“Mother!” Mathias boomed and swept over to her, and pulled her into an embrace. “You look more radiant than when I last saw you. Cyra’s light pales compared to your beauty.”
“Don’t even try it,” Mother said, patting his cheek with an indulgent smile.Mathias had always had the charm to soothe Mother when she was upset.
Liane looked to Aristea, pleading with her eyes to intervene.
“I’ll do anything,” Liane mouthed.
Aristea shook her head. They couldn’t save her this time.
“Liane? We need to talk,” Mother said.
“Yes, Mother.”
Following her mother in the hedge maze, Liane’s shoulders drooped as she trailed behind. Along the winding path lined with manicured hedges that led to a small fountain, a statue of Cyra sat at its center, pouring water from an endless jug, just as Cyra had poured out water to form the Ageless Sea. Spray from the fountain was a refreshing reprieve from the heat and her burning back as she turned to face her mother, who sat down on a white marble bench. Mother’s guards stayed behind, blocking the exits so no one could interrupt them. Shoulders bunched and her scar throbbing, Liane took a seat.
“I’m not that angry. So, unclench your shoulders,” Mother said.
“For the record, Ludwig didn’t want to go, but I forced him to. Don’t punish him. Please,” Liane said, raising her voice loud enough for Falko, Mother’s head of the guard, to hear.She was just glad he wasn’t here to get scolded as well; instead, one of her secondary guards was on duty.
“Poor Ludwig. Even when you were a child, he’d come to me in tears.”
“He always was a tattle.”Liane shook her head.
“And thank the stars above, he’s sensible. I thought he could balance out your recklessness. But perhaps I was wrong.”
“I wasn’t being reckless. I had a plan. I caught the leader of the Onyx Gang! Well, technically, the Midnight Guard did the arrest, but…”
“Liane. Look at me.”
Liane turned to her mother with hesitation. She grasped both sides of her face, her palms cool against her flushed skin. And as much as she feared her mother’s disappointment, she craved her approval. She wasn’t perfect and poised like Aristea or strong and accomplished like Mathias, but she was trying her best to be more than an invalid.
“Your heart is in the right place. But you should have alerted the City Watch. What if they’d hurt you?”
When Elias died, she’d begged her mother to do something about stardust, and while she had increased funding to the City Watch in hopes of stopping the gangs who were smuggling and selling stardust, it continued to proliferate, and people kept dying.
“I have, many times. They’re not doing enough.”
“Regardless, it’s not your place to solve it.”
“If not mine, then whose?” Liane’s voice rose, and her skin flushed.
Mother sighed. “I’m one woman, torn in many directions. But, for your sake, I will give the problem more attention.”
“Truly?”
Mother nodded.
“Thank you, Mother.” Liane flung her arms around her mother’s neck, pulling her into a tight embrace and inhaling her lavender perfume.
“Perhaps, once this is sorted, you might think of marriage…”
An icy chill ran down her spine, and Liane let go of her. “I see.” She should have known help came with strings attached.
“You can’t waste your life chasing ghosts, Liane.”
“And you think marriage will make me happy? Look at how it’s treated Aristea.”
“Henrich made a mistake.”
