“I’m more interested in the prince’ssaraiand his Joy Vessels, Suhai,” I replied dryly. “I got to know many of them, and I’d like to find out what happened to those who didn’t end up in Ashgate.”
“How much would you like to know that?” he asked with unmistakable calculation in his voice. As he took a seat on a stool in front of Timur’s chair, however, his expression remained carefully neutral.
I shook my head, making an effort to look bored and uninterested. “I’m just trying to have a conversation to kill time. Trust me, nothing you can tell me about Prince Rha interests me enough to pay you for it.”
“I can find out anything you want to know about the prince, my sweet,” Timur said confidently and loudly enough for Suhai to hear. “I have many acquaintances in high places in Kalmena.”
He did. All our clients came from Kalmena. Many of them were personally acquainted with the queen. However, they weren’t inclined to intimately discuss the matters of the court with a criminal from Ashgate or with the Joy Vessel in his illegal possession. Timur could probably collect more information if he went to Kalmena in person, but he wouldn’t leave me in Ashgate on my own.
I loved how quickly he caught on to my strategy with the mage, however, and jumped into the game with me. Suhai might be sly and clever, but his overinflated ego got in the way. He wouldn’t let Timur undermine his importance.
“I can spare you the trouble of inquiries,” he said haughtily, bringing a curved instrument to my face to take a measurement. “I know many people in highly sought-after positions at the palace. They have access to every corner of the palace, including those inaccessible even to the highborn.”
What positions were those? Guards? Servants? I wondered but didn’t ask out loud, afraid to derail the mage off the topic.
“The queen punished her son for losing his precious Joy Vessels,” the mage continued. “She ordered his death by exposure to the sun.”
I knew the prince must’ve survived. We would’ve heard about it if he didn’t. Besides, didn’t Suhai just say that Prince Rha was safe and sound?
But I raised my eyebrows and let my mouth hang open in surprise to encourage the mage to keep talking.
“She executed her own son?” I squinted at him skeptically through the two metal prongs he positioned at the outer corners of my eyes.
“Well, that was the verdict read to the public on the day of the execution. But many believe the queen made it intentionally harsh for the opportunity to show her benevolence at the end.”
“She pardoned him?”
“She did. But not before his tendrils were cut off.”
“They cut off his tendrils?” Now, my surprise was genuine, as was my compassion. I didn’t have tendrils, but I believed it must be painful to lose them.
The rhythmic rise and fall of Timur’s chest at my back halted for a moment, and I remembered he’d lost three of his tendrils already. Empathy spilled through my chest with ache. I wished I could hug him. Instead, he gently stroked my arm while embracing me from behind. Our connection through his tendrils was absolute, making words unnecessary.
“It’s not just painful,” Suhai chatted. “Severing one’s tendrils is the worst kind of torture. But they say Prince Rha killed his cousin, Princess Alzali. So, clearly some form of punishment was necessary.” He shrugged.
“The prince killed his cousin?” My shock at the news grew.
“That’s what the palace guards say, and why would they lie?” Suhai retorted, taken aback by my disbelief. “Anyway. The queen pardoned the prince, but banished him from her city. Not a big loss, if you ask me. There is no love lost between the two. The queen has never set foot in Teneris. And the prince hadn’t been to Kalmena in years. Personally, I believe they were both relieved to part ways again. Except that the queen decreed that all Joy Vessels in the kingdom belong to her now.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “That would include you, I imagine.”
“If we were in Kalmena,” Timur replied coolly. “But we’re not.”
“Right, right,” Suhai agreed. “May the gods bless Ashgate and protect it from the queen’s laws.”
He made a circular gesture over his head, as if inviting the gods to come down and do what he said.
“Do you know if the queen has recaptured any of the Joy Vessels from Prince Rha’ssarai?” I asked, trying and failing to contain my impatience.
“I believe she has.”
“Do youbelieve? Or do youknow?”
Deliberately slow, he put down the silver tool he’d just used to measure something in my right eye, then looked up at me with his lips pursed in displeasure at my daring to question him.
“Queen Abeille does not make me privy to all her acquisitions, Sweet One,” he bit off. “It is said that the number of the Joy Vessels in hersaraihas increased. However, in her endless generosity, the queen allowed her son to take one Joy Vessel with him to Teneris. He is the crown prince, after all.”
“Prince Rha has a human in Teneris?” My heart thudded in my chest, and I jerked my head accidentally, causing Suhai’s displeasure.
He clicked his tongue in frustration, dropping his next tool onto his lap. “I insist you keep still or I may poke you in the eye, and then we’ll have no choice but to cut it.”
