Leoth stood and bowed with unnecessary pomp. “As you wish, Milady.”
* * *
The next day he was back. I was enjoying a leisurely breakfast, since Mother was spending the day socializing with the few friends who were still willing to tolerate her presence, when Leoth slid into the seat beside me.
“Would you like to go for a walk with me?” he asked. “Once you’re finished, of course.”
“Go away, Leoth.”
He widened his eyes in mock hurt. “What have I ever done to deserve this sort of hatred?”
“Why are you doing this? I know you want something out of me.”
“I don’t,” Leoth said. “I swear. Just the pleasure of your company.”
I had opened my mouth to argue when another idea occurred to me. “Prove it, then. If you can get enough people to vote for me that I win the palace election, I will believe your good intentions. Because that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it? Who will take the throne. As long as you are trying to steal what is rightfully mine, I won’t tolerate your presence.”
Leoth leaned back in the chair. “You drive a hard bargain, Princess. But I will do as you ask. It is my father who desires the throne, not me. In fact, you should join me at a game of cards with the other young nobles this evening. I will introduce you to my friends, and they will see how little they have to fear from you.”
“Why are you doing this?” I said. “I don’t understand.”
“Let’s just say I never realized how beautiful you were until recently.” He gave me a winsome smile, stood, and swept out of the room.
My tea had already gone cold, but I sat at the table for a long time after Leoth left, rotating the cup on its saucer as I puzzled over his intentions.
That he was trying to manipulate me for some reason was obvious. Yet I could not see what motives would drive him to charm me rather than continuing his previous campaign of hostility. All he had to do was wait until the palace vote came around, and I would be done for. He could sit back and do nothing, and the throne would still be his.
The only reasons I could think of were that he was trying to weasel something out of me, that he wanted to get back at his father for something, or that someone had bet him a hundred varlins that he wouldn’t be able to persuade me to attend the Harvest Ball with him. Whatever it was, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of thinking he had won.
* * *
I could not deny I was intrigued, so after dinner I followed Leoth down to a sitting room tucked away in a far corner of the historic wing for the game of cards he had promised. He must have warned his friends that I would be accompanying him, because I was met with warm smiles and bows from most of them.
A few of the girls I recognized from the dance lesson, but most of the faces were unfamiliar. This was an older set of courtiers, and they had their own butlers and ladies-in-waiting hovering about the room with drinks and canapés.
The first young woman to rise and greet me was fairer-skinned than the rest, with blue eyes and light brown hair—I guessed her to be a Dellgrain.
“I don’t believe we have met,” she said sweetly. “My name is Rose, and of course you must be Princess Kalleah. Leoth has been praising you for days.”
“Well met, Lady Rose,” I said, trying not to cringe at her false, syrupy manner.
Another young woman approached, her cloud of frizzy black hair bouncing as she curtseyed before me. “And I am Lady Saniya. My mother was friends with yours, so I knew about you even before you returned.” Her black eyes crinkled as she smiled. “I personally think you’re exactly the dose of excitement this palace needs. Things can get so dull around here.”
“Well met, Lady Saniya,” I said with more warmth. She did not seem to be faking her enthusiasm.
Leoth had already taken his seat on one of the ornate settees, and he patted the cushion beside him. With so many eyes on me, I did not want to make a scene. I sat next to him.
The next hour passed in a blur as the courtiers explained the game and walked me through a few practice rounds. Though I had intended to study Leoth’s companions for any signs of misdirection, it was all I could do to keep the rules straight, especially with the port flowing freely. To my surprise, I enjoyed myself immensely. It was a treat to spend an hour in the company of people my age, especially since they were eagerly including me in the banter rather than spurning me.
I nearly lost track of time; Leoth’s loud yawn reminded me that I had exposed these people to my power for longer than I should have.
“Pardon me,” I said, tapping my hand of cards on the table so the edges lined up. “I must be going now. Thank you very much for inviting me.”
“Oh, but you must come along for our next game!” Saniya said. Her cheeks were red from the wine.
“Say you will,” said a young man whose name I could not remember.
“I will try.” My heel caught on one of the women’s skirts as I edged around the table, and Leoth bounded up to take my elbow, as though afraid I was too inebriated to find my way back to our wing.
“Good night,” he said, waving to the others. “I’ll make sure our princess makes it back safely.” If anything, he was more unsteady than I was.
“Thank you for that,” I said honestly once we had left the sitting-room. Our guards had fallen into place behind us as always, but they left a bit more distance than usual. “Even if it was false, I enjoyed the company of your friends.”
“I don’t know why you can’t trust me. All the other girls I’ve tried to win over found me irresistible.”
He was definitely drunk.
“I said I enjoyed the company of your friends, not your company,” I said drily. “And you should get away from me now, or you’ll collapse where you’re standing. When you start yawning, that means I’m getting dangerous.”
At this, Leoth yawned again, not even bothering to hide it behind one hand. “G—good. I can’t sleep well half the time anyway. Maybe this will help.”
When we reached the upstairs sitting-room of our wing, Leoth reached out as if to grab my hand, and I sidestepped him.
“Good night, Leoth,” I said firmly.
“Good night,” he mumbled.
17
The Harvest Ball
A s the Harvest Ball drew closer, I began to feel that I was balancing on a thread, trying to imitate the person required for each situation. When I sat with Mother as we discussed issues the council brought forward, I imagined myself a queen carved from stone, my face solemn, impassive, as though I could not remember the humiliation I had endured at the hands of my people. When I walked the halls of the palace alone, I tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible, because it never stopped hurting each time someone fled at the sight of me. And when I spent time with Leoth’s friends, I let myself laugh and relax and enjoy the company without growing too attached to any of them. I knew I was only setting myself up for heartbreak.
Leoth still annoyed me to no end, but I enjoyed the company of his friends too much to reject his attention outright. I still refused to attend the Harvest Ball as his official partner, but I promised he could have one dance with me if he did not do anything to offend me before then.
Saniya’s friendship alone was nearly worth putting up with Leoth. While the other courtiers seemed more concerned with fashion and petty rivalries than with the growing turmoil in Baylore—even Leoth seemed to grow tired of them on occasion—Saniya was always ready for a serious conversation. She invited me to her family’s Mountain wing for tea one time, and the guards that had turned Mother and me away at the door now welcomed me in.
“You’re very brave, you know,” she said when she met me in the small entrance chamber. “If I were in your place, I might have left Baylore by now.”
I forgot to respond as I followed her through the halls of the Mountain wing, too stunned by the wonders around me to think. The walls were stone, and every ceiling towered at least two stories overhead, but what caugh
t my eye were the pale blue, translucent structures that appeared almost to grow from the wall, forming delicate archways overhead and elaborate sconces that twined about like trees or vines. The material looked like ice or perhaps glass, though I knew of no glass that could be shaped so fluidly.
When we reached a round chamber with comfortable divans and chairs, furs draped over the furniture, I stopped, openmouthed. At the back of the room sat a basin of water set into an alcove in the wall, a few ripples dancing across the surface, and from it flowed a waterfall of the strange translucent material, the frozen waves perfectly formed. The motionless waterfall spilled onto the stone floor below, where it formed a pool set into the floor.
“What is it?” I asked in a hushed voice.
Saniya laughed heartily. “It’s worthwhile bringing visitors here just to see their reaction. We don’t know exactly what it is or how it works, but it’s what the Icelings call ‘living ice,’ the same material they use to build their cities. It’s where the name ‘Icebraid Peaks’ comes from.”
“So you had an actual Iceling here, building this wing of the palace?” I strode over to a sculpture of a bird taking flight, made from the same strange material, and touched the wing. “I thought they were just a children’s story!” The material was somehow softer and more textured than glass, and far warmer than ice.
“They’re very real,” Saniya said, still smiling at my expression as she took a seat on one of the plump couches. “Though I’ve never met one myself. This wing was built hundreds of years ago, and I suspect the Iceling who contributed his skills was coerced, so we don’t exactly have a secret alliance with them.”
“It’s incredible.” I forced myself to sit at last, though I could have happily spent the next hour running my hands over the miraculous sculptures of living ice, from vines with lifelike leaves and drooping trumpet-shaped flowers to tiny creatures hidden in corners of the room—mice and dragonflies and even a kitten whose glassy eyes looked convincingly mischievous.
“As a child, I dreamed of traveling to their capital in the Crown of Living Ice just before I died. No one who ventures into the mountains ever returns, or so it’s said, so my dear friend and I made a pact that we would use our remaining fortunes to charter a wagon and set off to the mountains when we were nearing death. Once we saw the great Iceling city, we could die happy.” Her smile turned sad. “It is said the Icelings bury their dead in cocoons of living ice deep within the mountains, and their essences become part of the mountains.”
“Why can’t you still do that?”
“My friend died soon after, of a wasting illness. She wanted me to bring her ashes to the Iceling city, and I still have them, but it was never more than a child’s fantasy.”
“I’m so sorry.” That was one way I could count myself fortunate—I had never faced the death of someone dear to me. “I’d love to say I could travel there with you someday, when we are both old, but I doubt I will be alive by then. I don’t think the most hated queen in Baylore’s history will last for long.”
A butler appeared just then with tea, so we fell silent until he retreated once again.
“People will soon see you for who you really are,” Saniya said. “This anti-magical sentiment is far more dangerous than one person with a forbidden power could ever be. I just hope the city wakes from its stupor before it’s too late.”
“Do you have magical blood?” I asked, hoping it was not an indecent question given the current political climate.
“Oh, yes, though I have no talent myself.” Saniya took a sip of the tea, which had a delicate floral aroma. “My father is a prince from Varrival—the desert kingdom in the Kinship Thrones—and he has one of the common powers that most of his people share, which is the ability to find water from up to a hundred leagues away.”
“Have you been to Varrival, then?”
Saniya laughed. “No. If only!”
“How did your father end up here?”
“He had weak lungs as a child, and his doctors advised that he leave the desert for somewhere with less wind and sand. They suggested Chelt, but Father had always wanted to travel the world, so he took that as an excuse to venture all the way to Itrea. He lived in King’s Port for a while, until his Itrean was flawless and his parents had given up on him ever returning home, and eventually he made his way around the coast to Larkhaven, where he met Mother at her summer home by the sea. Father was only ten when he left Varrival, and he has bad memories of being surrounded by doctors and battling sandstorms wherever he went, so he’s never taken me or Mother back.”
“So your beautiful hair—does that come from your father?”
Saniya reached a hand up and self-consciously patted at her flyaway black hair. “Yes, I’m afraid. It has taken my poor lady-in-waiting years to figure out how to tame it properly.”
“I think it’s wonderful.”
Saniya lapsed into embarrassed silence, and I worried I had offended her.
“Anyway, I know how you feel,” she said at last. “My parents’ marriage was a big scandal at the time, and I was always treated as a bit of an outsider. I’m sorry to say this, but my parents are almost certain to vote against you, simply because they cannot afford to throw their positions into even more question.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “I hardly know if my own father will vote for me.”
* * *
The day before the Harvest Ball, Mother managed to secure a list of the songs that would be played. “See if any of your friends can help you learn the dances you’re not familiar with,” she said.
“I hardly think I’ll be able to remember the steps to twenty new dances,” I said. “But I’ll try.”
Rather than approaching Leoth’s friends, I sent a guard to request Darya’s presence. I had not seen her since that single dance lesson she had given me in private—I had nearly forgotten about her, and hoped she would not be offended by my neglect.
The guard returned sooner than I expected, his expression grim.
“Well?”
“I’m afraid the Lady Darya is no longer in Baylore.”
“What?” I leapt to my feet. “What happened to her?”
“Erm. Her father made it clear that he did not approve of her friendship with you. He has sent her to live at the family’s country manor to protect her from your influence.”
His words hit me like a blow to the chest; I sank back into my chair, dazed.
I had so few allies. Was I to lose them all, one by one?
* * *
At last the Harvest Ball arrived. I was filled with trepidation at the thought of facing the entire court for the first time since my arrival. If only the king had returned—he might have drawn attention away from me.
Mother sent Lyla upstairs to help me dress for the ball. The new red-and-gold dress was heavy but well-fitted, so it was not too cumbersome, and I liked the way it set off my dark skin.
“You really do have lovely hair,” Lyla said as she twisted it around at the back of my head.
I murmured my thanks, trying to catch a glimpse of what she was doing in the mirror.
When Lyla finished and took her leave, I stood for a while examining my reflection, trying to match my expression to the queen looking back at me. Lyla had fastened a delicate gold tiara in my hair, and tiny gold chains crisscrossed my hair where it was gathered behind my head. The subtle rouge and kohl and gold eyeshadow she had applied to my face made me look older and more confident—this was the mask I would wear for tonight’s ball.
The sun was setting, casting deep orange light through my tower; the nights were growing noticeably longer now. When I made my way down the stairs to join Mother, the lanterns behind me were beginning to glow.
“Oh, darling, you look wonderful,” Mother said. She was beautiful herself, in a deep blue gown with silver trimmings and a small fur cape over her shoulders. “We will be formally welcoming everyone to the ball, so we must arrive before the crowd. As is tradition, certain inf
luential townsfolk will join us for the night, so we both need to make a good impression.”
“Wait a moment.” I stopped in my tracks and frowned at Mother. “No one said anything about townsfolk!”
Mother put a hand on my back and nudged me forward. “You have nothing to worry about. These are not the lawless folk who attacked you in the streets, but upstanding members of the Gilded Quarter, who would never risk damaging their reputations by offending the heir to the throne.”
I set my mouth in a grim line. Upstanding members of society or not, they were still potential enemies.
“I must say, I am proud of you for gathering your own friends and allies within the palace,” Mother said, smiling sideways at me. “I had feared you might find resistance everywhere you turned, but your natural charm has won through.”
I tried to return her smile. If she knew the truth of the arrangement I had with Leoth and his friends—that I was allowing him to court me with obvious hidden motives in exchange for spending time with people who might secretly despise me—she would lose all hope in me.
Music was already drifting from the ballroom as we approached, overlaid with the scrapes of wood on stone as the trestle tables were shifted into their final positions. A few courtiers had already arrived and taken up places around the room, but most of the space was filled with more servants than I had realized the palace held, hurrying to and fro with platters of nibbles and pitchers of wine or helping the musicians set up the stage to their satisfaction.
“Look, the thrones have been readied for us,” Mother said. “Would you like to make a speech, or should I do the talking?”
“I don’t want to start a riot,” I said. “I’ll just sit there and let you speak.”
As the ballroom began to fill up, the musicians brightening the room with light, staccato tunes, everyone was on their best behavior. I saw only smiles and curtseys from those gathered, betraying no hint of their usual antagonism, and Leoth—audacious as always—approached my throne to bow and kiss my hand.
Forbidden Queen: A Court Intrigue Fantasy (The Forbidden Queen Series Book 1) Page 13