She had fought the mountain and won.
She straightened once more, pain blooming in her sore shoulders.
“Thank you for saying so, Your Majesty,” she said. “My queen. My lord father. Grand Magister. I am glad to see you all well.”
“And we are glad to see you well, Lady Dardenne,” King Bastien replied.
“Are you?”
Her father’s head snapped around to glare at her.
A throaty chuckle sounded in Rielle’s mind. Darling girl.
Rielle bit the inside of her lower lip. “Forgive me, my king. That was insolent of me.”
“And was it not also insolent,” murmured Queen Genoveve, “to spend your days endangering my son and niece, without a care as to their safety?”
Rielle stepped forward, outrage spiking in her chest. As one, the kingsguard surrounding the room and the holy guard at the Archon’s side shifted, hands at their swords.
She set her jaw and stood her ground. “My queen, I love your son and niece more than anyone in this world. If you think I’ve spent one moment of my life without thinking of their safety, you are gravely—”
The slam of a door cut her off. Rielle turned to see Audric striding toward her, dark curls falling over his forehead in disarray and Ludivine just behind him.
A wave of such relief washed over Rielle that she had to touch the king’s table for support.
Then Audric was there, gathering her into his arms. Against her matted, mud-crusted hair, he whispered, “Rielle, they wouldn’t let us see you.”
Tucked safely beneath Audric’s chin, Rielle let her eyes fall closed and breathed in his familiar sunspinner scent—the steady warmth of sunbaked stone. “And yet here you are.”
“You’re all right?” Audric pulled away, searching her face. “What happened?”
“I successfully completed the earth trial,” Rielle answered, unable to stifle a broad smile as she looked up at him. “Only six more remain.”
At Audric’s elbow, Ludivine beamed. “Oh, Rielle, that’s wonderful.”
“Yes, Grand Magister Florimond and her acolytes created an avalanche,” added the Archon, “intended to kill Lady Rielle. Obviously it did not. To our great relief.” He paused. “And to your even greater relief, it seems, my prince.”
Rielle’s cheeks burned, but when she looked past Audric to meet Ludivine’s gaze, she saw nothing but love and a warm smile.
Audric stepped away from Rielle. “My lord Archon, you mock the life and safety of our Sun Queen? Please, help me understand that. It seems disrespectful at best and blasphemous at worst.”
“May I remind you, my son,” said Queen Genoveve, “that Lady Rielle has completed only one of seven trials. And it is not for you to determine whether or not she is the Sun Queen.”
Audric’s eyes shone, his shoulders square. “She will not merely complete the trials; she will transcend them.”
The Archon sniffed. “On what do you base this faith?”
“I’ve known her all my life—”
“You have known a lie.”
“That’s enough.” King Bastien clasped his hands on the table. “We’re not here to argue about the past. We’re here to discuss the future.”
“You’re right, Father,” said Audric, approaching him. “Don’t make Lady Rielle complete the rest of these trials alone and unprepared.” He looked back at Rielle, his expression alight with conviction and belief. Belief in her. “She should complete the trials in front of as many people as possible.”
“It should be a spectacle,” Grand Magister Florimond agreed, leaning forward to face the king. She was a stout, short woman with ruddy skin and thick brown hair in a crown of braids on her head. “The things Lady Rielle accomplished on that mountain…” She shook her head, glanced at Rielle. “These are things the people need to see.”
Rielle felt a flutter of delight at Magister Florimond’s awed expression. “Why?”
Magister Florimond opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated and glanced at Audric instead.
“Because,” Audric said, watching his father, “when the Gate falls and the angels return, the Sun Queen will need the support of the Celdarian people at her back. They need to see her work. They need to love her.”
The judges, the Lord of Letters and the Lady of Coin, even the queen, shifted uneasily, as did some of the guards stationed around the room.
Rielle looked to her father. At last, he returned her gaze. She wondered if he was remembering the same thing she was: secret evenings in Tal’s office after a day of lessons, Rielle on her father’s knee and slowly reading the words of Aryava’s prophecy aloud:
Two Queens will rise.
One of blood.
One of light.
She had been young enough then, and perhaps not yet frightening enough, that her father still touched her with something like affection.
“Audric,” said King Bastien tightly, “I would ask you not to speak of such things right now.”
“But it’s precisely now that we must speak of these things.” Audric’s voice was taking on that earnest, gruff quality it had whenever he went off on one of what Rielle and Ludivine called his scholarly fits.
Despite everything, Rielle glanced sidelong at Ludivine, who was stifling her own smile.
“Princess Runa’s death,” Audric continued. “The slave uprisings in Kirvaya. The unprecedented storms across the ocean, in Meridian and Ventera. The shifting mountains in the old angelic lands, displacing entire villages overnight. And now,” he said, looking back at Rielle, “there’s Lady Rielle. Maybe those assassins knew something we didn’t, and their attempt to kill me was really an attempt to draw out her power for all to see. Or maybe it was simply coincidence. Either way, we cannot ignore the timing of these events.”
Audric returned his impassioned gaze to the king. “The angel Aryava knew, centuries ago. He warned us of this time, and now it is upon us.”
King Bastien’s normally open expression was a barred door. “That’s enough, Audric.”
“Father, we ignore the signs at our peril—”
The king rose to his feet. “That’s enough!”
Audric stepped back, meeting his father’s glare for one searing moment before looking at the floor.
The Archon cleared his throat. “Perhaps there is some wisdom to the prince’s suggestions. Whether or not the prophecy’s events are unfolding before us, if Lady Rielle is forced to complete the trials in plain view of the Celdarian people—”