Kral’s mouth twisted as he gauged the look on my face. “Notthatsister. Inga.”
Ah. “And?” I prompted.
He gestured ahead at Ursula’s straight spine. “You’ll hear in the debriefing.”
“Then why mention it now?”
“Maybe I wanted to see if you’d think I meant Jenna.”
Twice in one morning. Hlyti had taken a broadsword to me, done with playing. I said nothing. Could say nothing.
“Silent as a boulder, peaceful as a tree,” Kral observed with some cheer, probablypleased at having drawn blood. “TheSkablykrrdoes all those dour monks claim, making you silent as the grave that Jenna likely found—”
He didn’t complete that foul sentence, breath knocked out of him by the stone wall slamming into his back, his head clapping against it hard enough to daze him. Face pale, icy eyes for once lacking arrogance, he gaped at me over my broadsword laid against histhroat.
I could kill him. Silence his mocking superiority for all time.
“Harlan.”
Ursula’s implacable voice cut through the snarl of my thoughts and jagged emotions. I became aware that Jepp held a dagger to my throat. Marskal on my other side, calming hand on my shoulder. Ursula stepped beside Kral, catching my eye, flicking a warning glance at Jepp, whose dagger point pricked my skin uncomfortably.
“You’ve gotten faster, brother,” Kral wheezed from a tight throat, straining back from my blade, palms raised in surrender.
“Don’t speak of her.” I said it in Dasnarian, using words of command and warning.
Kral opened his mouth and I sank the blade against his throat, still the flat, but enough of an edge to draw a trickle of blood.
“Harlan,” Jepp said evenly. “Don’t make me choose betweenmy lover and my queen.”
I ignored her. And Ursula, calm and steely as she stared me down.
“Understood?” I asked Kral.
He closed his mouth. Nodded as much as my blade would allow.
I dropped the sword, releasing him, stepped back and sheathed it. Jepp moved immediately to his side, a dagger in each hand, big dark eyes hard on me. She also assessed me with some surprise, a new caution. Finishingthe dance, Ursula moved to my side, Marskal still on the other, hand on my shoulder.
“Not speaking of her changes nothing,” Kral said to me, still in Dasnarian, rubbing a hand over his throat and inspecting the blood on his fingers. “Some day you’re going to have to face the reality that she is—”
I lunged at him, barehanded, but Ursula and Marskal were ready this time. He caught me in a hold—aDasnarian one I’d taught him, Danu take the man—and though I could’ve broken it, given a moment more to muster my superior strength, Ursula interposed herself between me and Kral, knowing I’d die before I hurt her.
“What in Danu’s freezing tits has gotten into you?” she hissed at me. Beyond her, Jepp kept a wary eye on me, but conferred in furious whispers with Kral.
I took a breath, reachingfor theSkablykrrcalm Kral had mocked. “It’s been a thrice-cursed trying day,” I muttered at her.
Her expression softened and she laid a hand on my cheek, a rare gesture of public affection. Especially considering that her retinue of guards, along with a good portion of the gate guards, now surrounded us, weapons drawn.
“I apologize,” I said to her, and stopped there, hoping she’d understandall the words I couldn’t say. Marskal, feeling the killing rage leave my body, relaxed his choke hold and, with another firm and reassuring clasp of my shoulder, stepped back.
“We’ll talk later,” Ursula promised. She moved back enough to take in both Kral and me at once. “General Kral, please accept the High Throne’s apology for violating a truce of hospitality.”
Surprised, he looked to her.“Your Majesty.” He inclined his head. “No apology needed. I should apologize for baiting my brother. An old argument that elicits… unpredictable reactions.”
“Get more predictable, both of you,” she replied crisply.
“Yes, your Majesty,” I bowed to her, then straightened. Habitually, my hand moved to give her theElskastholrrsalute, a promise and reminder, a grounding return to center—and forthe first time since I’d made her that promise, I hesitated.
I didn’t know if she realized I’d stopped myself, that the conflicts and doubts had seeded themselves in me so deeply that I wasn’t sure of myself anymore. She might not have observed it since she’d turned away, dismissing the guards and thanking them for their alert attention. A duty that should’ve fallen to me, had I not been thecause of it all.
“As we were then,” she declared, gesturing Jepp and Kral to precede us. “Perhaps you should attend to other duties,” she said quietly to me. “Burn off some steam.”
Marskal lingered close, ready to enforce her commands, no doubt.
“Your Majesty,” I said, accepting the implicit judgment. As much as I wanted to affirm—perhaps have her confirm—that my place was at her side, I wasin no shape to be in the same room with Kral. “I’ll be working out in the training yard if you need me.”
I left before she could tell me that she didn’t.
