“What would happen if we all left the country?” Petunia asked.
“Galen says it wouldn’t matter,” Lily said. “And Poppy’s and Daisy’s weddings will be in a month. There’s no time to go very far.”
“What else is happening at home? I haven’t gotten a single letter since I arrived at the grand duchess’s,” Petunia said. This was the first time in years she and her sisters had been together in the Kingdom Under Stone, and even though it was a dream, she would still remember Lily’s words upon waking.
But all the while her eyes were on the dais. In the past they had been allowed to sit out only a dance or maybe two, even when ill, and now Kestilan was back and conversing with his brother the king. Both their gazes were on Petunia and Lily.
“You haven’t?” Lily was startled. “But someone’s written every day! It’s you who hasn’t written to us!”
“I’ve written,” Petunia protested, “when stupid Olga will let me!” Lily just gave her a confused look, so Petunia hurried to tell her what had been happening, running her words together as Kestilan started back around the edge of the dance floor toward her. “Rionin and the others have been sneaking through the gardens as shadows at night. They’re close to coming right into my room. Have they been after you all?”
“No,” Lily said, her eyes wide. “We’ve only had the nightmares. And none as real as tonight’s dancing.”
Poppy, coming over with a glass of punch, started shaking her head. “I think you need to come home, Pet. The Grand Duchess Volenskaya’s estate is not a safe place for someone who is plagued by the King Under Stone.”
“What on earth do you mean, Poppy?” Petunia looked from her to Lily, but it was clear that Lily didn’t know what their sister meant either.
“I’ve been reading some of Galen’s books,” Poppy said. “Did you know that the grand duchess is one of the Nine Daughters of Russaka?”
“Oh, nonsense,” Petunia said. She started to laugh, but then she saw Poppy’s and Lily’s faces. “That story isn’t real, is it?”
“Of course it is,” Lily said. “I remember Dr. Kelling talking about it with Anne once. It was the greatest scandal in Ionia, until our suitors started dying.”
“But if the grand duchess … if she really is … and it’s not just a story …,” Petunia sputtered.
“Then she was once the lover of the first King Under Stone,” Poppy finished for her. “Which is why I think you’re not safe there, Pet.”
“If we had known,” Lily said, stricken. “We never would have sent you.”
“Ask Galen when you wake up,” Petunia said with authority, ignoring the way Poppy raised her eyebrows at Petunia’s tone. “I want you to be sure before you start causing problems with the grand duchess, Poppy. And I still want to know what’s been happening with the lot of you since I’ve been gone.”
“Clearly nothing as exciting as what you’ve been up to,” Poppy said.
“What excitement has Petunia been up to?” Kestilan demanded, stalking over to dance with Petunia again.
But before she could think of a cutting reply, they all froze.
The King Under Stone had left his throne and was walking toward them, the dancers parting to make way for the gaunt ruler. Petunia could see that Jonquil had actually stepped behind her partner, visibly shaking. Rionin had once been Jonquil’s partner at the Midnight Balls, but he had not danced in any of the dreams Petunia had had. His father had never danced either but had drawn power from the life and energy of the princesses as they danced with his sons and his court night after night.
“I have come to a decision,” said the king, his voice light but carrying across the entire room like a piercing winter wind. “My father never chose a queen, preferring instead the freedom of bachelorhood.”
The court all laughed, but Lily gave a small moan, pressing back against the chipped silver-and-ebony chair in which she sat. Petunia looked around, distressed, until she saw Rose sidling toward them. Their oldest sister was wearing a dark purple gown, and her partner kept trying to take hold of her arm again, but Rose simply ignored him. Like Lily, Violet, and Orchid, Rose’s original dancing partner had been killed during the battle to free them from the Kingdom Under Stone, and now she danced with some nameless courtier night after night.
“But I would like a queen to sit by my side,” the King Under Stone announced. “A helpmeet, as they say in the sunlight world. To share the joys and pains of this life with me, and to provide me with heirs, who, in turn, I hope will give me grandchildren. Beautiful, sunlight-dwelling grandchildren.”
The court greeted this pronouncement with applause and cheers.
And a scream.
Petunia, who had gone numb at this horrible revelation, felt the scream run through her like a jolt of lightning. She looked at Poppy and Lily, who were closest to her, but it was neither of them.
“It’s Jonquil,” someone called over the continued sound of screaming.
That sounded like Iris, but Petunia couldn’t be sure in the tumult. Where were the rest of the younger set? Pansy? Orchid? All she could see were the cruel faces of Under Stone’s court.
Rose shoved Kestilan hard in the chest to get by and ran to Jonquil. Petunia followed in her wake but stopped when the King Under Stone brushed past her, going in the opposite direction. He wasn’t going toward Jonquil after all but advancing on Lily, who was now prevented from going to their sister by the king’s tall, spare form.
“Never! Never! Never! I would sooner die!” Jonquil was screaming in a voice like splinters. “Never! Never! Never!”
“Rose,” Petunia said, her throat so dry that there was no way even Kestilan, standing just beside her, could have heard. “Rose. Rose. Rose. Rose.” She managed to shout the name at last, shaking off Kestilan’s attempt to grab her elbow and taking the last few steps to reach her sister Lily.
The King Under Stone had his arm around Lily’s waist, pulling her close to his side. His mouth was stretched wide in a smile that showed distinctly pointed canines. Lily was staring down at the toes of her dancing slippers, just peeping from beneath her gown, and her pale skin had grayish undertones now.
Someone took hold of Petunia’s arm again, and she almost elbowed the person in the ribs before she realized that it was Lilac. Violet came up on Petunia’s other side.
“What’s he doing?” Lilac’s whisper was hardly more than a fevered breath.
“We’re not going to like what he says next,” Orchid said flatly, coming up behind Petunia.
Petunia glanced over her shoulder and got a little jolt from seeing Orchid without the spectacles she had had to wear since she was twelve. But, after all, this was just a dream.
No, it was a nightmare. A nightmare that went on and on.
“Rose,” Petunia shouted again. “It’s not Jonquil!”
There was no way that Rose could hear her. Jonquil was now simply sobbing, wordless, and Petunia’s heart shuddered at the depth of her older sister’s pain.
“‘Never’ is quite right,” the King Under Stone said, his voice drowning out Jonquil, though it was not all that loud.
His lips twisted in derision, and even from across the ballroom, his eyes took in Jonquil’s wasted frame, her lank hair and extreme pallor. Petunia wanted to claw out his eyes for looking at Jonquil like that—Jonquil, who had once been the great beauty of Westfalin, who had been courted by princes from across Ionia. It was the King Under Stone’s fault that her looks were spoiled now, and now that they were, he mocked her and tossed her aside.
“Such as you would be wholly unsuited to being my queen,” he went on. “An accident of birth made us partners during my father’s reign, but it seems silly for me not to have a choice, when there are more princesses than princes.”