Read The Red Queen for Free Online Page B

slavemasters would have suppressed the truth, but too many heard the tale and in no time it swept through the city. The slavemasters took many hostages and used their weapons readily and wrought much bloodshed, for they expected to be overthrown, but to their amazement, the Redlanders did not rise up.’ Her final words were said with a sneer, and with an expression of disgust, she made a gesture to the young storyteller, who took up the tale once more.
    ‘The legend that the Red Queen would return was already being whispered among the enslaved people, for she had sworn it as she was led through the streets. “Do not resort to blood and violence to free yourselves, my beloved people, for all things have their purpose, even this. Know that no matter what happens now, your queen shall come again and in that joyous moment, you will know it is time at last to throw off your shackles and be free.” So great were the love and faith of her people that even when news of her death was known to all, still they believed the Red Queen’s promise that she would return.’
    ‘She
dinna
say she’d come again,’ Matthew muttered cryptically. He looked at the sour woman. ‘What of th’ daughter?’
    The older woman gave her harsh laugh. ‘Have you eaten the dreams of these foolish, docile Redlanders even as you broke bread with them? The daughter was a child, little more than a toddler. She would have drowned or been eaten.’
    ‘But if she survived? If she were swept ashore somewhere far away and lived?’ Matthew asked, almost trembling with eagerness.
    The older woman gave him a look of scorn and stalked away leaving the younger to follow, casting an apologetic look back at Matthew and Gilaine. When they were alone, Gilaine reached out to lay a hand on Matthew’s shoulder, her expression eloquent with questions. He came out of the trance into which he seemed to have sunk, his eyes burning.
    ‘Dinna ye ken?
Dragon
mun be related to th’ Red Queen,’ he said intensely. ‘Th’ resemblance ’twixt her an’ the Red Queen is too great for there not to be blood between them, an’ mind how Elspeth found her in a ruined city on the West Coast. An’ she’d a mortal fear of water . . . Ye should ha’ heard th’ caterwaulin’ th’ first time Kella tried to get her in a bath.’ He rose then, saying, ‘Do ye ken what this means?’
    Gilaine shook her head, looking bewildered.
    ‘It means
Dragon
is heir to the throne, which means the Red Queen
can
return. Ye gods, maybe her mam had a future vision that showed it to her, an’ that was why she told th’ Redlanders she’d return when they were bringin’ her to th’ slavemasters’ ship. The madness is that, had she not bade them wait till their queen returned, they might have fought fer their freedom and overthrown the slavemasters at once.’
    Gilaine must have farspoken him, for now Matthew frowned and looked startled. ‘Aye she said so, but I dinna expect she actually meant there were a purpose in th’ enslavin’ of her people beyond the low purposes of the slavemasters.’
    The dream changed again and now I was looking into a small, crowded tavern. It was night and ill lit so that I could hardly see the faces of people sitting and talking or moving about carrying mugs. It was clearly a Land tavern, however, though it seemed to me I could see Norse and Sadorian attire, which suggested I was dreaming of the present, or of a period not much removed from it. But what had summoned it to me? I had no control over what I was seeing in this dream, and it was not until a servant bearing a tray laden with food went to a table in an alcove, that I saw Rushton’s face; the past then, for he could not possibly have returned to the Land yet. Steadying the tray on her hip, the serving girl placed a lit candle in the centre of the table and I saw that Jakoby sat opposite Rushton. The girl finished setting out their meals and departed, promising to return with mugs of