Maleficent never wanted to be thought of as her enemy again.
She took a breath and then another, letting the green magic fade away from her fingers.
No, she would find another way.
“Perhaps it would behoove me to get to know Phillip a little better,” she said, although she could barely bring herself to look at him with anything other than hostility. But it was Aurora who needed to know him better, to see through his deceptions. And perhaps there was a way to trick the prince into behaving like the person he doubtless was back in Ulstead. “Come dine here in the Moors with us, tomorrow evening. Before Aurora’s festival and your departure.”
“It would be a pleasure,” Prince Phillip said, as though the invitation were a perfectly normal one and not a gauntlet of challenge thrown down between them.
Good. Let him come to the Moors. Let him sit at her table and eat from her plates. He had no more love for the faeries than any of the rest of the humans. He would be frightened, and once he was, he would show Aurora his true nature.
“You need not,” Aurora said, her voice holding a clear desire to warn him off more firmly.
“If he wishes for my approval, he will accept my invitation.”
“Oh,” said Phillip with a bow, “I never thought to refuse it.”
Aurora’s eyebrows knitted, but all she said was “Good night, then. It was very good of you to come all the way here to give me your news. I am sorry we didn’t get to finish our walk.”
“After dinner tomorrow, perhaps,” he said.
Aurora’s smile bloomed, bright as any star. Maleficent refrained from rolling her eyes.
With a careless wave, Prince Phillip departed the Moors, followed only by Maleficent’s steady scowl.
“Why are you determined not to like him?” Aurora asked, whirling on her, a fresh light of anger in her eyes. “He has been a kind friend to me since I was crowned queen. You can’t believe he’s here to win my hand like Lord Ortolan presumes. And even if you did, you must know that I am uninterested in any courtship!”
“I only wish for you not to make the mistakes I made,” Maleficent said, putting a hand on Aurora’s shoulder. Perhaps she had acted too much in haste. “You know little of the world, as I once did. I suffered for that lack. I would not for anything wish you to suffer. I would not wish for you to be betrayed, your heart broken—even by a kind friend.”
Aurora pulled away. “What am I to do instead? Surround it with thorns, as you did?”
“You are my heart,” Maleficent said softly. “And you are right that I guard it fiercely.”
Chapter 16
“Did you hear her this afternoon?” Lord Ortolan demanded, pacing his chamber. “We must act, and swiftly.”
He had wormed his way into King Henry’s court many years before. He knew how to flatter a ruler, how to inflame ambition in his breast.
It had been easy to steer King Henry toward greater and greater excess, until war with the Moors had been the only way to enrich his treasury. King Stefan had been more difficult, especially after the death of Queen Leila, when he spent more and more time alone, shouting at the pair of wings he’d caged, as though they were likely to give him advice.
But that setback had led Lord Ortolan to greater opportunities. After all, if King Stefan wasn’t capable of dealing with matters of trade and taxes, then someone else had to do it. Someone had to note down into official record the gold and silver that was moving through the treasury. And someone had to help those nobles who sought Stefan’s favor find his ear. If Lord Ortolan had managed to enrich himself through all that, well, it was only what he deserved.
But none of his tactics seemed to be working with Aurora. She seemed to care little for flattery, and while she had ambition, it wasn’t the kind Lord Ortolan found useful to exploit.
“I did hear her,” Count Alain said, sitting in a chair. “I don’t think Queen Aurora cares a whit for your advice.”
Lord Ortolan turned toward him, unable to hide his anger. Count Alain’s father had been an easy man to work with. He had understood what it took to accomplish things, and Lord Ortolan had assumed his son would be cut from the same cloth. So far, he’d had cause to regret that. Count Alain was entirely too used to having his own way without working for it. “Be careful,” Lord Ortolan warned. “You need me. Not the other way around.”
“Oh?” asked Alain. “And I suppose you have another way to get your nephew appointed as your replacement despite being barely older than Aurora herself.”
Lord Ortolan gritted his teeth but didn’t snap at the count. Alain might be proud and lazy, but he wasn’t wrong. And Lord Ortolan was depending on that laziness; otherwise, how would his nephew manage to take over the operation of siphoning funds from the treasury? “And yet you have even less influence than I, even after your extravagant present.”
Count Alain sighed. “You said she would be tractable.”
“I was wrong. I did not realize how deep the rot ran.” Lord Ortolan looked down at the count. “But there is still hope. You will become the girl’s hero.”
“And just how am I supposed to do that?” Alain complained.
“We need a story. And a villain. And we must separate her from Maleficent and Phillip both,” declared Lord Ortolan. “The only question is whether you have the courage to do what must be done.”
Chapter 17
The next day was full of preparations for the festival. The cooks had to bring in enormous wheels of cheese, sausages, barrels of apples, baskets of eggs, and carts filled with sacks of flour, along with scores of promising young people to help them turn those supplies into a banquet.
Fun meant work, and a lot of it.
Maypoles were being erected, ribbons braided, tents sewn, and chairs cut. Musicians were arriving early, having been called from the countryside. Stewpots were being borrowed and spits constructed by the castle blacksmith.
Everyone seemed full of fresh energy. The courtiers were eager to plan their outfits. Two young girls recently arrived from a barony were nearly ecstatic with glee.
“Oh!” said Lady Sabine. She had deep bronze skin and wore her sleek black hair pulled back into a wimple. “We are so terribly excited to be here at court.”
“And we did so hope you would give a ball!” said her twin, Lady Sybil. “So it is wondrous that we came just in time for the festival. And there will be dancing, so it is very like a ball, really.”
“I suppose it is,” Aurora said hesitantly. Everything she’d heard of balls made them sound full of fancy people in enormous gowns. Not like her festival, where everyone would be welcome.
And of course, she was worried about the treaty. She’d listened to everything both the humans and the faeries had said to her and rewritten it herself. She wasn’t sure it would make anyone happy, but she hoped it was fair enough that everyone would at least be equally unhappy.
“I hope you will forgive me for saying so, but King Stefan and Queen Leila were quite dour rulers,” said Lady Sabine. “There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but you are so young that we hoped—”
Sybil jumped in, half like she was talking over her sister and half like they were speaking with one voice and few pauses. “We imagined meeting you so many times. We thought you might be lonely, growing up as you did. And we thought that perhaps you would like to do fun things.”