Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's Story (15 page)

The way that Evret asked her one night why she had gone to get Winter that day. Why she had brought it on herself to take Winter to the doctor’s appointment when clearly it was something the nanny was capable of.

“What do you mean?” Levana asked, her heart in her throat. “She’s my daughter, and I hardly get to spend time with her these days. Why shouldn’t I take her to her appointments?”

“It’s just…”

She tensed. “It’s just
what
?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

He kissed her, and that was the last that was said of it.

But all this she could have ignored. Let them think she was guilty. Let them accuse her behind closed doors. As the queen of Luna and the only royal descendant of the Blackburn bloodline, no one would dare accuse her to her face.

No—it was another rumor that chilled Levana to her core.

They were saying that Selene had survived.

It was not possible.

It could not be possible.

She had seen the body, smelled the charred flesh, witnessed the aftermath of the fire. A tiny toddler could not have lived through that.

She was dead. She was gone.

It was over.

So why did she go on haunting Levana this way?

*   *   *

“I hope you know that you are not in any trouble,” said Levana. “I only want to make sure I know the complete truth.”

Dr. Eliot stood before her in the center of the throne room. Normally this was the type of proceeding that would be dealt with in front of the entire court, but without knowing what, exactly, the doctor knew, Levana trusted very few people to listen to her testimony. She had even left her personal guards to wait in the corridor, for the last person she wanted to receive an account of this meeting was Evret, and even highly trained guards were not impervious to spreading gossip.

So it was only her, seated on her throne, and her trusted head thaumaturge, Sybil Mira, standing to the side with her hands tucked into the sleeves of her stark white coat.

“I have told you everything that I know, My Queen,” said Dr. Eliot.

“Yes, but … there are rumors. I’m sure you’ve heard them. Rumors that say Princess Selene may have survived the fire? That
you
, as the first person to inspect the bodies, might have some information about what was found in the fire that you’ve chosen to keep hidden.”

“I would hide nothing from you, My Queen.”

She inhaled a patient breath. “She was my niece, doctor. I deserve to know the truth. If she is still alive, it would … it would pain me very much to think that anyone would withhold that information from me. You know that I loved her as if she were my own.”

Dr. Eliot pressed her lips, the look brief yet intense. “I am sure,” she said, enunciating carefully, “that it would mean a
great
deal to you had the princess survived, My Queen. But when I saw the body after the fire, I’m afraid she was already lost. There was no saving her.”

“No
saving
her.” Levana leaned forward. “So you’re saying that she wasn’t dead yet?”

The doctor hesitated. “There was a faint heartbeat. This was mentioned in my report, Your Majesty. But while there was still some life in her when I arrived, she died shortly thereafter. I was there myself when the heartbeat stopped. She is dead.”

Levana gripped the arm of her throne. “And where was that? When her heartbeat stopped. Was that still in the nursery?”

“Yes, My Queen.”

“And was there anyone else there to witness it? Anyone who could vouch for your story?”

Dr. Eliot opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. “I … yes, My Queen. By that time, Dr. Logan Tanner had arrived as well, having rushed over from the med-center.”

Levana lifted an eyebrow. “Dr. Logan Tanner? I have not spoken to him.”

“All due respect, My Queen, I’m sure you have more pressing matters than conducting your own investigation into this tragic incident. Dr. Tanner will not give you any more information than I already have. As you said, I was the first to see the princess’s body. I can tell you with absolute certainty that she is dead.”

Staring at the doctor, Levana could feel the woman’s smugness rolling off her. She seemed anxious, but also confident.

She knew more than she was saying, and the knowledge of this itched beneath Levana’s skin.

“All due respect,” Levana said, feeling the words slithering in her mouth, “there is no more pressing matter than if my niece—our
future queen
—is alive. If this is true, and you choose to keep this information from me, you understand that it would be a high offense. It could be cause enough to have you tried as a traitor to the crown.”

The doctor’s smugness faded. She dipped her head. “I am sorry if I’ve caused any offense, My Queen. I did not mean to negate your concern over these rumors. It’s only that I can tell you nothing more than I already have. I certainly wish that there was substance to these rumors, that our dear princess had survived the fire. But I’m afraid it simply isn’t true.”

Levana leaned back into her throne, her fingers gripping the thick, carved arms. Finally, she nodded. “I believe you, and I apologize for this added inconvenience, Dr. Eliot. You have certainly been a loyal subject for many years, and that has not gone unnoticed.”

Dr. Eliot bowed. “Thank you, My Queen.”

Levana dismissed the doctor and waited until the massive doors had shut behind her before speaking again. “Do you think she is lying, Sybil?”

“I’m afraid I do, My Queen. There is something in her air that I find distrustful.”

“I agree. What can we do about it?”

Sybil came to stand in front of the throne. “It is essential that we uncover the truth of the aftermath of the fire. If Her Highness is alive, it is your right to know, as both our queen and the child’s only relative. Otherwise, how else can you possibly seek to protect her from further harm?” Sybil’s gray eyes glinted when she said
protect,
and Levana suspected that her head thaumaturge might know exactly why Levana was so set on finding out whether or not Selene was alive, but she also didn’t think Sybil was too bothered by the truth. After all, Levana was the one who had raised her to her current position, bypassing several candidates with more experience. Some days she wondered if Sybil was the only person in her entourage who was truly loyal to her.

“Dr. Eliot seems to be under the impression that my interest in Selene’s welfare is not born out of loving concern. How can I know that she is telling us everything when she seems set on keeping something hidden?”

Sybil smiled. “We thaumaturges are trained with certain methods of extracting information, even from those unwilling to give it. Perhaps Dr. Eliot and I should have a more private conversation.”

Levana stared at her, wondering if she wanted to know what these extraction techniques might consist of, but almost as quickly recognizing that she would go to any lengths to find out the truth of her niece and what had happened in the nursery that day.

Besides, Sybil herself didn’t seem opposed.

“Yes,” she said, sitting taller. “I think that is a necessary course of action, Sybil. Though I fear other people on staff won’t be as understanding.”

“We will make them understand. After all, it is rather peculiar that Dr. Eliot was the first trained doctor to reach the child, and yet she wasn’t able to rescue the girl, even after finding a heartbeat? The grounds for suspicion are obvious. It only makes sense that we would further investigate this matter.”

Feeling her anxiety start to ease, Levana nodded. “You are entirely correct.” She dug her fingernail into the carved ornamentation of the throne. “And once we have learned all we can from Dr. Eliot, I think it will benefit us to talk to this Logan Tanner as well. I want to know everything about the results of that fire.”

Sybil bowed. “I will see that it is done, My Queen.”

Dr. Eliot was taken into custody the next day for further questioning. Levana waited for Sybil’s reports, having no interest in the details, but day after day passed in which the doctor told them nothing of value.

Then, two weeks later, before Levana could find a way to question the second doctor, this Logan Tanner, without raising further suspicion … he disappeared.

*   *   *

Levana refused to be haunted by the ghosts of dead children and sisters, princesses and queens. In the year following Selene’s death, she leaped into her role as the new, true queen of Luna.

She continued to strengthen the army, allocating as many resources as she could to allow the scientists to perfect the bioengineering processes. The first group of soldiers began their training, and they were even more miraculous than Levana had imagined. Half man, half beast, all brutality and viciousness. Levana made it her duty to become well acquainted with the surgeries and training of the soldiers. It was a beautiful sight, when the first boys emerged from their suspended-animation tanks, still dazed and awkward with their new instincts and mutated bodies.

And hungry. They awoke so very, very hungry.

She came to know the research team well, headed by the infamous Sage Darnel, though Levana was not as impressed with the old man as she’d expected to be after hearing of his genius for so many years. When she met him for the first time, she could think only of how this man had fathered a shell, and it took all her willpower to listen to his unenthusiastic explanations of the surgical procedures without making snide comments on his worthless offspring.

Meanwhile, the first carriers of the disease were sent to Earth. Levana had heard, years before during her parents’ reign, that some of the citizens from the outer sectors would find ways to steal away in diplomatic or reconnaissance vessels heading to Earth, or pay what they could afford to persuade a supply pilot to whisk them away, leaving their life of labor behind. It was a selfishness that Levana couldn’t fathom—to think that any of her people would consider only themselves and abandon the country that needed them.

Her parents had always turned a blind eye to these fugitives, perhaps not understanding that their society would crumble fast if they could not hold on to their limited labor supply.

But now Levana had a use for these runaways. As the strain of the disease was slipped into the outer sectors, each Lunar gradually became an unknown carrier, and their own immunity would mean they had no idea that they carried within their bodies a lethal disease.

It wasn’t long before the first case of the disease was reported on Earth, in a tiny oasis town off the Sahara.

It spread quickly from there, raging through the Earthen Union like a wildfire. Though the Earthens hastened to set up quarantines for the sick, it was impossible to keep it contained when the secret carriers, the hapless Lunars, stayed so well disguised in their midst.

They called the disease
letumosis,
from an ancient language meaning death and annihilation, a fitting name as no one who caught the disease survived.

Levana and her court called it a success.

She didn’t know how long it would take to weaken the Earthens. Years, perhaps even decades, before the disease became the pandemic Levana envisioned. But she was already anticipating the time when she would swoop in and offer them an antidote. She was already dreaming of how the leaders of Earth would prostrate themselves before her. In their desperation, they would offer her anything. Any resource. Any land. Any alliance.

She would try to be patient, knowing that the day would come. She would try to ignore the pessimistic mutterings of her advisers and their reports that claimed all of the new labor initiatives she’d put into place were unsustainable. She would not back down now.

Everything was going according to plan. All that was required was patience.

Nearly fifteen months had passed since Selene’s death when Levana was told that Dr. Sage Darnel, head of the bioengineering team, had disappeared as well. Suicide, some suspected, although a body was never found. Many believed that he had never recovered from the birth and death of his shell daughter.

Yet another talented scientist, gone. But when Levana was informed that this would not halt the production of soldiers and that all surgeries would continue as scheduled, she forgot about the old man and his pathetic life entirely.

The years passed. Her legacy grew. The rumors of Princess Selene began to fade. Finally, finally, Levana had everything she wanted.

Almost
everything she wanted.

*   *   *

Levana stood on the palace lawn, watching as Evret chased Winter and Jacin around the lakeshore. She had finally relented to Evret’s friendship with Garrison and his family, and now they were a permanent fixture in her life, despite how much she wished Evret would befriend some of the court families. The boy must have been eleven now, a couple years older than Winter, slender as a twig and still as pale as the white sand he trampled on. He and the princess, to Levana’s dismay, seemed to have formed an inseparable attachment.

For her part, Princess Winter was growing up to be as beautiful as a love-sung lullaby. Her skin, a few shades lighter than Evret’s, was velvet soft. Her hair had grown into thick curls, tight as springs and glossy as high-polished ebony wood. She had her mother’s eyes, caramel, but with flecks of gray and emerald taken from her father.

Whispers were beginning to circulate. Whereas before, members of the court had mocked the idea of marrying a princess who was nothing more than a guard’s child—now, moods were changing. Though still only a child, her beauty was becoming impossible to ignore. Such a child would no doubt grow up to be a stunning woman, and the families were taking notice.

Levana knew that this would benefit her someday. Her stepdaughter would be an ideal bargaining chip should the need for an alliance arise. And yet, the first time she overheard talk of how the princess might someday be even more fair to look on than the queen herself, Levana’s thoughts had surged with hatred.

Levana had worked so hard to perfect her glamour. To be the most beautiful queen to ever sit on Luna’s throne—more beautiful than her mother, more beautiful than Channary. No longer was she the ugly princess, the deformed child. The thought that Winter could so easily achieve what she had worked so hard for churned in Levana’s stomach.