I listened with feigned patience as he gave me directions. Then I thanked him and hauled Valen away. I swore he’d gotten heavier over the past few minutes, but at least he hadn’t muttered anything suspicious while I’d been talking with the guard.
The corridor stretched on before me. I took a deep breath and trudged onward.
It was time for the backup plan.
Chapter 36
Emmeline
Valen passed out five minutes later.
I cursed, staggering under his weight, and looked behind us. No witnesses—thank God and Goddess for small favors. What now? I couldn’t carry him the entire way. What if someone saw us?
If the palace floor plans were right, the door to the solarium lay ten feet ahead. I could find a place for us to hide in there. That would at least buy me some time to think.
I heaved Valen through the door and into a large, domed room made of glass panels. Starlight shone down on an indoor garden. Exquisite flowers bloomed in thick bushes—hopefully none of them were toxic. Sweet-smelling fruit hung overhead from verdant trees, and the warm air would have given me a comfortable, drowsy feeling under any other circumstances. Iscanned the forest-like greenery for any sign of other people. The gorgeous, isolated room seemed like the perfect place for—
“Did you hear something?”a woman asked.
I froze.
“Mm?”
Two voices. Like I’d been thinking, this room was the perfect place for a secret tryst.I dragged Valen behind the nearest bush, cursing the scraping of his boots on the path and the rustle of leaves. Then I ducked down and hoped for the best.
“Probably a guard,” said a man whose voice I recognized—Aristoph. “I saw a bunch of them running around earlier.”
“Do you think something’s wrong?”
Now I recognized the woman’s soft voice, too: Lurena.
“Who cares?” Aristoph hiccupped, and then the conversation gave way to rustles and moaning.
Yuck. Poor Lurena. She was obviously following her mother’s orders, but kissing Aristoph was probably like getting slobbered on by a dog. He was so full of alcohol she’d get a buzz just from contact.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the next sound I heard was retching.
“Oh,” Lurena squeaked. “Um, are you all right?”
Aristoph made a sound like he was dying. “Shit. Sorry about your dress.”
“Um,” said Lurena. “Maybe we should—”
“Lurena? Lurena!”
Regula. I clenched Valen’s arm, not daring to lift my head for a better look. She must have come in through the opposite door. My muscles tensed, my chest constricting my lungs. She was awake. Oh, shit. What if she found me?
“M-Mother?”
Lurena sounded just as alarmed by her appearance as I did. I ordered myself to calm down. Valen and I were a good twentyfeet away from the princess, hidden by a bush. Even if she saw us, she wouldn’t recognize me as the pretty blond man who’d knocked her out.
“There you are.” Regula stomped through the solarium with all the delicacy of an angry bull. “What are you doing over here?”
“I—”
“Never mind your excuses. I need— Oh, Aristoph. I didn’t see you there.” Regula switched to an oily tone. “Whatever is the matter, dear?”
“The wine doesn’t agree with me,” Aristoph groaned.
