I sat straight, afraid to breathe.
“Who is the Joy Vessel that went to Teneris with Prince Rha?” I asked carefully while Suhai poked around my left eye with a slim device, then jotted something onto a wax tablet in his cart.
“It pains me to inform you,” he replied tersely, “but she didn’t introduce herself to me before leaving Kalmena.”
“She? So it was a woman?”
“That’s what they say.”
“Who says that?”
“Those who witnessed Prince Rha’s departure. They say he was carrying a woman in his arms as he passed through the city gates.”
Could it be Dawn?
Oh my God, did she stay in Alveari after all? Or did Prince Rha take another woman from Kalmena? To comfort him after Dawn’s escape?
I tried not to judge him, but the prince was so obsessed with Dawn, it was hard for me to imagine he’d replace her so quickly. Or maybe I just didn’t want to think of my best friend as so easily replaceable.
“They say the queen has finally chosen her favorite too,” Suhai shared another piece of gossip. “She permanently moved her favorite into her royal chambers, for her private exclusive pleasure.”
The salacious note in Suhai’s voice failed to excite me. I couldn’t care less about the queen’s private life. I just hoped to find out what happened to people I knew and cared about, especially to Dawn and Ciana.
After taking a few more measurements and asking me a couple of questions about my preferences for the metal for the frame and the type of crystal for the lenses—the preferences I didn’t really have—Suhai declared that he had everything he needed to proceed with the order.
Timur released his grip on me, allowing me to get up from his lap.
“I don’t know what exactly ‘normal’ means for your people,” Suhai said to me. “But I guarantee you the device I’ll make will allow you to see people’s expressions in every detail from much greater distances than before.”
“Thank you. That would be very helpful.”
“I can’t fathom what it must be like for you, to be so utterly blind to the world.”
“Well, I’m not exactly blind…” I tried to correct him.
But he was certainly deaf to my words now.
“I’ve studied the magic of healing with the most skilled hags, and the forbidden magic with the best mages in the kingdom. The hags are honored, and their services are sought after. The mages are often prosecuted unjustly. But do you want to know a secret, Sweet One?” He lowered his voice conspiratorially, not giving me a chance to answer. “True greatness can only be achieved by those who know both sides of magic, by those who know it all.”
Was Suhai the one who achieved true greatness? I doubted that. He seemed to suffer from many pesky, very human faults to be particularly great. But desperation and hope were a dangerous combination, prompting me to ask.
“Can all of that magic help Timur?”
“That’s not the purpose of our visit.” Timur’s words sounded sharp as a blade.
I knew I’d overstepped. I had no business discussing Timur’s condition or treatment with the mage we’d just met. Timur was the one who’d made the arrangements for this meeting, after all. If Suhai could help him, surely he would’ve considered it.
Yet once it’d sparked, hope was hard to extinguish.
“I know, darling. And I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “But time has passed since all your last…um, consultations. Maybe something new has been discovered since.”
He shook his head with a sigh, disappointed with me and my meddling, I assumed. I wished I could read his feelings the way he read mine.
I waited for Suhai’s answer, afraid to breathe in anticipation. He stared at us, moving his attention from me to Timur, then back to me again.
“The general’s situation is highly unusual,” he said carefully. “There is no other case like his.”
“Well, you’ve never seen a case like mine either, until today.” I gestured at my eyes.
