viewing with intensity. “It’s how I know what’s going on within my castle walls without being present.” She snaps the locket shut. “It’s good to know powerful enchantresses and be Queen. A lethal combination.” I knew there were enchanters, but never have I met one or seen their work. “Tell me, Ariah, do you have an answer for me?”
I’ve thought about nothing more over the past day. If only I could know the tasks she’s going to give me. Are they requests I’ll be able to handle?
Stealing, while not ideal, is something I can get past. Spying surely, I suppose I could do that too. Lies don’t feel great after they’re told but it’s something I’ve done several times without getting caught. My issue isn’t any one of these things. It’s with the deeper vices this all could lead me too. Actions that would be hard to come back from.
“Sort of.” I look back at the festivities, thankful my parents are still distracted and not watching me. “Why me? Why not just have them pay a different way?”
“You remind me of your mother. In looks and attitude.” She moves a curl out of my face. “I’m skilled at reading people and I wouldn’t ask you to join my elite Foxes if I thought you would represent them poorly. Plus, with your new demands, thisis your opportunity. One you will never get here in this small, pitiful village.”
There is an unnerving feeling in the way she speaks. So convinced of everything uttered out of her mouth, though I suppose one would have to be quite confident to rule thousands. What I hate most about what she says is how much it’s true. I have nothing but family here, which in many ways is enough, until it’s not. There has always been a nagging feeling deep within. One I’ve ignored despite its growing intensity. I want more. I want to see beyond this village, beyond Mrs. Kimpol’s shop, beyond my parents’ home. I want experiences I’m so afraid of missing out on.
The more I stand there thinking over my answer, I realize I already know what it is. I’ve known since her proposal and there is no use in stalling.
“I’ll do it.” Queen Cayleen’s lips form into a smile that is equal parts satisfied and sinister.
She extends an arm as she says, “Welcome to The Foxes.”
Reluctantly, I take her hand and we shake to either the wisest decision of my life or the most reckless.
PART TWO
THE FOXES
11
ARIAH
“All Foxes must follow three simple, yet integral, rules while carrying out a task assigned by the Queen. You are to remain unseen—cloaked in the shadows—and unidentifiable to all. You must be unheard, those you pursue must never hear you coming. And then you must be untraceable, leaving nothing that can tie you, or the Queen, back to the act. Unseen. Unheard. Untraceable. The moment there is a single rumor about you being a Fox, you’re as good as dead, and my advice would be to disappear before Queen Cayleen can catch you.” My mother’s instructions have been a constant echo in my head since she began training me.
As expected, she hates that I accepted the Queen’s offer. She even threatened to go herself and pay her own debt. But although she didn’t say it aloud, we both know she has much more to lose than I do if something were to go horribly wrong. Plus, I doubt the Queen would allow it at this point.
At the wedding, Queen Cayleen made it clear she would be sending a carriage in a week’s time to retrieve me and insisted I soak in as much as I could from my parents. It took someconvincing, but once they both got quickly on board, my days soon filled with lessons in apothecary and my nights reserved for all things in espionage, theft, and weapons.
Listening to my parents explain their former roles as assets to the court in great detail, showing clear expertise for the skills they possess, makes me see them in a different light. The experience has forced me to envision the life they had before all of this. Before Jaleese and I were ever a thought. Probably even before they knew each other. It is undeniable that they were…are, masters in their craft.
The more they show me, the more I understand why the Queen didn’t want to give them up. Their skills demonstrate why she granted them the freedom to marry as long as they stayed within her kingdom, with the condition that she could ask for a favor at any moment. The only thing she did not consider was time, and tied to that are the natural changes that come with life and the inevitable increase in age. While I think my parents can carry out any task the Queen assigns, she decided it best to change the rules, and the deal is now my sole responsibility.
My father started teaching me about healing elixirs right away. They are most important to know, given they are what I use to assist me with my breathing issues. For a single bottle of mine he uses twenty-five crushed elderberries, two pinches of mullein, a dash of ginseng, and four leaves from an elmonk flower, boiling it all in heareth liquid. When I asked what heareth liquid was, he proceeded to tell me it was slime from a particular type of slug. I stopped him immediately, not wanting to think about spraying that into my mouth. He said the liquid isn’t necessary, but it helps.
Today, he continues with elixirs. Ones that can help with stomach aches, cramps, different infections, wounds, even some that can rid the mind of nightmares.
“The more healing someone needs, the more magic is required. And plants that hold magical properties are rare and often difficult to find,” he says, adding a drop of a toxic green liquid into the beaker. “It’s best to work with things that are simple.”
