Free Power & Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts Page A

minutes, the rift would leave me be. Wouldn’t it? I’d never known a skybattle to end this close to daylight. Maybe it wasn’t going to end at all.
    The other Garnet leaned in close. ‘Give him this,’ he whispered. ‘You loved him once. He’s wandering around somewhere in the city below, powerless and miserable. You can give him back his place in the Creature Court. You can give him everything you stole from him. You can make him Power and frigging Majesty.’
    Fire burned in my belly at the thought of it, of Ashiol flaunting the title I had worn proudly. ‘Stupid prick. Serve him right if I did.’
    The rift growled and rippled against my body. They were still there, why were they still there? They had to get clear.
    ‘Get away from me,’ I yelled at Poet. ‘Let me go, you stupid bloody brat, I’m not worth it.’
    ‘Make me!’ Poet yelled back.
    Warlord and Priest were already moving back, eyeing me uncomfortably. That’s right, our lads. Save yourselves.It’s how we work. Loyalty is for the living…I was a dead man already, and they knew it.
    ‘I said, get away from me!’ I lashed out at Poet, not with my hands but with animor. It flared up inside me, an uneasy mix of my power, Ash’s power, her power…Ha. That demme on the balcony, I thought in that moment. Isn’t she in for a motherfrigging surprise?
    Poet’s hands lost their grip.
    I let go. My skin screamed at me to hold on, to keep it together, to fight and spit my way out of the sky until my feet were on firm, solid ground. But I ignored all that and let the stolen animor go.
    It tore its way out of my flesh in burning arcs that sprayed wildly across the sky. I didn’t expect it to hurt like that, but what did it matter now?
    ‘Take it, you bastards!’ I screamed.
    But not mine. I let the demme’s go, and Ash’s, but I held mine tight inside myself. I had no idea what fucking hells were waiting for me on the other side, and I wasn’t going to face them naked and alone.
    I was still laughing as the rift closed over my face.

14
First day of the Floralia (Maidens)
    I t was still dark, for the most part. Velody hugged her thick wool shawl around her shoulders. Delphine kept up a steady stream of mutter in her ear about the cold wind and the shoving, restless crowd around them in the packed Forum, and most especially about how stupid spring festivals couldn’t have parades starting in the middle of the day instead of an hour before sunrise.
    Even above the noise of the crowd and the garland sellers, they could hear the distant tinny sounds of cymbals and springsong. The Floralia parade was getting closer.
    ‘Let’s just go home,’ Velody said suddenly, losing her nerve. ‘It’s not like we’ll see a thing in this mash.’
    ‘Are you kidding me?’ replied Delphine, grasping Velody’s sleeve tightly with her painted nails. ‘We’re not leaving until we see the Duchessa’s dress.’
    Velody reached out and tweaked the pink flower garland that rested on Delphine’s head. ‘Well, if you insist…’
    The Forum was awash with lopsided pink and white rose-crowns and trailing ribbons as the crowd gathered. There were people everywhere, a hungry mob spending a fortune on sweet fruit, candies and romantic tokens foreach other while they hustled to get the best position to view the parade. Some of them had set up makeshift scaffoldings to clamber up on, while others hung from balconies and upper windows of the churches and public buildings.
    ‘My neck’s cold,’ Delphine complained.
    ‘Shouldn’t have cut your hair off then, should you?’
    ‘You should try it. Such a liberating feeling to give up the snood and bobby pins forever.’
    Velody touched her own dark hair defensively, and a shower of white petals from her festival garland scattered on the pavement. ‘Shoddy workmanship.’
    ‘I blame the garland-maker,’ said Delphine.
    ‘It was one of yours.’
    The rosy tips of dawn edged over the hills of the city. The nox was