The City of Veils

by S. Usher Evans

  "You and Felix have a lovely conversation about me?" I asked, trying to get more comfortable. "Has he been intimate with another person before? Seemed awfully put out by the human form. Maybe I'll hire one of the dancers to give him a thrill."

  "You'd do well not to piss him off," Katarine replied. "He's only looking out for your best interests."

  I bit my tongue instead of answering the way I wanted to. My head was aching and arguing with Katarine would just make it worse.

  "Now, back to our discussion," Katarine said, turning to the map. "Where were we?"

  "Kulka's rich farmlands," I said with a yawn.

  "Right. Kulka delivers over half of the food the kingdom consumes, including most of the fruits and vegetables. Therefore, they're a very important partner. They do share a border with Niemen, and have begun mining more, as we talked about. There's an outstanding treaty that I'm sure the Kulkan envoy will want to discuss when he arrives for your coronation."

  "Oh yeah?" I said. "What treaty is that?"

  "The one that wasn't completed when you ran away from your wedding," she said with a knowing smile. "The good news is that Kulka's King Neshua is in his forties, having taken over from his father fifteen years ago. He's fairly even-tempered, although he's been more aggressively guarding the border and the mining. He also has a variety of siblings at your disposal to marry, if you are so inclined. I'm sad to say the man you were supposed to marry, Prince Ammon, is married to another."

  "He looked like a frog," I said. "No loss there."

  "Be that as it may, you should be mindful when dealing with the Kulkans that they're still sulking about you walking out on them." She turned to the map again. "Our other allies are the Niemenians, my home country."

  "Who are also out a treaty, since you and my brother didn't screw enough." She turned to me, flushing bright red, and I remembered my brother hadn't even been dead a week. "Sorry, that was out of line."

  "A-anyway," she said, turning back to the maps, presumably to hide her emotions. "Niemen has Queen Ariadna, my eldest sister. I'm the youngest of six, and the only Niemen royal to be living abroad. There was talk that one of my brothers and one of Neshua's sisters would marry, but it hasn't happened yet. And if they keep squabbling over the border, it might never happen. I'm not sure who my sister is sending as an envoy to your coronation, but I assume it will be one of my siblings."

  "And our relationship with them is fairly positive?"

  "Yes, I would assume so," she said. "I recently wrote to my favorite brother Luard and told him of August's passing, but I haven't received his response yet. I would…" She sighed and looked out the window. "I'd assume Ariadna would ask you to find me another husband. And while not the same as marrying into the direct royal family, it would still meet the terms of the contract."

  "You could always marry me," I said, fluttering my eyes at her.

  "Sadly, Brynn, you are not my cup of tea," she said with a laugh.

  "What about Severia?" I asked, pointing to the map. "Who's in charge up there?"

  "Ilara," she said. "I know very little about her. She's young, I believe. Sickly. Doesn't travel. But as I said yesterday, you'll mostly be dealing with the Kulkans and the Niemans, in terms of international affairs."

  "And what about internal affairs?" I asked.

  "Oh, that, my love, is a lesson for another day," she said. "I don't want to overwhelm you."

  "I would pay attention better if I didn't have to wear this stupid…" I adjusted myself again and wished I could exhale. "Thing."

  "Come here," Katarine said, beckoning me to her. I pushed myself to stand and waddled over to her. She spun me around and fussed with the cords. "Oh, darling, these aren't tight—"

  "Don't you dare tighten it," I growled.

  Blessedly, I received a small reprieve as she undid the ties.

  "Can I outlaw these when I'm queen?" I asked. "I prefer my bindings. At least then I can move."

  "When you can demonstrate a queenly posture, I will stop the training device." She patted my cheek. "Now, back to Kulka. Last year, we received no less than fifty ships a week down the river from Kulka…"

  The torture didn't end until lunch, when Beata arrived at our small training room with another fantastic meal. Katarine released me from the posture device and I caught twenty minutes of a nap before someone was shaking me awake. I opened my eyes to Felix's brown ones and groaned.

  "What now?" I asked.

  "We have paperwork to complete. Let's go."

  "Hooray," I whispered, coming to my feet. The late night and early morning were catching up with me, as was the very heavy lunch of fish and pasta. I followed sluggishly behind Felix, scowling at the look of amusement on his face. "What?"

  "You look tired. Maybe you should take a night in."

  "I have," I yawned, "three months to deal with Beswick. That's not a lot of time."

  "You also have three days before you can question Mr. Poole," he said, nodding to the guard Coyle as he walked by. "So perhaps you should take one of those nights to recover?"

  "I'll be fine," I said. "Any chance Beata could bring me some coffee?"

  He led me into the east side of the castle, where my father had conducted most of his business, and into a circular room with large windows overlooking the bay. A smattering of wooden ships sat in the water, their sails billowing in the wind and looking like small toys from this distance.

  In front of the vista was a grandiose desk, carved from the finest dark wood with gold-plated drawer knobs and a glass covering. There was a tower of papers in a wooden box to my right, and an empty box to my left.

  I plopped down in the leather chair I assumed was mine and picked up the first sheet of paper. "What is this?"

  "Documents that require the sovereign's signature," Felix said, pulling up a chair beside me. "So sign them."

  "Without reading them?" I asked, although I wasn't quite sure I understood the small print I was reading.

  "They've already gotten your Council's approval, or else they wouldn't come to you," he said, leaning back.

  "What if I'm signing away my kingdom?" I said, picking up another paper to see if there was something more intelligible there. "Can we trust the Council?"

  "Yes, Brynn," he said. "As much as you can trust anyone in politics."

  "So no," I said, fighting off a dull headache between my eyes. "Is it an absolute requirement for you to be here, looking over my shoulder?"

  "I'm standing guard."

  "You're sitting guard."

  He quirked a brow. "Why are you so eager to get rid of me? Want an early start on your vigilante work? Or…" He smiled. "Just want to take a nap?"

  I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing I was exhausted. "Just wondering why my captain is in here when I'm doing paperwork. It should probably be my Councilman or at least my attendant. Don't I have one of those?"

  "You've yet to appoint one."

  "Then Katarine will work. She's smart enough to know what's going on around here."

  "You two are getting along now?"

  "As long as she didn't murder my brother, we'll get along fine," I said, finally seeing something I recognized. "Why is it my job to sign for a side of beef?"

  "Because the sovereign is responsible for paying for your daily meals, including, it seems, a side of beef."

  I quickly scrawled my signature on the paper and put it in the done pile. There were still so many to go. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to just…sign them. After all, they might've been reviewed before my brother had died—one was dated before my father had died. Perhaps I could trust them, just this once.

  No. Until I knew who was responsible for the killing, I couldn't trust anyone. Not even the Council.

  I rested my hand on my chin and forced myself to comprehend the boring document in front of me. It was a request to repaint a south wall of the castle that had fallen into disrepair. The next was a notice that a Forcadel bank was increasing the interest rate o
n my account from one percent to two percent. And on and on…

  After I'd signed ten in a row, I looked at the pile remaining and whined audibly.

  "How about this?" Felix spoke up. "Why don't you finish half of them, and then I'll take you back to your room so you can rest up for tonight."

  "R…really?" I stood up so fast I knocked over the chair.

  "Yeah. Since you're obviously too stubborn to take care of yourself, I suppose I'll have to make some adjustments. I'll have Beata bring the rest to your room at breakfast tomorrow before the funerals."

  I blinked. "Funerals are…tomorrow?"

  "Obviously, we had only been planning one," Felix said, casting a long look out the window. "But I suppose Maurice won't mind sharing the dais with his son."

  I chewed on my lip. "Am I going?"

  He sighed. "You're the sovereign."

  "So? Doesn't mean I have to go."

  "Yes, Brynna, you have to go. And you have to look sad and lead the nation in healing. As much as you don't care for your father and brother, they were very well-liked."

  "Maybe in your areas of the kingdom," I muttered. My brother was tolerated, but I heard more gripes than praises for Maurice.

  "Which is why I strongly recommend that you stay in tonight if you're this tired," he said.

  "I strongly recommend you keep your recommendations to yourself."

  Chapter 10

  Four hours of sleep later, I was wide awake and ready to take on the night. This time, Felix brought my mask and sword to my room, and beckoned me to follow him silently.

  "We can't continue letting you leave through the barracks like you did last night," he said. "There are people who might see you, and it's too much of a risk."

  I slowed my gait, ready for him to lower the boom. "So…?"

  "So I'm going to let you in on one of my most closely guarded secrets." He stopped, spun, and pointed at my chest. "You cannot breathe a word of this to anyone, understand?"

  "Felix," I said with a grin, pushing his finger away. "Are you about to show me a secret exit to the castle?"

  "There are several that have been built in over the years," he said, turning back around and continuing down the stairs. "I will show you the closest. That is the only one you'll get."

  "Fine, fine," I said. "You're certainly full of surprises."

  The closest was inside my father's office where I'd been not a few hours before. Felix walked toward a statue in the corner and pushed it out of the way with ease—it was probably on casters of some kind. Then he tapped the solid wall, and a thin crack appeared. He pushed it open, revealing a dark passageway.

  "Full of surprises," I said, walking past him into the passage.

  "You can thank your brother for this," he said quietly. "He was always looking for escape routes."

  "And, let me guess, you followed along to protect him," I said, lowering my voice to mimic his.

  "No, I followed along because it was fun." He held out a hand, blocking my path. "Brynna, I'm giving you this option for tonight, but rest assured I will post a guard at the exit if you try to leave on your own."

  "Where's the trust?" I said with a sad shake of my head.

  The passage ended in a door covered with ivy and foliage, which Felix pushed open. We now stood in gardens on the western side of the castle. When Felix closed the door, I couldn't even see it amongst the greenery.

  "Fascinating," I said. "But we're still inside the castle walls."

  "Come with me."

  He led me through the green garden, ignoring the buzzing of the summer bugs around our heads. We reached the castle wall, where he pushed aside another ivy-coated door to reveal another hallway, although it smelled more like a drainpipe.We ducked our heads and walked through the wet muck, reaching another grate that Felix easily removed. And then, finally, we were out of the castle.

  "Where are we?" I asked, trying to orient myself in the city.

  "Northwestern wall," he said, replacing the iron grate. "Facing Haymaker's District."

  "Right," I said, stretching my arms. "Do all the secret passages lead out that garden door?"

  "Ah-hah, I'm not telling you about any more of them," he said with a smile.

  "So no," I said. "Good to know there are more, though."

  "Brynna—"

  "Felix, relax. If I wanted to lose you, I could," I replied. "I would've thought last night was enough to prove that to you."

  "It proved to me that you're reckless and don't care if the whole kingdom finds out you're the Veil," he said.

  I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Come with me."

  "Where are we going?"

  "To show you that I can be trusted."

  We didn't go far, walking the length of the castle walls to the market square, a large open area south of the castle. Directly across was the large, white tower church. The black front doors were wide open, beckoning worshippers to come inside and light a candle of prayer. But for today, I motioned for Felix to follow me to the side of the building, where a pair of loose boards came away from behind a stack of crates, revealing a staircase.

  "After you," I said, offering him entry.

  "This isn't a trap, is it?" he asked with a scowl.

  "Fine, I'll go first," I said, walking through into the dark room. Once Felix joined me, I replaced the wood and grabbed him by the tunic. "So you don't trip."

  I led him toward the staircase, where I found the lamp and lit it with the matches underneath. It illuminated the room a little.

  "So what is this?" Felix asked as I started climbing.

  "It's my lair," I said, leaning over the wooden railing. "Come on."

  "Not much to look at." He tilted his head back, taking in the room. The bells hung above our heads, giant metal ghosts that made too much noise when they were used. But for now, they just echoed our conversation.

  "Well, all right, it's more like a safe storage place," I said with a laugh. "A central location where I can keep all my gadgets and spare potions. Easy to get to. Nobody comes up here. And plenty of places to hide stuff."

  "Your butcher's apartment didn't suffice?"

  "No," I said, walking to one of the floorboards and pulling it up. I'd thought I'd had a few extra pouches of knockout powder, but I found nothing except a spider's web. "That place was always temporary."

  He made a noise as he kicked one of the boards. "So why didn't you just live here?"

  "Because vigilante work didn't pay," I said, finding my stash of masks and throwing a spare one at Felix. "Here, if you're going to be following me around, wear this. You're too recognizable."

  He lifted it up, staring into the eyeholes. "Where do you get all this stuff?"

  "Different places," I said, sitting back on my heels. "These knives I got from a pirate passing through. They use them to quickly tack boxes to the hull of the ship in bad weather, I use them to stick bad guys to walls when I'm in a bind." I picked up a small pouch. "Knockout powder. Can fell a two-hundred-pound man for thirty minutes." I held up my crossbow. "The tension on this is strong enough to pierce through ceiling. I use the rope to climb up."

  "That's…pretty impressive," Felix said. "That you've accumulated all these things."

  "This may come as a surprise to you, but as good as I am at hand-to-hand, I can't exactly fight off a group of people," I said, digging around for another bag of knockout powder and coming up empty. "So I employ little cheats. Use the element of surprise. Anything I can do to keep myself one step ahead of them and still save the day."

  He wrapped the mask around his head. "It's nice to hear you admit you're human, at least."

  "I don't understand why you think I'm some reckless kid who intentionally goes after the biggest, baddest bully and who needs constant supervision so she doesn't break her neck."

  "Says the woman on the prowl for Lord Beswick." He smiled, and the mask gave him a bit of a roguish look.

  "Prowl, not recklessly attacking," I said after a moment of staring at him. "I've
been after him for months and I haven't moved yet. I know how to wait for the right moment." I straightened. "And lucky for you, tonight, we may get to avoid rough and tumble altogether."

  "Yeah?" He quirked a brow. "Back to the castle?"

  "Nope." I jangled his coin purse, which I'd replenished before we'd left. "We're going shopping."

  Out of courtesy for Felix's lack of balance, I took to the streets instead of the rooftops. The city was slowly transforming, with black flags replacing the colors of Forcadel.

  "So this funeral tomorrow," I said. "What do I have to do? Speak?"

  "No, Mother Fishen will be taking care of that," he said.

  I cast a glance behind me at the church. I'd been in the bell tower almost every night, but I hadn't made it inside the church in years. But that was tomorrow—tonight, I had other things on my mind. So we went on in silence, as we'd come into a more nocturnal part of the city, and I didn't want anyone to recognize Felix's voice.

  My destination was Slack's Bar, a dive of a place that sat one gusty wind away from toppling into the ocean. The old sign was barely hanging onto the side of the building and music and conversation were audible from the street. It was popular with sailors and criminals alike, as the sailors sometimes got too drunk and spilled their secrets to the barkeeps (or anyone who'd listen). The owner, John, had made so many enemies over the years that they were now all his friends.

  "I'm well aware of this place," he said. "The better question is, why are we here?"

  "Because it's the best place to find things I can't buy at a store," I said, pulling my hood over my face to hide my mask. "I know you want to come with me, so here's the ground rules: don't speak, don't look at anyone, and definitely don't touch anyone. There are people in here who'd sooner punch your lights out than shake your hand." I paused. "I'm not going to leave you, but it would be best if you came in after me and looked from afar."

  He grabbed my arm. "Please try to stay out of trouble."

  "I always stay out of trouble." I flashed him a grin as I left him to walk inside.

  It wasn't crowded, which was a good thing. On days when I couldn't even get a seat, I usually couldn't get any information either. With my hood and dark clothes, I blended in with the rest of the patrons, and I sidled up to the bar and took an empty seat.