The Shepherd King, #2
Two Twisted Crowns
by Rachel Gillig
Contents
Chapter Forty-Three
Overview
Ravyn returns with the Twin Alders Card and the truth that he is descended from Taxus, the Shepherd King, making the Yews the rightful heirs of the murdered line. Taxus reveals that his revenge is not to crown Ravyn but to make Elm king, using a Rowan prince to break the violent Rowan legacy from within. The Spirit warns that time is running out, and the group is transported back to the snowy alderwood.
Summary
On the pale shore, Ravyn remains absent while Jespyr survives with the darkness in her veins stemmed, though her breathing is weak. The Nightmare cradles Jespyr and admits that she reminds him of both Ayris and Tilly, linking the present moment to his lost past.
Elspeth presses the Nightmare for the full truth. He confirms that his sister Ayris died in the alderwood and that, exhausted and desperate to preserve the Spirit’s instructions about uniting the Deck, he left Ayris’s body in a glen. When Taxus returned without Brutus Rowan’s wife, Brutus eventually murdered Taxus and his children. Elspeth asks what the Nightmare truly wants, and Taxus says he intends to leave Blunder better than he made it before disappearing after the Deck is united at Solstice.
Ravyn returns from the sea strengthened and carrying the Twin Alders Card, its green light proof that the barter succeeded. Ravyn reveals the cost was his name, which is also Taxus’s name, and confronts the Nightmare with the truth that the Mirror and Nightmare Cards belonged to Taxus’s son. Elspeth realizes that Bennett, and therefore Ravyn and Emory, descend from Taxus’s line; the old family name Taxus means yew.
Ravyn tells Taxus that although he will unite the Deck, he will not become King of Blunder or serve as the weapon of Taxus’s revenge. Taxus explains that his revenge is not to place Ravyn on the throne but to restore balance by making Elm king. Taxus argues that Blunder would reject a Yew seizure of power, but Elm, a Rowan prince who has suffered and refused to become cruel, can undo the Rowan legacy from within.
The Spirit of the Wood returns over the water and warns Taxus and Ravyn that if they mean to rewrite history and strip Blunder of fever and mist, they must act quickly. The Spirit notes that Ravyn has been using the Providence Card for a long time. Ravyn taps the Twin Alders Card, the shore collapses into darkness, and the Nightmare catches Jespyr as they fall back into the alderwood beneath two tangled trees, where snow now covers the ground.
Who Appears
- Elspeth SpindleShares Taxus’s mind, questions his past, and learns Ravyn’s true lineage.
- The Nightmare / TaxusFormer Shepherd King; reveals his losses, motives, lineage, and plan to crown Elm.
- Ravyn YewReturns with the Twin Alders Card and rejects becoming king or revenge’s weapon.
- JespyrSurvives the darkness but remains unconscious and weak in Taxus’s care.
- Spirit of the WoodReturns to warn that history must be rewritten quickly to end fever and mist.
- Elm RowanAbsent but central to Taxus’s plan as the Rowan prince meant to inherit the throne.
- Brutus RowanRemembered as the usurper who killed Taxus and his children after Ayris’s death.
- AyrisTaxus’s dead sister, whose body he left in the alderwood after failing to carry her home.