Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Young Queens
    The Young Queens
    The Young Queens
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    The Young Queens

    By Kendare Blake

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In this must-read prequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, the queens’ origin story is revealed. It’s a pre-crown lowdown of Fennbirn’s ruling class.

    Mirabella, Arsinoe, and Katharine weren't always scheming to murder each other. They weren't always surrounded by rival foster families, each swearing to have their best interests at heart. And they weren't always afraid of being unexpectedly attacked—by one of their own sisters, no less—in a way that could cost them their last breath.

    They used to be together. Just three sisters. Alone in a glen.

    This is the story of the three queens—after they were born, before they were separated, during the time when they all lived together, loved each other, and protected each other. Even as children, their personalities were starting to emerge—Mirabella was the responsible eldest; Arsinoe, the wild spitfire; and Katharine, the obedient youngest. It’s also the story of the day they were torn apart, and the several years that follow.

    From birth to eleven years old, this is a rare glimpse of the queens' lives…before they were at stake.

    Don't miss any of the Three Dark Crowns books, including Five Dark Fates, the thrilling conclusion to the series!

    Want to read more about Fennbirn’s history? Check out The Oracle Queen, the tragic story of the legendary last Queen with the gift of sight!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateDec 26, 2017
    ISBN9780062748263
    The Young Queens
    Author

    Kendare Blake

    Kendare Blake is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series. She holds an MA in creative writing from Middlesex University in northern London. She is also the author of Anna Dressed in Blood, a Cybils Awards finalist; Girl of Nightmares; Antigoddess; Mortal Gods; and Ungodly. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages, have been featured on multiple best-of-year lists, and have received many regional and librarian awards. Kendare lives and writes in Gig Harbor, Washington. Visit her online at www.kendareblake.com.

    Read more from Kendare Blake

    Related to The Young Queens

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    YA Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Great Read

      Apr 18, 2024

      by Catherine Chidgey, Europa Editions The narrator of this haunting contemporary fable is a magpie whose sharp observation and witty mimicry proves vital in the precarious farming world of our protagonist, Marnie. While a talking bird may feel a lit

      4 min read

    • Article

      Frances Wilson

      May 4, 2022

      Viking £14.99 There are many remarkable things about Cressida Connolly’s third novel, whose subject is historical recurrence, and the most striking is the timing of its publication. How could Connolly have known, as she imagined the impact of the Cri

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Literary Zoo

      Dec 9, 2021

      A Literary Zoo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Alice And The Jabberwocky

      Apr 10, 2022

      ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe. Once again, Alice found herself in her bedroom, feeling rather mimsy indeed. Every day now, at two o’clock, she would sit at

      18 min read

    • Article

      The Witches Of Literature

      May 30, 2023

      Tor Books T. KINGFISHER challenges the idea of the “wicked witch” through the gravewitch in her subversive fairy tale Nettle & Bone. The nameless dust-wife—part witch, part gravedigger—is all too willing to help the novel’s heroine on her quest to ki

      2 min read

    • Article

      Climbing Mount Cameroon

      Nov 18, 2019

      In 1895 Mary Kingsley became the first woman to climb Mount Cameroon. Her apparel was unlikely: long black trailing skirt, tight waist, high collar, a small fur cap, lace-up shoes and a parasol. In every respect she was unusual. With no formal school

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘DIANA Was A Force To Be Reckoned With’

      Aug 4, 2022

      We sat in her plush drawing room at Kensington Palace, surrounded by framed photos of ‘her boys’, William and Harry, and dissected the collapse of her marriage to their father, Charles. Diana was in a chatty mood. It was June 1995: five months befor

      3 min read

    • Article

      Storytime

      Jan 26, 2022

      Based on Glenconner’s childhood home Holkham Hall, Norfolk, with parents, the 5th Earl and Countess of Leicester. The only untruth in this magnificent mystery is a fake diamond necklace. 1950, Lady Anne is called back from her pottery door-to-door sa

      1 min read

    • Article

      Strange Encounters

      Dec 16, 2021

      Strange Encounters
      5 min read

    • Article

      Storytime

      Jan 26, 2022

      Based on Glenconner’s childhood home Holkham Hall, Norfolk, with parents, the 5th Earl and Countess of Leicester. The only untruth in this magnificent mystery is a fake diamond necklace. 1950, Lady Anne is called back from her pottery door-to-door sa

      1 min read

    • Article

      Notes From The Isles

      Apr 14, 2023

      Yet again nemesis has smothered my hubris. Having boasted of my expertise in getting the car up our steep, icy track, I awoke to find myself snowed in, near the top of a glacier, totally cut off from all traffic. A nephew and his wife, who were comin

      4 min read

    • Article

      Bitter Harvest

      Feb 6, 2022

      THE CANE, by Maryrose Cuskelly (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) In a small North Queensland town in the 1970s, the main industry is sugar cane. Australian journalist Maryrose Cuskelly’s first work of fiction is centred around the big burnoffs of the cane fiel

      2 min read

    • Article

      Lamb With Extra Sauce

      May 3, 2023

      Lamb With Extra Sauce
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Slave Who Braved All For Love

      May 4, 2020

      The Wikipedia entry says it all: ‘Florence Barbara Maria Szász, an orphan who became a slave, explored the Nile and died a lady.’ If Hollywood had been around in the 19th century, her life would have made a blockbuster. Very few people who visited th

      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Apr 18, 2024

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Queen’s Bestie

      May 19, 2023

      The Queen’s Bestie
      4 min read

    • Article

      Camilla, The Reluctant Queen

      Sep 30, 2022

      Camilla, The Reluctant Queen
      7 min read

    • Article

      Should Camilla BE QUEEN?

      Apr 13, 2021

      Should Camilla BE QUEEN?
      2 min read

    • Article

      'Queen Of The Conquered' Serves Revenge With Delicacy And Savagery

      Nov 14, 2019

      In their new novel, Kacen Callender builds a vast, immersive landscape based on the colonial history of the Caribbean, but it's their morally conflicted heroine who will really hook readers.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Jun 9, 2023

      Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother— has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates stri

      2 min read

    • Article

      Vampires In Literature

      Sep 15, 2022

      Vampires In Literature
      2 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Jul 21, 2019

      THE Reading room
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Little Trip

      Aug 2, 2021

      As the first morning light peeked through the gap in the curtains, Alice left her new husband in bed. She wrapped her silk kimono around her; a present from Jeremy, it reminded her yet again just how generous he’d been since their wedding. Even this

      5 min read

    • Article

      Meandering Tales

      Apr 21, 2023

      Meandering Tales
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Actuarian

      Apr 1, 2019

      The Actuarian
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Young Queens

    4/5

    38 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I loved this novella. I loved getting a glimpse into the Queen’s lives before the Ascension. It made me feel empathy for each one, even Katharine.

    Book preview

    The Young Queens - Kendare Blake

    9780062748263_Cover.jpg

    CONTENTS

    Prologue: The Black Cottage

    The Day of the Claiming

    Wolf Spring

    The Black Cottage

    The Claiming

    Rolanth

    Greavesdrake Manor

    Wolf Spring

    Rolanth

    Wolf Spring

    Greavesdrake Manor

    Wolf Spring

    The Aftermath of Arsinoe’s Attempt to Escape

    Indrid Down

    Rolanth

    Epilogue: Wolf Spring

    Excerpt from The Oracle Queen

    Back Ads

    About the Author

    Books by Kendare Blake

    Copyright

    About the Publisher

    PROLOGUE:

    THE BLACK COTTAGE

    The day of the birth of the queens who would come to be known as Mirabella, Arsinoe, and Katharine was still, unremarkable, and without omens. There was no great wind to howl the arrival of an elemental queen. No bloody fish kill against the rocks to signal the coming of the war gift. All across Fennbirn—from the capital of Indrid Down to the smallest villages—elders and the dwindling number of seers cast divinations and downed trance potions, only to pass out drunk and see the oracle bones lie on the ground in nonsense patterns. The triplets were born, in silence and in private, with only the queen, the king-consort, and the Midwife to bear witness.

    Three black witches, the mainland would say. Born to a descending queen. One would rise to become queen in her place. Perhaps the strongest of the three. Perhaps the cleverest. Or perhaps it would be the girl born under the best shield of luck.

    It was an easy labor, said the Midwife. You were lucky, Queen Camille.

    Easy, Camille said, and scoffed, Easy for you to say, Willa. But even though she hurt, and ached, and could barely keep her eyes open, she knew it could have gone worse. From the moment her pregnancy was known, her foster sister Genevieve Arron had filled her head with tales of births gone wrong. On Camille’s last day at the Volroy, just before she departed for the Black Cottage to give birth, Genevieve spoke of so much blood and screaming that Camille had nearly passed out. She had stopped short and stood frozen, as if standing still would somehow stop the triplets from coming. She did not move until her eldest foster sister, Natalia, had taken her by the arm and walked her to the coach.

    Do not let her frighten you, Camille, Natalia had said. Queens have birthed the triplets for thousands of years.

    But not all have survived, Genevieve had continued to taunt. I was only trying to prepare her, so that she might see the signs of it going wrong. So that she might fight for her life.

    Genevieve. Younger than the queen and completely spoiled, and always as mean as the snakes they kept to adorn themselves with at parties.

    Camille lay back in the birthing bed, remembering her last days at the Volroy, as Willa pressed a cool cloth to her forehead.

    Well, said Willa, and brushed the queen’s black hair out of her eyes, you are breathing, aren’t you?

    Camille looked at the bassinets across the room, each with a sleeping queen inside. The firstborn, Mirabella the elemental, had come in such a rush, with such electricity to her that Camille had shouted her gift before her name. Elemental Mirabella. Arsinoe the poisoner had arrived not long after; Willa had barely gotten Mirabella washed and settled into her blankets. But sweet little naturalist Katharine had given her a rest, taking so long that they feared her sisters would start to fuss.

    I did it, Camille said as her eyes began to close. I survived. And now my reign is over.

    When she woke, the three bassinets were gone, whisked away by Willa to the nursery down the hall. In their place was a chair, and slumped down on it, snoring softly, was her king-consort, Philippe.

    Sweet Philippe. He had won her hand in the Hunt of the Stags, when she could not choose her favorite from the suitors that the Arrons approved of. Sometimes she thought it was the only bit of luck that the Goddess ever gave her. Though he had little power in the face of the Arrons, he had loved Camille well, and a life away from the island with him was all she had ever looked forward to. When her triplets came after only seven years of her rule, she was overjoyed.

    They would leave now, and trade the island for the world. Out there, she would be just a woman, free to make her own path. All she had to give up was her crown, and that she had already torn off her head and thrown during the births.

    Camille looked around the room. Willa had done a fine job of cleaning while she slept. The bloody cloths and trays of sharp knives were gone, the cloths burned and the knives returned to storage in case the next queen’s birth was not so lucky and the triplets needed to be cut out. Mellow incense smoke cleared the stench of sweat and labor, and she had set a warm, crackling fire in the fireplace.

    Outside, the December night was dark—only the faintest hint of moonlight reflected across the snowdrifts. Camille gingerly swung her leg over the edge of the bed and winced. She took a moment to collect herself, held her sagging, empty belly with one arm and swung the other until she stood. Her vision wavered, and for a moment, she feared Philippe would wake to the sound of her collapsing on the floor. But the weakness passed. She slipped a blanket about her shoulders like a shawl, and walked out.

    Where are you going, my love? Philippe, more awake than she had thought, grasped her wrist softly as she passed. You should be resting. We have a long journey tomorrow. His eyes lingered on her pale face, and then on the floor, and on the small trail of dripped blood she left behind.

    She patted him, and he let go. His heavily lidded eyes blinked shut. He was, even after years on the island, still a mainland man and trusted that she must know best about these women’s mysteries.

    I am only going to look in on them.

    Shall I go with you?

    She shook her head. Philippe was a strong consort, but he was too softhearted for this. If he saw the triplet queens, he might want to hold them. And if he held them, he might start to feel that they were his instead of Fennbirn’s.

    Queen Camille walked down the high-ceilinged hall of the Black Cottage, one hand out along the wall to steady her. The light from the lamps in the nursery cast warm yellow light, and inside, another bright fire crackled against the cold.

    Much like Camille’s king-consort, Willa slept upright in a chair. Though not, perhaps, as prettily. Willa’s mouth hung open, and her head fell over to the side. Her snore sounded like a pig searching excitedly for mushrooms.

    Camille crept past. The newborn queens in the bassinets were dressed in black and affixed with the colors of their gifts. Blue buttons for elemental Mirabella, and a purple patch for poisoner Arsinoe. Pretty green ribbons for tiny naturalist Katharine. Even the bassinets had been decorated with items associated with each gift: a cloud-shaped pillow, a mobile hung with snakes and spiders, and a quilt embroidered with flowers.

    Enjoy the colors, little queens, Camille whispered. Soon enough it will all be black, black, black.

    She looked down on their sleeping faces—red and wrinkled, and angry-looking, even at

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1