Chapter 18

“Can you get me a bouquet of flowers?” North asked Botham. “Swipe them from the Salon if you must.”

“There is usually an extra vase of flowers kept back that sits on the table in the Queen’s personal sitting room,” Botham mused. “They’re a ‘just in case’ bunch, which we need sometimes in the winter. May I inquire their purpose?”

“Either my grave or my popping the question to Paquin,” North answered. “I haven’t decided which one is preferable because they’re both appealing.”

Botham’s eyes went wide. “You are asking for her hand in marriage?”

North scoffed. “This is the Court of the Crimson King, and I’m the Jack of Spades, lest you forget. Marriage? Nothing is ever simple in this place, and every move breeds consequences, a myriad of consequences. Marriage is not on the table this day, but the legacy of the Crimson King is. Go get the flowers and Botham, don’t get caught. Do you know where the Yellow Jester is?”

Botham did know. They departed together with the young man going in one direction and North setting off in another. He crossed the grounds without paying much attention to who was making their way between the buildings. The back door was one he had barely registered before.

In an interior room with no windows, North found his friend sitting at a small table with a quill in his hand. The room was filled with instruments on stands and puppets hanging from thick ropes opposite a rack of costumes. “Yes?” Claudio said, gently laying his quill on ink well tray.

“I am at a consequential crossroads, my friend,” North said, holding up his arms because further words could not make it out of his throat.

“I’m not surprised,” the Yellow Jester answered. “You’ve been on the trajectory of a shooting star. After yesterday ... what can I say?”

“I can no longer leave, my escape route has been permanently blocked,” North said.

“As Lord Aegis planned,” Claudio said. “You’re his true heir. He may not have planned how you would be elevated, yet he was convinced you were the one to elevate.”

“Well, the good lord failed to inform me of any of his plans,” North sniped. “I trained to defeat the Butcher and his army; that’s all I trained for with him. These plans within plans sound outrageous to my ears, frighteningly so.” He took a breath. “I admit I am more than I was when we first met, but an heir to a rebellious legacy? Ask me who I am, and the truthful answer is: ‘I’m still me.’ I am not of these people.”

Claudio held out both of his hands. “Yes, that is the dynamic he sought for himself. These people must change for the Court to survive. Aegis saw himself as the prototype and that is the role you now fill. Even our Queen knows change must come to the Court, and like Aegis, she chose you.”

“She has more than meddled in my life,” North spat out. His anger was rising again, and he felt the Power glowing in his gut.

“She has the power to build people and the power to destroy people, North,” Claudio said with a sad smile. “When she ignores you, the desired consequence is death. Consider: she wants to build you, and you have been willing once you got a taste of the Court. All of us act under her sponsorship and accept the consequences, good and bad, that come with it.”

“Paquin,” North uttered, again lost for words.

“The greatest of her generation already,” Claudio declared. He gave North a wink. “These lords and ladies act as if she is a grand prize to be won. They are myopic, almost blind to the potential that young woman embodies. Even our dear Queen misses the mark, seeing her as another piece on her chess board. She is much more.”