“They may have been able to conjure images that seemed to test the very nature of this world.”
I hold up my left hand, and imagine lightning striking me from the sky above.
Esther staggers in a show of astonishment. In truth, Esther is helping me. I can’t see any of the illusions I create, but she can see all of them. Anywhere my illusions fail, hers can continue.
“But the one thing that’s different for me is not just my name,” I shout. “It’s not just my life. It’s my power.”
I clap my hands together and imagine ripples of fire and electric energy spiraling outward, rising up into the sky, and forming a halo rotating far above the arena.
Three seconds pass, and then Esther lifts her sword and charges at me, swinging the blade toward me. I let Esther take over the illusions overhead. The heads in the audience are all tilted upward at the spectacle and marvel of it all.
I imagine myself standing before Esther. Then I imagine another version four feet closer, then three feet to the left and three feet to the right.
Esther swings at the open air before me.
I hear the gasps of the crowd as the blade passes through the air. Gasps again as she swings in another direction.
Esther, seemingly frustrated with swiping her blade through nothing but air, throws down the sword. It clatters to the stones.
“Show yourself!” she shouts.
I release the hold I have over the hallucinations around me, letting myself appear to her. Everyone falls quiet, and I will my voice to project over them so that everyone can hear me.
“You think I am a mistake,” I say to her. “But I am not. You think I am impossible, but when the impossible stands before you, what do you call it then? What do you call me?”
On cue, Esther releases her control over the images far overhead. There is no more spiraling halo of fire or bursts of lightning.
“I will not rule with fear,” I say. “I will not rule through intimidation or a hunger for control. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t understand. But understand this: I am not impossible. I stand before you. Your father trusted me enough to name me queen. You believed in his leadership. You have faith in his choices. I am one of those choices. So why not have faith in me?”
Esther stares at me. She’s trying her best to appear angry and thoughtful. I know what we’re saying is for the benefit of the crowd—it’s all a con—but at least to her, every single word of it is true.
“You understand the responsibility you’re accepting?” Esther shouts. “You understand that the moment this day ends, the only way the tattoo will leave your arm is with your death?”
“If I become unfit to rule,” I say, “it is a sacrifice I will readily make.”
Esther considers this for a moment, and the crowd waits in near-absolute silence.
“You said you did not believe I was the heir to Seriden’s throne,” I say. “What do you think now?”
“I think you are strong,” Esther says, and I can see the truth of it in her aura. “You are making the decisions you think are best, and if you’ll take the council of the Royals into consideration, you could do great things for this city. You clearly have power and control; all you need is the support of the city. You are Seriden’s true sovereign.”
Esther spreads her arms out. “I yield to you,” she announces. “Do all other challengers yield?”
There’s no small amount of hands that go up into the air. All the hands mean that they’re ready to follow Esther’s lead. Glenquartz joins us and gives me a formal salute, showing the audience that at least part of the Royal Guard is on my side.
Esther’s gaze falls to General Belrosa Demure, who stands across the arena. Belrosa, at last, under the pressure of the audience, raises her hand as well. She meets Esther’s gaze, furious in the face of the shifted alliance. She walks toward us, to where Glenquartz, Esther, and I stand in a row.
“If someone such as you,” Belrosa says to Esther as she approaches us, “can find your way to accepting the Nameless queen, then who am I to speak against her?”
I watch the way Belrosa advances. She hasn’t bothered to sheathe her sword, and its long blade catches the light as she moves. I stay on my guard. If Belrosa’s coming in for a formal handshake, one thing is clear: she’s going to try to kill me.
Her aura is still as cold as ice.
This must be Belrosa’s con: cede the duel and get close enough to take the tattoo by force. She starts to the left, going in to shake Glenquartz’s hand, and it’s smart: it allows her to approach me from the side instead of head-on.
She clasps Glenquartz’s hand in her left. “I commend you for your good work, Lieutenant. Your talents far exceed your rank.”
To everyone else, it sounds like a compliment. Glenquartz’s aura is like steel.
Belrosa shakes Esther’s hand next and says, “Bravely fought and bravely spoken.”
Then she comes to me, and her aura is like a force that almost pushes me. She extends her left hand, and I see her grip on her sword tighten.
“Your Highness,” she says, with a downward tilt of her head. “That display was…as inexplicable and impossible as you are. And it certainly sounded like the truth.” She reaches out to take my hand the same way she did the first time I met her at the Royal Council. This time, however, she won’t catch me off guard. I’ve been practicing with Esther. I can do this.
But then, as I reach out to take her hand, preparing for the onslaught of fear and anger from her touch, everything goes wrong at once.
“If I cannot have your crown…,” Belrosa whispers, trailing off. There’s a sharp movement, and people start screaming. My heart drops, and I wonder if this is the signal to her army to start slaughtering people. But then I see the shine of her sword as she reaches sideways and doesn’t do a single thing to harm me, but instead stabs Esther.
CHAPTER 23
The crowd surges in outrage, and the entire Royal Council is on their feet in alarm.
“Then I will have your crown,” Belrosa says to Esther.
Simple confusion fills Esther’s aura. She pulls her arm to her body as Belrosa withdraws the blade, and then she falls to her knees.
Glenquartz is in front of us in an instant, and I’ve never seen him with such spitting rage. Belrosa staggers as she parries Glenquartz’s forceful swings, and Esther’s tattoo has already started to fade from her arm and transfer to Belrosa.
“Esther!” I cry, collapsing to my knees as she falls into my arms.