The Impostor Queen Read online

  “The Soturi are no threat to the Valtia,” Kauko says slowly, as if he is thinking about every word. “But the strain and stress of the travel is wearying for any queen, and especially one who is a vessel for such powerful magic. Elder Leevi’s chief concern is our Valtia’s health.” He looks back at the doorway to my room, where Mim probably waits for me, laying out a blanket for my legs near my favorite chair by the fire. “A Valtia is all at once a magnificently strong and exquisitely fragile thing. For her to do her duty, she must be careful of what she demands of her body and mind. She must save her energy for when and where it is needed most.”

  And trips to the outlands must be exhausting, riding for hours over the hilly, rough terrain, having to constantly be on guard for bandits or, stars forbid, the vicious and brutal northern warriors who stab at our shores, seeking plunder.

  “She wants to help the farmers, though,” I say, my brow furrowing. How terrible she must feel, having to choose between her people and her health. Then I smile as an idea hits me. “Are we compensating the farmers for their losses?” I ask. “We have plenty of copper—I’ve seen the acolytes wheel it in. Surely we have enough, and it is more valuable than the bronze coins in the town. If she is concerned about the confidence of the people, maybe we could—”

  Kauko makes a quiet sound of disapproval that silences me. “My dear, when you are on the throne, we will discuss all of this, but forgive me when I say that right now you are talking of things you do not understand.”

  I flush with the reprimand, and Kauko’s frown softens. “I realize that all your ideas and questions sprout from the best intentions,” he says. “And I will speak with the Valtia about ways she can reduce the raids and bolster the confidence of the people while maintaining her health. I will also tell her you are concerned for her.” He winks. “And in a few days, you can tell her yourself!”

  I nearly bounce on my heels as I think of the upcoming harvest ceremony. I haven’t spoken to my Valtia in months. “I certainly will. I want her to be with us for years to come.” Everyone knows that Valtias fade young, but Kauko makes it sound like it is possible to live longer if care is taken. And I want my Valtia to take care—not just because I love her, though I do, with every shred of my soul—because I fear I will never meet the standard she has set as our queen. “I—I feel as if I won’t be ready for a very long time,” I add quietly. “If I ever disappointed our people . . .” Even the thought puts a lump in my throat.

  Kauko gives me the most kindly smile. “I am going to tell you something very important,” he says. “I was going to wait, but it seems like you need to hear it now.”

  I stare at him, his smooth face and silly-looking lips, his merry eyes. “What is it?”

  “All Valtias are powerful, but not all equally so. Some burn bright and fade quickly, while others are more steady, strong but muted. We never know what kind of Valtia we will have until the magic enters a Saadella. Except with you.”

  I have the strange urge to claw at my stockings to peek at the red flame mark that paints my left calf with its numb scarlet tendrils, the one that appeared at the moment of the last Valtia’s death—when I was only four years old. “What do you mean?”

  “There is a prophecy,” he says, glancing up and down the hall. “One made hundreds of years ago.”

  “Yes?” I whisper.

  His bald scalp is beaded with sparkles of sweat in the light of the torches that line the walls. “When we found you in that shabby little cottage by the city wall, too skinny for your own good, we made sure to check the town register for the day and season of your birth, and the exact position of the stars in the sky on that very day. It matches what was foretold precisely.” He grasps both my arms, giving me a little shake, as if to force this knowledge into me, to make sure I believe. “When the magic leaves our current queen and enters you, Elli, you will become the most powerful Valtia who has ever existed.”

  CHAPTER 2

  From my balcony, the Motherlake appears infinite. She stretches vast and powerful to the horizon, where she kisses the sky. Trout and razorfin teem beneath her blue skin, all shimmering power and motion, but from here, she looks serene and perfect. She keeps her secrets well.

  I lean forward, letting the cool breeze toss my long, coppery hair around my face. In a few hours, I must be flawless and composed, but I’m not on display quite yet. Right now I’m just Elli, and for the moment, it’s enough. I spread my arms and pretend I’m flying.

  From behind me comes a startled laugh. “You’re making my job much harder,” says Mim, but her tone is fond. I whirl around and grin at her. Her blue eyes, just a shade darker than mine, sparkle with excitement. She’s already dressed in her finest gown and pulled her brown hair into a braided coil. I love the tiny curls that swirl at the nape of her neck. At twenty, she could have found a handsome man to marry by now, but she’s been serving me since she was a little girl, chosen by the elders for her sweet and patient temperament.

  I know she feels honored to serve me. Sometimes, though, I wish—

  “The Valtia and her handmaiden will be here any minute,” she says, gesturing inside. “Can we start the preparations now, or are you determined to let the wind knot your hair some more?”

  I slap my hand over the top of my head. “Oh no—is it a tangled mess?”

  She arches an eyebrow and nods. “But I can fix it. Let me work my kind of magic.”

  A gust of wind chases me inside the ceremonial dressing chamber, making the drapes flap. Mim tsks and pulls the wooden doors to the balcony shut. When I’m the Valtia, I’ll be able to do the same thing with a mere thought. The most powerful Valtia who ever existed, Kauko whispers in my memory.

  I shiver as Mim guides me to the cushioned stool in front of the wide copper plate that serves as our mirror. “Do you need a blanket for your legs?” she asks.

  I shake my head, warmer already because of her attention. She places a cup of water in my hands. “I know you get so thirsty on these ceremony days.”

  I lift the hammered copper mug to my lips and moan softly at the relief of cold water in my mouth. “You’re a jewel.”

  She chuckles. “I’m a stone. You’re a jewel. The people will be in awe when they see you.” She gives my shoulders a little squeeze and begins to work on my hair. “Lovely. Like burnished copper,” she says, drawing the brush through my straight, thick locks.

  I close my eyes, enjoying the feel of the bristles against my scalp, inhaling Mim’s warm cinnamon scent. Before long, though, my thoughts drift back to where they’ve been since my conversation with Elder Kauko. Has he really known this thing about me all these years? I became the Saadella so young that I have almost no memory of what came before, but I know it was not special or remarkable, not until the red flame mark on my left leg erupted.

  “Your thoughts are far away,” says Mim.

  “I was thinking of the day I was chosen.”

  “I was only eight, but it’s as clear in my mind as if it were yesterday,” she says as she starts to braid my hair. “I would have been screaming for my mother, but you looked as serious as an elder as you were placed on the paarit. Your little fingers clutched the chair so tightly as the acolytes lifted you into the air! A four-year-old with filthy feet and a torn tunic, but my father said he could tell you were the true future queen.”

  This part, I remember. I wasn’t screaming because I was numb. I’ve long since forgotten my mother’s face, but I remember being paralyzed with the knowledge that she had given me to these strange men and allowed them to carry me away. I had no idea yet what I’d gained. “It’s amazing how much one day can change everything,” I murmur.

  Mim pins a coil of my hair into position and stares at my reflection in the copper plate. “More change is coming,” she says quietly.

  My eyes meet hers. “It won’t happen for many years.”

  “The Valtia is finishing her third decade of life. The apprentices whisper about it in the kitchens. They say she�
�s looking pale these days. Some of them wonder how many years she has left.”

  “You shouldn’t speak of our queen’s death in such a casual way, Mim.” Knowing that one day another handmaiden will be telling my young Saadella that I will die soon makes my tone sharper than it should be.

  Mim bows her head. “You’re so right, my Saadella.” There’s a pang in my chest—she rarely calls me by my title unless we’re in public, and her doing so now, with her hands in my hair and her body close enough to feel her warmth, makes loneliness bubble up inside me.

  I clear my throat and try to think of a safe place to steer our conversation, but voices in the corridor bring it to a complete halt. Mim’s fingers go still, mid-plait.

  “—that it’s time to intervene,” Elder Aleksi is saying, his hard-edged voice sending a chill up my back. “The miners need access immediately.”

  “Immediately? I don’t see the harm in taking the time to negotiate,” comes my Valtia’s reply as she’s carried into the chamber in her veiled sedan chair. Tiny beads of sweat glisten on the bald heads of the four black-robed male acolytes who bear the poles. My toes curl and my hands fist in my skirt as they set the chair down in the center of the chamber. I want to throw myself into the Valtia’s arms, but I stay where I am, because I don’t want to embarrass her in any way.

  Aleksi, clad in his black priest’s robe, stands beside the copper-inlaid sedan. “Negotiate? My queen, remember who we’re dealing with.”

  “Human beings, I assume,” says the Valtia.

  Aleksi looks as if he’s harboring a thousand angry words in that swell of flesh beneath his chin. Judging by the way his thin lips are pressed tight together, he’s fighting to hold them inside. He gives me a cursory bow.

  “My Saadella,” he says as he straightens. “Forgive me for intruding on your preparations.” He turns to the Valtia’s chair and addresses one of the veiled windows. “The raids have made the farmers restless, and now the miners—”

  “Tell them to mine somewhere else for the time being.”

  Though his jowls quiver, his mouth barely moves as he speaks. “My Valtia, they claim there is nowhere else.”

  “What?” My queen’s voice has sharpened.

  Aleksi looks over at me and Mim. “We can speak more tonight,” he says as he turns back to her. “We must make a decision after the harvest ceremony—”

  “After the harvest ceremony, I will be dining with my Saadella, as I do every year,” she replies, her voice gentle but firm. “I’ll meet with the elders in the morning and no sooner.”

  Aleksi clenches his fist, then gives Mim and me a sidelong glance and tucks his hand into the folds of his robe. He chuckles, a sound as dank as the catacombs. “Of course, my Valtia.” With a swish of his flabby hand, he dismisses the acolytes, who bow their way out the door to join the others in the grand domed chamber of our temple, where today’s procession will begin. “We’ll await your arrival with eagerness.”

  As soon as Aleksi exits, the Valtia’s handmaiden steps around the other side of the sedan chair. Helka, a stout woman with a deep dimple in her chin, shakes her head as she pushes aside the veil at the front of the chair. “You were patient with him,” she mutters, opening the half door to allow the Valtia to step out.

  As our queen’s slippered foot touches the sanctified ground of our chamber, Mim and I sink to our knees. I lower my forehead to the floor, the marble cool against my skin.

  “Enough. You’re not an acolyte,” the Valtia says with a musical laugh. “I haven’t seen you in months, Elli. Get up off the floor and let me look at you.”

  I grin as I rise, but my happiness turns to ice when I see her face. The apprentices were correct—she is pale. Her cheeks are hollow, and there are dark circles beneath her blue eyes. She looks as if she’s been carved out with a dull blade, all pointy elbows and sharp collarbones.

  I force my uneasiness down and look at her with all the admiration she deserves.

  Her full lips curve into a loving smile as she beckons to me. “Come here, darling. Stars, you’re so lovely. Can you really be sixteen already? You’ve become a woman in the last year!” She holds out her arms, and I eagerly rush into her embrace, leaning my cheek against the soft wool of her cream-colored gown. She strokes my face, her fingertips pulsing with warm affection. “I’ve missed you,” she whispers.

  “I’ve missed you, too, my Valtia,” I mumble, squeezing her tight, trying to ignore the hard outline of her ribs against my arms. It doesn’t matter that I see her so rarely—she is my true mother. I’ve been told that the connection between the Valtia and the Saadella is as deep and fundamental as the veins of copper in the earth, but that doesn’t begin to describe it. From the moment she took me in her arms, I knew I belonged to her.

  We pull apart, and she takes my face in her hands. I’m as tall as she is now. Her hair is a perfect copper coil on the top of her head, ready to hold her crown in place. “Shall we prepare to be seen by our people?” she asks.

  “I’m ready.” My voice shakes with excitement, but also nerves.

  Our handmaidens arrange our chairs in front of the wide copper mirror, and Mim sets back to work on my hair as Helka prepares the Valtia’s ceremonial makeup.

  “Aleksi seemed frustrated,” I venture. “More trouble in the outlands?”

  Mim clears her throat, and my mouth snaps shut. I’m not supposed to know about any of that.

  Helka, her graying blond hair twisted in a bun like Mim’s, blows a loose strand off her forehead. “Such questions,” she says, clucking her tongue. “Can we not leave our Valtia in peace for a few minutes at least?”

  The Valtia pats her maid’s hand. “When I’m gone, she’ll be queen, Helka. She can ask me anything she wants.” Her gaze meets mine in the mirror as Mim begins to plait another section of my hair. “From all reports, it’s been a plentiful year for our farmers.”

  “Thanks to you.” She kept the heat from scorching the crops and held back a cold snap that could have killed vulnerable shoots. Our bounty comes to us because of her magic.

  Her pale eyes glitter, the same icy blue as mine. “But there have been Soturi raids on some of the farmsteads and cottages, more this year than last, all along the northern coastline. The farmers were already dealing with the criminals who have been banished from the city. They want more protection.”

  I grit my teeth. “The Soturi are getting bold.” We don’t know much about them, but perhaps fifteen years ago, they began to cross the Motherlake in their longships, wielding their iron swords, raiding for goods to trade and food to get them through the brutal winter.

  Mim pins my final braid into place. “It’s scaring the people, my Valtia,” she says quietly.

  The Valtia nods, even as Helka glares at Mim for her impertinence. “And now apparently the miners are worried that they’ve run out of places to mine!”

  Helka rubs her palms on her skirt. “Forgive me for saying so, but it had to happen sometime.”

  My Valtia sighs. “I suppose so. But apparently there’s a very large cave system in the south that has been left untouched, and now a horde of bandits has decided it would be an ideal place to squat for the winter.” She gives me an uneasy sidelong glance. “A group of miners confronted them this morning. It turned into a fight.”

  “And now the miners want you to take action,” I guess.

  She nods. “The elders are concerned that if I don’t, the miners will petition the city council to raise a militia.”

  “Without giving you the time to consider the best way to handle it?” After all the magic wielders of the temple have done for the Kupari, it strikes me as ungrateful.

  The Valtia’s soft hand covers mine, sending warmth radiating up my arm. “They are frightened, Elli. And between the bandits in the caves and the Soturi who are now to our southeast, I can understand why they feel that way.”

  I scowl. Mim told me how the Soturi crushed the city-state of Vasterut a few months ago, how it’s now par
t of their barbaric empire. “Vasterut is not Kupari. Its people are not blessed, and they had a king.” My voice rises with every word. “They did not have a Valtia.”

  She squeezes my hand. “Exactly.” She lifts my fingers and lays them against her cool, hollow cheek. “Now let’s allow our handmaidens to do their work, so we can calm all our people’s fears today.”

  I nod. This is my responsibility too, and I’m eager to do my part. As our maids mix the vinegar and white lead powder, I breathe slowly, willing myself to be calm. Mim moves her hands to my waist, and I lift my arms so she can draw my simple red gown off. This is a dance we do every day, as she cares for my body as if it were her own. Next to us, the Valtia and her handmaiden are doing the same waltz, their movements perfectly synchronized after years of practice. As the creamy material slides off the Valtia’s slender frame, I spot the bandages in the crooks of her arms, each dotted with blood.

  My throat tightens. “Valtia, are you ill?” I manage to whisper.

  She folds her arms across her chest. “I’m fine. But Elder Kauko’s been helping me maintain the balance I need in preparation for the winter to come.”

  The elder downplayed the presence of magic in the blood, but it sounds like the opposite is true. “How exactly does bleeding help you maintain the balance?”

  The air around us cools enough to raise goose bumps. “It siphons some of the fire magic that’s lain dormant during the hotter months.”

  I silently resolve to be a lot more persistent in my questioning during my next lesson with Elder Kauko. The Valtia’s eyes narrow as she takes in the hard set of my mouth, and then she looks down at her bandaged arms. “I trust in the wisdom of our elders, Elli. When your time comes, you’ll need to do the same.”

  I lower my eyes, my cheeks hot despite the cold room. “Of course, my Valtia.”

  A warm breeze tickles the back of my neck, the Valtia’s tender caress, and it draws a relieved smile back to my face. “Look at me, darling,” she says quietly. When I do, she adds, “We rely on the elders. But always remember—you’re still the queen.” Then she winks, and my spirits rise like the sun.