Chapter Nine
“They were bothastonishingly beautiful,” I remembered. “As elegant and polished as the wealth of an empire could create. My eldest sister had inherited her mother’s beauty—and Empress Hulda was famous for her ivory hair and extraordinary deep blue eyes. On top of that, my eldest sister had lived all her life indoors, with only magical light, away from the sun, so her skin was fairand unblemished, her hair only shades darker. And they’d dressed her in white silk, diamonds and pearls. She took my breath away.” I frowned. “I don’t mean that to sound…”
“It doesn’t,” Ursula murmured. “She was dazzling. Your beloved sister and the epitome of feminine beauty. You probably worshipped her.”
“I did, yes.” I rubbed my hand along her back, grateful she understood. “I was in aweof her and I wanted to save her. I warned her about Rodolf, told her she should break off the engagement. But she wouldn’t listen. I figured it was because I was only a boy and not worth paying attention to.
“She married him, and they stayed in the Imperial Palace for a week. She was always either withhim”—my voice shook, and I had to steady it—“or in the seraglio where I couldn’t go. Everyonewas so happy, celebrating the royal wedding. When I asked about her, everyone told me not to worry, that she was fine.
“But we had a reception for her that last night before she left on her wedding journey to travel with him to his kingdom—a party for her that she actually got to attend—aparty. And, oh, Essla…” I had to pause to catch my breath. “She was so changed. He’d broken her. They’d coveredher pretty skin with makeup, but I could see the bruises beneath. And her klút—her gown—covered more of her, and they’d given her gloves to wear under her wedding bracelets, but I could tell by the way she flinched, how she hunched into herself that the cur had hurt her in terrible ways.”
Ursula made a sound, and I stopped, fully aware of the parallels, how Ursula had submitted to whatever herown father expected of her. “Is this too difficult for you to hear, given what Uorsin did to you?”
“It’s not easy,” she admitted, still not looking at me. “I want to say I’m over that and it’s in the past, but we both know that would be a lie. And what happened to me was nothing like this. I want you to keep going. I begin to understand, though, how you could see so much in me, so easily.”
Not easily. Nothing about Ursula had been easy. I squeezed her reassuringly, then relaxed my hold. “I asked her if he’d hit her and shelaughed. Laughed in my face, and I realized that what she’d been through was so much worse than that. I wanted her to appeal to our father, her mother, to Hestar, heir apparent. I begged her to tell them, to show them her injuries.”
“She told you they knew andit wouldn’t matter anyway,” Ursula guessed.
“How did you know?”
She shrugged a little, her cheek against my chest. “You were a sexually innocent boy of fourteen. If you could see it, imagine how much better the adults could recognize the signs. If you’d heard the gossip, then everyone knew about Bloody Rodolf. Jenna probably understood far better than you did how little recourse she had.”
“What you and my sister saw so clearly came as an astonishing blow to me. I spoke to our father, to Hestar, to Kral, and my other brothers about the situation and… they didn’t care. She was an Imperial Princess and must do her duty to the family and the empire. We all served the Konyngrr fist; a woman’s lot fell to her. She accepted it—why couldn’t I?”
“Because you’ve never had it in you to acceptinjustice of any kind,” Ursula replied. “One of the many things I love about you.”
I breathed in her scent and the reassurance that she could still speak so easily of loving me. So surreal to be telling this story after all the years of silence, but I couldn’t imagine anyone else I’d rather tell. Could have told, for that matter. “My sister—she told me to forget her. And she said…” The anguishknotted my throat. “She told me goodbye, and said that if I want to do something for her, to treat the women in my life well in her memory.”
“And you have,” Ursula said softly. She must have been weeping because my shirt had gone damp under her cheek. “You are the best of men, Harlan. She’d be so proud.”
I kissed her forehead, beyond grateful for those words. “But the story doesn’t end there.”
“Of course not,” she said, her voice dry now. “Because you’re you.”
I chuckled, relieved to feel my chest relax. “Well, and I was an impetuous young man with more ideals than sense. But I also was an Imperial Prince, and I used that status to bully the Arynherk guards into allowing me to join their entourage. I stayed out of Rodolf’s sight, not that he’d pay much attention to a minor princelinglike me, and kept to the middle-ranking officers—intimidating them with liberal use of my father’s name and probable wrath, avoiding anyone with enough rank to know I shouldn’t be there.”
“Nicely played.” Ursula’s admiration did excellent things for my ego, even for something I’d done long ago.
“I’m surprised in retrospect that I pulled it off.”
“Youthful bravado goes a long way.”
“Very true.My sister, when she saw I’d come along, very nearly gave it all away in her panic. She wanted to protectme, begged me to go back before I was found out.”
“I can understand that,” Ursula commented.
Of course she would, being the eldest sister, always taking care of the others. “But my mind was made up and I refused.”
“Stubborn, even then.”
I let that go as true enough. “The farther we traveledfrom the Imperial Palace, the laxer the seraglio rules were in the noble households where Rodolf planned to overnight. In the smaller manors and keeps, it’s simply not practical or healthy for the women to live in a closed set of rooms all day, every day. That openness would work in our favor. I also knew once we reached Arynherk, I’d be dealing with people loyal to Rodolf, so if I was goingto help my sister escape, then it had to be before then.”
Ursula sat up and looked at me. “You helped her to escape?”
“Of course.” I frowned, puzzled. “That was my plan all along.”
“Oh, thank Danu,” she breathed and framed my face with her warrior’s hands, kissing me deeply. “I can’t stand suspense. Tell me she escaped with you.”
