A Queen To Come Read online

  Sky kept his eyes closed for a moment longer. How long would they have to wait with dread until the unknown King and his Disciples made their next move? He hated looking at his watch every five minutes, expecting every minute that the hour had come around again. It didn’t help him in his research.

  He didn’t know his way around the library the way that Sophie did. He could ask one of the librarians for help, but he didn’t want news getting out that he was researching everything that had to do with the African Underworld. He wanted information on which King was in control of it, he wanted to know the names and faces of that King’s inner circle, and he wanted a map.

  There were Mergers – Affinite spies who integrated into undercover life in the Underworld – all over the place, picking up information and drawing maps and sending whatever else they could find out back to the Small Council through Felix. Sky knew there were recent maps of the African Underworld somewhere. He knew that it didn’t matter that everyone on the island could get their hands on them. Affinites couldn’t get into the Underworld even if they wanted to. There were entrances, but their precise location could not be found in any of the books here. A few Watchers who lived close to an entrance knew the location of that single one, because it was important for the Small Council to know as much about the comings and goings of Disciples as possible. Sky knew where some entrances were, but he doubted Reth and Yaro would be kept anywhere near those. Once Sky had narrowed down where the two Affinites were being kept, he would have to magically create another entrance, so he would have to deal with as little Disciple resistance as possible.

  Luckily for him, he already knew how to do that.

  He would take some of Nathan’s blood and channel his brother’s magic to create a door in the ground. Nathan did it every time they had to venture into the Underworld. Back in the Original War, Queen Aiyana and the first Aster of Flora had created the Underworld and banished the Kings and Disciples there. Since the Kings were immortal, Aiyana chose to create a place for them to exist, but where they could do no harm to the humans living above. The Kings and Disciples were able to return to the Surface; there was nothing Aiyana could do to trap them there forever, but with the army she had raised, the Kings were better off staying underground. There had been a few uprisings throughout history, but no King had ever succeeded in taking back the Surface.

  Sky realised he’d been standing with his back against the bookcase, with his eyes closed, for quite a while when suddenly a voice snapped him back to reality.

  “Sky Mayne?” There was mockery in the boy’s voice. Sky didn’t need to open his eyes to know who it was.

  “Walk away, Jacob.”

  “It is you.” Jacob made an exaggerated gasp. “This is one for the history books. Sky bloody Mayne is in a library.”

  Slowly, Sky opened his eyes and turned his head to the left.

  Jacob Henderson stood at the end of the bookcase, his arms crossed over his chest and a very amused grin on his face. His sandy blonde hair had grown longer than usual, and now reached the top of his eyes. Jacob brushed the hair away from his forehead, his brown eyes twinkling as he looked at Sky.

  “You really don’t want to do this with me right now,” Sky warned.

  “What’s the matter, Aussie? Got dizzy walking around in circles trying to find the right book?” Jacob joked. “Do you want me to get a nurse?”

  Sky smirked. “Yes, get me a nurse. Preferable around the age of twenty.”

  Jacob chuckled humourlessly. “You haven’t changed.”

  “Yeah, neither have you,” Sky retorted, contemptuously.

  Jacob cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. “So why is the legendary Sky Mayne in a library? Finally figured out the next mission will kill you if you don’t open a book once in a while?”

  “In your dreams am I ever going to die,” Sky snarled.

  Jacob grinned coldly. “Ah, right.”

  Both of them knew Sky wasn’t far off the point. Jacob did dream of him dying. It sounded harsh, but it was true. Jacob dreamed of becoming an Aster. He trained for it every day of his life. Yes, Asters were born through blood; a parent needed to be one for the child to inherit the magic. But an Affinite could become one should the worst happen. For as long as an Aster didn’t have a child yet on whom to pass on his or her magic, and that Aster was to die, the magic could be extracted from the body and passed on to an Affinite. That Affinite would then become an Aster, and his or her child would be one, too. That way the Aster magic would never die out.

  Jacob was half moving away when he turned his head back towards Sky. “How’s Sophie doing these days? Looking forward to the Queen arriving soon, right? She must be very excited.”

  “You stay away from my sister,” Sky snapped. He couldn’t stomach the idea of Jacob going anywhere near Sophie.

  “But she isn’t really your sister, is she, though?” Jacob said, amused. He knew he always hit a nerve when he brought up Sophie in the conversation.

  Sky narrowed his eyes at the English boy with an affinity for strategy. “She is in every way that counts. And if you even attempt to hurt her, I will risk being thrown into the Frozen Dungeons to rip out your throat.”

  “Oooh.” Jacob held his hands in the air in mocking surrender. “And we all know how ruthless you can be. Or is it flying around like a little fairy, with your sparkly blue lights, that makes you particularly intimidating?”

  “Pretty words for a boy with no magic,” Sky taunted.

  “I don’t need any the way you always seem to.”

  “For ripping your throat out, neither do I.”

  Jacob saw the blazing in Sky’s eyes and knew he had done enough to rile him. Sky wasn’t just known to be impulsive and rash amongst his brothers and sister. Though he had never lost his temper amongst Affinites, Jacob could imagine that if it were ever to happen, he would be the recipient of it.

  Instead of seeming nervous, Jacob laughed instead. Sky narrowed his eyes at him. Jacob waved his hand and turned around to walk away. “Happy reading, Aster. Maybe you’ll finally figure out how to spell your own name.”

  Sky growled at Jacob’s back. He shook himself mentally and forced himself to calm down. It was no use getting all worked up over Jacob Henderson. All that boy lived for was to get under their skin, and to learn and train hard enough that if one of them died, he might gain one of the Asters’ magic for himself. Sky would fight until his last breath to make sure that would never happen.

  Sky shook his head once again and returned to the little round table he had made his own. Two piles of books were stacked on top of it, and a single book lay open on a page with the world map and its time zones. Sky sat down and stared at the world map. A part of Asia and the West Coast of Australia would be next to call in.

  He turned his attention to the pile of books on the right and pulled off the top one. He had looked in this one before. It was filled with maps of the Underworld. Each page depicted layouts of the various districts of each of the territories. Some were extremely detailed. As Sky flipped through the pages in search of a specific map he had already found earlier that day, his gaze momentarily rested on the floor plan of the throne room, and a few of the surrounding rooms, in the underground castle of the capital district of the North American Underworld.

  Sky kept the page open for a while and examined the rooms. The detail in the map was incredible. That a Merger would have to have been up close in all these rooms, and for long periods of time, to sketch them out at this level of perfection – and get them back out to the Surface undetected – was hard for Sky to fathom.

  He looked at the bottom of the map and saw a name scribbled at the bottom. A. Jones, it said. Sky didn’t do much research. Or any real research for that matter. But even he knew who Agatha Jones was. She was her own kind of special. She was an Indigo: an Affinite born with not just one affinity inherited from one parent, but with both affinities from each parent. The amalgamation of the two affinities led to a cr
ackle of raw energy that bordered on magical. She couldn’t cast spells or perform magic in the way that the Asters could. But her affinity had been magnified to such an extent that she could not be considered just another Affinite. Indigos came along as often as a scientific genius did; once, possibly twice in a generation, if the world was lucky enough.

  Sky had always wanted to meet her, but the woman had been in the Underworld ever since Sky had known her name. She never re-surfaced. She was like a ghost. Some Affinites even went as far as to claim that Agatha Jones never existed at all.

  Sky smirked at the idea as he continued his way through the book. After the section on the North American Underworld came the South American Underworld. These maps were quite dated. No new information about the layout of that territory had come through in the last twenty-five years. Even before King Astaroth’s death, it had always been impossible for Mergers to get into the capital district of the South American Underworld without blowing their cover. But since the King’s death, parts of the capital had been closed off completely from Disciples, too; only the highest ranking Disciples had access to those parts.

  Astaroth had been the most powerful King the world had ever known, and he had also been one of the original seven. He had been killed in the war twenty-five years ago by the Ceders, the previous generation of Asters, but no one knew how they’d managed to do it. It was said Tomas Mendosa, Gayle Mendosa’s father, had been the one to deliver the killer blow, but something had happened in the aftermath of that duel that had messed with his memory. Some last gasp effect of Astaroth’s magic of Lightning, perhaps. Sky remembered his mother telling him how she had found Tomas standing over Astaroth’s body, but him having no idea how it had happened.

  Sky grazed his hand over the double-bladed axe drawn on the bottom right corner of the page; Astaroth’s signature weapon and that of his inner circle and other highly ranked soldiers. Every Aster and Affinite in the world would recognise the weapon anywhere. If the Asters were ever to encounter that axe, with the red gemstone in the middle and the thin red carvings that decorated the blades, they knew they were in big trouble. Astaroth had been the most powerful King in history. His successor wouldn’t be weaker. And the worst part was that, until this day, no one knew who his successor was.

  Sky shook himself mentally. There was no point worrying about an unknown King in South America, when he had a very real and very well-known King to deal with in Africa.

  Sky gave the double-bladed axe one more glance before turning the pages until he reached the part in the book that focused on the African Underworld, ruled by the one hundred and twenty-seven-year-old King Brys.

  Earlier that day, Sky had marked a few pages and for the last time he would attempt to memorise the route he would take that evening. He had narrowed down the places where Yaro and Reth could be held to two spots, and they weren’t as far away from each other as Sky had feared.

  For another half an hour he went over the plan in his head. He knew exactly where on the Surface of the earth he would shimmer to, after which he would take Nathan’s blood to use his magic of Flora to open up the earth and form an entrance leading down into the Underworld. Sky drilled the map into his brain; he forced himself to remember every door, every corner and every corridor. He knew where he’d have to turn left twice and he knew where he was most likely to encounter the first Disciples, were they to detect his presence.

  Again and again he replayed his plan in his head. His brothers and sister would understand why he had left. They would understand why he hadn’t told them. He would leave a note. They would know where he was and how to find him if he was gone for longer than two days without sending a signal for his well-being.

  They would be angry when they found out he had vanished.

  “Are you out of your mind?” came a voice from behind him.

  Or they would be angry now, Sky thought. He closed his eyes and turned around slowly. When he opened his eyes again Sophie was standing over him, her hands on her hips, staring at the map of the African Underworld lying before him.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  Sky bit his lip. “Wouldn’t you already know? Since you’re the smart one?”

  It was the wrong thing to say, because before he knew it, he was clutching his cheek where she had slapped him across his face.

  “Don’t you dare take that tone,” Sophie snapped. Her thunderstorm grey eyes were blazing in anger. “You are planning to go to the African Underworld by yourself? Are you really that stupid?”

  Sky shoved his chair back and stood up. Being nearly a head taller than her, he towered over her. But that didn’t intimidate her. Sophie lifted her chin and glared angrily at her brother.

  “I can’t just sit here and do nothing! You know that!”

  “So you decide to go on a suicide mission?”

  “It’s not a—”

  But Sky got interrupted by the head librarian, popping her head around the nearest bookcase and shushing them. Both Sky and Sophie muttered their apologies and waited for the librarian to move on before turning back to glare at each other again.

  “It’s not a suicide mission!” Sky whispered angrily. “I’ve done my research.”

  “Oh, research my arse. You don’t even know if they’re in Africa!” Sophie hissed.

  “Odds are they are.”

  “You know what are greater odds? That you get killed trying to find two people who won’t even be where you will be looking.”

  “And where should I be looking?” Sky paused for a moment. “You know something.”

  “Of course I know something. I know everything!”

  “Then tell me!”

  “I’m not telling you anything.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m coming with you.”

  That made Sky pause. Sophie never agreed with his impulsive decision-making, let alone joined him into carrying out whatever plan he had concocted.

  “You what? Why?”

  “Because you’re going to go no matter what I say.”

  “What does that have to do with you going?”

  “Because you need my brains to keep you alive.” Sophie moved around Sky and picked up the book with the map of the African Underworld. Sky had drawn two red circles around the places where he had decided the best chances were to find Reth and Yaro. Sophie held the book up and pointed at one of the two circles. “There is no way they will be here.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because this map is ten years old and those rows of dungeons collapsed during an earthquake two years ago, you dumbass.”

  “How is it possible that you know that?” Sky exclaimed.

  Another shushing came from further down in the library. Sky looked round briefly at where the sound came from, before looking back at Sophie’s livid face.

  “Because I do more research than opening a single book in two years and think I know everything about an entire Underworld territory!” Sophie hissed. “If you went there now, you’d not only come face to face with a collapsed dungeon. You wouldn’t be anywhere near Reth and Yaro. And you would’ve been detected.”

  “So what if I’m detected? I can shimmer out just fine. Why do you think I didn’t ask anyone to come with me? If we got separated then we’d be screwed.”

  “That’s your reasoning?” Sophie raised her eyebrows at him as if he was completely missing her point. “Then let me ask you this. If the African King isn’t behind this, you really want him to retaliate for breaking into his territory while we’re already dealing with another King? You really want to be the reason we have to fight off not one, but two Kings at the same time?”

  “If you really believe all that, then why are you putting so little effort into talking me out of it? Why immediately say you’re coming with me?”

  Sophie crossed her arms. “Because I know you. And you will still go because you don’t think.”

  Sky narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t agree
with me just a little?”

  Sophie sniffed. “I’m not a fan of waiting around while the next Affinite gets taken. But—” she added the second Sky opened his mouth to agree, “that doesn’t mean I’m condoning this plan in the slightest, you understand me? You realise this would’ve killed you.”

  “I would’ve found a way out. You know I would’ve.”

  “Don’t push it,” Sophie warned.

  Sky nodded. “All right, fine! Let’s go get the others, then.”

  He was about to pass her to walk out of the library when she caught his arm and pulled him back to stand in front of her. “Woah, woah, woah, where do you think you’re going?”

  “On a secret mission,” Sky threw back at her, “that will probably get us both killed and could start a war with a King who has nothing to do with this, right? So I’m getting our brothers. You wanted to come. Why wouldn’t they?”

  “You are not dragging anyone else into this!”

  Sky stared at her. “You dragged yourself into this!”

  “That is not the point.”

  “Come on. Nathan would come.”

  “Do not drag Nathan into this.”

  “He can make a door! And possibly an escape route if necessary.”

  Sophie shook her head vigorously. “No. Not a chance. He should not be a part of this.”

  “He’s so protective of all of us. Especially of you. If we tell him, he’ll come along without us actually asking,” Sky reasoned

  “Precisely. He will come along for us, even if he doesn’t believe it’s the right thing.”

  “You don’t believe it’s the right thing either,” Sky reminded her.

  “What did I tell you about pushing it?” Sophie exhaled heavily. “I should just have you thrown in the castle dungeons.”

  “Then why don’t you?”

  Sophie gave Sky a look. “Because you know a way out.”