Adeline couldn’t help the flinch that jerked her shoulders back – but her sister wasn’t done.
“You’d do well to take care who you chase around, and how it reflects on our family. I’m simply concerned that your choices could end badly for us all.”
But Mareda didn’t look concerned. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes gleamed with the same merry glow she’d found on many a New Winter’s Eve, warmed by a hot glass of spiced wine on their mother’s balcony. She was enjoying this.
“Bullshit.”
Mareda just scoffed gently, but Edward rounded on Adeline, and the cold look in his eye should have been enough to mend the Laune in an instant.
“Watch your tongue,” he hissed, in a voice so unlike his own warm rumble. Adeline couldn’t help but recoil under his glare. “You are speaking to the Heir of Eisalaan.”
“Watch your tone,” Silas returned – quietly, but not softly. His eyes were freshly lit coal, dark and blazing. “You are speaking to my daughter.”
“Gentlemen, stand down,” Sebastian warned.
“She’s not the Heir,” Adeline cut in before the argument could devolve. Her family quieted. “Not yet anyway.”
Mareda’s lips sagged at the edges like wilted petals, even as a flash of triumph brought cold light to her eyes. She raised her chin high, almost nodding, as if to say;See?I knew it.
And you were right. Is that what you wanted?
Adeline turned to her mother.
“I claim my birthright. I want to campaign for the title of Queen’s Heir.”
???
With just weeks to go, Adeline’s name joined the list of participants for the Queen’s Tourney.Her Royal Highness Adeline Roseen Beiraslipped in among the ranks and titles of dozens of highly trained Gards and Gard initiates.
Three days, three battles, with the final round bringing Adeline and Mareda head to head.
It was entirely ceremonial, of course. Just a way to kick off the campaigns that would last for as many months or years as it took their mother to make a decision. The outcome of the tournament wouldn’t decide who would be named Heir; only Selma could do that. But, as Silas had warned his daughter repeatedly, the tradition wasn’t unimportant.
“If you’re going to do this, the support of the people within and without this palace is going to hold a lot of weight. You know your mother, Eisalaan is everything to her.”
They’d had some variation of this conversation every morning since Adeline had announced her campaign. She peered wearily at her father over the rim of her tea cup. “I know.”
“And the head of the country is also the head of the royal forces, so it stands to reason that the people of Eisalaan will rally around the strongest –”
“Father, Iknow. Everyone loves a champion – I get it.”
Silas wilted, the anxious energy seeping from him like a gust of air.
“I just want you to prepare yourself.”
She took his outstretched hand and squeezed it, softening.
“I will. Iam. I promise.”
And she was. Her sessions with Kai had moved to that same clearing in the woods where they’d taken Iseult ice skating at the Faire. The arena for the tournament was to be built on the outer edges of the Laune, so to prepare, they’d taken to training directly on the ice surface of the little stream.
And often with company, as was the case later that same morning.
“Put your weight behind that sword or he’s going to take your damn arm off!”
Adeline spun on the ice to glare at Ger, said sword raised menacingly before her. Training on ice was even harder than she remembered. It wasn’t like skating, with the glide of the blade propelling her body in smooth, graceful lunges. There was nothing to brace against. At least when she’d fought Mareda on the lake all those months ago, she’d had her custom-made boots, and they’d both had the benefit of the deep grooves and scratches from the daily bustle of the market. This stream, on the other hand, had been frozen over to mimic the conditions of the tournament. Imogen had grumbled about being coaxed from her bed before she opened her store each morning, but she’d shown up day after day and worked her hands over the stream’s surface until it was smooth as glass.
Now Adeline was slipping and flailing like a babe on new legs, but Kai was as frustratingly composed as ever – and Adeline was not enjoying being flattened over and over again. At least, not with an audience to her defeat.
