Twiceborn Endgame (The Proving Book 3) Page 24

  Three days later Hope was only half-convinced, but we were out of time. All the overseas queens had flown in for the coronation, and I wanted them out of my domain again as soon as possible. I felt like a minnow holding a party for a pack of hammerheads. I didn’t want to give them time to decide I’d taste good on the menu.

  In a private room at the Hilton Hotel I faced my sisters. Faith was missing, of course, but it was the first time we’d all been together since the night at Gideon Thorne’s mansion. Let’s hope the evening ended a little better than that one had.

  They wore evening gowns again, and looked serenely beautiful, even if one or two were a little hot under the collar. Hope had grudgingly agreed to accept dominion over Indonesia, but she was still unimpressed about my annexation of Japan.

  “The Philippines are closer to Indonesia than they are to Japan,” she said. “And your precious kitsune can’t possibly have any interest in them. I can’t see any reason you should have them too.”

  “The Philippines have been a part of the Japanese domain for centuries.”

  “So?” She arched one supercilious eyebrow at me, looking so much like Faith it was as if Faith were still with us. “This whole deal is breaking with tradition. What difference does one more thing make?”

  She had a point there, but I’d had enough of the petty demands of entitled dragons.

  “Let’s see how you manage Indonesia first. Then we can talk.”

  She might find she was busy enough with what she had. Not that dragons, even young ones, had a very good concept of what was “enough”. Greed was practically a defining trait.

  “Moving on …” She might cause trouble for me down the line, but that was a problem for future Kate. Today I just needed to get through this damn coronation. I nodded to Steve and he turned on the big TV he’d set up in the room. The screen showed us a view of the ballroom downstairs, where eight thrones had been set up in a large circle. In six of those thrones a queen waited, with her retainers grouped on chairs behind her. It made for quite a crowd. Two thrones remained empty. One supposedly would be mine. The other was Daiyu’s.

  My gaze was drawn to the Chinese queen, Daiyu’s sister. She wore white, the Chinese colour of mourning, in patterned silk, and her dark hair was piled high on her head. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking, but her black gaze strayed frequently to her sister’s empty throne.

  All the queens would have heard by now that Daiyu was dead. They all had their spy networks and news travelled fast. They might not be clear on the details yet, but that wouldn’t matter. Each one of those six dragons would be busy plotting already how to turn the event to her advantage. My coronation held little interest compared to the opportunities that had just opened up. They probably couldn’t wait to get stuck into their backstabbing, murderous games. It was a wonder they were still here.

  In the centre of the circle of thrones, the crown of Oceania rested on a plush cushion atop a small circular table. The cushion seemed a little over the top, but Luce had assured me that a certain amount of pomp and ceremony was expected, so pomp and ceremony had been laid on. Privately I thought the crown itself was garish enough without the cushion, encrusted as it was with rubies as big as eggs. That sucker was going to be heavy. Thank God I didn’t have to wear it any more after today.

  A second table stood next to the one bearing the crown, but it was draped with a golden cloth which covered several intriguing bumps. This part wasn’t regulation, and I could see the French queen frowning at it, no doubt wondering what was underneath that cloth. Traditionally the queen to be crowned was surrounded by the other queens for the coronation. Each touched some part of the crown as it was raised and settled on the new queen’s head. Must be kind of awkward. Today the program would work a little differently. The French queen would find out soon enough what was under that cloth, and the part it would play in my highly unorthodox ceremony.

  “You ladies will wait here with Garth and your attendants until we’re ready for you.” I was counting on Garth to keep them in line. He wasn’t the type to be cowed by imperious teenagers. “I need to have a chat with the queens first. Deliver a few home truths.”

  Valiant smiled. “That will be fun to watch. Can we get some popcorn?”

  I liked Valiant more and more as I got to know her. She had a sense of humour, and that was pretty unusual in dragons. They were normally too pompous to laugh at anything other than the total destruction of an enemy. She seemed a little more human in her thinking. Hopefully that was a good sign for our future partnership.

  “I’d better get down there. They look like they’re getting restless.”

  Garth walked me to the door. “You know you look hot in those glasses.”

  I was wearing Blue’s goblin glasses, just in case. There were a lot of shifters in the queens’ entourages, and I didn’t want any nasty surprises.

  “I look like a librarian.”

  His breath tickled my ear as he leaned closer, sending a shiver through me. “A really hot librarian.”

  “Idiot.”

  I headed for the ballroom with a grin still on my face. I expected some argument from the visiting royalty—probably just for the sake of arguing—but no real objection to my plans. The queens would probably think I was weakening the domain by splitting it, and see opportunity for themselves in that weakness. Being dragons, it wouldn’t occur to them that we sisters might band together to support each other.

  The lift doors opened on the ballroom floor, and I nodded to the guards stationed outside the doors. Thralls of mine mostly, with a backup of hired trolls. Two of them opened the double doors, and I paused in the doorway for effect. At least I hoped that my sisters would work together. That was the plan. I was confident of Valiant, and probably Virginia, Justine and Prudence too. Not coincidentally, all the younger ones. They were realistic enough to know their chances of going it alone weren’t good, and pretty enthusiastic about the idea of holding some part of a smaller domain rather than dying in the proving. Hope, as the oldest now, had a better opinion of her chances in a proving. Not a high enough one to think she could beat me, which was why she’d reluctantly agreed to the plan in the end, but perhaps high enough to harbour some backstabbing plans of her own later. I’d have to keep an eye on her.

  The assembled queens all rose at my entrance, as protocol demanded. This was their first look at the new human-tainted queen. Some of them wore crowns even more preposterous than the one waiting for me. Maria del Fuente wore a golden monstrosity that towered above her head. It looked like half the Incan treasures had been melted down to make it, and my ruby-encrusted effort looked positively mean in comparison. Lucky dragons were strong. That thing would have snapped the neck of a human wearer. It was hard to believe this woman headed one of the great fashion houses.

  “I greet you in the name of Oceania,” I began, sticking to the traditional script for the moment, “and welcome you as its new queen by right of proving. Elizabeth Anne is no more, and I claim her throne as my own.”

  Six pairs of eyes watched me. I met them all in turn. Some were calculating, some looked bored. Xu held mine in challenge.

  “Where is our sister, Daiyu of Japan?” she asked.

  As if she didn’t know. But I was happy to spell it out for her.

  “Daiyu is dead.” Probably in a body bag on its way back to Japan right now. None of the Japanese contingent were here. I could just imagine the turmoil that would be going on over there right now, with the kitsune scattered, and no young queenlings to fight out a proving. The Japanese dragons would be running for cover if they knew what was good for them, hoping that when the dust settled and their new mistress showed up they might be able to crawl into her new court.

  Xu pinned me with an accusing glare. “Did you kill her?”

  “I wasn’t even in the country when she died.”

  “Don’t play games with me. You ordered her death.”

  “Rubbish. It was her own harsh treatment
of the kitsune that led to her downfall. One of them turned on her.”

  “Really?” Maria drawled. “And where were you? It seems an unusual time for a new queen, as yet uncrowned, to be taking an overseas jaunt.”

  She smirked, as if she’d managed to catch me out. Well, I had news for her, the evil old lizard. I was not going to be intimidated by these creatures.

  “As it happens, I was in Japan.” Her superior smile faded. She hadn’t expected me to admit it. “Helping to liberate the kitsune. And no, I didn’t order Daiyu’s death, but I’m not at all sorry for it. If she’d stayed home and minded her own business, I wouldn’t have gotten involved, and she’d still be alive. She was here trying to steal my throne, so I’m happy to return the favour. Happy to return it for anyone who tries that stunt on me, actually.”

  Ooh, you’d think I’d hurled a firecracker into the centre of the circle of thrones. They all stiffened at the threat. No one looked bored any more.

  “So I consider Japan mine by right of conquest. Any objections will be met with force.”

  Makeda, whose domain covered the whole of the African continent and stretched into the Middle East, spoke up. “You’re a forthright little thing, aren’t you?”

  “I see no point beating around the bush. Japan is mine, and I’m prepared to defend it.”

  Xu’s eyes narrowed to furious black slits. “But can you hold it?”

  “Ask the kitsune. I think you’ll find that they won’t tolerate any interference from the other domains.”

  And stick that in your pipe and smoke it, lady.

  Xu seethed quietly, having no answer to the problem of the kitsune. The Chinese queens had always looked at their smaller neighbour with greed, anticipating the day when they might incorporate the little domain into their larger one. She’d probably thought it was a done deal now her sister was out of the way, but the kitsune were a thorny problem indeed.

  The French queen, Celeste, waved a languid hand, as if the disposal of one of the eight great domains of the world was merely a side issue. Perhaps it was, for her. She may have started as the French queen, but she now held all of Europe, including Great Britain, plus most of Scandinavia. Despite competition from the North American domain, hers was probably still the wealthiest of all of them. A tiny little domain like Japan was barely a blip on her radar.

  “So you claim two domains?” she asked. “I fail to see how you can hold even one of them after the hornet’s nest you have stirred up among the humans.”

  “We should kill you just for that,” Xu spat. “And now our names are known!”

  “That wasn’t my doing,” I replied, in the mildest tone I could manage. Xu was a serious pain in the butt. “I would hardly release a list that had my own name on it.”

  “I have had nothing but paparazzi and people yelling in the streets since the news broke,” said Maria, looking at me with distaste. “If you had not flaunted yourself so brazenly on New Year’s Eve, this would never have happened.”

  New Year’s Eve had hardly been my fault. With Valeria taking off with Lachie in her clutches, I’d had no choice but to pursue her, but I refused to explain myself to these bitter old women. They had no dominion over me, and I was not going to offer excuses with my tail between my legs.

  “What’s done is done. Dragons were seen, the names were released—it’s pointless to play the blame game now. The world is changing, and we have to change with it.”

  That didn’t go down well. The world had been organised to suit them, after all, and they weren’t interested in giving up any part of their cosy arrangements, thank you very much. There was even some murmuring from the entourages assembled behind each queen.

  I strode to the second table and grabbed a handful of gold fabric.

  “And speaking of which …” With a flourish a magician would have been proud of, I whipped the gold fabric aside. No rabbits underneath, but six brand-new gleaming crowns. The murmuring grew louder. I let them exclaim for a moment, turning on the spot to check out each queen. Xu glowered at me, but the others looked intrigued.

  “You may have heard that Elizabeth laid a second clutch, which produced a further seven royal daughters.” Of course they’d heard it; it had probably been the talk of the dragon world since that particular bombshell had been revealed. “One of those has since died, but my remaining sisters and I have agreed to share the domain of Oceania between us.”

  Forget polite murmuring. An uproar greeted this announcement.

  “You can’t be serious,” Maria said when the noise died down enough for her to be heard. “How can seven of you share one throne?”

  And why haven’t you killed these upstarts already? said her shocked expression. I could tell she thought less of me for not finishing my sisters off. It was the dragon way. Each of these women had arrived at her throne drenched in the blood of her sisters. They couldn’t conceive of anyone wishing to do anything else.

  “We’re not planning to share the one throne. We will divide Oceania between us, and each take charge of our individual pieces.”

  “But you will be the overqueen, I assume?” said Celeste. “With each of them reporting to you?”

  Nope, definitely couldn’t imagine anyone voluntarily giving up power. Their certainty made me quail a little. Was I kidding myself? Could we really make this work, my sisters and I? I’d only known them for a week, after all. How could I really trust them to keep their word?

  “There will be no overqueen.” I put some firmness into my voice. If I couldn’t believe the idea myself, how could I convince anyone else it would work? “Oceania will simply be split into seven smaller domains. Each of us will rule independently, just as you all do.”

  “But it won’t be as we do, will it?” Maria said, poisonously sweet. “Oceania is already the youngest and least of the domains. If you divide it, it will be as nothing.”

  And ripe for the taking, said the gleam in her eye. I looked around and saw the others had reached a similar conclusion.

  “We may rule independently, but together we will be strong.”

  “Well, if your heart is set on it, far be it from us to try to talk you out of this mad scheme.” Maria shrugged prettily, as if she were doing me a huge favour. She looked around at her fellow queens with a knowing smirk. They all nodded, except for Xu.

  The message couldn’t have been clearer. It’s your funeral. None of them thought we could make a go of it, but they were more than happy for us to make the attempt. It made it easier for them to step in and wipe us out.

  “Excellent,” I said, as if I wasn’t well aware what they were thinking. “So there will be a change in the usual arrangements for the coronation. There are six of you, and seven of us.” I paused to let that idea sink in, but I doubt they saw any threat from seven young, untried queens. “That works out nicely, doesn’t it? One of you will have to double up, but you can all crown one of us, as a sign of our unity.”

  Unity, my foot. And how I managed to keep a straight face while saying it, I don’t know, though none of them seemed bothered by the irony. I signalled to Mac, who was waiting by the door. She nodded and ducked out.

  “My sisters will arrive in a moment, and I can formally introduce them to you.”

  I wondered what my sisters had thought of the proceedings they’d just watched on their screen. The queens’ reaction had probably come as no surprise to any of them. They were well versed in dragon history and politics. They wouldn’t exactly have been expecting an enthusiastic welcome.

  I was pleased. Things could have gone much worse. No one had stormed out, and Xu hadn’t challenged me on the spot, as I’d half-feared. Guess her sisterly love didn’t extend too far. She would have killed Daiyu herself if Daiyu hadn’t seen an opportunity in Japan and fled China.

  I heard a commotion in the foyer outside the ballroom. My sisters arriving. The other queens heard it too, and rose, eager to get their first look at the weaklings who had agreed to share rather than fight. They c
ouldn’t possibly be real dragons. They’d be easy to take down, and then Oceania could be plucked like a ripe plum. Despite the earlier comments about Oceania being young and not particularly wealthy, I could see a calculating greed in their eagerness.

  But it wasn’t my sisters. An explosion ripped through the room, and the doors blew off their hinges. Men with guns poured into the room and started firing. Fools! What were they thinking, bringing guns to a fight with dragons? And then I felt something sting my bare arm. When I looked down a dart quivered there, sticking out of my flesh.

  Dart guns?

  A wave of nausea hit me. For crying out loud, not again. Bane leaf was supposed to be a rare poison. Lately it seemed every Tom, Dick and bloody Harry had a stock of it. Either that or du. At least it wasn’t that. Hey, things could be worse! I felt an inappropriate giggle bubbling in my chest. Was this any time to come over all Pollyanna? My vision blurred, and everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I saw Xu fall to the floor, writhing and foaming at the mouth. Maria slumped in her seat, her eyes rolling back in her head.

  And I saw a dart whiz around the corner of a throne to take Celeste in the throat just as she was beginning to shimmer into trueshape. What the hell was this? Darts that could fly around corners?

  My knees gave way, and I subsided onto the floor, my stomach lurching horribly. The glasses fell off and I felt too weak even to pick them back up. You’d think, given the number of times I’d been poisoned with bane leaf lately, that I might have built up some immunity by now, but no such luck. I curled around my heaving stomach and saw, through the blurring haze of illness, a man march into the ballroom. His troops had fanned out, making sure that their darts found everyone in the room. The air was filled with the sounds of screaming and retching. Guess we’d soon find out which shifters bane leaf was fatal for. How had this happened? Where were the guards I’d left outside? Who were these people?

  I squinted at the man, forcing my bleary eyes to focus. His murky aura said he was a goblin, and as he approached I recognised his dark face. Patel. Damn. No wonder the darts could swerve in mid-air. Goblin magic. They were spelled to find their target, no matter what. Hadn’t the little weasel died in the building collapse at Taskforce Jaeger HQ? I’d certainly had my hopes up. And now he turned out to be a mage. I reached for trueshape, but the effort brought the contents of my stomach hurling onto the floor. I collapsed into a heap. Standing up just seemed an impossible challenge.