by Erin Beaty
“Was that wise, Palandret?” she whispered as the children around them fell silent and gaped. “To show them who we are without warning?”
Banneth waved and smiled to the growing crowd. “They were already talking and speculating. Best to let them see.” He turned to her. “I do not want anyone to think I am hiding you.”
Whether or not it was his intention, Sage was reminded she and Nicholas were the first Demorans these people had seen in three centuries. She represented her country, and first impressions were crucial. Her posture straightened, and her mouth curved into what she hoped passed for a smile.
“Thank you,” Sage said, accepting the flower one child finally dared to approach with. “How lovely. You are too kind.”
She never knew sitting straight and waving could be so exhausting. By the time the sloping road leveled out, Sage’s arms and back wanted to wilt like the flower in her hand. Banneth led their party into a courtyard of marble columns with a wide staircase leading into the palace. Halfway up the steps stood a young woman with her hands folded across the stomach of her crimson dress. Her long, black hair fell in waves down her back to her waist. She wore a regal and dignified expression, but its effect was somewhat lessened by the child bouncing at her elbow.
The riders stopped and began to dismount. The king was barely off his horse when the little girl, who looked about eight or nine, came flying down the steps, the train of her white gown floating like a sail behind her. “Bappa!” she yelled, throwing herself into his arms.
Sage was too tired from her fake smile of the past hour to resist the real one that suddenly spread across her cheeks. It felt good.
Banneth caught his daughter and lifted her up as the woman in red came down the steps in a manner of stately exasperation. When she reached the bottom, the king extended his free arm to her, and she stepped into his embrace. “Brother!” she said. “I have missed you so.”
Banneth kissed her cheek. “And I you.” He squeezed them both for a few seconds, then groaned but did not set the child back down. “You are getting too big for me to hold.”
The woman, a chessa—princess—if she was Banneth’s sister, stepped back and pursed her lips. “I told her this, but she will not listen.”
“I don’t know who she learned that from,” Banneth said, tugging the little girl’s russet-brown braid, and both princesses scowled at him. “We have guests.” He turned and gestured for Sage and Nicholas to come forward. Sage had been staring openly at the domestic scene, thinking the king was full of surprises. She’d known about a sister, but the daughter was unexpected.
“Yes, I know.” The woman waved to a servant waiting off to the side, and he rushed over, carrying a tray.
Water was quickly poured and shared, and names given. Banneth’s sister was Alaniah, but after exchanging looks with her brother, the princess told Sage to call her Lani. The girl was introduced as Reza. Now that Sage knew their relationship, the resemblance was obvious; Banneth and Lani had the same straight nose and coal-black hair, and Reza had her father’s smile.
“You are most welcome here,” Princess Lani said. “I look forward to hearing about your land and your journey.”
“As I look forward to telling,” said Sage.
Lani jumped a little. “You are a woman.” She looked her up and down with wide eyes. “I’m sorry I did not see that.”
Sage blushed. “My own clothes were…” Bloodstained? Torn? Soiled? “Too hot,” she finished.
The princess had eyes the color of moss and earth, framed by thick, black lashes, and they lit up, showing much more interest and curiosity than before. “You must tell me about Demoran clothes, but first come.” She turned to lead them up the steps. “There are rooms being prepared for you.”
They all followed Lani, Banneth carrying Reza, who chattered so fast Sage couldn’t understand more than a few words. Something about teeth—the princess pointed to a gap in her mouth—a sword, and wine. The last was said with a disgusted face. Apparently she’d tasted some and was not impressed.
“Lani,” said Banneth when Reza paused for breath. “Our guests will stay in Hasseth’s and Tamosa’s rooms.”
The princess stopped in the middle of the steps to stare at him, her mouth dropping open in a perfect O. “I have baths ready in the east wing,” she protested.
“It is little trouble to move them,” he said.
Lani glanced at Sage with wide eyes, then turned back to the stairs. “As you wish” was all she said.
Banneth leaned closer to Sage. “Hasseth is my son. He is away at school.”
He did not say who Tamosa was.
76
ALEX HAD BEEN worried how the people on the streets would react to a chained Kimisar prisoner, but once inside the city gates, he was shuffled to walk surrounded by fighters on horseback. From inside his cocoon, he saw and heard little that wasn’t several feet off the ground. They wound their way up to the top of the hill, taking a path that kept the journey from being steep, but made it very long.
He was not led into the palace, but rather under it. Prisons didn’t frighten him—they always had weaknesses. Escape might finally be possible, but he wouldn’t leave without Sage and Nicholas.
Yet he’d not counted on such a clean prison. Alex was stripped naked and his head and much of his body shaved. Then he was dusted with a vile powder to kill any lice that might remain. His clothes were tossed onto a cart and taken across the antechamber to a furnace. He felt the loss of Sage’s notes and the letter more than that of the lock pick in his boot. It was almost like losing her, but there was nothing he could do.
They gave him patched breeches and a lightweight shirt, which Alex took his time in putting on to keep the shackles off for a few more minutes. Without his boots or the cloth strips tied around his wrists, his arms were bleeding and his ankles swelling with bruises by the time he reached his cell. The straw pallet in the corner looked fresh, and he sank down on it as the bars were closed and locked behind him.
Maybe he should’ve revealed himself. Sage and Nicholas were in the palace above, by all appearances being treated well. If the Casmuni trusted them, their word could set him free. Or their association with him could shatter that trust. It mattered little now. Even if he could make the guards understand he was Demoran, there was no guarantee they’d tell anyone else. Their job was to hold him. Who he was didn’t matter.
Alex leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Tonight he would rest. Tomorrow he’d decide what to do.
“Kimisar.” A rough whisper interrupted his doze.
“I’m asleep,” Alex replied in Kimisar.
“They said you were caught near Demora,” the voice said.
“I was,” Alex mumbled, his words thick with sleep. “So what?”
“Are you one of Captain Huzar’s men?”
The name had Alex swimming for the surface in his consciousness. “Yes, you?”
“No, but I knew him years ago.”
Alex forced his eyes open. “How did you get here?”
A man slouched against the bars in the cell across from his, studying Alex with sharp, golden-brown eyes set over an oddly delicate-looking nose. “We came on a mission. Won’t be here much longer.”
“Execution?” Alex’s heart pounded at the thought. Most Kimisar spies in Demora ended up on the block, and vice versa.
The Kimisar shrugged. “Something like that. You got a name?”
“Gispan. You?”
“Stesh.” He pointed his thumb at a lump sleeping in the cell adjacent. “That’s my brother Kamron.” He shifted against the bars. “So what has Huzar been doing over there?”
Briefly Alex described how the Kimisar captain had scattered his company for months and drawn them together to make an escape once the Jovan Pass had cleared of winter snow. He left out the plan to use Prince Nicholas as a hostage.
Stesh snorted a little. “Always the hero. Couldn’t just leave those idiots who got themselves trapped.”
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Still playing the part, Alex bristled. “Says the man lying in prison.”
“I don’t expect anyone to come after me if I fail.”
“How did you know Huzar?” Alex asked.
“We joined the army together at sixteen,” said Stesh. “Parted ways five years ago when I went into the dolofan. Haven’t seen him since, but his noble sacrifice of going back for you men didn’t surprise me at all.”
Dolofan were spies and assassins. No wonder Stesh expected to be executed. Alex had never had a chance to speak to one like this. “I wanted to be a dolofan, too,” Alex said. “But they wouldn’t accept me. Never found out why.”
“I can answer that just by the look of you,” said Stesh. “You’re one of those fools who thinks honor means something.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Just like Huzar.”
77
SAGE ALMOST COULDN’T believe the quarters they were given. While hot water was being carried in, Princess Lani showed her around the apartment, which included its own washroom with a bathtub set into the floor, a dressing closet the size of Sage’s room in Tennegol, and a sitting room that could be closed off from the bedroom. Light blue and gold tapestries covered the walls, giving the rooms an airy feel, and the wide bed was adorned with an embroidered silk coverlet. Sage’s hostess led her through a set of gauzy curtains and outside to a private patio that overlooked an enclosed manor house–sized garden. Around the edges of the courtyard, several other marble porches peeked through tangled vines of jasmine.
Lani pointed to one across the way. “That one is to my rooms.”
If Nicholas was given the prince’s quarters, it wasn’t a surprise to learn they were being housed in the royal family’s own wing, but it was disconcerting to see. Either Banneth wanted to honor them, or he wanted to keep an eye on them. Or both. After Lani’s initial reaction to Banneth’s order, Sage didn’t dare ask who Tamosa was or had been, but from the opulence of the rooms and the absence of Reza’s mother, it wasn’t hard to guess.
While Sage bathed, Lani disappeared and returned carrying a dress in a similar style to what she herself wore, with long draped sleeves and a square collar, but the color was a pinkish-orange Sage knew would make her look sickly. She wondered if Lani had done that on purpose until the princess scrunched her lips to the side as she looked at her and apologized, saying it was probably the only dress she had that would remotely fit her.
Lani had given her clothes from her own wardrobe. The princess was a little taller and far more shapely, though. Sage expected to spend the entirety of dinner shifting her outfit to keep the neckline from hanging so low, but Lani produced a golden sash to help secure it.
“What are Demoran dresses like, Saizsch?” the princess asked as she tied a knot that somehow looked like a rosebud.
She hadn’t worn a dress since Tennegol. Alex had liked the dark-blue one best.
“Um.” Sage struggled to push the thought out of her mind and find something within her grasp of the language. “Skirts are much … bigger. And women often wear what is called a corset.” She gestured to her waist. “It makes the middle look small and holds you straight.”
“I would not need that,” Lani said loftily.
The prince entered from a side door that connected their rooms, his copper curls slicked down with water. His formal outfit was much like the one Banneth had worn when they met him, but Nicholas was swimming in the knee-length jacket and its high collar.
“You are both ready,” said Lani, nodding her approval. “Someone will be here shortly to take you to dinner, but if you will excuse me, I still have my own preparations to make.” She swept out gracefully, making Sage wonder how in the world she could add to her appearance.
“What now?” said Nicholas. He looked like a little boy wearing his father’s clothes. Together, Sage suspected they looked like lost children, but maybe that was better. They didn’t look threatening.
“I want to see your rooms,” Sage said, and he led her back the way he’d come. The door between the suites had a lock, but only on Sage’s side. She inspected his rooms, memorizing all access points.
“Do you not trust Banneth?” Nicholas asked her.
“It’s not necessarily him I’m concerned about,” she replied, pushing on the wall for signs of hidden doors. “Princess Lani said something that made me think not everyone here is happy about our arrival.” She turned around and saw the prince had gone a pasty color. “Spirit above, Nicholas, I’m just being cautious.”
“It’s not that,” he said. “I was remembering what you said on the road, about how I could be negotiating treaties in a few years.”
The smile she returned felt as good as the one earlier. “I don’t think you’ll be negotiating the treaties that come from this directly, but what you do and learn will have a huge effect on everything, maybe for the next hundred years. Present yourself well and learn all you can.”
Nicholas closed his eyes and shuddered, clenching his fists. Sage stepped closer and put an arm around him. “You’ll do fine. Don’t worry.”
“I’m scared,” he said. Tears began to stream down his cheeks. “I can hardly understand anything people say and the food is strange and the clothes are itchy and—”
“I thought you liked the food.”
Her feeble joke didn’t help. “I want my mother, Sage,” Nicholas sobbed. “I want to go home.”
In only the last month, the prince had gained an inch on her, which had made it easy for Sage to forget he was little more than a boy, and a sheltered one at that. All things considered, he’d held up pretty well until now. “I’ll get you home, Nicholas,” she said. “That’s a promise.”
“What if they won’t let us leave?” He sniffed and wiped his nose on his gold-threaded sleeve. “What if they find out who I really am?”
“I’ve been thinking about telling them, but let me make that decision.” Sage stepped back and straightened his jacket, forcing him to look her in the eye. “As for not letting us leave, we’ll deal with that when it happens. I’ll get us home. Just trust me.”
78
BESIDES THE KING and Princess Lani, two council members were present at dinner. They sat on either side of Banneth, discussing matters of state. Sage was across from Nicholas, who had apparently recovered his appetite, and next to the minister of war, a pompous, piggy-eyed man who reminded Sage of her uncle William—with less bathing.
Lani sat at the opposite end of the table from Banneth, now wearing a necklace that complemented the golden glow of her skin and sparkled with rubies as red as her painted lips. From the way her eyes rested on everything in the room except the minster of finance, Sage suspected most of Lani’s appearance was aimed at him. Not that Sage could blame her. Though he was probably twice Lani’s age, he was fit and handsome, with graying hair that gave him an air of wisdom and gravity. Definitely preferable to the man next to Sage, who kept looking at her and sniffing like there was something rotten in her dress.
As neither minister had shared water with Sage or Nicholas, however, Lani was left to entertain them. Sage had to remind herself the Casmuni were actually being polite by ignoring her, but at one point she said something to Lani about how odd it felt. “I can see what you mean,” said Lani. “But the whole council will share water with you when you are presented to them.”
Sage glanced nervously at Nicholas. “When will that be?”
“The day after tomorrow,” replied Banneth from the head of the table. The two ministers sat back a little to stay out of the conversation. “Tomorrow Lani will take you into the city to find some clothes. Darit will take Nikkolaz.”
Sage didn’t like the idea of separating from Nicholas, but if she trusted anyone, it was Darit.
“Of course,” said Lani brightly. “We will go right after the council meeting.” She turned to Sage. “Tomorrow morning the council meets to go over all Banneth has missed.”
Banneth cleared his throat. “I meant you should do this i
nstead of attending the council.”
Lani froze, her eyes darting to the minister of finance. “I have presided over all the sessions in your absence. I should be there.”
“Our guests should be properly outfitted, and Minister Sinda and I have just discussed funds for it. You love shopping. Go.” Banneth waved his hand dismissively. “It will only be mundane updates and audits.”
“That is exactly why I should be there,” Lani insisted. “What if something is missed?”
Sage leaned back in her seat, feeling awkward. This was the second time the pair had almost argued in her presence.
The finance minister spoke up. “I can personally assure Palachessa that nothing shall be omitted.”
Lani met his eyes, and many unspoken words passed between them. Apparently, the attraction wasn’t entirely one-sided. Then the princess tossed her head. “It seems I am not wanted,” she said, going back to her food. “Just remember who gave me permission to spend tax money on clothes.”
The ministers sat forward again and resumed their conversation with the king, but Sage now had better reasons to study the man on Banneth’s right. By the time the dessert of zara fruit in cream and cinnamon was served, Sage was certain Lani and Minister Sinda had shared more than water.
* * *
After Nicholas was settled for the night, Sage went for a walk. Her primary intention was to see where the outer doors of their quarters led, but she also wanted to see how the king’s guard would react to her wandering the palace halls alone. Having been here only a few hours, she could easily claim she was lost.
High windows were set under the arched, two-story ceilings. During the day they allowed hot air to flow out, but now the moonlight pouring in reflected off the white stone walls, illuminating the passage without torches. At first Sage avoided guards, wanting to finish a sweep of the passage that wrapped around the royal family’s rooms and private courtyard. Her count of the doors against the ones she’d seen in her and Nicholas’s rooms indicated at least one set in each led into other places—most likely servants’ passages. She made it all the way to the far end without being seen, but on the way back she heard voices and prepared herself to look lost. The voices didn’t come toward her, though. Sage debated whether to approach or wait for the conversation to end.
