“No,” she says. “There will be no bargain.”
I raise myself up enough to vomit and I hear her cursing. I think it has splashed on her court shoes. There’s blood in my vomit. I can’t afford to lose more blood. That’s my last thought before I slump again to the floor, narrowly missing my own filth, and lose consciousness.
I’m out for a few minutes, I think. Or maybe longer. When I come to, she’s there, leaning down in front of me. Her face is slick with sweat and green around the edges. What did she expect? No one gets away with drinkingmyblood. No one.
My third act is being brilliantly played – even if I’m unconscious for most of it.
“I’ll take your bargain, ice child,” she says through gritted teeth. “Only give me the antidote.”
“So let it be agreed,” I gasp. My words are so light I can hardly hold on to them. They want to drift away on the wind.
“So let it be agreed,” she snarls.
I hear her vomiting somewhere I cannot see and then the face of the bearded man swims in front of me. I do not think he drank my blood. He looks as healthy and just as mad as he did in the beginning.
“The candle,” I gasp. “The tiniest bite is enough.”
He hurries away and when he comes back, he offers me a sliver of the candle stub. I take it into my mouth and swallow it down. It doesn’t want to go down. It’s all I can to do battle my own body into submission.
Swallow, I beg it. Swallow.
Eventually, it does, and with that swallow I seal our bargain, and the geas snaps into place, sapping what is left of my magic. The world goes black again.
When I come to, it can’t have been very long.
Around me, I hear the Court of Madness moaning. I force myself to my feet. I’m weak as a newborn. Even immortals can be killed if you try hard enough. Culigula poison is definitely trying.
They’re propped in various positions as they wait for the antidote to work and around them, stunned, stand the rest of the court. I’m surprised they haven’t pounced on their betters yet. But I can feel that they want to. It’s only fear holding them back. They don’t know what has poisoned their queen or whether this ailment might spread to them. They’re watching everything with glittering eyes. No one wants to make the first move, but eventually, someone will. And I don’t want to be here when that happens.
My eyes catch on the gaze of the Queen of the Court of Madness. She’s fighting her body right now, waiting for the antidote to work like it did on me and I can feel the fear rolling off her in waves. She’s afraid it won’t work for her. That I’ve done something to heal myself and not given her the real antidote.
And of course, I could have done that. But then some other ruler would rise from this court and if they had any sense, they would attack Iceheim, too. We’d be right back where we started after all this. No, a queen with a geas keeping her from attacking my court is much more valuable to me than no queen at all.
Finally, I have something to bargain with.
Finally, I have a way to keep my own court from endlessly tormenting me. I have made myself too valuable to kill. The seer has given me that.
I tear my eyes from the queen’s, and I stumble away, managing to find the stables. I steal a massive, chittering grasshopper from among their mounts – larger than a mortal horse. Not my personal favorite choice of mount, but he is already saddled, and I can’t lift my arms high enough to saddle anything else. Not when I’m this week.
He smells of summer grass.
I clutch the saddle, try not to vomit when he leaps, and breathe a silent thank you to the Seer who showed me the queen licking my blood from my face. Without that, this ruse would not have been possible.
Perhaps, I will even thank her someday. But not today. Today I must find a safe place to collapse where no one will find me and slit my throat.
