12. Karmen

12

KARMEN

D agny insisted we shift the conversation to lighter topics while we ate. Several dishes came from the kitchen, loaded with interesting new foods to try. I'd never experienced something as mundane as dining at a table with someone else to entertain me with stories about places I apparently owned.

The villa in Italy sounded like a near perfect replica of the manor house through our portal. Apparently an entire village of humans lived nearby, dedicated to making the vineyards and gardens as beautiful as possible, simply on the barest hope I might someday return. The pictures on her phone made my throat tighten with nostalgia and awe. So vibrant and full of life compared to my faded childhood memories. The quaint village of perfect cottages and houses. Rows of trees and plants I couldn't identify stretching into the distance over rolling green and gold hills. Cliffs over a sparkling river that wound below. Absolutely spectacular.

A peculiar feeling in my stomach gave me pause until I was able to identify the emotion as homesickness. I may have only lived in the villa a few years, but it was all that I remembered before Heliopolis. "Kevin warned me about going back to Italy because of another queen who lives nearby."

Dagny tipped her head in acknowledgement. "The High Queen of the Triune, Marne Ceresa, lives in Rome, which is just under three hundred kilometers away from Il Villa Sunna. Technically, House Sunna is her ally, but the sibling agreement was between her and Queen Lynnea, not your mother, and certainly not you."

"Is that a blood bond between queens? Helayna tried to explain it to me but I don't really understand."

"Generally, queens form alliances by exchanging their blood. For an Aima queen, everything comes back to her blood, because that's where your power lies. Even a single drop of your blood carries immense power, which depending on your intent, could help or harm another. It's rumored that Queen Marne sends out humans carrying a droplet of her blood to lure in unsuspecting queens who might mistake them for Aima and feed on them."

"When War accidentally bit me, some of my blood dripped from my ankle onto one of Helayna's Blood."

A surge of emotion spiked in all of my Bloods' bonds. Jealousy. That another had come into contact with my blood accidentally—even though it had hurt him.

I quickly added, "It burned through his flesh and caused him pain until I pulled it back to me. Does this Triune queen feed on her queen siblings as well as her Blood?"

"Not exactly. Queens don't generally feed on each other for power. They use the bonds to build a broader power base to protect their houses, but not directly for blood. At least that's my understanding. Though it's rumored that Queen Shara killed the queen of New York City simply by feeding on her so deeply that Queen Keisha perished."

My eyes widened. So much for trusting the Isador queen. "That's possible? Could I accidentally kill one of my Blood the same way?"

"Technically, I suppose it's possible for a very powerful queen, but a healthy, full-strength Blood has a great deal of blood in their body, and that blood is laden with magic. All of that power has to go somewhere. I'm not a queen, so I can only share my limited understanding, but it's evidently a great deal of work just to hold the goddess' power within yourself. To control it and use it successfully is not a minor, easy thing to accomplish. Feeding deeply gives more power—which also takes a toll to manage."

I nodded slowly, remembering how even my bones felt weary after killing Sepdet. I hadn't fed on him, but I'd used the sunfires' power to crush him into oblivion. My power, now. The infinite, boiling sun could easily destroy everything in this world if I lost control even for a moment. Tapping into that source of energy would always be a risk.

"Queens generally gain more personal power by calling more Blood. Or they call more Blood to sustain their growing power. It's the age-old chicken and the egg question. How many Blood have you called, my queen?"

Sunzi didn't say anything but his bond flashed in my head, as if he'd drawn a sword and it caught the light for a moment.

"Ten," I replied.

"And they each carry a sunfire? Is that right?"

"Yes."

"That must be their goddess-given gift, then. When an Aima becomes a queen's Blood, they gain new power from their queen that allows them to shift into another form. Your Blood were already skeleton warriors with sunfires. Your bond gave them the ability to shift into a more human appearance. How many more sunfires do you have, my queen?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "They're one central consciousness, but some of them have developed individual personalities after being attached to another host. It's hard to separate them out in my head."

"Smoak is even attached to one of the Isador queen's Blood," Vlad said.

Dagny pursed her lips, her head tipping slightly to the side. "How interesting. Another tie to Isador. Though that does imply it's possible for one of the other sunfires to attach to any new Blood you might call one day."

My eyes widened and I shook my head. "Oh no. I don't think so. I have plenty. I haven't even gotten to know the rest of my Blood that well yet."

"Just keep the possibility in mind, my queen. You may change your mind one day."

"Why?" I asked bluntly. "I can't imagine trusting anyone else enough to let them into our…" I hesitated, not sure what the correct word would be. Relationship? Arrangement? I barely knew Goyaa?é, Hannibal Barca, Musashi, or Chak Ek'. I didn't even know the Scotsman's true name.

"From the legacies that have been accumulating in your name alone, I would hazard to guess you're one of the most powerful queens in the world. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest for you to ascend to the Triune one day."

I shuddered and leaned away from her, withdrawing as much as the chair would allow. "From the little I've gleaned about the Triune and queens in general, that's the last thing I want."

"As you will, Your Majesty." Dagny shrugged and gave me a bright, firm smile. "If you'd like, I can show you some pictures of your mother's court in Norway before she joined her sister in Italy. I think it would be a very good and safe location for you if you'd like to visit it."

Relieved that she'd changed the subject—but also suspicious about the quirk of her lips—I nodded. "If Sunzi agrees it's safe, I'd like to see where my mother lived before I was born."

Dagny pulled up another set of pictures on her phone. Most of the background was white and almost foggy. It took me a moment to make sense of jagged snowy peaks. Icy rocks. Gray waters in the foreground. Then a dark, low house set on the very edge of what must be a rocky, snowy beach, hanging out over the water on a pier that looked like stilts.

I didn't remember much of my mother. I'd wiped out the horrors she'd endured in Heliopolis. I didn't want to remember her that way. But I couldn't reconcile the blonde, smiling woman of my early childhood living in such a cold, grim place. Instead, I remembered her sitting on the terrace with Aunt Lynnea as the sunset turned her hair to shimmering rose gold. Sipping from a long-stemmed glass, like one of these on the table, and looking out over the rolling green hills.

"She lived here?" I asked doubtfully.

"For centuries before she had you, and her mother, Queen Signe, ruled for nearly one thousand years from this very location. The houses have changed over the years into the modernized building you see here, but you should be able to feel the remnants of your line's blood circle in the earth when you near it. It's weakened considerably since their deaths but I'm confident you'll feel the resonance of your magic."

A remnant, not just of my mother, but her royal line. A spurt of excitement sent my pulse leaping. "How far away is it?"

"Well, that depends on how you'd like to travel, my queen. I can arrange air travel to pick you up from this location and with some refueling, we could land in Leknes and be home by tomorrow evening."

Sunzi let out a low, chiding sound of amusement. "If the lady shows me some maps for reference, I can have you there in a matter of minutes using the Keys of Heaven."

Minutes. And I could see the place of my mother's birth. Feel the shimmer of her magic, no matter how faded and weak her circle might be after so long. "Yes, please."

Dagny picked up her phone, her gaze intent as her fingers flew over the screen. Then she lifted the device up to Sunzi. "Is this enough detail for you to pinpoint the location?"

Even though he stood behind me, I sensed the flare of his sunfire. Heat prickled my arms, and the air seemed to shimmer around us.

"Got it," Sunzi replied.

:Intruder approaching,: one of my Blood said in our bonds. A picture of a gray car with four doors flashed in my head.

Sunzi's hands closed on my shoulders, ready to pull me up and away. I heard the whisper of steel as Marcus and Vlad armed themselves. Snarling, War and Strife bristled with fiery spikes.

"Are you expecting anyone else to arrive?" Sunzi asked.

Dagny's eyes widened. "No, no one." She flipped through screens on the phone and then let out a slow breath. "Kevin Isador informs me that Joseph Harris reached out to him and indicated he was on his way. He doesn't have my direct number."

"The human policeman." Vlad huffed out a laugh though he didn't put the short sword away. I had no idea where he'd even been carrying such a long blade. "Maybe he brought along some entertainment."

Lightly prodding the brutal tip of his blade with the pad of his thumb, he didn't have to give me multiple tries to guess what—or rather who—he meant.