A Throne for Sisters

The ring inside shone white gold, with diamonds that must have come from the other side of the world, and deep purple sapphires that were almost as rare. The band was a thing of intertwining strands, plaited into something delicate and elegant. It was the kind of ring that a master jeweler had probably worked for days over, and it had a sense of age to it that suggested it had probably been a royal heirloom since well before the civil wars.

“Sophia,” Sebastian said. “I had wanted to take my time before this, but the truth is that I already know what I want when it comes to you, and I… I want to do this before I have to go. I want you to be my wife.”

“You’re asking me to marry you?” Sophia asked.

Sebastian nodded.

There was only one answer to that. It overwhelmed any objection Sophia might have thought of, any concern she might have had about how other people might react. She pulled Sebastian up into her arms, holding him tightly as she kissed him.

“Yes, Sebastian! Yes, I’ll marry you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Kate almost hit her hand three times the next day, she was so distracted. She kept looking over to the spot where her stolen horse was tethered, happily chewing on grass and old oats. The first time it happened, Thomas laughed and told her to be careful. The second time, he frowned.

This time, he stopped in the middle of forging a set of horseshoes, letting the flames dull back down to an orange glow.

“No, don’t stop because of me,” Kate said. “If you stop working the metal, it will – ”

“I know what it will do,” Thomas said. “But I’d rather waste the effort than have you break all your knuckles swinging a hammer blind.”

Kate didn’t want that either, but she was willing to take the risk if the alternative was letting the smith down. She wasn’t going to ruin his work just because she was busy dreaming about fountains that could grant skill with a sword.

“What is it?” Thomas said. “Is Will out there to distract you?” He went over to the window. “The horse? Are you thinking of leaving us, Kate?”

There was a note of disappointment in that, and Kate could understand it. Thomas had given her so much, and here she was, not paying attention to the work that he had for her.

“It’s not that,” Kate said. “It’s just… you heard what happened at the training ground?”

She saw Thomas nod, and guessed that he’d had the details from Will. Either that, or one of the soldiers had spoken about it when they’d come to have a dent hammered out of a greave or a helmet.

“There’s a place where I could learn to fight,” she said.

“You’d ride off there and not come back?” Thomas asked.

“I’d come back,” Kate insisted. “I don’t want to stop being here.”

She was surprised to find that it was true. This was the first time that she’d had anything like a real home; the first time that she’d had people who seemed to care about her. Even Winifred seemed to in her way. It was just a way that was deeply worried for her son’s and her husband’s well-being. This was the first place where Kate had felt as though she was doing something useful.

Then there was Will. Kate wasn’t sure what there was with Will, not yet. She’d never had a chance to see boys as anything except bullies and threats, yet now here one was and she liked him. She liked him a lot.

“Then it sounds as though you should go,” Thomas said. “Before your distraction means that you hurt yourself.”

“But – ” Kate began. She’d been intending to finish the work for the day, at least.

Thomas shook his head. “I’ll get by without an apprentice for another day. Or two, if you need it. Go on with you. I’ll try to salvage these horseshoes.”

Kate didn’t need a second invitation. She hurried out to the horse she’d stolen, looking around until she found the tack for it and then starting to fasten it all in place. She was halfway through it when she saw Will coming out of the house.

“Kate? You’re not going, are you?”

He sounded worried that she might be, maybe worried that she would want to leave after what had happened with his regiment.

“I’m not leaving forever,” Kate said, and smiled at the thought that it was the kind of thing a boy might say when he was going off to war. “It’s just… there are things I need to do. I need to get stronger.”

“Why?” Will asked. “You’re safe here. I could protect you.”

Kate shook her head. That wasn’t good enough. She didn’t just want to be safe when Will was around to protect her. She didn’t want to have to rely on someone else to stay safe, even him. She wanted to be strong in her own right, and now there was a way.

“I could come with you,” Will suggested.

“I think I need to do this alone,” Kate said, because anything else would have meant explaining exactly what she intended. Even after everything Geoffrey had said, she still had a hard time believing that there might be a magic fountain that could make her unbeatable. Trying to explain that to Will would be even worse.

“At least try to be safe?” Will said, moving to stand close to her. Close enough that for a moment, Kate thought that he was going to kiss her. He didn’t, though, and Kate found herself feeling a hint of disappointment at that.

Maybe when she got back.

“I will,” Kate said. “And I’ll be back soon, you’ll see.”

She would be. With the strength she got from the fountain, she would be able to do all the things she’d wanted.

***

The ride to the forest took longer than Kate expected. Her horse was strong and fast, but Kate wasn’t enough of a rider to send it to the south at a full gallop. Instead, she rode at a steady pace, sticking to the broad, paved roads at the start, then pulling off onto dirt tracks as the trees came into view.

She tried to remember the map from the book. The spot marked on it had been specific, but she hadn’t seen the map for long. There had been something about way markers, and a staircase. Kate just hoped that they would be obvious.

They were. She found the first of them before she reached the forest. It was a block of stone, designs on it worn almost smooth by time and weather. Kate’s fingers traced a design that could have been a fountain, or could have been the maw of some great beast. There was an arrow cut into the stone, pointing to a smaller track. Kate took it.

Slowly, the foliage started to surround Kate, pressing in until she had to dismount and lead the horse. She didn’t want to leave it, but the trail was getting narrow enough that she might have to if things kept going like this.

She caught a flash of worked stone by the trail, and it was such a contrast to the tangled branches that pulled at her that she stopped, looking at it more closely. Kate brushed away a tangle of ivy with her foot, and saw that beneath it there was the stone block of a step. Another stood above it, and another, in a set of stone steps that had been all but lost to time and moss.

Kate tied her horse off now, taking a knife from her saddlebags and the wooden sword that she’d made as a way to practice designing blades. She used the wooden blade to clear away some of the tangled foliage ahead of her, cutting with the knife whenever she needed a sharp edge.

Her hacking revealed more stone in the form of another way marker, this one almost as tall as she was. It had carved symbols on it, in the lines and swirls of a language that had nothing to do with the kingdom’s. There was something else too: an image of a fountain.

Kate’s breath caught at that, and she hurried up the rest of the steps, daring to hope that this might all be real. She’d been sure that this was all some story, and then that she wouldn’t be able to find the fountain even if it did exist. Now, it seemed as though it might just be a short way away.

Kate’s feet slipped and stumbled as she climbed the stone steps, moss giving way underneath her, while brambles that seemed solid as she grasped them proved to be anything but. She ended up leaning on her practice blade the way someone else might have used a walking stick, using it to test the ground ahead of her while she clambered up the crumbling steps. Each one seemed designed to challenge her as she made her way forward.

“I hope the fountain is worth it,” Kate said as she climbed.

Although it wasn’t that far, the climb was difficult enough that it took her long minutes to reach the top. When she did, there was another short path through even denser trees, which seemed to block out the light, turning the world into something strange and unknown. They tangled together to form a kind of leafy arch, and Kate stepped through it, into an open space on the other side.

There were no trees here, just more of the ancient stone she’d clambered up to get here. It stood in the ruins of something that seemed far older, with fragments of wall there sticking out of the turf like teeth, and broken columns seeming like fingers reaching up through the grass. All of them were the dilapidated relics of some far earlier time, before the civil wars, maybe before even the kingdom.

The fountain stood at the heart of it, and one glance at it made Kate’s heart fall.