“You all right?”came Cynthia’s voice beside her, so sudden that Ione yelped.Cynthia snickered, but then her expression flattened again.“I was just with River, and then out of nowhere Kai was hauling River with him outside and barking at me to keep you company.”
“Barking,” Ione repeated sullenly.“Sounds about right for that family.”She scooted over so Cynthia could sit beside her.“He hates having Nalu anywhere near him, but can’t stand having him out of sight as well, it seems.”
Cynthia remained standing, craning her neck to peer over the sea of waltzing couples and gossiping priests.A distant rumble of thunder resounded overhead, the start of the autumn rainy season; Cynthia sent the ceiling a cursory glance before returning her attention to the rest of the room.“Everything seems fine.”
“Of course it is,” Ione snapped.“He’s just gone off to get himself into a scrape, and he’s brought River along to pull himoutof it.”
Some moments passed, and Cynthia crossed her arms and nodded.“Maybe,” she said.Her seleneschal’s edge softened and she sent Ione an aggravatingly sympathetic look.“How’re you feeling?As, er, a wife?”
Ione gazed out to the dancing crowds, glittering with jewellery and autumnal finery, all gathered in honour of a wedding she was barely present for.“Strange,” she mused.“Different, but not.Sobering up, unfortunately.”
“Here.”Cynthia offered up an arm, a pleasant enough surprise that Ione stood without thought and took it.“Let’s get some fresh air.”
The lower halls of the altarhouse were cooler, half-lit by infrequent lanterns and devoid of the usual gaggle of guards or acolytes bustling about.Ione breathed deep the autumn air, glad to have escaped the ceaseless drone of voices and music.
“It’s quiet,” Cynthia whispered, and when Ione didn’t respond she added, “Quieter than normal, I mean.”
“The halls are empty,” Ione whispered back, for some reason afraid of shattering the silence, like it would wake something she did not want to disturb.
Ione understood what Cynthia meant: the air itself felt still, unusually so, like the echo after a wingbeat.Or the calm before a storm.She shivered and Cynthia let her huddle a little closer, fighting the growing sense that she should not be walking through her own halls.
They hesitated before a window and peered out into the deepening twilight.Ione unlocked and opened it, stuck her hand out.No rain, despite the thunder earlier; even the island’s ever-present seagulls and peacocks had hushed themselves, a preternatural electricity in the air driving a chill deep into Ione’s marrow.
Footsteps, ahead of them down the hall; Ione closed her eyes and listened, sure to hear Kai’s casual steps, or River’s measured gait.
But they were not casual, nor measured; they were quick and nervous, careful and stop-start, someone used to looking over their shoulder wherever they went.
And she recognised them.
She pushed herself away from the window, her breath catching.“Who’s there?”she called into the darkness, even though she already knew.
Cynthia edged up beside her, on high alert, one arm out in case she needed to push Ione behind her.But Ione shouldered past, needing to see.
“Ione,” a voice called back, and the air emptied from Ione’s lungs.
Lina.
Lina.
Why?, Ione thought, trembling, as Lina stepped into the light.Why did you leave?Why did you come back?Whynow?
Lina halted a safe distance away, still partially obscured by shadow.But she could see Ione well enough, it seemed: the scrap of lace, the sparkling veil.“Youaremarried,” Lina breathed, disbelieving.
Shame heated her and Ione hugged her arms, a paltry attempt to cover herself.“We made a deal,” she choked out.
Cynthia woke up, dived between them, knives out.
“Stand down,” Ione commanded, but while Cynthia stopped in her tracks, it was Lina who lowered to her knees, hands up.
“Please,” Lina mustered.“I didn’t come here to hurt anyone.”
“How did you get through the ward to begin with?”Cynthia demanded.
“The same way the rest of your guests did: en masse, when Kai lowered it earlier.”
Ione’s stomach flipped.They had grown lazy, overly reliant on the ward – Lina would still be known by most as her attendant, but the fact that no one had mentioned her attendant suddenly returning meant that Lina had slipped in without being noticed.
“Why did you leave?”Ione asked, her voice hoarse.“After what I told you?After – after what happened?”
