Legacy and the Queen Read online

  To Nani, Gigi, B.B., and KoKo, my four beautiful, spirited, strong daughters: When you fiercely protect your passion, no one can ever steal your dreams.

  —Kobe Bryant

  To David and Sammy

  —Annie Matthew

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE LIGHT OF THE MOON

  On the morning of her twelfth birthday, Legacy Petrin woke from a dream about playing tennis with a winged racket.

  She was smiling when she blinked awake. For a few moments, she let herself focus on the tawny lines of the stain on the ceiling. The webbed shape had been spreading for years, the result of water damage from a storm that had raged through the countryside before she could remember. Now the stain was almost comforting, like the unfolding map of a secret magical city.

  Only once her eyes reached the edge of her secret city did the uncomfortable thoughts start flooding her mind. She remembered how funding for the orphanage had been cut. She remembered the new white strands in her father’s close-cropped hair and how his hands had trembled when he lit the lamps after dinner last night.

  By the time Legacy sat up in bed, her worries had formed a knot in her throat. When she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress, the tumbled stones of the floor pressed their cold fists into her arches. Shivering, she reached under the bed and pulled out her racket.

  The wood frame was warped, and the old strings were fraying. The bark grip was now nearly black, imprinted with the shape of her palm. But Legacy loved that racket more than any object she’d ever possessed. Holding it, she felt like herself. A new sense of calm spread through her body.

  When she stood and crossed the room, carrying her racket and a balding tennis ball, the stones underfoot were no longer so cold. Trying not to make any noise, she passed the long row of beds where the littles were sleeping. She paused only to kiss Ink on the forehead.

  In sleep, Ink’s face was angelic: soft brown, dimpled, and surrounded by a halo of sun-kissed curls. With both of her little hands, she was clutching her beloved blanket.

  It was the same blanket she’d been fearfully gripping when, not even a year ago, Legacy found her abandoned on the stone steps of the orphanage.

  Back then, Ink had been too frightened to talk. She’d been too frightened to sleep. Now Ink was braver. Legacy had taught her to wear her blanket as a cape. And whenever she did, she became a new little girl: bossy and bold, capable of ordering the older littles to take parts they didn’t want in the elaborate plays she directed.

  Smiling to herself, Legacy moved on toward the door. She only paused again before the last bed, where Van—Legacy’s best friend, and the only kid at the orphanage who was her age—was still sleeping as well. His head was always hot when he slept: there was a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. His skin was the color of wet cycapress bark. The colossal book he’d been reading—Eleander’s Novica: A History, Scientific and Otherwise, of the Republic of Nova—was splayed over his skinny chest, and his mouth was open, a silver thread of drool trailing out of the corner and down his chin. He’d forgotten to take off his glasses. They rested crookedly over the bridge of his nose.

  Legacy smiled. While he was still sleeping, at least, his face was peaceful. He hadn’t yet picked up his daily delivery of the Nova Times. His eyes hadn’t yet darkened in indignation, and he hadn’t yet begun to rant about the historical reasons for poverty in the provinces or the lingering effects of the Great Fire, despite all of High Consul Silla’s reforms.

  For now, he was only occupied with his dreams. And that was how it should be, Legacy thought as she slipped down the back stairs and out through the kitchen.

  She sat down on the stone steps that led to the garden and laced up her sneakers. Outside, it was still dark. Surrounded on one side by dusky olive trees of the agricultural valley, and on the other side by the slope leading up to the Forest of Cora, the garden seemed to sit in a big bowl of silence. Only occasionally was that silence broken by a faint boom from deep in the mines, somewhere beyond the agricultural district, Agricio. The vibrations spread through the earth and crept up through Legacy’s sneakers, stirring memories of the articles Van liked to read over breakfast, about dangerous mining conditions and pollution in the provinces.

  For a moment, the knot formed again in Legacy’s throat. But as soon as she was hitting the ball against the stone wall of the garden, the last of her worries slipped away. She was alone. Not even the birds were awake. There were no chores to be done, no little faces to wash, no small socks to wrestle onto wriggling feet. For now, all Legacy had to do was play tennis.

  She started with ground strokes. The morning was cool, but while she moved, her body grew warmer. The only steady sound was the plonk of the tennis ball bouncing on stone and the ping of the ball striking her strings. In the darkness, Legacy could barely make out the ball as it bounced off the rough stones of the wall, spewing off in unpredictable trajectories, as though she were playing an extraordinarily skillful opponent. Sometimes, the ball got lost in shadow, and she had to search for it in the weeds choking the garden or in the roots of the cycapress trees.

  But once she’d settled into her rhythm, her eyes began to adjust. The pale light of the moon began to seem brighter. Legacy found that she could make out every crack and divot in the rough stone of the wall. She could anticipate the ball’s angle. She moved into her shots, taking them faster and faster, swinging hard over the top of the ball so that the sound it made when it struck her strings was cleaner.

  Then she began to aim for the same stone in the wall. Then she forced herself to aim for the same divot in the same stone. Time and time again, she hit her mark. She poured her whole weight into each shot. Certainty spread through every muscle in her body.

  When she finished that drill, she moved up to the wall, practicing volleys. Between shots, she felt a smile creeping over her face. She was so lucky, she thought. Even if they were down a goat since the day before yesterday, when the new kid wandered into the forest. Even if now they barely had enough milk for the littles. Even if she’d been hungry for days.

  Even so, she had her racket. She had the wall to play against in the mornings.

  Maybe she wasn’t as good as Gia, the top tennis player in Nova, who attacked her ground strokes with a long, honey-blond braid swinging behind her and those thick stripes of black paint under her eyes. In Van’s copy of the Nova Times, Legacy had read all the stories about how Gia’s grana was growing stronger every day. About how she could make the sky turn dark over her opponents, how she could cause the shadows to lengthen so that it was difficult for her opponents to keep the ball.

  But that didn’t matter to Legacy now. All that mattered was the feel of the ball striking her strings, and the certainty in her own body.

  Or at least that’s what she was thinking when the sound of something stumbling around in the garden startled her and caused her to lose track of the ball.

  “How are you doing that?” Van called out through the darkness.

  Legacy breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, she’d allowed herself to imagine one of those monsters from the Cora stories. A giant crackle, maybe. Or a lural with ice-blue eyes and sickle-shaped fangs.

  “Seriously, bud,” Van was saying. He must have finished taking care of the goats. Now he was moving toward her, feeling his way through the darkness, until he tripped over a root, caught himself, ran a hand over his hair, then propped himself casually against the trunk of a cycapress tree.

  Legacy focused on the strings of her racket, acting as if she hadn’t seen his near miss. He was always so self-conscious about his clumsiness, Legacy thought. Then she tri
ed to swallow the little surge of guilt that had crawled up from her stomach.

  “Where was that light coming from?” Van said.

  “What light?” Legacy said.

  “The light you’re using to see the ball,” Van said.

  Legacy looked around, then shrugged. “The sun’s rising,” she said. Though now that she’d stopped playing, it did seem darker than it had before.

  “I can’t see a thing,” Van said. “And you’re getting every shot! It must be some kind of grana.”

  “Or it’s getting light out,” Legacy said.

  “I’m telling you, bud,” Van said, “you have all the grana you need. All you need now is a better racket and a little serious training—which is why this is such incredible news!”

  Now he was waving his copy of the Nova Times over his head. His glasses had gone crooked again. No matter how many times Legacy tried to fix them, they never quite balanced on the bridge of his nose.

  “What are you talking about?” Legacy said, peering at the newspaper.

  “I’m talking about change,” Van said. “I’m talking about progress!”

  “What are you actually talking about,” Legacy said, rolling her eyes.

  “The Queen,” Van said, “has announced that she’s holding a free trial for children from the provinces.”

  Legacy peered over his shoulder. High Consul Silla—otherwise known as the Queen, since her younger days on the tennis court, when she dominated her opponents so thoroughly she seemed to wear an invisible crown on her head—must have announced a new provincial outreach program.

  “Winner gets a free ride to the academy,” Van said. “And a slot in the qualifiers for the national championships!”

  For a moment, Legacy’s heart seemed to have sprouted wings. Now they were flapping wildly against the cage of her chest. How many nights had she gone to sleep dreaming of training at Silla’s academy? How many times had she closed her eyes and seen herself playing the national championships?

  She’d even imagined winning them, beating Gia, the best player in the republic, and kneeling to pledge her loyalty to High Consul Silla, who would stand before her with that regal composure that was the source of her nickname and that made her so beloved by the people of Nova.

  Legacy had dreamed of that moment while teaching the littles to read. She’d dreamed of it while preparing their bottles. Hanging their wet pajamas up on the line in the garden, she’d closed her eyes and heard the applause of all the citizens who had come to watch her play in the finals. She’d felt the grass of the academy courts giving under her feet. She’d imagined herself changing the weather like the other top players. Like Villy Sal, who could cause snow to swirl down on his opponents. Or Sondra Domenicu, who could make the ground of the court start to shudder and crack. Legacy had imagined beating them all.

  But now, hearing Van say it out loud, Legacy shook her head as if to clear out all the fantasies. It was one thing to have daydreams while washing the littles’ pajamas. But it was another thing entirely to let herself believe they were real.

  Even if she did win the trials, she couldn’t run off to train at the academy. She had responsibilities here. How would her father manage without her? Ever since her mother left, it had been the two of them. As soon as she was old enough, she’d tried to do whatever she could to help him run the orphanage. But she’d seen how the responsibility had worn him down. She’d watched the lines in his face grow deeper. She’d watched the white crawl into his close-cropped hair.

  And anyway: he’d already been abandoned once. Legacy wouldn’t let it happen again. Especially not so that she could follow some silly dream about tennis.

  But Van was still at it. “Are you listening?” he said, following close behind while Legacy moved around the garden, beating clumps of weeds with her racket, looking for the lost ball. If her father found it in the garden, he’d know she’d been playing tennis. Then she’d get another one of his lectures.

  “You’ll win those trials, I know it!” Van said. “And then you’ll go to the academy. And once you’ve gotten some quality coaching, you’ll win the nationals, too. And with the money you make there, you can fix all the problems at the orphanage.”

  Legacy found the ball under a broken flowerpot. She trapped it against the side of her sneaker, balanced it on her racket, and headed toward the kitchen stairs.

  Behind her, Van was still yammering on. “It’s perfect timing. It’s meant to be. The trials are tomorrow. And today’s your birthday, so you’ll finally get that Tempest. Then you’ll have more power, and you’ll be able to express grana. You can use it when you’re playing the trials!”

  On the stairs, Legacy picked up her pace. She hoped Van couldn’t see her face flush. For months, he’d been after her about asking for a Tempest for her twelfth birthday. It was all part of his master plan to make her into the greatest champion in the republic. Never mind the fact that she’d never even had a coach. Never mind that players like Gia had been training at the academy since they could walk, learning how to express grana that Legacy couldn’t so much as dream of. Never mind that a single day at the academy cost more than the orphanage budget for a whole month.

  None of that made any difference to Van. He was sure that Legacy could win the nationals and save the orphanage. Then maybe he could go to the School of Economics and become a historian, and later a politician, or even a senator who could aid Silla in her reform of the republic.

  Legacy didn’t interrupt him while he rambled on. She knew that his schemes distracted him from his hunger and from the occasional pains in his bad leg. They prevented him from thinking about what he’d do when he was too old to keep his bed at the orphanage and there wasn’t money to send him to college.

  Usually, Van’s hopeful chatter made Legacy happy. But now, listening while Van rattled off stats about how much a Tempest would help the accuracy of her serve, Legacy felt her face growing redder.

  She wasn’t going to get that Tempest.

  She hadn’t even asked for it.

  She’d considered it, but in the end it seemed selfish. How could she justify asking for a new racket when the littles didn’t even have enough milk for their bottles? Instead, she’d asked for a book of Cora stories for Ink. She’d been excited to see Ink turn them into plays. But she hadn’t considered how disappointed Van would be when she didn’t get that Tempest.

  Legacy paused at the kitchen door. Beyond the garden wall, the sun was actually rising now. For the most part, the slopes and valleys of Agricio had recovered since the Great Fire that was still raging through them three years ago. Since Silla put it out, money had been set aside by the senate for new olive trees to replace the ones that had burned. Stripes of silver-green saplings trained to their stakes stretched off down into the valley, where blue clouds had nestled in for the night and still hadn’t risen with the morning.

  On the other side of the garden, however, the Forest of Cora was ravaged. The first waves of recovery money hadn’t been sent there. And now that the recovery had racked up staggering debts, Legacy couldn’t imagine funds would be sent anytime soon.

  The skeletons of the burnt drammus trees stood black against the rosy sky. They seemed to be wagging their skinny, leafless fingers at her, reminding her that it was absurd to dream of winning those trials. Her only responsible option, those trees seemed to say, was to remain at the orphanage.

  Sighing in resignation, Legacy headed inside. Her father must have started the kitchen fire without her. And in the great room, the littles were already assembled at the long wooden table.

  “Happy birthday!” they all cried in unison when Legacy stepped into the room.

  Legacy smiled. They must have all chipped in to set the table and lay out the corn cakes. They’d even made an effort to dress themselves so she wouldn’t have to. Ink’s burlap shift was on backward. Leo’s sneakers were on
the wrong feet. And it must have been Hugo who combed Zaza’s slippery, tangle-prone hair.

  But they all looked so proud of the effort. Someone had even found a hunk of wild honey and placed it at the center of the table for Legacy to spread on her corn cake. Seeing that, Legacy smiled wider. So many wild bees had died in the fire. Now the fruits of their labor were rare. It had been months since anyone had found wild honey.

  Anticipating the sweet, warm taste of the honey, Legacy sat down at the place they’d set for her. Beside her plate was a large rectangular box wrapped in brown paper.

  Before she opened it, she glanced up at her father. He was sitting quietly at the head of the table. There was that white in his hair, and his shoulders were a little more stooped than usual. But when he smiled, Legacy could almost remember how he looked when her mother hadn’t yet left.

  He used to play with her in the garden. He’d thrown tennis balls for her to chase, and she’d laughed and laughed while she retrieved them.

  Now Legacy looked back at the box on the table.

  “Open it!” Van urged, standing beside her with a goofy grin.

  Once again, Legacy flushed. She hesitated. But there was nothing she could do now. She opened the package and drew out the heavy book.

  Ink let out a squeal. “Cora stories!” she cried, lifting her cape in excitement. “We’ll start a new play this afternoon!”

  When Legacy finally faced Van, she saw that his face had crumpled like a used napkin. His glasses had gone crooked again. This time he didn’t make the effort to fix them.

  “Did you even ask?” he said. “Did you even ask for the racket?”

  Legacy tried to swallow the stone in her throat. It wouldn’t go down. She couldn’t answer.

  “You won’t go, will you?” Van said. Tears were welling at the corners of his eyes. “You won’t even try.”

  “Van,” Legacy started, but he was already running off toward the staircase. He moved as quickly as he could, but his bad leg was slowing him down, and he must have been blinded by his tears, because he tripped on the first stair, and again on the second, and this time he didn’t try to make it seem graceful. He only pulled himself up and kept running.