The Shadow Queen

hands. “Look. A double shield over the skin and then heavy gardening gloves.” Which she called in and slipped over her hands.
    “And your hat,” Gray said.
    She wrinkled her nose at him but obeyed and called in her hat.
    “Are you going to swear at me?” Gray asked.
    “I’m thinking about it.”
    He just grinned.

    *Cassie? Cassie!*
    Gray paused to watch the Sceltie’s dance of indecision. Vae clearly had an opinion about Cassie working in the garden—Hell’s fire, the dog had an opinion about everything —but she wasn’t sure if her “permission to nip” applied to the Queen.
    “She’s all right,” Gray told Vae, glad for the excuse to take a break. Not that he needed an excuse. Not with Cassie. But he didn’t want to admit about himself what he’d been so quick to point out to her—sometimes damage couldn’t be healed all the way if you weren’t careful during the healing.
    He didn’t want her to know. Wasn’t ready to tell her. Not yet. But he knew the warning signs and knew he needed to take some care or he’d be helpless and hurting.
    “Yes, I’m all right,” Cassie said. She stripped off her gloves and held up her hands so Vae could see them. “See? Nothing hurt.” Then she looked at Gray. “But the hands have had enough work for the day.”
    He shrugged and smiled. “Nothing more to plant anyway.”
    “Was that deliberate?”
    “Maybe.”
    She studied him for a moment as a thread of awareness grew between them. Then she looked at the Sceltie. “Did you come out for walkies?”
    *Theran said I am underfoot and should go outside for a while,* Vae replied.
    “Nipped him, didn’t you?” Cassie said.
    *Many times he will not listen until I nip him. But he is learning.*
    “I’ll bet he is.” Cassie vanished her gloves and got to her feet. “I want to take a look at the rest of the garden, get a feel for the whole thing.”
    “I’ll warn you now,” Gray said. “This is the best of it. At the far end, the ground is overrun with some kind of weed. Can’t dig it out. It just grows right back. Can’t even burn it out.”
    “I’ll take a look.” Cassie turned toward the house. “What about that dead tree? Why didn’t anyone take down what’s left of it?”
    “Can’t.” Gray rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. “That honey pear tree is a symbol of the Grayhaven line. That’s why the Queens let it stand. At least, that’s partly why.”
    “But it’s dead, Gray.”
    “Yes.”
    He saw the moment when she understood.
    “Bitches,” she said softly.
    “It’s dead, but it still taunted them,” Gray said. “I’ve been talking to some of the men who used to work here and some whose fathers worked here. They said some of the Queens tried to pull the tree down, but there’s something about it, about what’s left of it. Saws won’t cut the wood. Axes can’t do more than chip at the outside. And the roots are still so chained to the ground, the tree can’t be pulled out either. The soil all around it is so hard it can break a shovel, and Craft can’t touch it at all. So all that time, they said they left the tree to remind everyone that the Grayhaven line was gone, but in truth they left it because they couldn’t get rid of it.”
    “Maybe because the line isn’t completely gone,” Cassie said.
    “Maybe.”
    “I hear the names Jared and Lia,Thera and Blaed. They must have been so important to this land, but I know so little. Does anyone know stories about them? Or were those lost too when the other Queens took over Dena Nehele?”
    “Sure, there are stories,” Gray said. “I know some. So does Theran. Talon would know more because he knew the four of them. They were friends.”
    “Do you think Talon would share some of those stories with me?”
    “He’ll tell you. So will I.”
    She stared at the tree and looked a little sad. Then she smiled at him. “I’d better take a look at the rest of the garden before someone comes looking for me.”
    He watched her walk away, with Vae trotting beside her.
    As he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, he felt a warning twinge in his back.
    “Enough,” he said.
    It surprised him how bitter his voice sounded that he couldn’t work anymore today. He’d never minded before when he had to stop.
    But that was before it mattered that someone might think he was weak.
    One last thing, he thought as he vanished the tools. He’d get a bucket of water to wet down the new plants, and he’d use Craft to take the weight of the full bucket instead of forcing his body to do more than it should. Then he’d get