by Amber Jaeger
“It means you have be someone capable of winning over strong support and uniting a broken kingdom.”
She picked at the ragged edge of a fingernail. “I honestly do not know how to do that.”
He closed a hand over both of hers. “I will help you, Alma will help you. Even Bennet will help you.”
“Bennet does not like me,” she argued.
“He does. He is a kind man and a good friend. But you must earn his trust.”
She thought for a long moment, and Lian waited, praying she would see the strength of his plan.
“I will do it,” she finally said in a small voice.
His face lit up in triumph. “Excellent. Then I shall send Valanka our acceptance and ask to arrive early. I want him informed of what will happen but I do not trust a messenger to carry the information.”
“And what do we do until then?” she asked, afraid of the answer.
“We work on your poise. And manners. And grooming.”
“That is what I feared,” she said with a sigh.
There was a sharp knock and Lian waved a small, stark man in. His suit was immaculate, as was his graying hair, and he carried a large leather bag. Everything about him graceful and poised and deliberate. “Mister Gace, thank you for coming.”
“When the king calls, I answer,” he said in a clipped voice. He looked the king over. “And not a moment too soon.”
Lian glanced down at his plain untucked shirt and rumpled breeches. “Oh no, you are not here for me, you are here for her.”
“That is a shame,” Mister Gace said, frowning at the king’s outfit before turning to take in Katiyana. “Or perhaps not. What is you need?”
“Dresses, gowns, pointy shoes, all of it.”
Katiyana grimaced and the man sighed. “I assumed that. I am the most prestigious tailor in the land, after all. I meant what are the garments needed for, what are they meant to represent?”
Lian looked confused. “I need them to make her look like a lady.”
The man gracefully draped himself over a chair and set his bag at his feet. “A lady. Right. But what type of lady? Your lady? Your mistress, your wife?”
“And this is why I just go around in pants,” Katiyana muttered under her breath. Louder she said, “I think you are going to have to tell him.”
“Yes, I need information if I am to create a unique vision,” the man said dourly. “I do not make clothes, I create images. If you need a dressmaker I am sure you can find one less expensive than myself.”
Lian struggled. “I must have your word that what we tell you stays private. Should you reveal any of it, the penalty would be death.”
“My lord,” the man said indignantly, “I have always kept the secrets of my clients. That is nearly half the job. I cannot very well make a living if I told everyone about the night clothes I made for so and so’s mistress. I would be out of work.”
“I assume you know of Queen Sula,” said Lian hesitantly.
“Yes, as tacky a woman as their ever was. Whoever clothes her should be hung.”
Katiyana snorted. She had always hated Sula’s outfits. She picked frosty, pastel colors and shimmering fabrics. The gowns had to weigh more than she did and she floated around looking like an icicle.
“Many years ago her husband died and her stepdaughter disappeared,” Lian hedged.
The tailors face softened. “Yes, I remember that. It was a terrible time, and from what I understand, it has only gotten worse.”
“It has gotten much worse, particularly for the people she rules over. I have tried in vain to rid the world of her but never managed to succeed.”
“And now?” Mr. Gace prompted.
“I am her stepdaughter,” Katiyana said bluntly. “She wanted me murdered but I escaped. Lian thinks I can topple her from the throne and take over as rightful ruler.”
The man’s widened in surprise. “I see.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully and then stood, motioning Katiyana to rise. He led her out into the middle of the room and walked slowly around her.
“So I need her to look like a queen,” Lian said.
The man looked at him sharply. “She already resembles the queen a great deal, and I believe that will be a mark against her. You need a savior, a victor, a conqueror.”
Katiyana barely kept from rolling her eyes. “It is just a bunch of dresses. Which I hate, by the way, I truly hate them.”
The man ignored her comment. “Queen Sula dresses as if for her own coronation everyday while her people go hungry.” He looked up at Katiyana. “Tell me, how will you be different?”
“I have lived as simple and hard a life they have ever since the queen drove me from my home,” she said fiercely. “I had to survive just as they did. And I did it well without fancy gowns or shoes, thank you very much.”
He nodded and tapped his chin again. “I see,” he repeated. “You are one of them and the opposite of her.” He clapped his hands together and turned to the king. “I shall take measurements and begin today.”
“Wonderful,” Lian said, standing from his chair.
“Do I get any say in this?” Katiyana asked.
Dark eyes settled on hers again. “You always have a choice. But sometimes choosing your people over yourself means you will have to choose to wear a dress.”
Katiyana sighed with resignation and let herself be led to the room she would be measured in. Alma stood guard while the man did his work.
Lian was outside the door when they exited. “Might I have another word with you, Mr. Gace?”
“Certainly,” he replied. “Especially if it is about your own wardrobe.”
After a lunch by herself, Alma found Katiyana wandering the gardens. “The king is meeting with Bennet and would like you to attend.”
Annoyed by the request, Katiyana pulled a face.
“Are you already so tired of the king?” Alma teased.
“No, it is not him this time, it is Bennet.” A flower drooped over the path and Katiyana plucked it savagely from the ground.
Surprise crossed Alma’s face. “Bennet? What have you against Bennet?”
The shade of the palace was welcome after the sunny walk, but still Katiyana dragged her feet. “Nothing, it is he who does not care for me. He was friendly enough the first time but since I have returned, he treats me like—”
“A spy?”
“I suppose.”
Seeing the library empty, Alma pulled her in to speak privately. “Bennet is a good man and the king’s best friend. In his quest for revenge against the queen, not all of his choices have been completely wise. Bennet is just looking out for him.”
“I suppose that is his job, he is captain of the guards. But he needn’t guard against me.”
“When you get to know him, and he begins to trust you, you will see,” she promised. “He is a good man, very loyal and strong and kind…”
The snapping of Katiyana’s fingers brought Alma back to the moment and she flushed seeing the devilish look on her friends face. “I believe I can guess who has your attentions.”
“Do not be silly, a man like him would never look at someone like me,” she said, and Katiyana did not miss the hint of sadness.
“Why ever not? You are lovely and kind. And clearly the king approves of you.”
A bell deep in the castle chimed and Alma grabbed her hand. “Come, I do not want you to be late.”
They went back to the room Katiyana was beginning to think of as the war room. Bennet and Lian already sat at the table, heads bowed together, and looked up when the women entered the room. The king’s eyes were already dark and Bennet’s were not any friendlier. Heart low in her stomach, she took a seat. Alma went to the side board and began fixing drinks.
With no preamble, Bennet demanded, “Are you Princess Katiyana?”
Shocked, her face snapped to Lian’s. “Did you tell him?”
“I guessed it,” Bennet said smugly. “And apparently I guessed it well.”
“Is everyone
able to guess?” she demanded.
Alma brought a mug of tea to her and let her hand rest on her clenched fist for a moment.
“Does it matter if he guessed or not? We would have had to tell him at some point,” Lian said.
“It does matter! I left the safety of the woods, where I was hidden and unknown, to come help you. I cannot hide here, I do not know how to make myself safe. My secrecy is one of the only defenses I have left.”
“You have a knife tucked into your waist band and one up your sleeve,” Bennet noted dryly. “I think you will be just fine.”
“And that is where we differ,” Lian said through clenched teeth.
Alma reached around him to get his empty mug, brushing against his arm. With great curiosity, Katiyana noted the contact seemed to soothe him and he relaxed. With Bennet, Alma was much more formal, practically holding her breath as she slid the mug in front of him. He glanced up with a look of thanks and she flushed but he was already looking back to Katiyana again.
“We are already stretched thin by the water project, which is why there were no guards on duty last night outside of your room.” A glance at Alma almost had Katiyana laughing aloud but fought it back, or so she thought. “You find this amusing? I do not. The men are exhausted by their duties and this new labor. I cannot expect them to dig the entire irrigation system, guard the palace, guard the king and now also you.”
The king’s eyes were dark and getting darker. Katiyana had never seen the ocean but had seen picture books with angry ocean storms and that is what they reminded her of.
“Then pull them off the water project.”
Exasperated, Bennet held his hands out as if pleading. “We have been over this, we need the project completed as soon as possible. Our lively hoods all depend on it.”
“Then hire more guards,” he growled. His hands were tight, white knuckled fists on the table and Katiyana leaned back away from him. She was unsettled by his anger.
“I cannot just hire more guards. They are specially selected and train for months before being put on duty.”
“Damn it, just find me a solution!” Lian thundered, bringing his fist up to slam on the table.
Katiyana slapped her own hand to the table before he could hit it. “Stop doing that,” she snapped. “You are a grown man, not a child. Stop acting like one. If there is a problem, just find a way to fix and move on. Your temper tantrums are exhausting and unnecessary.”
The king sat in shock for a long moment before slowly lowering his hand as well as his eyes. Out of his gaze, Katiyana swallowed hard. She had not meant to speak up but could take his vile temper no more.
Alma stood at the side board, the plate of cookies in her hand slowly tilting. She was looking from Katiyana to the king and back again, as if she had never seen such a display.
Katiyana refused to look at Bennet, he was probably as angry at her as the king.
When Lian finally looked back up, his eyes were the same inky midnight blue but his face was smooth. “Just fix the problem and move on?” he repeated, his voice so low a rumble she could feel it in her chest. “You do realize that every problem I have, that my kingdom has, is compounded by Sula and her evil plots?”
Sitting up a little straighter, Katiyana argued, “You cannot blame her for your insufficient crop irrigation.”
“No, that would be childish,” he said, raising on brow. Katiyana gripped the arms of her chair to keep her hands from shaking. “But if I did not need to worry about what terrible thing she might do next, I could have allowed the labor for this long ago and it would already be done.”
He rose from the table and Katiyana jumped out of her own chair, unsure of what he was doing. He made his way to stand next to Alma, who put a hand on his arm. For the first time that Katiyana had seen, it did not seem to ease his anger. “I can see in your eyes that you think I am overreacting, that the queen could not possibly be powerful enough to warrant this paranoia. But I assure you, she is. She has reached into this kingdom over and over and caused so much grief.”
“I know she killed your—”
“I am not the only one she hurt by doing that. My entire kingdom lost their queen and king. And while that touched each and every one of us, she has hurt other people further. Two of Bennet’s brothers left to spy on her three years ago. We have not seen them since. And Alma lost her dear parents and uncle.”
Katiyana looked to her friend and was frightened by how pale her face was. Lian grabbed her by the arm and leaned down to speak right into his servant’s ear. “Tell the princess what the queen has done to your family.”
Alma shook her head, causing fresh tears to fly off her cheeks.
Katiyana rushed to the girl and glared up at the king. “She already told me about her family. Let her go!”
Lian glared down at the both of them. “Really, Alma? You told her what the queen did to your family?”
Alma choked on a sob and shook her head again.
“Lian, stop,” Katiyana demanded. “I know they all died and that is how she came to be your personal servant. Now let go, you might hurt her.”
“Tell her,” Lian growled. “She must know the depths of the queen’s depravity!”
“Fine,” Alma sobbed, wrenching her arm out of the kings grasp. She stood crying with her arms wrapped around waist before finally speaking. She addressed the floor, not looking up once as she pushed the words out in a broken voice. “My parents managed all of the palace staff. Sula tried to bribe them into allowing spies in as maids and butlers. They refused. She tried to blackmail them by threatening me and they still refused. They had told the king, Lian’s father, the moment she had contacted them and he vowed to keep me safe.” Her shoulders heaved as she cried and forced the next words out. “But he was not able to keep them safe. They died from the same poison as your father did.”
“You do not have to do this,” Katiyana murmured, heartbroken for her friend. She could only imagine the pain she was feeling having to relive the memories.
“Yes, you do, I command it,” Lian snarled.
Alma wrapped her arms tighter around herself and tucked her chin all the way to her chest. “I only had my uncle,” she said, the words rushed. “I had no option but to become his apprentice. Life was much more difficult but at least I was not alone. Not until he was murdered in his own bed while he slept.”
“Why?” Katiyana cried.
“To hurt my father. To show him just how far she could reach,” Lian said in a cold voice.
“Am I done?” Alma begged, finally raising her blotchy, tear stained face.
“No, the rest of it.”
The maid glanced to Bennet before closing her eyes. “My uncle’s death hurt the king but it hurt me worse. I had no family to care for me, no one to arrange a marriage. The king took pity on me and gave me my uncle’s position. Had he not done that, I would have homeless and without a future.”
Katiyana wanted the girl’s distress to be over but could not resist asking her question. “But why?”
Alma opened her eyes and glared at her. “Look at me!” she cried, throwing her arms wide. “Who would want an orphan girl who never learned to be a lady? A girl who spends her time serving a man? I know what they say about me, I know what they think!”
With that she gathered her plain skirts and ran from the room. Katiyana spun to watch her go, her mouth hanging open. She was ashamed of herself for wondering about Alma’s relationship with the king. It had never occurred to her what pain even the thought of such rumors could inflict.
With her back still to the two men, she took a moment to compose herself before turning around. Lian stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his brows cockily raised.
“You,” Katiyana said in a shaking voice, “are just as capable of the cruelty you accuse the queen of. And you,” she said, pointing at Bennet, “are a poor example of a man. Do you always allow your king to abuse his staff in order for him to make a point?”
Lian ope
ned his mouth and Katiyana shut it for him with a hard crack of her open hand. “Do not ever force Alma to tell her story like that, do not ever treat her so poorly again.” She watched as he raised a hand to his red cheek. She expected anger and rage but was surprised by the pain she could see in his eyes. More gently she added, “I am not surprised she has always felt alone if this is how you have treated her. She has been as good a friend to you as Bennet has and provided years of faithful service to your family. She deserves so much more from you.”
Lian looked to the ground and shifted on his feet. Finally he said, “You are right. I owe her an apology.”
Katiyana snorted and stomped back over to the table to take her seat. “You owe her more than that.”
