The Reluctant Queen (The Queens of Renthia #2)(127)

Apparently she couldn't.

Naelin felt the moment that Daleina lost control. It felt like a glass vase rupturing, and her head filled with screams. Distantly, she heard Ven calling to her. She felt the wild glee/rage/hunger surge through her-

Do no harm! she projected. She sent the thought as far and broadly as she could. She hammered it into the spirits. But there were so many! So many more than just in the palace. The queen must have drawn them from the forest beyond.

Already caught up in bloodlust, they didn't listen to her. She'd never pull them back to peace. She had to redirect them. Yes. You can do this. As Queen Daleina had taught her, Naelin pushed the spirits, refocusing them on the enemy. She made them reshape the bedrock that the foreign spirits had unearthed, regrow the trees that had been felled-but they fought her.

They wanted blood.

They wanted death.

Human blood. Human death. Naelin squeezed her head between her hands. They wanted it so badly that it hurt. She dropped forward, crashing onto her knees in the soft ground. She felt the earth kraken moving beneath the city, rocking the palace. Erian and Llor! Seizing the kraken, she redirected him away from the city.

But there were too many. She couldn't control them. At best, she could hold them, limit their destruction, but she couldn't do it indefinitely, and the enemy was rolling over the capital. She couldn't repel Semo's spirits while she contained Aratay's-

"She's coming!" Ven called. He climbed higher into the tree.

"I can't fight her!" Naelin could barely hold the spirits. She wasn't going to be able to keep them from destroying the city and face down a queen at the height of her power.

"Naelin . . . You were right, but not for the reasons you think," Ven said. "She didn't send you here to fight; she sent you to avoid a fight!"

Naelin didn't understand what he meant.

And then suddenly she did understand.



Champion Piriandra plunged her sword into the side of an earth spirit. It kept marching forward. As it swung its massive arm, she ducked beneath it. Gravel rained on her head. She yanked the sword out and swung again.

Beneath her, the forest floor buckled like waves. Aratay was predominantly tree spirits, but Semo had mostly earth spirits. She hadn't realized until now how difficult they were to fight. Climbing up onto one of the trees, Piriandra clung to a branch as it swayed. She surveyed the enemy soldiers-it was hard to see them through the flood of spirits-but she could pinpoint the location of . . . Where is she? "Can anyone see Queen Merecot?" she called. "Eyes on the enemy! Can you see her?"

The queen of Semo had been in the back behind the soldiers, directing the spirits. She'd been clever enough to stay out of range of any arrows, but she'd been ever-present, riding back and forth. Now Piriandra couldn't see her. She didn't know what that meant, but her gut said it wasn't good.



       
         
       
        

Still, she had little time to consider it. Two earth spirits were trying to break through the line of guards by pulling the soldiers hip-deep into the earth. Running along the roots, Piriandra helped lift soldiers up into the trees. They scrambled up the trunks, like ants, as one of the spirits of Aratay caused a spring to erupt in the path of the earth spirits. It swept them backward. Good, Piriandra thought. If they could focus on keeping the soldiers out of Mittriel-You can't conquer a place you can't reach. She'd feel better if she knew where Queen Merecot was, but-

One of the soldiers screamed. Piriandra swung up toward him. He was prone on a branch, and a tree spirit had pinned him down. It was gnawing on his leg. Jumping onto the branch, Piriandra kicked the spirit hard in the chest. It sailed backward, crashing against the trunk. And then spirits were all around her.

Their spirits. The spirits of Aratay. "They've gone rogue!" she shouted. "Defend yourselves!" She brought her sword up and then leaped onto the next vine, swinging low and slashing with her sword as air and tree spirits turned on their people.

The cry began to spread through the ranks. "The queen! The queen is dead! Queen Daleina is dead!" As Piriandra fought, she saw the soldiers begin to fall, caught beneath the claws and teeth.

"She will wake!" Piriandra shouted. "Fight, you idiots! Buy her time!"

She joined the other champions, circled around the candidates. Sword held in her sweating hand, she backed up shoulder to shoulder with Champion Havtru and Champion Keson. They fought, defending the remaining candidates, but there were too many.

All around, people were dying.

Soldiers. Candidates. Champions.