The Nightshade Crown, #1
The Foxglove King
by Hannah Whitten
Contents
Chapter Two
Overview
Val ends Lore’s assignment with Michal and sends Lore to a routine poison drop, but the city’s Consecration crowds force Lore into dangerous proximity to the catacombs. A revenant’s ominous recognition of Lore’s death-touched nature foreshadows deeper truths about Lore and the tunnels.
When bloodcoats catch Jean-Paul with contraband, Lore risks herself rather than abandon him. Lore channels Mortem from the slain Horse, exposing Lore’s forbidden power and producing an impossible resurrection-like outcome that radically escalates Lore’s danger.
Summary
Lore waits near a catacomb entrance in Dellaire, whose orderly streets contrast with the maze beneath the city. Being close to the tunnels unsettles Lore because Lore can sense whether anyone is inside them, a skill first revealed ten years earlier when Mari found thirteen-year-old Lore newly emerged from the underground with a fresh burn scar on Lore’s palm.
Val arrives and embraces Lore, then abruptly tells Lore that the infiltration of Gilbert’s poison operation is over. Val says the coming royal Consecration will make the Presque Mort more vigilant, and Val correctly sees that Lore has become attached to Michal. Lore resists but accepts the decision, then receives a supposedly simple assignment: meet Jean-Paul at a Northwest Ward market-square catacomb entrance, help unload contraband, and guard it until pickup.
Lore tries to reach the drop by the dock roads, but Consecration preparations clog the streets with stalls, bloodcoats, crowds, and Presque Mort. To arrive on time, Lore turns back toward the catacombs despite hating them. At the entrance, a revenant ambushes Lore and recognizes the death inside Lore, claiming Lore should have been killed and muttering that the tunnels are filling up in rows “ready for the war.” Lore dismisses the words as madness and runs for the rendezvous.
Lore arrives too late: bloodcoats have stopped Jean-Paul and are searching the cart. Because Jean-Paul has a family and faces the Burnt Isles if caught, Lore refuses to abandon him. Lore pretends to be Alaric’s daughter sent to retrieve boxes, but Lore stumbles and spills mandrake across the street, exposing the contraband.
The bloodcoats seize Lore and Jean-Paul as Horse panics and overturns the cart. During the chaos, a bloodcoat slits Horse’s throat with a bayonet, and Horse collapses. With both runners captured and the mines looming, Lore chooses to create a distraction by channeling Mortem for the first time in thirteen years, drawing death from Horse’s body through herself and forcing it outward into a flower bed and the road.
The released Mortem withers plants, cracks stone, and terrifies the crowd, while Lore’s body reacts like death itself. As the magic ebbs and Lore is left afraid and disgusted, the impossible consequence appears: Horse rises again.
Who Appears
- LoreDeath-touched spy pulled from an infiltration; risks capture and channels Mortem to save Jean-Paul.
- ValLore’s surrogate mother and poison-runner handler; ends Lore’s assignment and sends her to the drop.
- Jean-PaulVal’s longtime runner; caught by bloodcoats while hauling contraband through the Northwest Ward.
- The revenantCatacomb-dwelling poison-ravaged figure who senses Lore’s death power and gives ominous warnings.
- Curly MustacheBloodcoat leader who questions Jean-Paul, discovers the contraband, and threatens the Burnt Isles.
- HorseVal’s unnamed cart horse; killed during the arrest, then rises after Lore channels Mortem.
- MariVal’s wife and Lore’s surrogate mother, shown in memory finding young Lore near the catacombs.