The Pretender's Crown (69 page)

Then the priest is naming Javier something more than king of Aulun or king of Gallin: he's naming him emperor of the western lands, and Rodrigo is pursing his lips in a smile while Javier tries not to goggle in shock. He's had no ambition for such titles, and thinking that reminds him again of Sacha, who would be pleased, and so somehow Javier manages a smile. Marius would be proud, and Sacha satisfied, and Eliza will be queen to an empire. That, perhaps, is something; maybe it will salve wounds over the next months and years.

But beneath that proclamation, softly, so no one but Javier will hear it, Belinda whispers, “Javier de Castille, queen's bastard, wearing a pretender's crown though he's the rightful king of Aulun. Rule wisely, brother, for my blade's yet unblooded, and I'll not have my country ruined by your revenge.”

She waits a long moment, gaze fixed on his, as though to make certain her words have come home to him, and then she steps back from the throne and lifts her voice to call out “Long live the king!,” and all the court takes up her cry. As it gains strength, she nods once to Javier, a mark of respect less showy but no less potent than a bow.

Then witchpower whispers, and that's the last any of them ever see of Belinda Walter, heir to the Aulunian throne.

8 January 1589
†
Brittany

Rosa, who has no last name and no husband to explain away her swollen belly, is grateful to have been taken on as a serving girl at an estate in Brittany She and her new masters, the king and queen of Gallin, know that this estate was once her grandfather's; that she herself was born here nearly a quarter-century ago. None of this gives her airs: at times even her lord and lady seem to forget she's other than a favoured servant.

They remember very clearly who she is when the first birthing pangs come on her. They remember who she is, and what, but Rosa has made a promise to them, and though she has in some ways broken all ties of loyalty, she is still a creature of her word. Not long after Rosa realises what the cramps mean, the queen of Gallin is tucked into a warm room with her husband and her favourite servant, the latter of whom will in truth do all the yelling for the next few hours.

No one else attends the birth: these three have enough secrets without adding to them, and the woman called Rosa will not let another game like the one Dmitri began come into play.

To her dismay, a lifetime of willing pain and emotion away is of no use at all against childbirth. A part of her is convinced it once would have been, but she's fallen too far, changed too much. Bellowing her way through the delivery is some sort of punishment for losing her way. That most women do the same makes no difference. The king is useless through all of it, and the queen's beautiful eyes are enormous with hope and dreams.

It seems an eternity later that pain fades into a child's squalling presence. Rosa, breathless, weary to the bone, sits up to see what manner of babe she's given birth to.

Eliza Beaulieu, once a guttersnipe and now the queen of all Gallin lifts the child—a girl; of course it would be a girl—in bloody hands. Javier de Castille, witch king of Gallin, comes to look at the
child in some astonishment. A slow smile blooms over both their faces, and the woman who was once the Aulunian heir reaches a fingertip to the protesting baby and chuckles when the girl seizes it. Then she closes her eyes and for a moment lets herself become Belinda Primrose again as she sinks back into the blankets to whisper the words that have defined them, defined them all, for every day of their lives:

“It cannot be found out.”

A hat-tip to Yei-Mei “Denyse” Chng, who came up with the title for
The Pretender's Crown
. I can't write a book until I've got the title, so that was a rather critically helpful bit. Thank you!

Similarly, thanks are due not only to my faithful beta reader Trent, but also to Rob, Deborah, Lisa, and especially my husband Ted, who all put up with my frustration when I broke two fingers during the writing of this book and was delayed for weeks in continuing. Further thanks to Judith Tarr, Anna Mazzoldi, and Kari Sperring for help with languages I don't speak, and, as usual, both my editor Betsy Mitchell and my agent Jennifer Jackson were full of insightful comments that improved the manuscript enormously.

I'd also like to pass on my thanks to the Del Rey art and production departments, who have given me books of genuine physical beauty. I'm a little bit of a font and layout geek myself, and I cannot tell you how happy I am with the way these books look.

Finally, I've always been a little dubious when writers thank their readers: do they really mean that? I can tell you now that they do, and I would like to particularly thank everybody who's left comments on my LiveJournal or taken a moment to email me and say they loved
The Queen's Bastard
and wanted to know when this book was coming out. Writing this series is a great adventure for me and I'm profoundly grateful that readers have embraced it.

C. E. M
URPHY
is the author of two urban fantasy series (The Walker Papers and The Negotiator Trilogy) as well as The Inheritors' Cycle and a monthly comic book titled
Take a Chance
. Her other hobbies include photography and travel, though she rarely pursues enough of either. She was born and raised in Alaska, and now lives in her ancestral home of Ireland with her husband and cats. More about C.E. and her work can be found at
cemurphy.net
.

The Pretender's Crown
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Del Rey Trade Paperback Original

Copyright © 2009 by C. E. Murphy

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

D
EL
R
EY
is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Murphy, C. E. (Catie E.)

The pretender's crown / C.E. Murphy.

   p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-345-51497-4

I. Queens—Fiction.   I. Title.

PS3613.U726P74 2009

813′.6—dc22        2009005703

www.delreybooks.com

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