The Queen's Poisoner

The first installment in the Kingfountain Series is set in the medieval kingdom of Ceredigion, where an ancient magic known as the Fountain can bless rare individuals with extraordinary powers. The story opens at Tatton Hall, where Lady Eleanor waits with her youngest child, eight-year-old Owen Kiskaddon, a frail and intelligent boy born seemingly stillborn but miraculously revived. Owen's father, Lord Kiskaddon, the Duke of Westmarch, returns from the Battle of Ambion Hill with devastating news: King Severn Argentine has won despite the duke's refusal to commit his forces until the outcome was decided. As punishment, the king executed Owen's eldest brother, Jorganon, by sending him over the kingdom's great waterfall. Severn now demands another Kiskaddon son as hostage. Eleanor chooses Owen, hoping to send a secret plea for protection to the sanctuary of Our Lady, a religious refuge on an island in the river beside the royal palace.

Owen travels across the kingdom with Duke Horwath of North Cumbria, a stern nobleman loyal to the king. At Kingfountain, the royal palace built beside a mighty river and waterfall, Owen is brought before King Severn, a formidable figure dressed in black, limping from a battle wound, with a crooked back and one shoulder higher than the other. The king declares Owen his hostage and warns that his family's survival depends on their loyalty. He assigns Owen's care to Lord Ratcliffe, master of the Espion (the king's spy network), who resents the duty. Princess Elyse, King Severn's niece and the eldest daughter of the late King Eredur, comforts Owen and introduces him to Liona, the palace cook, who becomes his first protector.

Owen finds solace in the kitchen, where Liona's husband, Drew, gives him tiles and a satchel. Building elaborate tile arrangements and toppling them becomes Owen's meditative ritual, earning him the nickname "Owen Satchel." Daily life is grueling: At mandatory breakfasts, King Severn prowls among his young wards, unleashing cutting remarks that, Owen later learns, fuel the king's magical power. Dunsdworth, a ward of the king and the son of Severn's executed brother, bullies Owen relentlessly. Liona secretly tells Owen about an unlocked door leading to the sanctuary of Our Lady, where even a child can claim protection.

Owen slips away from his governess, reaches the sanctuary, and locates the queen dowager, King Eredur's widow. Before they can speak, Ratcliffe storms in, but the queen dowager refuses to release Owen. King Severn himself arrives and, using a magical gift channeled through his voice and touch that compels belief, coaxes Owen into voluntarily leaving the sanctuary. Once outside, the spell lifts and Owen realizes he has been manipulated. Ratcliffe drags him back, threatening to kill his entire family if he ever escapes again.

Owen's conditions worsen until a mysterious woman emerges from a hidden passage one night. She is Ankarette Tryneowy, the queen's poisoner, a Fountain-blessed woman sent by the queen dowager who has lived secretly in the palace's tallest tower. Ankarette becomes Owen's clandestine mentor, teaching him Wizr (a strategic board game), showing him secret tunnels, giving him potions for his weak lungs, and educating him about Fountain magic. She explains that King Severn draws power by insulting others, each remark filling a metaphorical cup of energy he can unleash through voice and touch. She teaches Owen that the most vital skill is discernment: the ability to judge people's true nature. Most importantly, she devises a stratagem to save him by tricking the king into believing Owen possesses the rare Fountain gift of foresight, making him too valuable to kill.

Owen's world transforms with the arrival of Elysabeth Victoria Mortimer, Duke Horwath's granddaughter, an exuberant and fearless girl his own age. Evie, as Owen nicknames her, attaches herself to him immediately, and her courage inspires him. She shares her grandfather's account that King Severn did not murder his nephews; Lord Bletchley, a former Espion master, was responsible for their disappearance. Ankarette confirms this. The two children discover a hidden cistern beneath the palace, and Evie persuades Owen to jump in with her, a leap that marks a turning point in his courage. At the bottom, Owen glimpses piles of treasure only he can see.

Ankarette recruits Dominic Mancini, a Genevese Espion agent stationed in the kitchen, by promising him eventual leadership of the Espion. Through Mancini, Ankarette intercepts intelligence before Ratcliffe can report it to the king. Owen relays the information first, framed as prophetic dreams. His first "dream," a pinecone falling into a river, appears to predict the execution of Lord Asilomar, whose house badge features a pinecone. His second, an eel caught by a rat, anticipates the capture of John Tunmore, a notorious traitor known as the Deconeus (a high religious official) of Ely. Both prophecies astonish the court, and rumors spread that Owen is Fountain-blessed. Ratcliffe grows suspicious. Ankarette also confides her history to Owen and Evie, revealing that Dunsdworth's son could claim the throne if King Severn dies without an heir.

Events accelerate when Owen and Evie nearly drown in the cistern after its drain gates are mysteriously opened. Mancini saves them and suspects Ratcliffe arranged the incident. The king announces a journey west for the Assizes, the annual administration of royal justice, signaling Owen's family will face judgment. Evie is sent North; in a fierce farewell, she cuts off her braided lock of hair and presses it into Owen's hands. Ankarette, gravely ill, promises to follow.

At Beestone Castle in Westmarch, Owen finds Tunmore's captured book and begins reading. A mysterious inner voice whispers truths to him, identifying lies in the text. This is his first direct experience of the Fountain speaking to him. Ankarette, hiding beneath the castle, sends Mancini to persuade Owen's father to come to the Assizes unarmed and submit to the king's mercy. She then infiltrates an inn where Ratcliffe is staying, drugs him to extract intelligence, and plants a forged letter suggesting Ratcliffe conspired with an Occitanian agent to kill Owen. The Espion discover her and stab her. Mortally wounded, Ankarette drags herself to Owen at dawn and delivers his final dream: three golden bucks (the Kiskaddon badge) kneeling before a white boar (Severn's badge), a rat destroyed, and the bucks sent upstream rather than over the falls.

Owen rushes to the king and recounts the dream. When Severn uses his Fountain magic to convince Owen his parents must die, Owen feels the power and, for the first time, turns it back against the king. He communicates telepathically that he knows Severn did not murder his nephews, that he trusts him, and that a king can choose mercy. The words pierce the king's deepest need to be loved and trusted, and Severn falls to his knees weeping. Duke Horwath searches Ratcliffe and finds the planted letter. The king condemns Ratcliffe to death, pardons Owen's family from execution, and banishes the Kiskaddons from Ceredigion. Owen is named the new Duke of Westmarch and placed under Horwath's wardship. Mancini is appointed temporary head of the Espion.

Owen returns to find Ankarette dying beneath his bed. She reveals her final secret: she was the midwife at his stillbirth and gave some of her own Fountain magic to bring him to life. She dies in his arms, and Owen commits her body to the waters. He travels north to a castle in a mountain valley beneath a colossal waterfall, wearing the collar of his new rank and carrying Ankarette's teachings, Evie's braid, and the growing awareness of his own powers. Elysabeth Victoria Mortimer comes running down the drawbridge, and Owen drops from the saddle into her embrace.