Page 140 of Three Dark Kings and the Gilded Serpent

Huh?

I quickly register that the windows have been boarded over. The pungent scent of tar tells me she’s smothered the gaps so not a ray of light can enter.

The only entrance or exit is the one I’m now standing in.

“What are you talking about? Nobody saw me come here.” I tense, ready to retreat if I have to. Killing Ortansia would shatter the uneasy truce between the Tol-Dakri and Ember Fae and start an instant war between our people. Not to mention, I’d get none of the information I need.

“The dragon’s hide,” she snaps, rising to her full height, her dark-gray eyes furious in the gloom. “You were seen.”

Damn. I promised that her people would never know I had the hide. Over the last few days, I used the hide as a saddle while I fought the Iron Fae. But that was at the border, far north of here. Tol-Dakri don’t venture there and Ember Fae aren’t permitted to come to this city.

“Who talked?” I demand to know.

“One of your lords,” she says. “Boaz, I believe his name is. He was here, spreading stories that you have our sacred artifact.”

So that’s why Boaz and his men appeared to have come from the south before they accosted my Mothers last night, but how Boaz gained entry into the Tol-Dakri city is a mystery. “What business could Boaz have here?”

Ortansia exhales heavily and now she sounds exhausted. “Apparently, the business of overthrowing me.”

I’m genuinely surprised by this. “What issue does he have with you?”

She snorts and waves her hands at herself. “I’m a woman, Maxim. In case you hadn’t noticed.”

Ember Law prohibits women from ruling, but those laws don’t extend to the Tol-Dakri. They govern themselves. Even so, I’m not surprised by Boaz’s prejudice. I’d like to see him come face to face with Cassia or Lilis. I’m certain he would have shrewdly evaded Ortansia while he was here.

Ortansia lowers her arms and puts her daggers away. “Well, you’re here now. The least you can do is kill any brotherfuckers who come down that hallway while I take a moment…”

Her knees buckle, and I lurch forward, then stop myself.

Her eyes widen. “Thinking of catching me, were you?”

She veers away from me toward the nearest chair and collapses into it. Quickly snatching up a flask of water from the table, she drinks the liquid all in one go. “I’m in more danger from you than I am from any of these challengers.”

I step inside the room but stay near the door. “I thought the Tol-Dakri had very specific rules about how a challenge to leadership could be carried out?”

“Oh, we do,” she says. “Tonight is what we call the Moon of Death. That is, once a formal challenge is made, it’s a fucking free-for-all for a night. One night only. All night long. You’re the fifth man to charge down that hallway since the moon appeared in the sky.”

“That explains the tar on the windows,” I mutter, keeping away from the wall, conscious of setting this refuge on fire.

She grunts. “Considering how flammable tar is, possibly not my best choice, but I wasn’t expecting you, and it keeps the weaker challengers out.” In the next breath, she asks, “Why are you here, Ember King?”

“I need everything you have on the Merovians.”

She blinks at me in the gloom. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Their runes, how their magic works, who they were, what they did.”

“If you want all that, you’ll have to take it up with your aunt.”

My brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure how she convinced my predecessor to do it, but he gave her every piece of information we had.” Ortansia picks herself up out of her chair, her voice becoming as sharp as a blade. “Including everything we knew about the Merovian man who was gifted as a slave to the first female Oracle.”

I don’t conceal my surprise quickly enough. “What Merovian?”

“You didn’t know?” Ortansia stills, then shakes herself. “He forged the Dragonstone Blade for the False Queen. We all talk about the curse, as if that’s where all this started, but that Merovian man… I believe everything started with him.”

Without taking a breath, she snatches a blade from her belt, but I’m ahead of her.