Chapter Twenty-Four The Villainess Storms the Queen’s Trials

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The Villainess Storms the Queen's Trials

So the First Duke gave the regalia to the first king of Eyam, and bid his heir kneel to swear loyalty. The Second Duke appeared the First Duke's twin, save that he had no white in his hair or awful light in his eyes.

Masked crown, clawed gauntlets and the royal sword were given over for safekeeping. The sword to conquer the world, and the gauntlets to claw a way out of the grave.

"Guard these well," the First Duke warned as he crowned Primus. "Hide your face, for the crown is not yours to keep. One day the ducal line shall serve their true master. One day the ravine will bleed into the sky and the screams of the dead will become cries of triumph. Await your Emperor. The great goddess wanders far astray but her oracle speaks truly. He is coming for his throne."

Saying thus, the Duke descended into the abyss. Nobody, through all the centuries of waiting and forgetting that followed, ever suspected the duke who saved the realm was the great god come back again. Until the day the sky burned red.

Time of Iron , ANONYMOUS

R ae didn't know why she was bothering to sneak. Few at court would be surprised to see the notorious Harlot of the Tower creeping into a man's bedchamber so early the broken moon was still in the sky, a pale ghost dyed red by sunrise.

Two different men's bedchambers within two days was scandalous, even for her.

The Cobra's maid Sinad did seem exceptionally startled as Key held the door and Rae breezed past calling out, "I'm expected!"

She didn't knock, in case the Cobra didn't wish to speak to her. She flung open the doors of the parlour, then the dressing room, through the ajar door leading to his chamber.

In a circular bed vast as a golden lake, the Cobra stirred under heaped-high sun-coloured silk. He was sleeping on his stomach, morning light tracing a bright finger over curves of muscle and shoulder blade, down the line of his spine. He cast a look over his bare shoulder, half asleep but wholly amused.

"Hey," said Rae.

"Hey," said the Cobra.

They hadn't spoken since the evening in her old room, when she'd almost told him he was dead.

She took a deep breath. "I've been thinking a lot over the last few days. Well. I've been scheming a lot."

"I'm so shocked." The Cobra didn't sound shocked.

"Given the Queen's Trials are happening today, I'm sure you've been thinking a lot too."

"Not that I've noticed," remarked a red-headed woman, untangling herself from the golden heap of sheets. "He has been drinking a lot."

"Oh okay!" Rae exclaimed.

"I'm so embarrassed." The Cobra didn't sound embarrassed.

A blond-haired man, rising from the other side of the sheets, added: "We had fun."

Rae now understood the maid's startled expression.

The Cobra gave the blond guy a rather sweet and tentative smile. "I'm glad you think so."

"I know this wasn't a job, but is it true we can just take anything that's lying around here? No matter how expensive it is?" asked the blond gentleman.

All suggestion of sweetness vanished. The Cobra shrugged. "Sure."

The redhead sighed. "Don't be crass, Leaf. And you, don't get your romantic hopes up. I shall also be taking sundry coins and perhaps a small but costly vase." She paused. "With affection."

The Cobra brightened, leaned in for a quick kiss, then glanced at Rae. "I'll be out when I'm dressed."

He emerged into the parlour doing up the last fastenings on a filmy green herigaut, figured with a flashy pattern of gold beasts. "Don't judge me, I've been incredibly stressed!"

She held up a hand. "I wildly scheme. You wildly debauch. No judgement." Rae paused. "I was hoping we could make up."

She wasn't sure what else to say. The Cobra had been even more ridiculous than usual, ranting about endangering book characters. Key being hurt had made every word sting. She'd felt as if she were in the wrong, even though she knew she was right.

A wary pause followed.

"Tell me your wild scheming," the Cobra invited.

Rae explained how she'd warned Octavian to post guards at the Trespasser river, and told him how to reforge the royal sword.

"So even though the Trials have been moved up, it doesn't matter. Lia and Marius will be protected. Octavian is prepared. When the abyss opens, when the invasion comes, he'll know what to do. I fixed everything. You will all be safer, and I—I will be gone. I don't want to hurt anybody, I never did, but I need to get home."

She stared at the floor, willing herself to come up with a clever argument to convince him.

"Hey." Strong arms interrupted Rae's thoughts, enveloping her in steady warmth. "Say less. We're getting you home safe."

She hugged him back.

Her team was whole again. They were ready to face the trials.

For the Queen's Trials, they brought out the beauties and the beasts.

In the real world, mythological beasts in medieval books came from medieval people panicking when they saw unfamiliar creatures and drawing them as monsters. Understandable: in a world before nature documentaries, the first sight of a rhino must be a lot.

In Rae's world a leucrota was someone drawing a picture of a hyena while having the vapours. In the land of Eyam, the creation of the ravine made those beasts real.

In this world Rae could wander around the enclosures by the palace walls, where the creatures from the royal menagerie were now on display, twirling her parasol and admire a leucrota in the flesh.

"My lady," warned Emer. "Experience wonder at a greater distance from the teeth."

"It is a little like a lion and a little like a hyena," Rae observed. "Except enormous."

Emer sighed. "Lions are imaginary, my lady."

The golden-brown beast did have hyena-ish and lion-esque qualities, both rendered considerably more alarming by the fact it was the size of a horse. Its head, broad and flat but ending in a pointed muzzle, swung towards Rae as she walked by.

" Rahela ."

"Aren't they so cute? I wish I could feed them."

"You can," said Emer, joy-killing. "They'd eat your hand."

"I like them too," contributed Key, joyful and murderous. "They can strip a body of flesh in under a minute."

The leucrota didn't have individual teeth, but a ridge of solid bone like an ivory gumshield. It snapped its block teeth together happily as Rae reached through the bars to pat its neck and Key laughed, wild and well pleased.

They strolled on in high good humour, Key walking with fluid ease as if he had never been wounded. Even Emer relented enough to let Rae buy everybody chewets – little pies containing minced pork and plums with exceptionally sturdy pastry for street eating. The chewets were extremely chewy. Food stalls and display cages were set up around the amphitheatre within the palace walls where they usually put on the summer plays, blue and silver flags flew against a blue and gold sky, and twelve ladies were battling for the king's hand. But not Rae. She had arranged Octavian would have the sword, and make the plot go smoothly. Lia would win the trials and be declared queen, a title she would choose over being called the empress. Surely Octavian would be too occupied with his betrothed to remember Rae until the night the Flower of Life and Death bloomed. All she and the vipers had to do was enjoy an evil day out.

Carefree, Rae twirled on her tiptoes to see a cage of ibexes, goatish creatures with horns like swords. The Cobra returned from enthusiastically tossing coins to minstrels and nodded towards her chewet. "Give me a bite."

Instead of breaking off a piece, he leaned down and sank his white teeth into the crust in Rahela's hand, then straightened up smirking in Key's direction. "I'm surprisingly glad you survived to devil us."

Key scowled, but after a moment grinned back. "I'll devil you in particular."

"Please, no." The Cobra winked at Rae. "I know the real reason you wanted to make up. You're just trying to score an invite to my private box."

Rahela shot him a saucy smile. "You caught me. I'm a wicked schemer."

He set off, waving them to follow.

A guardsman muttered, " Harlot ," as Rae swept by.

She reached to stop Key's surge forward. "Sticks and stones may break my bones!"

Just Key's smile made the guard retreat. "Sledgehammers break their bones for sure."

Commoners sat in stone rows surrounding the circle of earth that formed the stage. Aristocrats had boxes set in wooden towers above the stone steps, lined with cushions. The Cobra's was second in magnificence only to the king's, gold as the inside of an expensive chocolate box.

The circle of earth below was already churned. As they watched, a weary knight in plated armour fought a griffin on a rattling chain. All morning, knights had been volunteering to serve as ladies' champions to express their admiration for a lady-in-waiting. Or because said knight happened to be in the service of a certain lady-in-waiting's father. The knight who fought the most spectacular battle would be regarded the victor.

As villains, the vipers were required to be fashionably late. Also, they knew who would win in the end.

Others had no such information. When Rae and her team followed the Cobra in, they found the box already half full. The Cobra's book club, Rae had expected. Lady Zenobia had brought a book. Lord Fabianus had brought his whole family.

It must be true the Nemeths were having money troubles, if they couldn't afford their own box. General Nemeth was obviously uncomfortable in this golden nest of debauchery and literacy. Rae studied the general with suspicion. Was he plotting her murder? She didn't know what someone plotting her murder was supposed to look like. Beside him stood a sturdy boy of about eleven who had the general's black hair untouched with grey. He must be Tycho, the brother too young to wield the gauntlets.

And there were the twins. It was usually difficult to tell the Ladies Hortensia and Horatia apart. Today the difference was stark. Since the attack on the Court of Air and Grace, Lady Hortensia's skin had yellowed and stretched taut over her bones, almost matching her lank lemon-coloured hair. The day was warm, but Lord Fabianus smoothed a woollen blanket over his sister's wasted legs.

It was entirely clear she was dying.

The Cobra dropped a word in Rae's ear as he moved past. "Don't ask how Hortensia is. Wasting has set in from the bites. Fabianus borrowed money for healers, and he always refused to take a button from me before."

Rae felt fastened on the last step into the box, as if two cruel fingers had reached from the sky to pin her in place. She remembered Key falling to his knees to fasten his mouth on her bite wound. If it wasn't for Key, Rae would be in the same position as Hortensia. She could be dying all over again.

She knew how it felt, having your flesh melt away as if you had turned into an ice sculpture under your skin. No food would help, no medicine, no love. The future was an inexorable wearing away of yourself.

General Nemeth's glare distracted her. He looked furious the Harlot dared sully where his virtuous daughters sat. Rae opened her parasol and twirled it in the confines of the box. Just to be obnoxious.

Even more surprising than General Nemeth's presence was that of Princess Vasilisa, wearing fewer jewels than usual. Rae wondered if the princess had joined the book club.

As she wasn't a lady-in-waiting, Vasilisa couldn't join the Trials. The princess seemed surprisingly cheerful watching others compete for the king's hand. "Hello, Lady Rahela."

Rae let her smile turn from taunting to genuine. "Hello, Your Highness. You look great."

"That's what I keep telling her." Lord Fabianus paused in fussing over Hortensia.

Vasilisa blushed. "Thank you."

Now a princess had acknowledged Rae, the general and his daughters allowed themselves to nod in her direction.

A serving boy arrived to present the Cobra with a folded page on a silver platter. Rae peeked and caught the words ‘ bad, bad golden pony ' before the Cobra demurely whisked the paper out of view.

"I've been receiving an increased number of letters from admirers since our dance. It may be a key factor in my forgiving you."

Rae offered the Cobra a fist bump. "Nice."

She had received no admiring letters, only an increased number of leers in hallways.

"Well, they're not inviting me over to meet their mothers." The Cobra lounged in his seat, surveying the milling crowd with a faint frown.

He wasn't frowning because people had dishonourable intentions towards him. His gaze fixed on a lone figure in the crowd, blue scarf fluttering like a piece of sky looped around her neck, long hair spinning sunlight into gold.

Lia.

As in the ballroom, she was alone.

Instantly, Rae proposed, "Let's invite her to your box."

The Cobra shook a reproving finger. "Getting entangled with the main characters will lead to disaster."

He glanced at Lia again, then laid a handful of gold on the boy's silver salver and asked him to convey an invitation for Lady Lia to join them.

"I knew you'd do that," Rahela told the Cobra smugly.

"Because of my beautiful nature?"

"Because you asked her to sit with you in the book," Rae said under her breath. "You're a softie."

Key asked conversationally, "Did you say he asked Lia to sit with him in a boat?"

Emer eyed Lord Popenjoy with deep suspicion. "Ladies should not go on boating expeditions unchaperoned."

Rae feared she'd been indiscreet once again.

The Cobra looked alarmed. "I have no designs on Lady Lia! All I want are front-row seats to Marius volunteering to be Lia's champion. Even though this means the woman he loves will marry another. Sacrifice of self to the beloved is one of the top ten romantic gestures."

"Is that still going to happen?" Rae whispered.

The Cobra sat bolt upright. "Why wouldn't it?"

"The tournament shouldn't happen this early! And the moonlit balcony scene didn't happen right. Does he even love her yet?"

"At first sight and for all time," snapped the Cobra. "You might recall the prophecy. When the white knight's heart strays to forbidden queens. Lia's about to win the Queen's Trials. They're soulmates!"

"You seem very invested in the Oracle's prophecy, Lord Popenjoy," Emer kept glaring. "I didn't know you were religious."

"I believe in Marius. The gods are less certain."

Despite his proclaimed certainty, the Cobra's face was uncharacteristically worried. He frowned at the gap in the crowd where Lord Marius stood, head and shoulders above those around him, everyone keeping a weary distance.

The representative for the great god should act as master of ceremonies. That was traditionally a Valerius, but Lord Marius had sworn himself to the goddess. The sacred stand was inlaid with orichal silver, which flashed both red and tarnished black under the noonday sun. Instead of Lord Marius, Prime Minister Pio officiated, seeming ill at ease as if imprisoned in a vast lightning-struck tree. Rae appreciated the clear view of both men she suspected of trying to murder her.

When Lia arrived, the Cobra's worried frown melted. His smile enveloped her in warmth, natural as sunrise turning the mountains gold. "Lady Lia, allow me a tiny liberty?"

He held his fingers a fraction of an inch apart, then offered his hand, palm up. When Lia gave him her hand, the Cobra dropped a kiss on the inside of her wrist.

As Lia drew back in maidenly confusion, the Cobra whispered: "Marius is coming now. Look, he's jealous!"

"You insist his face makes expressions," said Rae. "I can't see it myself."

Since Marius appeared murderous at all times, Rae couldn't tell if he was angry someone was kissing Lia, furious the Cobra was kissing someone, or outraged by public indecency.

Lia was smiling as if she liked the Cobra, or at least found him amusing. On noticing her stepsister, Lia's smile died.

"Come sit beside me," Rae invited.

Lia visibly struggled with the worry it would look ungracious to refuse. Eventually, she gritted pearly teeth and sank gently down, simple dress swaying about her like a blue-tinted cloud. The end of her scarf was deeper blue, like the graduations of sky in the evening.

Rahela tugged teasingly on Lia's scarf. "I know in the future you wear pure white to emphasize your purity. There's only one reason you're still wearing clothes trimmed with blue. So you're a contrast to the Beauty Dipped In Blood. Nice to know you're thinking about me."

"There's no need for me to think about you," Lia observed. "Not when you're always thinking about yourself."

It was almost sisterly, to define themselves by their differences from each other. Rae had imagined the fairest of them all as alone, but where there was a fairest there must be a foulest. And even the fairest might want a little fun in her life.

Rae smiled encouragement. "That's it, let loose. Must be tough, always trying to be the most well-behaved woman in the room."

She noted Lia's marble-blue eyes glide towards the princess and the general, talking among themselves.

"It must," Lia agreed sweetly. "You never seem capable of it."

"Oooh, ladylike burn. Listen, some people might think you're a manipulative liar and a total fake," Rae murmured. "But I think you're awesome, and a way more interesting character now!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. And I don't see why you always have to be so cruel."

Lia directed a beseeching look at the Cobra. The faintest hint of dew sparkled in her eyes.

The Cobra shook his head. "Sorry, honey. I worked you out myself a while ago. For what it's worth, I don't hold it against you."

How could anyone? Innocents got literally eaten alive in this palace. Lia had no choice but to become a snake in sheep's clothing.

"We're all awful," Rahela reassured her. "Consider this an invitation to join my nest of vipers."

When Lia's eyes burned with indignation, they went candle-flame blue. "I don't understand your wild claims!"

"Come on ," Rahela urged. "It's obvious when you think about it. The twins didn't cut up your ball gown. You cut up your own gown, so you could skip the ball and not be neglected for the princess. You only went to the ball because you got the unexpected gift of another gown. Before that, you sobbed out your misery to a hearthstone connected via a chimney to the room where the most righteous man in the kingdom studies. Only an idiot would believe it was a coincidence."

Lia's body went stiff as a petrified reed.

"My lady!" Emer said in a warning tone.

"Kissing comfit?" The Cobra offered Lia a perfumed pink candy from a golden plate.

Sudden as a tremor shaking the earth, the golden plate wobbled in his hand.

"Oh no," he said in a distant tone. "We're screwed."

Rae's gaze followed the Cobra's to where the Last Hope stood, black-and-white hair tumbled around his shoulders, his face a carving on a glacier.

It was coldly clear he'd heard everything.

"How clever you are, Lady Lia," remarked Lord Marius. "Like your stepsister. A nest of vipers indeed."

The atmosphere in the golden box was incredibly awkward. Lord Marius sat, arms crossed across his broad chest, leaning back to observe the battles. Everyone watched in an aristocratic agony of social embarrassment as a knight fought a chained unicorn.

Any attempt to talk foundered as though they tried to paddle tiny boats of conversation on a frozen sea. Marius's cold silence and sheer physical presence dominated the space.

From the arena the announcer proclaimed, "Who will stand for Lady Horatia Nemeth?"

Rae was relieved by the diversion, but startled they had reached the Nemeths already. Of course, the Queen's Trials would be over sooner than it had in the book. Many of the queen candidates had been eaten by the undead.

The general stood at attention. "I am her family. When I claim the right, no knight may interfere."

"You don't have to, Papa," whispered Horatia.

"While I have breath, I own the privilege of defending my child."

He dropped a rough kiss on the side of Horatia's head as he left the box.

What a kind father. Perhaps kind enough to send assassins after his daughter's rival.

Rae glanced at Hortensia. "I thought the Queen's Trials went by age, oldest to youngest?"

And Hortensia was the older twin. But Lady Hortensia, so thin you could almost see her gritted teeth through the nearly transparent skin of her cheek, stated, "I'm no longer a lady-in-waiting."

Of course, Octavian had dismissed her. A queen must be in good health to bear heirs. A lady who couldn't breed got thrown away like the contents of a chamber pot.

Watching the Nemeth family tense, Rae was stricken by terrible memory. In the books, General Nemeth had fought for both his daughters as they couldn't afford to keep household knights. He was grievously wounded in a battle with a monstrous snake.

Lady Hortensia's claw-thin hand closed around little Lord Tycho's shoulder. Hortensia was dying. They were poor. The Nemeths must be keenly aware the general wasn't as strong as he'd once been, but his fading glory in war was all the family possessed. Rae had believed the prime minister was the one sending killers after her, but perhaps it was the desperate who did desperate deeds.

Should she hope for the general's defeat? Was he her enemy?

As the crowd watched Nemeth stride to the centre, you could have heard a pin drop in the dust of the arena. Instead they heard the cold creak of a cage door swing open.

A dragging sound followed, like a huge rope being hauled through the dirt. Rae leaned over the side of the box to see what was coming for the general.

The amphisbaena slithered, because it had no feet. It was a snake thick-bodied as a lizard, moving on its belly in deliberate slow circular movements towards where the general stood with his battleaxe bared. Its eyes were huge and yellow, glowing with inner fire like lanterns. Where its tail should have been was another head, this one horned. The stubby horns rattled like rattlesnake tails. The slavering open mouth dripped black poison.

Rae and Key exchanged delighted glances. It was undeniably cool.

"Blood and circuses." The Cobra snapped open a pair of sunglasses and slid them on his nose.

Apparently, the Cobra had made yet another fortune inventing ‘sunglasses' last summer. Each member of his salon had a pair.

Rae eyed the sunglasses wistfully. "I thought the phrase was ‘bread and circuses'? In order to keep the public happy and obedient, a ruler needs to give them enough food and enough entertainment?"

The Cobra mused, "Maybe if you give people enough vicious satisfaction, they won't even care about food."

Rae noticed Key leaning against the wall, listening intently. His face had gone serious as he seldom was. Until he caught her eye on him, and smiled just for her.

Little Lord Tycho brandished a wooden sword as if longing to fight in his father's place. The court whispered the general's youngest was an ideal heir, unlike Lord Fabianus.

Tycho's toy blade almost took the princess's ear off. Ziyi's hand went automatically to the hilt of her very real sword.

Lord Fabianus hugged Tycho and confiscated his sword. "Be good, or I'll dress you in finery."

The general kicked out at the great snake with a massive, battered boot, reducing one of the eyes in the non-poisonous head to jelly. The Cobra offered the trembling Tycho a kissing comfit and ruffled his hair. Horatia's fists clenched. A faint, unguarded sound burst from Lia's lips. Horatia was the second-youngest member of the ladies-in-waiting. Lia, at nineteen, was the youngest. It was Lia's turn next.

To Rae's immense relief, Marius's icy face thawed slightly. Perhaps his heart had relented on seeing Lia afraid.

His gaze seemed to rest on little Tycho, leaning against the Cobra's shoulder. Perhaps it was only that Lord Marius had a soft spot for children.

Would Marius act as Lia's champion, or not? Would General Nemeth be wounded or not?

Stressed, Rae shoved kissing comfits into her mouth, and choked when the amphisbaena reversed direction. Its other head took the lead and lunged for General Nemeth. The general swung his battleaxe, silvered hair flying.

The Nemeth twins gave voice to their ancestral battle cry. "Blood, blood, blood !"

"Blood, blood, blood !" Tycho's childish voice chimed enthusiastically.

Fabianus Nemeth, fists clenched and ruffles flying, picked up the chant. "Blood, blood, blood !"

By his side, Princess Vasilisa seemed somewhat taken aback. Rae didn't blame her. Vasilisa squinted at the suddenly bloodthirsty fashion plate.

"Sun bothering you?" Fabianus whisked off his sunglasses and perched them on the princess's nose. "There you go. Where was I? Blood, blood, BLOOD!"

The amphisbaena's fangs struck dirt. So did the edge of the general's axe. A frustrated cry broke from the throats of every single one of his children.

Then the box went quiet as the great snake twisted into a curve. The one-eyed head went straight for the general's weapon, its fangs locking down on the axe handle. The other head went straight for the general.

This was how the general was wounded, the snake's fangs ripping his leg open down to the bone.

But in the book, General Nemeth had fought a bout for his older daughter earlier. He was tired.

This time the general was quick enough to seize the amphisbaena, thick fingers closing halfway around the magical serpent's green-and-brown body. Its scales were the colour of a rotting rope.

"If it has two heads instead of a tail," the Cobra murmured, "how does it go to the unisnake bathroom?"

Rae was happy to enlighten him. "It excretes through its pores, like sweat."

The Cobra gave her an unimpressed look. "This you remember?"

The general hefted the creature over his burly shoulders, then twisted the serpent into one knot then another. With all his great remaining strength, he wound the amphisbaena in circles upon circles until the one-eyed head snapped in wild confusion at the poisonous head. General Nemeth tossed his defeated foe down into the dust.

In the box, the Nemeth family erupted in joy.

Under cover of the cheering, Rae leaned in and whispered to the Cobra, "Some changes to the story are good."

"If the general is trying to kill you, the fact he escaped the tournament unscathed is very bad news," the Cobra reminded her.

Rae wilted. Any remnants of satisfaction dissolved into the dust of the arena when Prime Minister Pio called out, "Who will stand for Lady Lia Felice?"

After the screams of triumph, silence hit hard.

Lia's small face was a snowdrop encased in ice as she rose, smoothed her blue and white skirt, and descended slowly down the steps from the box alone. She didn't beg, but a shimmer made her blue eyes luminous. She wore tears as other women wore jewellery, her beauty only enhanced by sorrow.

Once she reached the arena, Lia would have to beg for a champion to fight the chained monsters.

The Last Hope should have volunteered.

Lord Marius Valerius sat in the golden box, cold and beautiful as a statue. With exactly as much pity, expressiveness, and willingness to move as a statue.

" Marius ." The Cobra nudged him. "Be her champion!"

His white wolf's gaze moved indifferently from the cages to the Cobra. "She's a liar."

The Cobra lowered his sunglasses to show narrowed eyes. "Those who enjoy brutal honesty, honestly enjoy brutality. She's a liar. I'm a liar. We're all liars here, or do you actually believe Lady Horatia enjoys flirting with the king who cast off her sister?"

Lord Marius's glance at Horatia seemed genuinely startled. Horatia hid behind her brother.

The Cobra swept on. "The difference between a villain and a hero is that a villain gets found out as a human being. Did you expect Lia to ignore she was in danger, and hope for the best? People die in the gutters of this city every day. Girls too stupid to live don't live. Someone can lie and cheat to survive, and still be loyal and kind and trying their best."

"You can't expect him to understand nuance ," Rae hissed. This was the Last Hope!

There was a pause.

"If they're trying their best…" Astonishingly, a hint of relenting showed in Lord Marius's voice. "Then why do their worst?"

"Maybe that's all they can think of to do," said the Cobra. "But forgive the lady this once, for the sake of her beautiful eyes."

Within an instant an ice age descended on Lord Marius. " You fall all over yourself to kiss away Lady Lia's crocodile tears. I'm not susceptible to wiles and trickery."

The Cobra tried to pass off anger with a laugh. "All this slut-shaming. Where's the slut-praising? Quick, someone tell me I'm wicked cute and have great time management."

Lord Marius looked even more coldly furious. Rae couldn't suppress a shiver. The Nemeths were ranging their own bodies between the little lord and the potential threat. Not that it would matter. If a Valerius lost control, everyone in this box was dead.

The Golden Cobra sighed. "You think anyone can trick a trickster? I hate seeing Lia weep to manipulate people. It wouldn't matter to anyone if I cried. I might as well laugh. But…"

The Last Hope waited for him to speak with impatience Rae could feel rising like the icy wind before a storm. She imagined the Cobra bleeding as Key had, remembered the Cobra dying at Marius's hand.

Rae rushed in where others feared to tread. "Nobody chooses tears as a weapon if they have an alternative. Tears are terrible weapons, due to being liquid. People ignore tears. Nobody ignores a battleaxe. It's awful tears only matter when they're shed by the type of girl people see as pure. And it's awful some girls only have their tears, with no other way to defend themselves. Do liars deserve death?"

Rahela hurled her question against the wall of Lord Marius's cold dislike, already aware she'd made a crucial misjudgement.

No story ever convinced a hostile audience. It mattered who told the tale. Marius might hate the Cobra, but it was clear he would never let anyone else hurt him. It was equally clear Lord Marius would welcome the news Rae had been killed by a passing cart in the street.

"As Lord Popenjoy said, people die in the gutters of this city every day." The Last Hope's voice was steel under frost. Even the Cobra, who never showed fear of the Valerius, winced. "What makes Lady Lia special?"

Rae and the Cobra exchanged a guilty glance. Neither spoke.

When Lia came to court people had written poems calling her the pearl they'd waited for, the Pearl of the World. Rae couldn't say Lia was the heroine of the book. She didn't know how to persuade people to value Lia. It was a new problem. Everyone always seemed to consider the heroine precious.

"Lady Lia once told me she was always in danger," Emer whispered. "If purity is stained even once, nobody will ever believe in it again."

The Last Hope gave his judgement. "If I fight for someone, that says I think they're worth fighting for. I will not do it."

From the corner of her eye, Rae saw Emer's face pale and her hand flex as if longing to be around the shaft of an axe. Then Emer bowed her head. A servant wasn't even allowed to address Lord Marius in public.

Surely at this desperate juncture, the Cobra would say something diplomatic.

"Fine," snapped the Cobra. "I'll do it."

Chaos erupted in the box, everybody trying to dissuade the Cobra at once. The Cobra's rise was prevented by a muscled arm slamming down on the velvet-padded arms of his chair like an iron bar.

The Last Hope ordered, "You will not."

Centuries of command echoed in his voice. The Cobra responded with scathing contempt.

"Here's my kind of honour in action. You sit in judgement. I will save a girl from getting torn to shreds by wild beasts."

At the sneered word ‘honour' Lord Marius's arm fell away. The Cobra rose with a swoop of his gold-adorned sleeves.

"Stop." Marius's voice grated, an iceberg against a ship that would not turn course. "I'll stand as her champion."

The Cobra threw himself into his chair and threw Marius a wink. "Thanks, I obviously wasn't going to do it."

He slid his sunglasses back up his nose. Rae's nerves twanged taut, but Lord Marius stood regardless.

Once given, the Last Hope would not retract his word. Rae breathed a little easier.

Lonely as a cloud, Lady Lia walked with purpose to the centre of the ring. Sunlight ladled light upon her hair, the favourite's bracelet on her right arm and the enchanted gauntlet on her left. Her musical voice rang out to the audience.

"I enter the tournament under my own name. I will be my own champion!"

Nobody could help her now.

Emer made a sound as though Lia's words were a blow. Rae's shoulders hunched under a new burden. What if when we change the story, we only make things worse?

Lia was only nineteen. Rae remembered turning twenty, spending the day in the grip of furious, uncontrollable tears. She'd raged because so many heroes were teenagers, even in books meant for adults. It felt like the age of magic was over for her, and all there was left to do was die.

Nineteen-year-olds could die, too.

She watched the lone small figure in the dusty arena. Lia didn't want to be helpless. Once given a weapon, given a chance, she would fight.

Rae sympathised. Being helpless made her feel strapped to a chair, with poison poured into her veins. She used to imagine having a grand adventure, a cause worth the pain. Saving someone's life. Making a big sacrifice.

Instead, she was the one who had given Lia the gauntlet. If Lia was killed before their eyes, it was Rae's fault.