When Lanamoar appeared on screen it was worse that Brandese had feared. Her sister’s face was bare of cosmetics, her lustrous hair, usually perfectly coiffed, was tangled about her shoulders, and she wore a heavy-lidded expression.
“There you are, my little love, I was so worried about you,” Lana said.
Brandese struggled not to burst into tears. “You mustn’t—please, I wasn’t lost. I pretended to be on the run when I was really with the Calexes the whole time. Never in any danger! And it’s all my fault you were taken. I’m so sorry.”
Lana smiled, that long-suffering indulgent smile that she always offered Brandese when she’d been naughty. “Well, it’s for the best, I suppose. You wouldn’t like it here. Though it has a great deal to recommend it, like the most delicious food I’ve ever tasted. This small capitol city is more like a medium village at home. Not at all the sort of place you’d enjoy for more than a few days.”
“Are you alone? Can you speak freely?”
“Yes.”
“Answer me something, so I’ll know you’re telling the truth and not being forced. Tell me the name of my first horse.”
“Sandstorm. Though as I told you then, the first name was better.”
Brandese exhaled in relief and allowed herself a small smile at the shared joke. The horse had been black and named Night-sky when she’d gotten him. But he’d charged into a storm the first time someone tried to ride him, so she’d changed his name because she’d felt it suited him better. She’d admired his spirit, not his color. “Lana, I’m arranging for you to be rescued. Tell me as much as you can about where you’re being held.”
“Rescued? Darling, it’s too late for that.”
Brande’s heart sank. “It’s not!”
“I’m married. Or that’s what everyone must think. It was necessary to move things forward quickly.”
Brande’s fists clenched the writing table until her knuckles whitened. The main reason to rush a wedding ceremony was that a bride had been compromised and her reputation was at risk, especially if she found herself pregnant.
“I would have come sooner. We should have, but some people thought you might want to try to make the best of things.”
“Yes. That’s what I must do. It will take some adjustments, but they’re not what we thought. Some of them are fierce, but I’m not afraid now. In truth—”
The screen flickered, and Lana looked over her shoulder.
“Lana?”
“It’s all right. There’s work being done on this section of the power grid. And it’s very late here anyway. I’m tired. But please don’t worry. There are a number of things I actually like about Kettura and its people. So it was better that it was me than you that was ultimately taken. Try to be a good girl from now on. The future of the Endricane monarchy will fall to you.”
The frustration that raged through Brande’s blood knew no bounds. Lana had been dutiful and good her whole life. She was the one who deserved to be queen one day.
“But your marriage can be dissolved. You can still—”
“That’s enough,” Lana said firmly. “I love you for your concern, but this can’t be undone. I’m considered one of them now. To try to take me would be an act of war. Instead of worrying over what can’t be changed, I want you to focus on what you can control. Your own behavior. Don’t give anyone an excuse to withhold the throne from you. Please, it’s the one thing you can do for me that really matters.”
Brandese swallowed, tears spilling over her lashes. “I don’t deserve you.”
“I love you,” Lana said. “Always.”
“I love you too,” she said, her voice cracking.
Then the connection went dark and she put her head down, giving in to the need to weep noisily.
* * *
Brande had spoken twicemore to Lana, who had seemed livelier and happier during the subsequent conversations. Brande could never be sure whether her sister was simply putting up a brave front or if she was truly settling into her wild new homeland.
Everyone who’d been at Lana’s engagement dinner said the savages looked somber, huge, and deadly. Brande could not shake the nagging feeling that something needed to be done, but had not brought up a strike team rescue again. Having soldiers die in a raid that her sister denied wanting was illogical. As much as she hated to admit it, she knew the Calex brothers had been right about that.
She had not returned to the Calex castle, but the restrictions on her movements had been eased now that the Ketturans had their princess bride and couldn’t lay claim to another.
Though she’d sent word that she wanted to delay, her father had ignored her request and had announced her engagement to Lord Evston Calex. There were wild celebrations through the United Kingsrealm and farther. And she’d been forced to pose and smile with Evston for broadcast footage.
