A louder murmuring rose from the gallery, but King Bastien simply inclined his head. Rielle knew it was the only thanks she might receive, but it was enough to give her a bit of courage.
“When you attacked those men,” the king continued, “you not only started a fire. You ripped open the earth. You carved sheets of rock from the mountains. One of the surviving racers has described you gathering sunlight from the air using only your hands. Another claims you threw the assassins from their horses by no visible means she could detect. Even though the assassins themselves were elementals, you easily overpowered them.” The king looked up from his notes. “Does that align with your own recollection?”
Then they did know what she had done, that she was no mere elemental. Her jaw ached from clenching it. “It does, Your Majesty.”
“So then, you are not only a firebrand but an earthshaker, a sunspinner, and also, perhaps, other things. I think you will understand our alarm as we contemplate what this means. No human who has ever lived has been able to control more than one element. Not even the saints.”
A tiny spark of pride lit inside Rielle.
“Lady Rielle,” he went on, “if you had been near a body of water during this race, would you have caused it to flood?”
“It is impossible to say if I would have or not, Your Majesty.”
“Could you have, then?”
A flood. Years of lessons with Tal had shown her only hints of such power, and though she’d never been as strong with water as she’d been with fire—
You know you could do it, the voice murmured. You could flood the world. That kind of power hums beneath your skin. Doesn’t it?
A cautious delight unfurled within her. Who are you? she asked the voice.
It did not answer.
She lifted her chin. “Yes, I believe I could have.”
A new voice spoke up: “Did you like it?”
It was such a perfectly astute, perfectly terrible question that Rielle did not immediately answer. She found the speaker—severely handsome, fair-haired, an elegant jawline. Lord Dervin Sauvillier. The queen’s brother and Ludivine’s father.
Beside him, Ludivine sat poised and clear-eyed in her gown of luminous rose, lace spilling out her sleeves.
“Lord Sauvillier,” said the king sternly, “while I appreciate your interest in these events, I have not given you leave to speak.”
Queen Genoveve—auburn-haired, pale as her niece Ludivine—touched her husband’s arm. “However, it is a reasonable question if we are to determine how best to proceed.”
Rielle looked to the queen and was rewarded with a small smile that reminded Rielle of Ludivine—a Ludivine who had grown up not alongside Audric in the airy, sunlit rooms of Baingarde, but rather in the cold mountain halls of Belbrion, the seat of House Sauvillier.
Queen Genoveve’s gaze slid over Rielle and moved away.
“I am not certain,” Rielle replied, “that I entirely understand Lord Sauvillier’s question.”
Ludivine’s father raised a deferent eyebrow to the king, who nodded once.
“Well, Lady Rielle, if you’ll forgive me my bluntness,” said Dervin Sauvillier, “I wonder if you enjoyed what you did on the racecourse. If you enjoyed hurting the assassins.” He paused. “If you enjoyed hurting your mother.”
“If I enjoyed it?” Rielle repeated, stalling.
For of course she had enjoyed it. Not the pain she had caused and not her poor mother’s death.
But the relief of it… That, she craved. The rush of release through every muscle in her body. Those forbidden, blazing moments—practicing with Tal, running the Chase—when she had known nothing but her power and what it could do. The shining clarity of understanding that this was her true, entire self.
Sometimes she couldn’t sleep for wanting to feel that way again.
“Your hesitation is alarming, Lady Rielle,” said Lord Sauvillier.
“I…did not enjoy the pain I caused others,” Rielle answered slowly. “For that, I feel nothing but shame and remorse. In fact, I am appalled that anyone might think I could enjoy doing such things to any living person, let alone my own mother. But…do the teachings of our saints not tell us that we should take pleasure in the use of the power that has been granted to us by God?”
Out of the corner of her eyes, Rielle saw the Archon shift at last, leaning forward slightly.
It was as if Audric had been waiting for a signal from her, and he did not disappoint. “My lord, may I answer her question?” he asked his father.