Read Online Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake - Free Book Online

replace every poisoner on the council with an elemental. With Westwoods. And with a Westwood-ledcouncil, the island will be weak enough to fall.
    â€œIf you have a proposal, Nephew, you ought to make it.”
    â€œKatharine has other assets,” Pietyr says. “Other strengths.” He holds his glass up to the light and peers through it. There is certainly no brandy as fine in Marguerite’s household.
    â€œAfter Beltane is over,” he continues, “the delegate suitors will be in close proximity to the other queens. They could slip poison in easily, and our hands would be clean.”
    â€œThe delegate suitors know the rules. None of them will chance being discovered.”
    â€œThey might if they love Katharine.”
    â€œThat is true,” Natalia admits. Boys will do much for a girl they think they love. Unfortunately, Katharine is not well-equipped to inspire such loyalty. She is sweet but far too meek. And Genevieve is right when she says she is too skinny.
    â€œCan you improve her in time?” she asks.
    â€œI can,” he says. “By the time I am finished, she will be such a jewel that they will forget all about politics and alliances. They will think with their hearts.”
    Natalia snorts. “It would be just as well if they thought with what is between their legs.”
    â€œThey will do that, too.”
    Her butler returns with a pot of mandrake tea, but Natalia waves it away. She will have brandy instead, to seal their bargain. Even if the suitors are of no use for poisoning, it will be worth it just for the disgrace being shunned will cause to Mirabella.
    â€œAnd what do you want in exchange for your aid?” she asks.
    â€œNot so very much,” Pietyr says. “Only to never return to my weakened father and his silly wife. And”—his blue eyes flash—“after Katharine is crowned, I want a seat on the Black Council.”
    Katharine stands quietly in a feather-light black robe as Giselle and Louise pull the sheets from her bed. After the night of the Gave and the morning of pain, they are ruined, stained dark with sweat and spatters of blood. Or perhaps they can still be saved. Louise has learned many tricks of laundering since becoming one of her maids. She is used to doing the cleaning after a heavy poisoning.
    Katharine tugs her robe closed and winces when the fabric drags across her blisters. Beneath her hand, Sweetheart’s empty cage hangs open. Her poor, lost little snake. She should have paid closer attention when she fell. She should have given her to a servant to look after before the feast began. Sick as she was, she did not even realize Sweetheart had been lost until morning. Far too late. But what truly pains her is that despite how frightened the snake must have been, Sweetheart did not bite.
    Katharine startles when Louise screams, and Giselle pinches the other maid hard on the shoulder. Louise has always been flighty. But her look of surprise is warranted. There is a boy standing inside the queen’s bedroom.
    â€œPietyr,” Katharine says, and he bows.
    â€œHas something happened to your pet?” he asks, and gestures toward her hand on the cage.
    â€œMy snake,” she says. “She went missing after . . . after . . .”
    â€œHas Natalia set servants to search the ballroom?”
    â€œI did not want to trouble her.”
    â€œI am sure it would be no trouble,” he says. He nods to Louise, who curtsies and darts off to tell Natalia. After she is gone, Pietyr dismisses Giselle as well.
    Katharine tugs the robe tight around herself, despite the blisters. It is hardly what she ought to be wearing to entertain a guest.
    â€œI am sorry for entering unannounced,” says Pietyr. “I am unused to following custom and protocol. Where I am from in the country, we take all sorts of liberties. I hope you will forgive me.”
    â€œOf course,” says Katharine. “But what . . . Why