I forced a small smile. “Will you ride into the city with me today?”
“Really?” His grin slipped away. “Haven’t you recently survived several assassination attempts? Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Would you have me hide away like a criminal?” I made my voice bland. “Besides, it inspired me to see you ride among the people the other day. Your proximity seems to have earned you their love.”
Discomfort soured Gavin’s expression.
“Anyway, I’m well guarded.” I gestured to my two wolves, then glanced meaningfully at the half dozen Husterri riding at his back.
“All right,” he said. “But can we wait a minute? I hope you don’t mind—I was supposed to be meeting someone else.”
A moment later, Luca came bounding up the sloping avenue, with his shirt buttoned all the way to his throat and pomade in his dark curls. It was my turn to frown. Gavin leaned down from his horse to clasp forearms with my friend, who didn’t bother to so much as greet me.
“Well met, sir!”
“And you.” Eagerness leapt in Luca’s eyes. “Did you bring her?”
“I did.” Gavin laughed, and gestured toward his entourage, where one of the Husterri led a spare horse. Luca leapt toward the mare, exclaiming as he ran his hands down her slender legs and patted her gleaming rump.
He whistled. “May I?”
“That’s why she’s here.”
Luca swung up on the steed. The pair performed a complicated set of maneuvers before trotting over to where Gavin and I waited.
“I haven’t sat astride an Alomar in years.” Luca was breathless with glee. “She’s perfect.”
“Lady Mirage just invited me to ride with her into the city.” Gavin looked torn. “Any objections to postponing our planned jaunt?”
“Only so long as Syl—Lady Mirage—has no objections to my joining.” Luca looked like he wanted to laugh.
“None.” I did, in fact, have several objections. I’d wanted to use this meeting to unearth Gavin’s true self behind that laughing, sunlit façade. I supposed I would just have to try to do thataroundLuca. “Shall we?”
We clattered down through the Échelles, the boys easily chatting about horses while I sat wooden on my pony and tried not to fall off. Mercifully, the cobbles flattened out near the Mews, the avenues narrowing. Ambers crowded around us, and I heard bothSun HeirandDuskland Dauphinewhispered in our wake. A few sun-moon banners hung tattered from ambric lampposts and doorframes, but they just made me think of Red Masks. I tightened my legs in the saddle, and my horse shied forward.
“Dauphine.” Calvet caught at my mare’s bridle. The hard set of his mouth hid his dimples. “Are you sure this is safe?”
“I’m fine,” I ground out. “They won’t attack me while I’m withhim.”
Calvet nodded and fell back, but I knew he didn’t believe me.
I wasn’t sure I believed me either.
I saw Gavin toss a kembric livre to a child reaching for his stirrup. Behind him, his Husterri also began handing out money. No—they weren’tgivingit away. The riders bent down and exchanged words with the civilians before passing out coins. What were they saying? Casually, I reined in my horse, falling back to eavesdrop. The murmured exchanges came to me fractured, at first, before bursting in my ears with intolerable familiarity.
“Have you invited the Scion’s light to banish the dusk?” the Husterri were asking.
Some shook their heads. When they did, the Husterri moved on. But some passed their hands in front of their eyes, whispering:
“I see his light beyond my eyes.”
To them, the Husterri handed out coins.
Acid boiled in my gut. They were paying people to utter the Scion’s Vow? It had been nearly a tide since I’d left Mother Celeste’s Temple, but I’d spent my entire childhood there, and this—this felt likesacrilege. My mare sensed my tension and sallied beneath me. I shoved her forward, pushing between Gavin’s and Luca’s mounts. Luca frowned at me, but I glared at him. He fell back to ride beside Calvet and Karine.
“Your Husterri,” I said to Gavin, as casually as I could manage. “I couldn’t help but hear them asking the Scion’s Vow to passersby.”
“You know it?” Gavin seemed surprised. “Then you’ve banished the dusk as well?”
