Without any answer to offer, Adeline squeezed back and kissed her mother’s cheek. Then she went to bed, bone weary and confused over just about everything.
Chapter 34
Kai
Kai could stomach little more than tea for breakfast, and this he sipped throughout the morning. A herby, floral brew that Marie had sent up from the kitchens with the note;To soothe your nerves.How the Cook knew his nerves were in need of soothing, he could only guess, and at present it didn’t seem to matter much; the tea helped. Simon had found him a flask that sat comfortably in the pocket of his cloak and did double the work of warming him through his layers on his walk to the Laune.
Alun and Os waited for him outside the arena, and hiding ineffectively behind them was Ceriwyn. He couldn’t spare the mental energy to scold her, and he wasn’t sure what good it would do anyway. Ceri did what she liked, evidently. Whether he was her King or not was of little relevance.
“Could you at least keep your hood up, Ceriwyn?”
“Good morning to you too,” she said primly. “Openly drinking now, are we?”
“It’s barely an hour past dawn,” Alun tutted, but his dark eyes lit up as he grabbed the flask from Kai’s hands and took a deep swig. He immediately spluttered.
“Adhlas, what’s thematterwith you?” Os grunted, Ceri leaping behind him with a squeal to avoid the spray.
“It tastes like hot leaves,” Al said thickly, clamping a hand over his reddened lips. Kai swiped the flask away and thumped at Al’s back while he coughed and choked.
“It’s tea,” he ground out between thumps. “For my nerves.”
“Yournerves?” Ceri said, raising an eyebrow. “Areyoustepping into the arena today?”
When Kai couldn’t even muster the energy to glare at her, Ceri softened.
“She’ll be fine, Koo. She knows what she’s doing. I think.” Ceri looked uncertainly to Os, waiting for confirmation. He gave a minute nod. “Yes, see? Os is always right about these things. Adeline will be fine. Better than fine, she’ll probably win!”
Os shrugged diffidently at that last part, half-nodding but with a frown that said he was not entirely convinced.
“She’ll be great,” Al wheezed. One of his gills flickered weakly, like a tiny pink wing against his midnight skin. “Can we go sit down before I collapse a lung?”
The arena had been built on the edge of the Laune, where the ice was both shallow and more reliably solid than the splintering heart of the lake. The Commander - Edward - had taken a team of Wielders to the shore at dawn to refreeze the surface that was to be the battleground between the competitors; between the two Heirs, and Captain Doran’s champions. An impressive wooden structure had been erected around the perfect oval of untouched ice, with tapestries of pale Eisalaan blue strung from every pillar, and tiers of seats ringing the space like an ampitheatre. The crowd, hundreds of nobles and townsfolk alike, streamed in through one end of the oval under a banner of glittering white flags. At the other end of the arena, the tiers were divided by a sheltered podium upon which the Queen and her consorts of past and present were seated. Notably, little Princess Iseult had not been called back from Caldbon to watch the bloodshed. Kai, on the other hand, had been invited to join the family atop the Queen’s podium.
It would have felt wrong to accept.
I caused this. He let the knowledge settle sickeningly in his gut, then took another sip of tea in some vain attempt to soothe it. It would have been wrong to sit at Queen Selma’s side and watch her daughters tear each other apart. It felt wrong to watch it from any angle, but if it had to happen, he would at least keep a distance from the Royal Family. He didn’t need to know if they felt, as he did, that this was all his doing.
Kai let Ceri lead him to a section of seats close to the middle of the arena where many of the Merrow had settled already, Eda and her kin quite comfortable in the lowest tier at the very front. He greeted them with as much warmth as he could muster, grasping hands and offering smiles as he passed, but was quite glad to sink into the bench three tiers up among the camouflage of his friends. He tugged up the hood of his cloak and wedged himself between Ceri and Al, the latter apparently still sour over scalding his throat. Kai nudged him, trying for their comfortable back and forth, little though he wanted it right now.
“It’s your own fault, you know,” he said lightly. “You’ve forgotten that summer we discovered gooseberry wine. What good could come of grabbing a flask out of my hands? Without pausing to ask what I’m drinking?”
Al frowned like he hadn’t heard him.
“What? Oh – er, yeah, duly noted.”
On Ceri’s other side, Os shook his head and mouthed;Leave it.Kai shrugged inwardly. He had tried, and that was about as much attention as he could spare at this particular moment. Because that low, long call that shuddered the wood beneath him and silenced excited chatter throughout the stadium – that was the resounding blow of a horn.
The tournament was about to begin.
???
The first round was not nearly as bad as Kai had expected. As the eldest, Mareda had taken to the ice first, marching out with her shoulders held back and her golden hair twined into a coil atop her head that shone as bright as her polished silver breastplate. Her opponent stood about a head taller than her, but with his slight, wiry build, they were closely matched for size. At the Queen’s order, they drew their swords, bowed to one another - and darted forth, blades clashing. She was much better than he’d expected based on her general demurity and the few sly jibes Gerard had offered about her skill. Ger was clearly biased. She was, in fact, very good with a sword.
But Adeline is better, Kai had realised with a grim satisfaction that had him gritting his teeth. He hated pitting them against one another, even in his mind, knowing that was exactly what Adeline had wanted to avoid. But that was the point after all – she didn’t have to best the champions, so long as she outperformed her sister.
It took less than twenty minutes for the young champion to take Mareda’s feet out from under her with a clever spin on the ice that had the Princess twisting too fast to catch up. She accepted defeat gracefully, allowing the Gard to pull her upright and turning an elegant bow on the gathered crowd; but Kai had caught the glimmer of panic in her eyes as she went down. It had ended too soon, and she knew it. Her sister had the edge already.
He didn’t know if the whole arena held its breath as Adeline stepped onto the ice, or if it just felt that way. He only knew that when he saw her his chest tightened beyond breath, and beside him Ceri let out a quiet, “Oh.”
