That throws me for a moment.
But then I remember the king standing there on the first night he healed my wounds, telling me how things felt fromhisside, when Syhl Shallow began to attack.
I remember thinking about my mother ordering that kind of violence—before the king was even here.
“Maybe the magic is dangerous,” I say, trying not to think about the flicker in my veins as I say the words. What would these women do if they knew I had the same magic running throughme? What if they knew the queen had it?
I have no magic, Callyn.
Maybe this is my purpose here. Not to be a spy, not to drive her people to war.
Maybe my purpose is to protect the queen.
I have to swallow and square my shoulders. “I don’t think the queen is willing to go to war.” I take a breath. “Not again.”
Della and Firena exchange a glance. “War?” says Firena. “We don’t want to go to war either.” She pauses. “Not yet.”
I frown, wondering if I’m misunderstanding the direction of this conversation. “Then what do you want?”
“We want the king to leave.” Her voice tightens. “We’ve all lost family to those monsters in Emberfall. We want hismagicto leave.”
Della nods, and she leans in, holding my eyes. “And if he doesn’t, let our queen know we stand ready to drive him out.”
CHAPTER 32
JAX
I should never have spoken so honestly to Prince Rhen.
This may not make a difference to you, but I hate myself for it.
Good, I said. I hate you, too.
The morning after he leaves, I wake up expecting to be executed. I’ll be boiled alive or the skin will be flayed from my bones or I’ll be set on fire for being so ungrateful. No one is waiting to drag me out of the forge, so I do my work and go to my riding lessons, but the whole while, I keep waiting for guards to show up and haul me off to prison. It’s a new worry that sits on top of all the loneliness, a constant anxiety that has me jumping every time the Shield House door opens.
But days pass, and . . . nothing happens.
In fact, my days seem to improve—or at least, they’re a little less terrible. My work in the forge is more efficient, thanks to the bench Sephran brought me. Most of the soldiers still hate me, but they seem to have grown bored of knocking my tools into the dirt, and instead, they ignore me. Even my nights are a little less lonely, because Master Hugh speaks to me in Syssalah—though our conversation usuallyconsists of him shouting for me to sit up straighter or to shorten my reins.
I’m also beginning to pick up more Emberish, which takes me by surprise. Instead of words flowing over me with little comprehension, phrases have begun to come together. When a middle-aged woman in the forge walks past me, grumbling that her pincers are brokenagain, I offer a set of mine, saying, “Take. I have two.” I think we’re both a little shocked. But after that, some of the other forge workers are less standoffish, and the dirty looks in the Shield House begin to dissipate.
I haven’t seen Sephran or Kutter since the evening we went shooting, but I don’t quite know if I should ask after them. Things might be improving in the forge, but after what happened with the prince, I’ve kept to myself, waiting for Tycho to return.
A week after the prince’s visit, an older woman arrives at the Shield House. She strides through the door with a satchel full of books and speaks to Master Garson while everyone is getting their breakfast.
“Master Jax,” he calls, and I look up from my oatmeal.
It gets everyone’s attention, because aside from the night Prince Rhen was waiting for me, I haven’t had a single visitor.
I set down my spoon and stand. “Master Garson?” My eyes shift to the woman. “My lady?”
The woman nods decisively and heads my way. Her hair is dark gray and twisted in two braids along the back of her head, but plenty of strands have escaped. She looks round and motherly, but her expression is stern. She’s broad across the shoulders, too, and nearly as tall as I am. She drops her bag of books on the table beside my bowl.
“My name is Elayne,” she says in perfect Syssalah, her accent as slight as Tycho’s. I’m so startled bythatI almost miss what she says next: “Prince Rhen has hired me to tutor you in Emberish.”
After days of worrying I was going to find myself thrown off the castle ramparts, this is unexpected. And not necessarily in a good way.
I must be staring suspiciously, because she adds, “I’m very good, I assure you. I tutored the prince and princess myself.”
