by Lucy Tempest
“I’ve figured all of that out for myself, thank you.” Aurelia sighed, uninterested. “No need to talk to me like I’m senile yet.”
“Captain Qursan is here to negotiate using a part of his navy for our trade,” Fairuza continued like she hadn’t been interrupted. “Travel by sea is much shorter than by land so the food from Campania would not spoil and the spices —”
“What did I just say?” Aurelia snapped. “I know why a merchant from a fruit valley and a navy captain are here, but do you know why I am?”
“Yes, Your Grace.” Fairuza nodded.
“Then you shouldn’t be wasting any more of my time, we already did enough of that waiting for you to show up.”
Fairuza opened and closed her mouth like a fish. She’d been trained to host people, to flatter them, to entertain them, but not to deal with them outside rehearsed methods.
It seemed every time anyone interrupted her line of memorized thought, and she failed to retie it, it snapped. That was why her solution to every criticism, every retort from myself or Cherine was to lash out and every interruption from Cyrus or Aurelia left her stuck.
She didn’t know how to argue.
How was she expected to help influence the people in this palace and negotiate with people beyond it if she didn’t know how to conduct an argument?
I guessed that was one downside to being born royal. Everyone had to do what you ordered them to and agree with what you said, so you had no idea what to do when people suddenly didn’t do either.
I sort of felt bad for her. That this half-formed personality and abrasive behavior were the result of the way she’d been raised.
To earn myself more points and save us her inevitable outburst, I took over. “Almaskham is Cahraman’s neighbor and it’s fairly new, isn’t it?”
Aurelia nodded. “Almaskham as a princedom has just celebrated its bicentennial.”
“But it’s quite wealthy, as much as Cahraman is?” I guessed.
“Wealthier.” Aurelia raised her face proudly. “As expected from a nation born out of a fabled land of treasures—the Diamond in the Rough, the Avestans called it. Once we gained our independence from the empire, we kept the title, but in our own tongue.”
“Diamond in the rough,” I repeated wondrously.
That was Almaskham meant.
I’d even been told that it had domes and towers built out of a magical material that shimmered like diamonds in the sun.
Bringing myself back to the moment, I said, “I take it the treasures take a lot of digging to find?”
“We have a lot of mines and are closer to the mountain range, so we export everything from fuel to stone to metal to diamonds,” she said. “Though we have more bronze and silver than gold, more coal than oil and more marble than granite.”
“Which you get from Cahraman?”
She nodded, eyes watchful. “Among other things.”
“And I’m sure there’s not much you can naturally grow in your desert with no rivers. So, it would be good for you to enter the trade deal with us to open up your exports and imports.”
She shot me a ridiculing glance. “Would it? If we had wanted produce in exchange for our marble, wouldn’t we have arranged that ourselves by now?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think so.”
Both of them stared at me.
From my experience of roaming across Ericura, small or young places needed a lot more time to fill with people, businesses and necessities. I remembered one city in the South that had opened its first marketplace only ten years ago. Before that they’d had to go on daytrips to nearby towns to bring back food.
I clarified. “If you’re a new settlement you spend the first chunk of your lifespan just establishing the place itself, making it habitable and trying to get a routine going.” That was all true of the small businesses I temporarily worked in.
Aurelia cocked a considering head at me. “And?”
“And by the time all that is done, you finally have time to think of the less immediate and vital things, like new business prospects that aren’t about infrastructure, survival or protection. That’s why I think Almaskham basically relies on nearby neighbors for all of its imports, and I don’t think it had time to go into trade on its own—and now it shouldn’t. It should join Cahraman, an older, more influential land, who has the far-reaching connections and long-established routes. By simply helping to fund its trading, you’d get a return on your investment while letting the more powerful kingdom do the heavy lifting. And while at it, you’d be enriching your land and letting people across the seas know that it exists.”
“And that’s a good thing why?”
“More trade options? More workers coming to live in your principality, which will diversify your demographics and add to your skill market? More tourism? More food? Who doesn’t want more food? Especially if it’s exotic?”
On that note, I was hungry. The biscotti had just managed to get my stomach working.
“So, you want us to expand?” Aurelia asked, more of a demand to elaborate than a genuine question.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Was nothing I said a good enough reason?
I wracked my brain, trying to find supporting arguments for saying yes, and for saying no.
They’d mentioned oil here, and so did she. That meant that, along with magic, trains, boats and assorted machines ran on oil. On Ericura, some riverboats had replaced coal with oil but it was rare there, and prohibitively expensive. Lands with lots of it were bound to become rich.
Cahraman could end up being the new Avesta, while Almaskham could turn into another land swallowed up by time.
“What if your principality collapses because of food shortages and the lands around you don’t want any more marble? What if Cahraman’s oil becomes more important than your coal and no one wants to import it anymore?”
She didn’t answer me, just watched me, her eyes betraying nothing. But I could feel her uncertainty about how to proceed.
All of the sudden, she looked to the doorway.
I followed her gaze to find Cyrus casually leaning against the wall, his kaftan open, its sleeves rolled up, his arms crossed, the embodiment of vigor and effortless attractiveness.
He seemed more relaxed now. No part of him was rigid with formality and his eyes shone with mirth in the afternoon glow, while his mouth was quirked to one side in a soft smirk.
It was achingly familiar. Like I hadn’t seen this side of him in ages, and I’d been pining away for it, for him, for years, when it had only been a couple of days.
He lifted one hand in a small salute, winking. “Don’t mind me, I’m just stopping by.”
Taking in this change of behavior, I realized he must have picked up on the same thing I had. That Aurelia did not want to be flattered in any shape or form.
The man standing there now wasn’t the prince, but my thief.
Or what I had thought was mine, and a thief.
At this point, I had no problem taking the former, as long as I got him.
Aurelia beat me to asking, “How long have you been standing there?”
He rolled his shoulders, lips curling in a knowing smile. “Long enough.”
“I take it your father bothered to show up?” Aurelia glowered at him. “And you are done with that oligarch that wants to sell all his funny fruits?”
“I am.”
“And?”
“He’s agreed to a trial period of supplying us with seasonal produce in exchange for our dried legumes and herbs. If we agree to continued trade, then they can have the spices.”
Aurelia gave him a nod of approval. “And how is my grandson faring?”
Cyrus uncoiled away from the doorway, arms going behind his back. As he strolled closer, the breeze blew at his back and I inhaled sharply. He smelled woodsy with a hint of spice, a cologne he must have brought out for the occasion. But underneath it all was the unique scent branded on my senses. The scent of
just him.
He stopped directly between us, his smile widening. “Father is going easy on him.”
She tutted, her scowl deepening. “Everyone is going too easy on him. He’ll end up a doughy head of state that way.”
“Not with you around, I bet,” he assured her. “Am I interrupting?”
“No,” Aurelia kicked the stool from underneath her feet and stood up. “We’re done here. One of you show me where I’m retiring for the night.”
Fairuza jumped upright, so fast she could have flipped the table. “I’ll do it!”
She extended her bent arm to Aurelia who ignored it and just limped right past her. “Lead the way, and it better not be upstairs.”
Again, Fairuza didn’t immediately follow.
She lingered by Cyrus, fists clenched and arms stiff by her sides as they were before, but this time with an insecure dent in her posture.
She stood there, looking at him with the desperation Cherine had when she’d been hanging off that wall. Like what she needed was close but not enough to help her.
Cyrus reached for her shoulder as if he, too, sensed her agitation. “What is it?”
She stepped back, chest moving noticeably.
She looked close to hyperventilating.
I touched her arm, trying to snap her out of it. She jerked away hitting me in the chest.
I caught her by the upper arms, steadying her. “What’s with you?”
She stumbled away from us, tears rising in her eyes.
“Are you going to keep me waiting all day?” Aurelia called from inside.
Fairuza rushed to her, wiping her eyes.
Cyrus moved to follow her, his hand outstretched, before he stopped and looked back at me.
“You humiliated her.” I wasn’t sure if his tone held disapproval or praise.
I shrugged. “I did my job. I hosted the guest, made her feel comfortable and discussed with her the subject you assigned to me. What does that have to do with Fairuza?”
“Just that she was supposed to do all of that.” He bared his teeth, not in a smile but in a wincing loss for words. “Farouk paired her with Aurelia, the most important of the lot because out of all of you, Fairuza was supposed to be the most qualified to host her. She boasted endlessly about her skills at hosting but when she got the chance, she couldn’t do it.”
“There’s a phrase for that where I’m from: don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk.”
“Funny way of putting it.” His lips twitched in unwilling amusement, eyes twinkling with mischief. “Did you walk the walk?”
Pride and relief filled my chest like an air balloon rising with the hope that I had passed the second test, was now closer to fixing everything. “Compared to her, I sprinted.”
Any remaining seriousness melted as he chuckled, shaking his head chidingly. “I know. I came here the minute I was done with Eukharistos. You made a good argument.”
I immediately fished for assurance and praise, batting my lashes at him. “How good?”
“Good enough to convince me to invest in you.” His smile warmed as he cupped my elbow, thumbing the sensitive crook of my arm.
I could swear my heart spun inside my chest.
It was remarkable how he spoke to me with the ease of a best friend, like I was someone he trusted, but touched me and looked at me like I was something more, something valuable. Something to cherish and gaze at in wonder.
Still gazing into my eyes, he said softly, “Every time I think I’ve figured out who you are, you surprise me.”
“Who did you figure I was at first?” I asked innocently, still baiting for compliments.
“Just another pretty girl in a pretty dress, here for the crown and all its luxuries but none of the work, and certainly not for the person that comes with it,” he admitted. “It didn’t occur to me that all of that was the casing for something so…”
“Smart? Interesting? Funny?” I suggested jokingly.
“Rare,” he said simply.
I was taken back. “How am I rare? There were literal dozens of me around here.”
He reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, lowering his head so I could count each fleck of gold highlighting the green of his eyes “Believe me, there weren’t. None of the fifty girls who came here had any of your qualities.”
I put my hand over his, keeping it there. “Is that why you like me?”
“I like Cora and Cherine and Ariane just fine, but I don’t want to spend more time with them than I need to. I want to be around you for no reason other than your company.”
“Is that why I’m still here?” Heart now quivering in my chest, I tried to get a solid reassurance.
He moved back, eyes widening. “You really don’t know why you’re still here?”
“I failed the second test and I didn’t get to know if I passed the third.”
“Of course you passed the second test! You saved Cherine’s life! I was there, I helped you, watched every thought going through your mind, every decision you made just as I had eyes and ears around watching the others.”
“So, you let me stay on out of courtesy for saving her?”
“Courtesy?” He coughed an incredulous laugh. “The test was to show your worth as a person, and you risked your very life to save a girl who was your competition. All the others let her hang when she fell—”
“Fairuza pushed her.”
He ignored my interjection. “—and none even considered doing a thing to save her, let alone risk their lives. I bet some were content to let her die so they could have a better chance with me. But you, you did the right thing regardless of how it could have affected your future, or the risk to your very life. That was noble. That is your worth, your value to us, to me as a person. And that’s why I—” He stopped abruptly.
Heart almost exploding with the need for him to go on, I prodded, voice shaking, “Cyrus?”
He exhaled heavily. “This is not the time or the place to have this conversation”
“Then when?”
“The day after the final test.” He let his fingers comb through my hair as he stepped back. “Wait for me by the statue of the simurgh in the western hall.”
I nodded eagerly. “I will.”
His eyes gleamed with something I hadn’t seen there before as he leaned down and whispered right in my ear, “I will see you then, my lady.”
I stood rooted, everything inside me clanging as he straightened, turned away with one last lingering glance then strode back inside.
I didn’t have a full moment to myself to process because Cora poked her head out of the doorway where he’d just disappeared.
“Has he proposed yet? Can I go home now?”
Chapter Fourteen
I picked up the last piece of biscotti and threw it at her. “Oh, shut up!”
She ducked, laughing. “No, seriously, I think the only one who still thinks his choice is up in the air is Fairuza.”
“Just her? What about Cherine?”
Cora’s smile immediately dropped into a dull look of disdain. “The little brat ditched me.”
“Ditched you how?”
She gestured for me to follow her. On our way back to our room, Cora detailed all the shenanigans I’d missed. The highlight was Captain Qursan’s first mate Yorgho aggressively flirting with Ariane and asking her to come away with him to the island of Galantis. Then Cherine up and abandoned Cora mere minutes into their assignment.
I was in too much of a buoyant mood to share Cora’s irritation, a halo of giddy rose petals and triumphant stars rotating over my head, offering nothing but positive imaginary outcomes for a change.
I had passed the second test! And with Aurelia’s encouragement, I dared believe there was a chance to both save the Fairborns and marry Cyrus. It wasn’t an either or scenario anymore. All I had to do was dig up a way to outsmart or overpower Nariman—
The moment I completed that thought, I crashed back to reality, my optim
ism scattering like shards of broken glass. Outsmart or overpower Nariman? So far it seemed easier for me to sprout wings.
After the rose petals and stars, now a clammy sense of foreboding slithered at my heels like a malicious serpent.
Cora aggressively exhaled, fluttering her lips like a horse. “It wasn’t even five minutes before she spotted something outside and ran off. Literally.”
I exhaled. “Where did she go?”
“Anywhere and everywhere.” Her scowl deepened. “Minutes later I found her running back past us, yelling at the air to just talk to her.”
The people passing us as we climbed up the stairs must have heard her as they gave us funny looks. Cora bared her teeth making them move away faster.
Cora grabbed a handful of peeled prickly pears from the tray of a passing servant and popped one in her mouth, talking around it. “She left me with the boy and his mom alone for two hours. The woman even napped.”
I crack a smile at that last bit. “Aren’t you from the same region? Couldn’t you find a common topic to discuss, I don’t know—what were you supposed to convince them of anyway?”
“To give Cahraman certain types of produce in exchange for the fancy spices that cost as much as gold. And what was the point? The prince was already negotiating that stuff with her husband. What was I supposed to do with his wife?”
“Host her?”
“Host her?” Cora laughed. “What is she, a parasite?”
I let out a howl of laughter, the volume surprising even myself as my voice bounced off the marble interior of the hall. Almaskhami imports no doubt.
“And I don’t host!” she continued complaining, despite smiling at my slightly hysterical reaction. “I work, so when I run things I tell people what to do with confidence that I know what I’m doing.” She slouched, rubbing her eyes. “I’m just so tired of being here. I’m tired of doing those silly nothings, of wearing shoes and constricting dresses because my own clothes are ‘ugly’ or ‘indecent.’ I’m tired of all these walls and how dry the weather is. I want to go home!”
“Just a few more days and you can,” I reminded her.
“The trip from here to Campania will take ages, though.” She exhaled loudly, loosening up a little as we reached our hall.