by Vela Roth
Cassia glanced over her shoulder. “Is now a good time? I know Queen Alea’s magic concealed our departure, but the embassy will eventually realize I’m gone.”
Lio shook his head. “The lords and mages shall not be allowed to interfere with the Queens’ plans. My uncle’s thelemancy will ensure no one notices the absence of those invited to tonight’s circle.”
Cassia had not imagined it earlier. The subtle signs of Lio’s tension appeared every time he mentioned his uncle. She must find a good opportunity to invite him to talk about it.
For now, she asked, “Are we expected to appear before the Firstblood Circle tonight?”
“No, most of the firstbloods will remain here with the embassy. The Queens have convened a special circle of only the elder firstbloods, the Stand, the First Prince and Master Envoys Basir and Kumeta. Chrysanthos believes the negotiations will begin tomorrow when the embassy is officially presented to the royal family, but in fact, the Summit begins tonight, and you are the only Tenebran who will be in attendance.”
“I don’t want to arrive with gaps in my knowledge. Who is the First Prince? Is that like a crown prince?”
“He is the Queens’ eldest, yes. He commands the Prince’s Charge, a force of Hesperines errant. They fought with us in the pass. The circle will give you the opportunity to learn more of their mission. The prince is counting on you and me to help prevent the Departure. We can rely on him as one of our greatest supporters.”
“Elder Firstblood Kassandra and the First Prince are both in favor of the Summit, then. It sounds as if we are fortunate in our allies.”
Lio smiled. “Yes.”
“I’d best make the most of our time to prepare for the circle. I hope your scrolls are in Vulgus.”
“Yes, I wrote of your deeds in Vulgus. I had to present my proposal in Divine, but I’ve had time to translate the most relevant excerpts since. It was, ah, a rather long address.” He said tactfully, “I can summarize for you if you need.”
She plucked the offered translation from his hands and unrolled it with relish. “I have been practicing diligently, Sir Scholar. It turns out Solia left some excellent reading material hidden in her rooms. Thanks to her book on statecraft, I should be well-prepared for an ambassador’s proposal.”
He grinned. “We are going to have a great deal of fun with reading, I predict.”
“I still can’t win any races,” she admitted, “but I am competent now. It’s the only thing I’ve given as much effort as my observations of the king, because I know it is a skill I can no longer do without. When I am waiting for something of importance to happen in the solar, I often pass the time reading in the secret passageway.”
Lio shook his head. “No wonder you haven’t slept in half a year. It’s amazing you’re still on your feet.”
“Do you think we might have time to…well, perhaps it is too ambitious of me as yet.”
“Time to do what?”
“You once said you would be willing to violate all religious law of Tenebra and Cordium and teach a bastard female with no magic the Divine Tongue.”
“You know how much I love violating Tenebran and Cordian religious law together at our shrine…or on the carpet at Waystar…or in your cabin on the voyage to Selas.”
She grinned. “I do think our previous vocabulary lessons have been a pleasure.”
“But I feel the need to point out that we are in Orthros, where most of the laws are written by females, and learning to read is not forbidden, but required.”
Cassia sighed. “Required for sucklings, no doubt.”
“Many adults come here with gaps in their education. It is nothing to feel ashamed of. Everyone here receives education in Divine and the language of their mortal origin.”
“Well, I’ve only just found my way with Vulgus, but…”
“I would love to teach you Divine.”
A new excitement brimmed in her, as if she were staring at a fallow garden plot. “Thank you, Lio.”
“It will be an honor and a pleasure.”
“I wish we had time to start tonight.” She smiled at the opening lines of his proposal. “Even in translation, this is a beautiful speech. I can just imagine your triumph before the Firstblood Circle. When you said you fainted in front of them, I know you were just trying to make me feel better.”
He looked sheepish. “I wasn’t jesting. I talked for so long, my hunger made me pass out.”
“Lio!”
“But not before I told them what we did during the Summit.”
“Uh, everything we did?” That was when he had revealed their affair—when he stood before his people’s government?
“Oh, yes.”
He had held her hand in front of his Queens. He had declared before all the leaders of Orthros she was his share. “I wish I had been there.”
He put a hand on his heart. “You were.”
They went to work, sitting close on the bench and spreading his scrolls across their laps. Inspiration carried them quickly through recent events, and ideas for the future flowed fast between them. Despite the short time they had, Cassia felt confident they had made a strong start.
She also felt reassured by Lio’s notes on her activities in Tenebra. She saw no sign in his careful records that he had any inkling of her last resort. He need never even know she had considered it. They could leave that behind them.
When the chime of bells drifted through the courtyard from somewhere in the city, Lio put away their scrolls. “That’s the half hour. It’s time.”
Near one of the entrances to the courtyard, someone cleared his throat loudly.
Lio grinned and stood, pulling Cassia to her feet with him. “I hear you’ve already met my Trial brothers.”
From behind the roses, Mak and Lyros strolled out, wearing their Stand regalia.
Cassia smiled at them. “I was very grateful to meet them when I did.”
“The tide of battle sets in motion its own currents of Union,” Lyros replied. “Or so we say in the Stand.”
Lio put his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Diplomat though I may be, I cannot disagree.”
“Feeling better?” Mak asked Cassia.
“Much.”
Lio said very seriously, “Lady Cassia Basilis, may I present Stewards Telemakhos Argyros and Lysandros Timaretes of Hippolyta’s Stand.”
Mak stood at attention and looked stern. “Yes, the Summit has officially begun. I insist you recite all our most glorious titles.”
“And now that’s enough.” Lyros chuckled. “Lio’s tongue looks tired, and so do Cassia’s knees.”
“Oh, yes please,” she said. “No more courtesies.”
“Let me show you how Hesperines greet one another.” Mak reached out and lightly clasped Cassia’s wrist, sliding his wrist against her palm.
She mirrored the gesture, wrapping her fingers around his wrist in turn. “Like this?”
“You’ll be doing everything the Hesperine way in no time.” Mak winked and gave her wrist a gentle squeeze before he released her.
“Lio doesn’t need to recite your titles,” Lyros said. “He never stops talking about your deeds.”
Mak lifted his eyebrows at Knight, who dozed between the benches. “I must confess, though, one aspect of your formidable legend disappoints me. This lazy mutt sleeping in the presence of the Stand cannot be the ferocious liegehound, Knight.”
Cassia spread her hands. “He has eaten a treat of cheese from the hand of Annassa Alea and heard from the lips of Annassa Soteira that he is a good dog. Their spell on him is complete. He has lost his heart and his thirst for battle.”
The four of them laughed together. A bright, new feeling came over Cassia. A kind of camaraderie she had never felt, not even with Perita and Callen, as dear as they were. The king had precluded any possibility of it with Caelum. Lucis had also robbed Cassia of the chance to grow up with Solia and find out what this might have been like with her.
It ha
d been a long time since Cassia had been anyone’s sister. Was this what it felt like to have brothers?
“I hope we’ll all get to spend a lot of time together.” As soon as Cassia spoke, she questioned her words. “That is, if it would not be an imposition on anyone.”
“Imposition!” Mak scoffed. “Lyros, I see we have another conscientious diplomat on our hands. We have our work cut out for us. We must convince the person who saved the lives of my entire family she is not an imposition.”
“Challenge accepted. We will show Cassia more fun than she can stand.”
Cassia couldn’t help laughing. “I doubt there’s such a thing as too much.”
“Now that you’re here, maybe Lio will remember how to have fun, too.” Lyros gave Lio a pointed look.
Mak nodded. “He was in bad shape before you came.”
“Mak—” Lio protested.
“He’s not going to be in bad shape anymore,” Cassia promised.
Lio’s arm tightened around her, and she found it felt right to slide her arm around him in return, even though they were not alone. They were in Orthros now, where such displays were not considered improper.
“Now it is our duty and our pleasure to act as your honor guard.” Lyros went to stand at Lio’s side. “On behalf of Hippolyta’s Stand, we are to show you to the Queens’ Terrace at House Annassa.”
Mak took a position at Cassia’s shoulder. “Get used to it now. You’re a hero of our people, and everyone is going to treat you like it.”
Lio tucked Cassia’s arm around his. His Trial brothers led them through one of the courtyard’s narrow granite archways and brought them out on wide, shallow marble steps under a clear night sky. She wasn’t sure how far they were from Rose House now, but Mak and Lyros had stepped them to another place entirely, one that must also be wrapped in the Queens’ magic. Majestic evergreens lined the stairs, swaying in the wind, but Cassia did not feel the cold.
When they reached the top of the steps, they came onto a broad, crescent-shaped terrace of black-and-white marble. Here and there sat wrought iron benches and chairs with white silk seats, and small tables stood about on legs shaped like rose vines.
In the center of the terrace, the elder firstbloods and their Graces were gathered around their Queens. The Annassa had no thrones. They shared one of the silk-and-iron benches. There were a couple of modest tables to either side of them, decked in scrolls, writing instruments and silver drinking cups, but no council table stood between them and the petitioners who might ascend those steps to appeal to them. As Cassia made that pilgrimage for the first time with Lio, Mak and Lyros, the Annassa smiled in welcome.
“Argyros,” said Queen Soteira, “the young people look ready for some coffee.”
Lio’s uncle poured a dark brown liquid out of a silver pot and into four cups. He handed one to Cassia, and she could only express her most gracious thanks. The most powerful mind mage in Orthros had just served her a drink. To be a good guest, she did not wait to take a sip.
Hot liquid, rich and bitter, woke up her tongue and warmed her all the way down. “This is delicious.”
Argyros gave her the most apparent smile she had yet to see on his face. “I’m delighted you like it.”
Lio took a sip of his coffee, then started. “Polar Night Roast, Uncle?”
“Cassia is equal to it.”
Komnena handed Cassia a plate. “You haven’t eaten since we made harbor. Here’s a little of everything from tonight’s sideboard.”
Cassia accepted the dish. “I’m glad at least some of it won’t go to waste.”
Lyros’s parents and their fellow firstbloods from Hagia Zephyra had pulled up chairs in an uneven formation around the Annassa, where Lio’s Ritual mother was already seated at the Queens’ right hand. The other elders stood around the coffee service or unrolled documents they had brought, and Mak and Lyros went to confer with Hippolyta at a nearby table. Lio seated Cassia next to him on one of the benches and with a touch of levitation, pulled a table near for her food and drink.
Cassia must try to get used to the lack of ceremony the Queens preferred. The Queens didn’t need ceremony. Mortal monarchs must hoard trappings of power about themselves to make their might look more legitimate than the next warlord’s. The Queens’ power spoke for itself.
“Ioustin is still planning to join us?” Lio’s father asked.
“Yes,” answered Queen Soteira. “He would not be satisfied until he personally scrutinized the mages’ lodgings to ensure the Cordians can cause no trouble.”
Hippolyta shook her head, but she was smiling. She had exchanged her long, formal silks from the welcoming ceremony for the shorter black robe and sandals of the Stand. It was as if her rags from the harbor had been transformed into an elegant uniform. “I saw to the protections on the New Guest House myself.”
Apollon chuckled. “Good. That means the mages are safe from Ioustin.”
There came the sound of footsteps, and Cassia looked toward the stairs in anticipation of her introduction to the Queens’ eldest son.
But no Hesperine prince came up the steps. A Tenebran lord strode onto the terrace with Basir and Kumeta at his side.
Cassia sat with Lio’s arm around her and her coffee cup trembling in her hand and tried to think of a way out that she knew was not there. There were no words that would spare her now.
When had Hold Lord Justinian joined the embassy? Why hadn’t she seen his memorable red hair anywhere among the men? How had he gotten past wards and the Stand and the master envoys to invade the Queens’ Terrace and discover Cassia taking refreshments with the enemy?
Then Cassia’s panicked mind made sense of the sight before her. Hold Lord Justinian wore a blood-red robe cut in the same style as Stand regalia, although those were Tenebran riding boots on his feet. His hair was braided down to his ankles. And he was bowing to the Queens with his hand on his heart.
Lio’s father pulled Lord Justinian into an embrace. “Ioustin. It has been much too long. You must come by House Komnena when we are done here.”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” Lord Justinian kissed Komnena’s cheek.
“Cassia,” Lio asked urgently, “are you all right?”
“Hold Lord Justinian is a Hesperine? The First Prince of the Hesperines?”
“You’ve met him in Tenebra?”
The man—no, the Hesperine—in question turned his sharp, chilly gray gaze on her. “You remember me.”
“You are hard to forget, my lord. I crave your pardon. Your Highness.” No, that wasn’t right, either. “First Prince, that is.”
“Please, call me Rudhira.”
He came over to her and Lio, and she got to her feet out of pure instinct. Lio stood and embraced the First Prince as Apollon had done.
“I had no idea,” Lio said. “Rudhira, it seems you have met Cassia. Cassia, this is in fact Ioustinianos, First Prince of Orthros, Prince Regent of Orthros Abroad and Royal Master of the Charge. My Ritual father.”
Lio was a student of one of the Queens and the First Prince’s Ritual son! Cassia almost courtesied to Ioustinianos, then remembered that was not done in Orthros.
Lio put a hand on her back. “Forgive me, Cassia. If I had known you had met before, I would have explained.”
“I understand,” Cassia assured him. “Tenebrans must never find out one of the hold lords is secretly a member of Orthros’s royal family.”
“And a veteran of the Blood Errant,” the prince added ruefully. “I cannot allow myself to become a danger rather than a protector to my dependents.”
“Of course.” Cassia could well imagine the consequences, especially after hearing Chrysanthos’s remarks to Lio’s father. The First Prince must be Apollon’s other Ritual son they had mentioned. She refrained from commenting on their past, lest she remind them of their two lost comrades.
The prince lifted his blood-red brows at Cassia. “This must have been an unsettling surprise. It did not occur to me our brief conta
ct several years ago would leave a lasting impression.”
“It is important to me to always be observant.”
“I should not be surprised, given what Lio has told us of your deeds. But you couldn’t have been older than ten.”
“Yes. It was the annual tournament through which any man may seek to prove his worthiness and win a hold from the king. Lucis was only awarding three that year, for despite the need to settle the east, he was wary of empowering too many new lords. You arrived at the tournament after dark and were the last to compete. You laid waste to every challenger, including the victor of the day, who was sorely disappointed he must settle for seconds. Through right of combat, you won the prize of asking the king for hold over any unclaimed land of your choosing. Everyone thought you either the bravest or maddest man in the kingdom when you requested a large, but brutal tract in the far northeast—past the Hilt.”
“My authority there has been well established for about seventy-five years. Only recently, with King Lucis’s increasing oversight, did I deem it wise to legitimize my claim with the official title of hold lord. I tell curious people that the red-haired warlord who first built my keep was my grandfather. But they don’t stay curious for long.”
“Might is an effective means of persuasion and the only currency in the east. Most people don’t want to know what goes on there. But I am not most people.” Cassia looked at Lio. “If my powers of observation had been a little keener, I might have connected Lio’s concern for that area with the mysterious combatant’s interest in it. But Hold Lord Justinian disappeared into the east, much to lesser lords’ relief, and has never been seen at court since.”
The prince smiled, revealing his fangs. “I concluded I had already worn out my welcome.”
“You have kept a hold in the eastern Tenebrae all this time, rescuing victims from the Hilt?”