Landrick’s brow furrowed with confusion again. He probably remembered all the times I stepped on his toes and tried to turn in the wrong direction. “Well, I’ll find you la—”
The rest of his sentence was drowned out in the din of the crowd as Taelon turned me around and guided me to the balcony.
“This isn’t the way to the dance floor,” I noted.
His hand splayed across my spine. “I think what you meant to say was, ‘Thank you, kind sir.’”
I bit my bottom lip to keep from smiling too wide. “Thank you, Rebel King.”
His low chuckle vibrated through me. I had been waiting for this moment since he arrived in Sarasonet. Finally, we could have a few minutes to talk.
The ballroom was stifling with so many royals crammed into one space. And my massive ivory gown did nothing to regulate my body temperature. The dressmaker had outdone herself this evening. Folds of cream silk stitched with sparkling gold and silver thread. My arms were bare save for a thin, draped sleeve over my bicep that hardly covered anything. The tight bodice was meant to accentuate my curves and bust. It dipped down in the back, exposing almost everything, and pushed my bust up in the front so that, honestly, it gave a completely false impression of what I had to offer. But I supposed that was her plan.
I was, after all, on display this evening. Like a winter goose trussed up in the shop window for the Longest Night Festival.
Taelon and I lifted our faces to the cool night air once we stepped onto the castle balcony. We could turn around and watch the dancers in their finery through the floor-to-ceiling paned glass. But our eyes were fixed on the dark sky ahead with a thousand twinkling stars and the milkiest, fullest moon I had ever seen. Guards were positioned along the ledge, but they did not bother us as we moved to a clear space where we could look out at the blooming flower gardens below and the peaks of the Diamond Mountains along the horizon.
“You are truly a stunning sight tonight, Stranger,” he breathed in a low whisper. “I have been desperate all night to speak with you but afraid words would fail me.” He tucked a strand of styled hair behind my ear, his thumb moving in a slow caress along my cheekbone. “Sometimes I can hardly reconcile the woman I met on the road in Tenovia with the future queen you’ve become. If I had known what I know now, I think courage would have failed me, and I would not have chased you or captured you or... argued with you. I simply would have knelt at your feet and promised fealty right then and there.”
“Are you saying I was ugly? On the road?” His compliment was lovely, but did he honestly think I would miss what lay beneath?
He laughed at my question. “No, of course not.” Still, with more laughter, he added, “Travel weary perhaps.” His thumb brushed over my bottom lip. “And a little dirty.”
I folded my arms across my chest and feigned a pout. “You do not know what it was like. We walked across the length of Heprin. And then you chased us through the Blood Woods. In the dark! Find me a girl who could do all that and come out pristine.” He opened his mouth, but I finished my point with a dramatic, “We outran a wildebeest that night, Taelon. Oliver and I had to scramble up into a tree to avoid having our brains smashed in. Excuse me if I was a little worse for wear.”
His fingers pressed against my lips, silencing me gently. The look in his eyes was all adoration. “You were beautiful. Twigs in your hair and dirt on your cheeks. And I still thought you were the most beautiful creature I had ever laid eyes on. My point is that you have only grown more beautiful. The more I see of you, know of you, your beauty does not fade. You shine brighter than any star, bloom lovelier than any blossom, steal my breath better than any blow.”
But it was me who was fighting to breathe. Because how could I after a compliment such as that one? “Oh.”
His smile gentled, but the look in his deep-blue eyes darkened. “It seems your uncle has been intent on keeping us apart. My schedule has been filled with game hunting, card games, and diplomatic meetings.”
“Meetings? I thought diplomacy was put aside for these ridiculous celebrations.”
He lost the dreamy look on his face and frowned. “Your uncle is quite concerned with the Cavolia. And the Rebel Army. He wanted to talk... strategy.”
Fear clawed at my heart. “Strategy?”
“He would like my help dismantling what he sees as our greatest threats.”
“Taelon, you can’t—”
He glanced around. “I realize.”
“What about...?” I raised a single eyebrow.
“He does not suspect,” Taelon murmured in the lowest possible tone.
Aret Grimsayer, Taelon’s second-in-command of the Rebel Army, had been arrested during my Conandra trial for treason. But shortly after his imprisonment, Aret had mysteriously disappeared. One evening, he’d been present to accept his supper of stale bread and gruel. The following morning, his cell had been empty.
It remained an unsolved case to this day.
Truly. Not even I knew how the Rebel Army had managed to make a full-grown man disappear from his cell without being seen and without damaging the cell in any way. But they had.
My shoulders relaxed some. I liked Aret. But more than my good feelings toward him, I knew Taelon trusted him implicitly. And while Taelon had to be called away from their cause quite often thanks to his royal duties, the army needed Aret to lead them.
“What will you do?” I asked Taelon, fear reappearing in the corners of my heart.
“Rely on diplomacy to drag out this process for as long as possible,” he said with a gruff snarl. “And hope that my truest ally ascends the throne sooner rather than later.”
