by T. K. Perry
A smug smile lit Limen's face. “I forgot; I sent them to escort an old friend of yours to the dungeon.”
“An old friend of mine? Who?”
“Talan,” Limen replied, enjoying Van’s reaction.
“Talan’s here? And you put him in the dungeon?” he demanded peevishly.
“He deserved it,” Limen assured him.
Van shook his head, sending his wispy hair aflight. “Limen, he’s not accustomed to answering to you. To him, you’re still the little kid that followed us everywhere.”
“Let us hope he adjusts quickly.” Limen scowled as he turned to face the officiant’s door. “Erynnis! The Princess needs a guard and a lady’s maid. Recommendations?” The brown-winged functionary appeared promptly from around the curtain, and opened his mouth to speak.
“Limen,” Lexi interrupted. “That’s not necessary. I was hoping to blend in here.”
Limen lifted one dark eyebrow. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”
Lexi cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I could say I was an illegitimate relative of yours.”
Limen and Van were silent for a moment as they exchanged a glance, and Erynnis faded quietly back behind the curtain.
Limen cleared his throat. “We can discuss it after you’ve had a bath and a warm meal. Are you tired?”
“Limen,” she said, placing a hand on his arm again, then pulling it away self-consciously. “I want to decide this now. Van, I would like to speak with Limen alone for a moment.”
Van’s eyes flicked between them, his brows raised. “Of course,” he agreed, “I have a friend to visit anyway. Goodbye, Your Highness,” he said, with a short bow and charismatic smile.
Lexi sucked in her breath as he spun around, displaying the beautiful orange and black backside of his wings. As he flew from the room, Lexi’s stomach fluttered with him. When she turned back to Limen, he was wearing a knowing smile.
“Shall I arrange the marriage contract with Van while you bathe and rest? Or would you rather wait, and have the Queen handle it?”
Lexi turned quickly to hide her blush. “I would rather...arrange it for myself.”
“Are you certain?” Limen asked, his dark eyebrows arching into his forehead. “At least allow me to make your intent clear with him.”
“No!” Lexi blushed at her own vehemence, then smiled apologetically at Limen. “I’m sorry. I know you are trying to help, but I want to get to know him first.”
“You’re not still considering Talan?”
“No, but there are more than two men here, Limen.”
Two spots of color brightened Limen’s pale cheeks. “Only two potential husbands.”
Lexi shook her head decidedly. “He need not be a noble.”
Limen’s eyes went wide. “Your son will be king; you need a noble husband.”
Lexi’s smile drew tight. “Perhaps it won’t be an issue. In the meantime, I need a name. It doesn’t seem wise to use my own.”
Limen sighed heavily. “I agree, but I still want you guarded, and you ought to have a lady’s maid.”
Lexi trilled a little laugh. “Limen, you will give me away with your worrying.”
Limen smiled sadly. “There are dangers here, Your Highness, and you have led a very sheltered life.”
“Then I’ll share a room with someone who hasn’t, and she can instruct me.”
Limen frowned. “And who will you tell her you are?”
“A farm girl from the middle of nowhere.”
Limen laughed.
Lexi waited patiently for him to finish, a fixed smile on her face.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. What name would you like to use?” Limen asked, laughter still in his voice.
“Raven Viceroy...if you don’t mind claiming me as an illegitimate relative.”
Limen sobered and turned to finger the intricate woodwork behind his throne. “Your Highness, I already have illegitimate relatives, both siblings and cousins. Two half-brothers and a half-cousin are here on the mountain. They will know you are not related to them as soon as they detect your scent, and they will expose you.”
Lexi blinked, wondering if Mona knew about all her illegitimate relatives, then forced her mind back to their conversation. “I don’t smell like a Viceroy?”
Limen smiled sadly. “If you were related to us, we wouldn’t be able to smell you at all.”
“Could we trust them?”
“No,” Limen averred, turning away again.
“Then I’ll say I’m a Fritillary.”
“You will excite suspicion,” he predicted, studying the pattern of her wings, so similar to his own.
“Is there a better option?” Lexi asked, hiding her exasperation.
“Yes. Let me negotiate your marriage to Van, and send you home in the morning.”
They exchanged a long look, each measuring the tenacity of the other. “A room, please,” Lexi said finally.
Limen blew out a long breath. “Erynnis!”
“Yes, Your Excellency?” the officiant asked, stepping out from behind the burgundy curtain.
“Get Eros.”
Erynnis dipped another deep bow and disappeared.
“Do you mind if I tell my clerk who you are?” Limen asked her.
“I assume you trust him?”
Limen nodded. “It would be useful to have his advice on a suitable roommate.”
Lexi studied the Governor’s furrowed forehead, and the discontented set to his mouth as they waited. “Are you happy here, Limen?” she asked, after a long silence.
Limen met her eyes, his expression hardening. “Of course not.”
Lexi dropped her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, Your Highness? The governorship is the responsibility and curse of my family. When my grandfather died, I was the only one in season. It was fate. No one’s fault.” Limen turned away, controlling his bitterness with a grimace.
“I meant I was sorry for asking,” Lexi said, wanting to touch his arm again and comfort him.
Limen acknowledged her words with a nod as the main doors opened and shut. A gray-haired man with blue wings strode purposefully out from the curtain, Erynnis tagging sulkily at his heels.
“Eros Bl̵” Erynnis began.
Eros turned to glare at the officiant until he scurried back to his office door.
Limen smirked. “Eros, this is my sister-in-law, Her Highness, Princess Lexi.”
Eros’ jaw went slack a moment, then he bowed. “Your Highness,” he greeted respectfully.
“The Princess has the novel desire to blend in among the rabble up here. She doesn’t wish to have a guard or a maid, so she needs a roommate that can unveil the base natures of the men here, and offer her some protection from them.”
“Limen,” Lexi reproached softly.
“Your Highness, I am only fulfilling your wishes. Eros, whom do you recommend?”
The corner of Eros’ mouth twisted up in an enigmatic smile. “Perhaps two roommates would be more effective than one?”
“That would be acceptable,” Lexi assured him.
“Then I recommend the queen’s suite,” Eros said, his mouth sliding into an ironic slant.
“With your daughter?” Limen asked with some surprise.
“Psyche knows everyone, and the new roommate I assigned her this morning would make a good protector for the Princess.”
Limen shrugged thoughtfully and looked at Lexi for approval.
Lexi nodded silently.
“What name shall I put down on the records?” Eros asked.
“Raven Fritillary,” Lexi answered confidently.
Eros raised a single eyebrow, but didn’t comment.
“I’ll be back with a map,” Eros promised with a quick bow, leaving just as the guards returned.
“Beck, you are reassigned to guard Miss Fritillary,” Limen commanded easily, then nodded towards Lexi when Beck looked confused.
Lexi shook her head. “That would be co
nspicuous.”
“Be inconspicuous,” Limen directed Beck.
“Limen,” Lexi reproached again.
“Your Highness, do not ask me to leave you unprotected here. I will accede to your wishes as much as possible, but having you wander about alone makes me feel ill.”
Beck slipped off the faded black shirt that identified him as a guard, removed the club and holster from his waist, then looked up at the Governor for approval.
“Do you have your whistle?” Limen asked.
Beck slipped it from his pants pocket and held it aloft.
“Good. I’ll send one of the other guards to relieve you at the dinner hour.”
“I can countermand your orders, Limen,” Lexi said very softly, so only he would hear.
“And I am asking you not to,” he replied in an undertone.
Lexi sighed, watching him.
“Please,” he added.
Lexi tore her gaze away from him as Eros returned. He gave the naked-chested Beck a look of contempt, then handed Lexi a crudely drawn map.
“Thank you,” she said, turning it to try to orient herself.
Eros nodded in an abbreviated bow, then turned and left.
“Will you join me for dinner?” Limen asked. “I will invite Van.”
Lexi smiled as she shook her head. “I have dinner plans.”
“With whom?”
“Goodbye, Limen,” Lexi finished, leaving the room with a smile. She could hear Beck following behind her, and in the hallway she turned to wait for him.
“I think it will look less odd if we appear to be friends,” she suggested, eyeing a group of in-seasons just down the hall.
“And even less odd if we actually are,” Beck grinned. “Where to?”
“Queen’s suite.”
Beck gave a surprised chortle of laughter. “This way,” he nodded, still laughing.
Lexi smiled back at him. “Where are you from?”
“Tiny town out east called Sumpter.”
“Is anyone else from Sumpter on the mountain?”
“No, Your...er...no,” Beck stumbled, flashing an embarrassed grin.
“Are there farms nearby?”
“A few ranches. Too many trees for farming.”
Lexi nodded. “Then I’m from a horse ranch just outside of Sumpter.”
Beck’s grin widened. “Right, the old Fritillary place; and I’ve known you since you were a child when you used to come into my family’s store for candy.”
Lexi’s smile widened as she looked at the stocky, muscled guard. He was several inches shorter than she, and the shiny bald spot atop his closely-cropped copper head was distracting.
“How many years has it been since we last saw each other?” Lexi asked, fleshing out their story.
“Five. If you didn’t look so much like your mother, I might not have recognized you,” he lied happily.
“Remind me how you became a guard up here? I know I should recall from the letters you send your mother; she shows them to everyone,” Lexi said as a big male with green wings stopped in the hallway to stare at her.
“Tragedy of the whites,” Beck quipped. “I got all nasty tempered as soon as I got my wings, and wasn’t back to my charming self until my season ended one month later. I picked so many fights during that one month that I got to know the guards pretty well. So when I woke up one morning and couldn’t fly anymore, I volunteered to be a guard. Beats kitchen duty,” he added with a grin.
“And your siblings?”
“My twin talked a girl into marrying him the first week he was here,” Beck said, his voice laced with jealousy and exasperation. “He couldn’t keep his temper either, but she didn’t seem to mind. He followed her home to Elgin to help run her family’s pottery business. Now there’s nobody to take over our family store, so my parents will probably just sell it when one of them dies.” Beck looked down at the stone floor with a frown.
“I’m sorry, Beck.”
“Yeah, that’s life. And this is your room. Give me five minutes to go get a shirt, and then I’ll be back to show you around,” he offered, already moving down the hall.
“Thanks, Beck,” Lexi called. “Good to see you again.”
Lexi knocked, waited a moment, then opened the door. A petite blonde with blue gray wings jerked around to stare at her, her face lined with sleep.
“Who are you?” she demanded, squinting at Lexi over her wings.
“Your new roommate,” Lexi replied, shutting the door behind her and surveying the room. A single solar lantern hung from the high ceiling casting feeble amber light. At the far end of the suite, large double doors were closed to invading daylight with rugs stuffed untidily beneath them. The stench of mildew wafted up from them, freshly damp from the rain. A wrought iron table with three matching stools stood near the hallway door, and five beds were evenly spaced across the long room. Steady snoring was coming from the bed nearest the balcony doors, a large blonde with creamy black-striped wings the obvious source.
“Fabulous. Another giantess,” the blue-winged girl quipped, and dropped her head back onto her pillow.
Lexi eyed the three empty beds between the sleeping girls, and selected the one in the center. Unbuckling her bag, she dropped it onto the floor and stripped off her wet clothing. The room felt chilly, and she shivered as she changed into her bathing suit. She briefly considered pulling her wet clothes back on over it, but they felt so cold when she lifted them from the floor that she quickly changed her mind. Frowning, she pulled on her last clean shirt and walked to a full-length mirror near the double doors. One look at her long, exposed legs and she returned to her bag to slip on her dirty brown pants.
A snort of disgust sounded from the petite blonde. “You can’t wear those filthy things in the water. So unless you’re trying to allure all the men by undressing in public, just go in your suit.”
Lexi fought down the flush that rose to her cheeks, and stepped back out of her pants. She started to unbutton her blue top, then moved back to the mirror uncertainly.
“If you don’t have any clean pants, what are you going to wear after your bath?” the blue-winged girl asked, rising up onto her elbow.
Lexi frowned. “That’s a good question. Will someone launder my clothes while I bathe?”
The blue-winged girl laughed. “You can drop them off at the laundry, but they probably won’t wash them until tomorrow, and they won’t be dry until tomorrow night. Guess you’d better get comfortable with wearing that bathing suit.”
Lexi’s cheeks flamed and she turned away to hide them. Was it too late to ask Limen for a lady’s maid? Frowning, she unbuttoned her shirt and hung it up on one of the hooks next to her bed, then hung her canteen from another. Returning to her bag, she removed the now empty sack that had held her new clothes and stuffed it with dirty laundry. With her last handful of clothing, she sent a chunk of cinnamon bread tumbling across the flagstones. Groaning inwardly, she retrieved it, then held it up to the weak light while debating if it was still worth eating.
The blue-winged blonde was up on her knees in a moment. “Are you sharing?” she asked, eyeing the bread.
"It fell on the floor."
"I don't care," the blonde said, her hand outstretched.
Lexi's eyebrows rose as she gave her the bread. Perhaps Celus hadn't been exaggerating about the lack of good food. “Are you Psyche?”
“My dad been singing my virtues again?”
“I’m Raven,” Lexi announced, ignoring the question.
“Nice to meet you,” Psyche mumbled insincerely around a mouthful of bread.
“Likewise.” Lexi kept her face carefully blank as she returned her dirty laundry to her mother's bag and headed for the door.
“How’d you get the big bruise on your arm?”
Lexi covered it with her hand self-consciously and turned back around. “Just a little riding accident.”
Psyche’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “Wear the shirt.”
Lexi
looked down at the bruise that circled her upper left arm in the shape of a hand. The edges had turned a sickly yellow while the center still bloomed dramatic purples and blues. The bruises on her knees could almost be mistaken for shadow beneath knobby kneecaps, but her arm was startling.
“Or come up with a much better story,” Psyche directed as she returned to her pillow, her wings again hiding her face.
With a small frown, Lexi walked back to the head of her bed and slipped the blue shirt off the hook. Buttoning it quickly, she opened the door and slipped out into the hallway.
Beck gave her a friendly grin. “To the hot spring pool?”
Lexi returned his smile. “Yes.”
Beck nodded and began to walk down the dimly-lit stone hall as Lexi kept pace with him. “Did you meet Psyche?”
“Yes,” Lexi answered with a carefully neutral voice as she examined the odd lanterns that lined the walls.
“She’s a fiery little thing. Did you know she’s attacked her dad twice? Got dungeon time for it.”
“Are they reconciled now?” Lexi asked.
“Well, she hasn’t attacked him for quite a while, but I’m pretty certain she still hates him. Most of Eros’ kids do. Most every time one of his sons shows up on the mountain, Eros is blowing his whistle for the guards to come rescue him from his angry offspring.” Beck stopped his narrative to chortle to himself. “But Psyche’s the only time he ever blew it over a daughter.”
“How many children does Eros have?”
“Thirty-seven. The old devil seduced fifteen women in his day. Everybody knows because he holds the record,” Beck explained, his voice frankly disapproving. “He might have seduced more if Psyche’s mom hadn’t broken his wing.” Beck laughed to himself. “Like mother like daughter.”
Lexi pressed her lips together and changed the subject. “Is there a way to get my clothes laundered quickly?”
Beck raised his ruddy eyebrows. “How quickly?”
“By the end of my bath?” Lexi asked, anticipating his response with a slight frown.
Beck laughed heartily. “Maybe if I told them who you are, but they’d still have to drip dry...no fancy equipment up here. Are you out of clean clothes?”
Lexi nodded.
Beck looked over at her with a thoughtful frown. “I may be able to borrow some for you. Did you want to stop at the laundry now?” He paused in front of a propped-open door where women bustled around steaming vats, hauling sopping clothes at the end of flat sticks.