The Ruby Moon (19 page)

Avery accepted Kendrick’s help pulling her up onto the sloping rooftop with the painting under her arm. She unrolled it and held it before him. “That’s my mother,” she said, pointing. “Can you believe it?”

Kendrick’s face was blank.

“What is it?” Avery asked.

“I knew her.”

Avery rerolled the canvas and set it on her lap. “What are you saying?”

“The lady in that painting was a friend of the woman who raised me. She was the one I told you about who was talking to the woman who cared for me the day I learned of my connection to the king. Avery, if that’s who you say it is, your mother knew who I was.”

“That can’t be possible.”

“She often visited us.”

“No,” Avery said, but she knew Kendrick had no reason to lie. “It can’t be a coincidence that our mothers were friends. Maybe I’m here
because
my mother knew the truth about you.”

“Maybe you’re part of the secret,” Kendrick said.

But Avery wasn’t ready to even consider what that might imply.

Avery sat with Tuck in the tunnel Great Room where their friends gathered to read or talk. The rest looked as weary as she felt. Months of dark, cold underground living had taken their toll.

“I need to talk about the ring,” she said, unable to look in his eyes.

“Ring?”

Avery considered dropping it. If Tuck had forgotten about the ring or never intended to return it, she didn’t want to make things awkward between them. And yet he was getting better, and she wanted their friendship fully restored.

“On Christmas Day you gave me a gold ring shaped like a crown with small pointed spikes.”

Tuck smiled, and Avery knew he hadn’t forgotten. She held out her hand. His pause told her she wasn’t likely to get it back.

“Tonight I plan to make an announcement,” he said quietly. “You’ll want to hear it, because I suspect you won’t want the ring anymore.”

At midnight court, the chatter was upbeat, but Avery felt only a pit in her stomach as she took her seat at the front beside Tuck’s chair. She wished she could enjoy getting back to normalcy when Kendrick and Kate took their seats and Tuck entered to the greetings of the rest of the thirteen-year-olds.

Though tonight he would sit rather than stand, it was still great to have him back. He looked as nervous as he had the day he announced Ilsa would be the nominee for lady-in-waiting.

He called for order and dived right in. “No more halfhearted efforts,” he said. “We must overturn every stone to find the missing friends and brothers and sisters among us. Already scouts are doing everything they can.”

Avery shot a glance at Kendrick as Tuck continued. “We’ve employed residents of the underworld to see what they can uncover on the streets. Thanks to Kendrick’s efforts, we are scouring the castle—room by room—until we exhaust every nook and cranny. And yet there is one place we have not looked.”

Scanning the room, Avery could tell she was not the only one on the edge of her seat.

Tuck licked his lips and glanced at the floor. “Tomorrow I set sail for the Forbidden City, our last hope to end our captivity.”

No clapping, no hugging, no shouts of praise. The kids sat wide-eyed and slack-jawed. Avery assumed they were all thinking what she was.

After tomorrow we likely won’t ever see him again.

He needs to know the truth about Kendrick’s identity.

Kendrick was waiting for her in an alcove off the dining room.

“Tuck can’t travel!” Avery blurted before he had a chance to open his mouth. “He’s barely well enough to be out of bed, let alone sail on the Salt Sea! Either you tell him the truth tonight or I will!”

Kendrick shook his head. “I don’t want him to go either, but I can’t tell him who I am just to keep him here. I haven’t told
anyone
.”

“You told
me
!”

“No, Avery. You figured it out. I wouldn’t have told you, either.”

Though his comment cut deep, Avery steeled herself against taking it personally. She paced. “We can’t let him even get in a boat.
Think
of something.”

“Why? What if he’s right? What if he finds something in the Forbidden City that can help? Give me one reason he shouldn’t try.”

Avery stopped. “Because I love him!”

The words were out before she could stop them or explain.

“Oh,” Kendrick said, his eyes widening. He dropped into a chair, staring, a hand on each knee.

Avery wished she could crawl into a hole.

Finally Kendrick stood and adjusted his glasses. “I might have a solution.”

Finally desperate enough to do what she should have done in the beginning, Avery sneaked upstairs to the castle chapel with its stunning gold-gilded walls and stained-glass windows. How many times had her mother told her,
“You will find the answers to your most important questions there”?

She sighed with relief at being alone in the tiny, familiar space. Shaky with pent-up emotion, she glided down the center aisle and knelt at the altar the way her mother had at the humble chapel back home.

She poured out her heart to God, again the way she had heard her mother do. She asked for wisdom, for safety for her family, and she begged the Lord not to let Tuck get in that boat.

At the end of her prayer, she lay on the crimson carpet and stared at the ceiling where famous royals were painted in vivid color. Castle lore said the impressive mural represented the kingdom’s darkest stories.

Figures in black capes danced through the scenes, swords extended, while figures in white—presumably innocent royals—fell backward, pools of red at their feet.

Avery wished the famous figures could talk.

She scanned the faces for Queen Elizabeth and had to smile at how the painter accentuated her brown and blue eyes, much too wide for her delicate face. A halo hovered above her.

More exhausted than she knew, Avery soon fell asleep, the kingdom’s heroes pirouetting back to life in her dreams.

When morning broke and the stained-glass windows allowed shards of dancing sunlight to reach Avery’s eyes, she awoke with a start.

Instantly, she knew three things with certainty:

Under no circumstances would she allow Tuck to set sail for the Forbidden City today.

She would regret sleeping on the chapel’s hard floor all night—no doubt suffering a well-earned backache the rest of the day.

And the council—specifically Kate—would be hot with anger that she had been gone all night. This time, Avery deserved it.

She lay staring at the ceiling, trying to conjure a plausible excuse.

And she saw it for the first time. Sitting up, she looked closer at Queen Elizabeth in the mural.

In a cold sweat, Avery struggled to her feet and climbed up onto one of the wooden pews where she stood and stared even more closely, stunned she hadn’t noticed before.

The best-kept secrets are often hidden right before our eyes.

She had so focused on the queen’s eyes that she had missed the most remarkable detail.

Queen Elizabeth held
two
babies.

Avery raced back, hoping to talk to Kendrick. History said nothing about two royal children from the king and his first queen. What if the other child also lived?

She reached her room, where Kate sat with her back to the doorway, with that regal posture and porcelain skin, carefully pinning her hair. Was it possible Avery’s friend was so acquainted with the castle and its ways because she herself had royal blood?

Kate had withheld details about her own sister.
“There are things you don’t know about me, and it’s better this way.”

Avery’s mind raced, but she would not talk to Kate about the chapel ceiling until she spoke to Kendrick.

“News!” a scout shouted, running through the tunnels, and Kate turned too quickly for Avery to avoid being seen.

“Don’t you move,” Kate said, as she scurried out with everyone else to hear what the scout had to say. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do. I was worried sick!”

The scout continued shouting, “News!” until everyone had gathered, then he said, “For the first time in weeks, the king is emerging from his bedchamber, and word is he has an announcement that will change the course of history!” Over the cacophony of the response, he hollered, “And Tuck has called a meeting of the council in the dining room!”

Moments later, Avery made eye contact with Tuck, as eager to block his travel plans as Kate likely was to chastise her for the night before, but now was not the time.

“The king is to make the announcement within the hour,” Kendrick said. “The court is filling with dignitaries, and the commons outside are bursting with people. This is going to be big, and not even his closest advisers seem to know what he’s going to say.”

“We need to get upstairs to a grate,” Kate said, and all eyes turned to Tuck.

“Will you be able to make it?” Avery asked.

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it for anything!”