Thorn Queen. Richelle Mead
land. Maybe I hadn’t intentionally turned it into a mirror of wild Tucson. The point was: it was done. The Thorn Land was as it was, and taking in these ragged and starving people, I realized it was all my fault. Only, I had no clue how to fix it. I was too much a product of modern innovation. There was nothing I could do.
Scratch that. There was one thing I could do.
I abruptly stood from the table, catching everyone by surprise. As custom dictated, they all hastily scrambled and rose as well. Without explaining myself, I headed outside, back out into the village. Behind me, I could hear Davros babbling something, apparently thinking they’d again caused offense. They probably thought I was about to send lightning bolts from the sky.
As it was, that might not have been a bad idea—if I actually had that power. These people could certainly use rain. But one rainstorm wouldn’t fix things, and I could hardly do it day after day. Instead, I walked out to the middle of the street and came to a halt. My guards straightened up, awaiting my orders, and other residents stopped to see what was happening. Those from Davros’ gathering soon poured out of the house and joined everyone else.
I closed my eyes, opening myself to the world around me. I smelled the clean, fresh scent of the desert and the faint, faint breeze blowing through it. The setting sun warmed my skin. Then, I pushed deeper, reaching out to that which the magic within me instinctively bonded to. I felt the minuscule water vapor in the air, but that wasn’t what I wanted. I had to go further. I sent my magical senses into the ground, seeking water throughout the village. None. I remembered what Shaya had said about wells drying up, which meant the surface wasn’t going to yield anything. That meant I’d have to go deeper still.
There. Back in the direction we’d entered town, I felt a hit. I opened my eyes and strode toward it, the water calling to me. I was vaguely aware of a crowd following me, but I paid them no attention. Only the water was my goal. When I reached the spot, I found that it was just on the town’s outer edge. A mesquite tree grew nearby, which should have been a tip-off. They had deep feelers that penetrated the earth in search of moisture.
I too sent my power into the ground, trying to summon the water up. There was a lot of dirt between me and it, and I realized it wouldn’t do these people any good in the long term to just suck it to the surface right now. I turned around and found Davros right behind me, face anxious. I pointed to the ground.
“You guys need to dig here. Right now. There’s water here.”
He stared at me, mouth agape. A moment later, he snapped out of it and turned to those nearest him. “You heard the queen! Fetch shovels immediately. And find anyone who can work with the earth.”
Earth magic. A smart idea. Gentry didn’t have bulldozers or drills, but they did have people who could throw around huge piles of dirt, which was pretty sweet for this kind of thing. Dorian—who was probably the strongest earth user in the Otherworld—could cause earthquakes and level buildings.
In minutes, a group had assembled. I tried to take a shovel and help, but that nearly caused Shaya and Davros to have a heart attack. Queens didn’t do that kind of work. Instead, I stepped back, watching as the other villagers used magic and manual labor to dig where I’d indicated. When the hole grew too deep for shovels, the village’s two earth-magic users took over. Even combined, they were nowhere near Dorian in strength, but they definitely sped the process along, kicking up towers of dirt along the sides. Finally, I heard a great cheer. Everyone else and I crowded to the hole’s sides, peering down. It was deep in the ground, but muddy water was slowly filling up the bottom.
I looked at Davros. “Can you guys turn this into a well?” I certainly hoped so because I sure as hell had no idea how to do it. I imagined it involved stones and a bucket, but maybe that was just my naïve fairy-tale images.
His head bobbed eagerly. “Yes, yes, your majesty. Thank you, your majesty.”
After that, it was nearly impossible to leave. I was regarded as a miracle worker. I was no longer the tyrant queen. I was their savior, the generous and wonderful monarch who had brought life to their land. I declined their pleas to stay and celebrate but told them I’d be back with other ways to save their town. Admittedly, I had no idea what that would entail, but mentioning such a minor detail would have seriously brought down everyone’s mood.
When we were finally mounted up and able to head out, I suddenly felt a tug on my shoe. Surprised, I looked down and saw a middle-aged man gazing up at me. A similarly aged woman stood close beside him.
“How dare you touch the queen!” gasped Davros. From his face, it looked like he was seriously afraid I might level the town.
I waved him off. “It’s okay.”
The man who’d pulled my leg regarded me pleadingly. “Please, your majesty. My wife and I have a boon to ask of you!”
“That’s a favor or a request,” said Rurik helpfully.
“I know what a boon is,” I snapped. I looked back down at the couple, unwilling to make any promises yet. “What is it?”
The man put his arm around the woman. “We’ve heard that you’re both a great warrior and a great magic user.”
“And clearly kind and compassionate,” added his wife.
“And?” I asked.
“And very beautiful and—”
“No,” I exclaimed. “I mean, what’s your boon?”
“Our daughter has been taken,” the woman said, eyes filling with tears. “We beg you to help us get her back.”
“Whoa. That might be a little beyond my reach,” I told them. “When you say taken, do you mean, like, kidnapped?”
They both nodded, and I was swept by a strange sense of déjà vu. I’d first stumbled into this Otherworldly mess when I’d been hired in the human world to also find a missing girl. The girl had turned out to be Jasmine, though I’d had no clue at the time that she was half-gentry, let alone my sister. Was my life destined to be filled with missing girls?
Davros stepped forward, looking upset and embarrassed. “Your majesty, please ignore them for troubling you with something so meaningless. Their daughter was not taken by anyone. She ran off to Highmore with her lover from a neighboring village.”
I glanced at Shaya and Rurik. “What’s Highmore?”
“Really?” asked Rurik dryly. “I thought you already knew everything.”
I glared at him.
“It’s a city,” said Shaya. “The largest in this kingdom.”
“Wait, what? I have cities?” I asked, feeling my eyes go wide. The distraught couple interrupted my new revelation.
“Davros is wrong,” the woman said. “Our daughter did not run off. She was taken by the bandits who live in the passes.”
“Everyone knows they’re there,” added the man. He eyed Davros. “Them and their beasts. Even you won’t deny their existence. They’ve been there for years, and she isn’t the first girl to disappear.”
I turned to Davros. “Is that true?”
He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze. “Well, yes, your majesty, but such brigands are nothing you need to concern yourself about, just as King Aeson did not.”
“Wait. Aeson knew there were bandits going after you guys and didn’t do anything?”
“Such petty concerns were beneath him,” said Davros. To my astonishment, he seemed to believe that.
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “If a monarch doesn’t take care of that kind of thing, I’m not really sure what they’re supposed to do.”
Truthfully, I didn’t want to deal with this any more than I wanted any other Thorn Land responsibilities. But the mention of Aeson had stirred my blood. Aeson had been a self-serving