{"id":5912,"date":"2026-01-04T12:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/three-dark-crowns-001-the-oracle-queen-kendare-blake\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T12:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T12:26:30","slug":"three-dark-crowns-001-the-oracle-queen-kendare-blake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/three-dark-crowns-001-the-oracle-queen-kendare-blake\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Dark Crowns 001 – The Oracle Queen – Kendare, Blake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Book Preview<\/h3>\n
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<\/span>PROLOGUE<\/h2>\n

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O<\/span>n a warm summer day, Queen Mirabella sat on the front steps of the Black Cottage at Midwife Willa\u2019s feet, having her hair braided. Her little sisters\u2014Queen Arsinoe, younger by mere minutes, and Queen Katharine, younger by a full half hour\u2014played together in the yard.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a good thing that black does not show grass marks,\u201d Willa commented when Katharine tripped over her own feet and tumbled, dark skirt flying.<\/p>\n

\u201cHa ha,\u201d Arsinoe taunted. Katharine\u2019s large eyes began to shine and wobble. Mirabella cleared her throat, and Arsinoe glanced at her guiltily. Then Arsinoe sighed and went to help their youngest sister up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you not ever tell them to be nice?\u201d Mirabella asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell them to be polite.\u201d Willa separated the little queen\u2019s hair with gentle fingers. \u201cIt is so long now. So long and so <\/span>shiny. When you are queen, you must wear it down often and never cover it with a veil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mirabella fought the urge to jerk her head. Even at five years old, she knew that nice and polite were not the same things, though she could not explain exactly why.<\/p>\n

Down in the grass, Arsinoe and Katharine had resumed chasing each other. They laughed breathlessly, and when they ran out of laughter, Katharine began to sing a song that Willa had taught them that morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Sight, no sound, no fault was found, no treason to be had!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYet every one would die that day for Elsabet the mad!\u201d Arsinoe finished the rhyme and raised a stick she had been carrying as a sword. Katharine squealed and ran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy did you teach us that song?\u201d Mirabella asked. It was a queen\u2019s song, the tale of the last oracle queen, but Mirabella did not like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone on the island knows the story of the mad oracle. A queen certainly should.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSongs preserve history. So people remember.\u201d Willa lowered her voice, and Mirabella knew that what would follow was only for her ears. \u201cThey say that Queen Elsabet\u2019s gift of sight turned on her. That it drove her mad, until in a fit of paranoia she ordered the execution of three whole houses of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is \u2018paranoia\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cBeing afraid of or convinced of something that is not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWere they sure she was wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were sure. And for her crime, Queen Elsabet spent the last twenty years of her reign locked in the West Tower of the Volroy. And now we will have no more sight-gifted queens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mirabella swallowed. She knew why that was. Because every triplet born with the sight gift was drowned. \u201cAll because of her?\u201d<\/p>\n

Willa peered around and chuckled at the stark look on Mirabella\u2019s face. \u201cDo not be so troubled! It was a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long ago?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLong, long ago. Before even the mist came to protect us. Queen Elsabet ruled when Fennbirn was part of the world still. Back then, the ports were crowded with ships from countries like noble Centra, rich Valostra, and warlike Salkades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Centra, Valostra, Salkades<\/i>. Names Mirabella had heard before in Willa\u2019s teachings. But not often. Those names had been lost to the mist. They were all the mainland now. They barely existed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty years is a long time to be locked away,\u201d Mirabella murmured, and Willa kissed the top of her head. She felt a tug on the ends of her hair, and a finished braid appeared, tossed over her shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever mind that. Go on now and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Mirabella stood and did as she was told. But for the rest of that day, and many days afterward, she thought about Queen Elsabet and the song of the mad oracle. And she wondered how much of it was true.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Book Preview PROLOGUE On a warm summer day, Queen Mirabella sat on the front steps of the Black Cottage at Midwife Willa\u2019s feet, having her hair braided. Her little sisters\u2014Queen Arsinoe, younger by mere minutes, and Queen Katharine, younger by a full half hour\u2014played together in the yard. \u201cIt is a good thing that black … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[404],"class_list":["post-5912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blake-kendare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}