The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine

that the Valtia’s magic is harder to detect because the elements balance each other out.”
    Aleksi tears his sleeve from Kauko’s grip. “She said the words, but she didn’t mean them. How else can you explain this?” he hisses, gesturing at the tiny pebble that still sits, unmoving, on its pedestal. He clenches his fist and raises it in the air, and the stone glides upward. As it rises, my stomach sinks. With a flick of his wrist, he sends it flying across the room, so violently that when it hits the wall, it shatters above the heads of several priests in the top row. “She couldn’t even make it wobble! She couldn’t alter the water, and I would bet my life that she can’t burn the parchment.”
    His dark eyes meet mine, full of challenge. “Prove me wrong, Valtia .” He says the royal term like a curse.
    â€œHow dare you,” I whisper, but I can already see that I’ve lost the faith of my priests. My doubt floods in, peeling off my fragile confidence and leaving only raw pink skin, so easily bruised and torn. “I loved my Valtia. I was loyal to her. And her magic is inside me.”
    â€œBut you’ve corrupted yourself,” he says. “Gorging yourself on petty gossip from your handmaiden, on childish sentiment—” He bites back more accusations and turns away, as if he cannot stand to look at me. All his quiet resentment of my questions throughout the years seems to have risen now, at the most terrible time, right when I need the guidance and support of my elders.
    The priests are murmuring among themselves, their puzzlement and anger rippling through the chamber, buffeting me from all sides. Leevi stands before me, and for a moment he looks as hollow as I feel. “The shock,” he says. “She had such a shock last night.”
    â€œA shock? No thanks to you, Leevi.” Aleksi’s double chin wobbles as he speaks. “If you were so concerned, you should have brought her straight to the Stone Chamber instead of indulging her selfish whims.” He jabs his finger at Leevi. “And Sofia was shocked too, when her Valtia wilted and faded over the course of a fortnight. But the power roiled within her as soon as Kaarin took that final breath. That is how it’s always been. Don’t tell me about shock.”
    â€œThe copper, then,” Leevi whispers, tossing the priests a nervous look.
    Aleksi shakes his head. “We’d all be affected. And here of all places, that would not be a problem.”
    â€œWhat about the copper?” I ask, loudly enough for several priests to stop their grumbling and turn to us.
    â€œI said it is not a problem,” Aleksi replies in a low voice, every word drenched in contempt.
    Kauko gives me a sidelong glance. “You read the prophecy, Aleksi.”
    Aleksi’s nostrils flare. “The part of it we have, yes.”
    â€œYou only have part of it?” I whisper, but doubt mutes my voice, and they don’t seem to hear me.
    Kauko sighs. “We read the star signs together, Aleksi, and they confirmed it. You’ve seen the clarity and size of her blood-flame mark—you were the one who found her! But perhaps the magic is buried deep. Maybe this is the part of the prophecy that was lost. Perhaps we’re witnessing something completely new. And perhaps the current”—he, too, glances at the priests, many of whom are still staring—“ shortage merely heralds the start of a new age.”
    Leevi, fidgeting on Aleksi’s other side, nods his agreement with Kauko, and upon seeing it, Aleksi’s eyes narrow. “Then we must try to dig this magic up from wherever it is buried, because that would mean we need it now more than ever.”
    The way he says it, little flecks of spittle flying from his mouth, fills me with dread. “Perhaps,” I say, “if I had a little more time—”
    â€œWe have no time,” shouts