The Queen's Price


 
 
 
 BOOKS BY ANNE BISHOP
 
 
 
 The Others Series
 
 Written in Red
 Murder of Crows
 Vision in Silver
 Marked in Flesh
 Etched in Bone
 
 The World of the Others
 
 Lake Silence
 Wild Country
 Crowbones
 
 The Black Jewels Series
 
 Daughter of the Blood
 Heir to the Shadows
 Queen of the Darkness
 The Invisible Ring
 Dreams Made Flesh
 Tangled Webs
 The Shadow Queen
 Shalador’s Lady
 Twilight’s Dawn
 The Queen’s Bargain
 The Queen’s Weapons
 The Queen’s Price
 
 The Ephemera Series
 
 Sebastian
 Belladonna
 Bridge of Dreams
 
 The Tir Alainn Trilogy
 
 The Pillars of the World
 Shadows and Light
 The House of Gaian
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ACE
 Published by Berkley
 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
 penguinrandomhouse.com
 
 Copyright © 2023 by Anne Bishop
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 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Bishop, Anne, author.
 Title: The queen’s price : a Black Jewels novel / Anne Bishop.
 Description: New York : Ace, [2023] | Series: The Black Jewels
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022029114 (print) | LCCN 2022029115 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593337363 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593337387 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Fantasy fiction. | Novels. Classification: LCC PS3552.I7594 Q45 2023 (print) | LCC PS3552.I7594 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54--dc23/eng/20220623
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022029114
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022029115
 Cover design by Adam Auerbach
 Cover image of woman by People Images / Getty Images
 Book design by Alison Cnockaert, adapted for ebook by Molly Jeszke
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 pid_prh_6.0_142781532_c0_r0
 
 
 
 For Patricia Briggs and Ann Peters
 
 
 JEWELS
 
 
 
 
 White
 Yellow
 Tiger Eye
 Rose
 Summer-sky
 Purple Dusk
 Opal*
 Green
 Sapphire
 Red
 Gray
 Ebon-gray
 Black
 
 *Opal is the dividing line between lighter and darker Jewels because it can be either.
 When making the Offering to the Darkness, a person can descend a maximum of three ranks from his/her Birthright Jewel.
 Example: Birthright White could descend to Rose.
 Note: The “Sc” in the terms “Scelt” and “Sceltie” is pronounced “Sh.”
 
 
 BLOOD HIERARCHY / CASTES
 
 
 
 Males
 
 landen—non-Blood of any race
 Blood male—a general term for all males of the Blood; also refers to any Blood male who doesn’t wear Jewels
 Warlord—a Jeweled male equal in status to a witch
 Prince—a Jeweled male equal in status to a Priestess or a Healer
 Warlord Prince—a dangerous, extremely aggressive Jeweled male; in status, slightly lower than a Queen
 
 Females
 
 landen—non-Blood of any race
 Blood female—a general term for all females of the Blood; refers mostly to any Blood female who doesn’t wear Jewels
 witch—a Blood female who wears Jewels but isn’t on one of the other hierarchical levels; also refers to any Jeweled female
 Healer—a witch who heals physical wounds and illnesses; equal in status to a Priestess or a Prince
 Priestess—a witch who cares for altars, Sanctuaries, and Dark Altars; witnesses handfasts and marriages; performs offerings; equal in status to a Healer or a Prince
 Black Widow—a witch who heals the mind; weaves the tangled webs of dreams and visions; is trained in illusions and poisons
 Queen—a witch who rules the Blood; is considered to be the land’s heart and the Blood’s moral center; as such, she is the focal point of their society
 
 
 Note: A list of characters in this story is provided at the back of the book.
 
 
 
 ONE
 
 
 
 SaDiablo Hall
 Daemonar Yaslana spread his dark membranous wings to their full span before letting them settle into a relaxed position—or as relaxed as he could manage, all things considered. Then he blew out a breath and raised a hand to knock on his uncle’s study door.
 The school that wasn’t officially a school had been in operation at SaDiablo Hall for a month. The instructors were still adjusting to teaching a very select group of thirty-six students as well as adjusting to being under the scrutiny of the Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince of Dhemlan, who was not only their employer but also the patriarch of the SaDiablo family—the wealthiest and most powerful family in the entire Realm of Kaeleer. The students were still adjusting to living in a massive gray stone building that, with all its wings and interior courtyards, could be mistaken for a small enclosed village, as well as dealing with that same Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince as an administrator and benefactor who was benign—most of the time—but could swing to cold, lethal rage in a heartbeat if provoked . . . and was their instructor in Craft and Protocol.
 All that adjusting meant someone had to act as leader or liaison or some other nonsense word that basically meant being the one who explained things to the adults when stuff happened. And who better to do the explaining than the Warlord Prince who wore a Green Birthright Jewel and was the nephew of that Black-Jeweled Warlord Prince?
 He never looked forward to explaining stuff. If his sister hadn’t been involved in this mess, he might have refused, but he couldn’t let Titian fly into a potential storm on her own. Cherish and protect. Those commitments were bred into the bones of Warlord Princes, so he had to get some answers without getting Titian into trouble.
 Daemonar gave