Three Dark Crowns Read Free Page B

not allow that. They say the strongest poisoner queens have poison blood. I would hate for any of these vultures to steal you away, looking for a taste.”
    Poison blood. How disappointed they would be, then, if they tasted hers.
    â€œâ€˜Vultures’?” she says. “Are not many of the people here your family?”
    â€œYes, precisely.”
    Katharine laughs and stops only when her face drops too near the Deathstalker. Pietyr is tall, and taller than her by almost a head. She could easily dance looking the scorpion in the eyes.
    â€œYou have a very nice laugh,” says Pietyr. “But this is so strange. I expected you to be nervous.”
    â€œI am nervous,” she says. “The Gave—”
    â€œNot about the Gave. About this year. The Quickening at the Beltane Festival. The start of everything.”
    â€œThe start of everything,” she says softly.
    Many times Natalia has told her to take things as they come. To keep from becoming overwhelmed. So far it has been easy enough. But then, Natalia makes it all sound so simple.
    â€œI will face it, as I have to,” Katharine says, and Pietyr chuckles.
    â€œSo much dread in your voice. I hope you can muster a bit more enthusiasm when you meet your suitors.”
    â€œIt will not matter. Whichever king-consort I choose, he will love me when I am queen.”
    â€œWould you not rather they loved you before then?” he asks. “I should think that is what anyone would wish—to be loved for themselves and not their position.”
    She is about to spout the appropriate rhetoric: being queen is not a position. Not just anyone can be queen. Only her, or one of her sisters, is so linked to the Goddess. Only they can receive the next generation of triplets. But she understands what Pietyr means. It would be sweet to be cared for despite her faults, and to be wanted for her person rather than the power she comes with.
    â€œAnd would you not rather that they all loved you,” he says, “instead of just one?”
    â€œPietyr Renard,” she says. “You must have come from far away if you have not heard the whispers. Everyone on the island knows where the suitors’ favors will go. They say my sister Mirabella is beautiful as starlight. No one has ever said anything half so flattering about me.”
    â€œBut perhaps that is all it is,” he says. “Flattery. And they also say that Mirabella is half mad. Prone to fits and rages. That she is a fanatic and a slave to the temple.”
    â€œAnd that she is strong enough to shake down a building.”
    He eyes the roof over their heads, and Katharine smiles. She had not meant Greavesdrake. Nothing in the world is strong enough to tear Greavesdrake from its foundation. Natalia would not allow it.
    â€œAnd what about your sister Arsinoe, the naturalist?” Pietyr asks casually. They both laugh. No one says anything about Arsinoe.
    Pietyr turns Katharine again around the dance floor. They have been dancing a long time. People have begun to notice.
    The song ends. Their third, or perhaps their fourth. Pietyr stops dancing and kisses the tips of the queen’s gloved fingers.
    â€œI hope to see you again, Queen Katharine,” he says.
    Katharine nods. She does not notice how silent the ballroom has become until he is gone, and the chatter returns, bouncing off the south wall of mirrors and echoing until it reaches the carved tiles of the ceiling.
    Natalia catches Katharine’s eye from the center of a cluster of black dresses. She ought to dance with someone else. But the long, black-clothed table is already surrounded by servants like so many ants, setting the silver trays for the feast.
    The Gave Noir. Sometimes, it is called “the black glut.” It is a ritual feast of poison, performed by poisoner queens at nearly every high festival. And so, weak gift or not, Katharine must perform it as well. She must hold the poison down past