“Was sorry to hear about your father, lad,” the old man said. “Edward was a right Harendellian prick, but better than most, and Siobhan loved him true. He must have loved her true as well for what he did, and he deserved a better end than to be stabbed in his sleep by that southern snake charmer.”
James’s hands tried to curl into fists at the words against Ahnna, but he forced them flat against his thighs. They only knew what they’d been told, and he’d have the truth in their ears soon enough.
The door opened, and Theryn motioned for James and Waynne to come in. No sooner was he through the door than his uncle’s familiar form appeared before him. King Ronan Crehan was a bear of a man. Nearly seven feet tall and broad as an ox, he was one of the few men who made James feel small. He wore woolen garments and thick furs, which only added to his size, and James’s spine cracked as he was lifted off his feet in an embrace.
“My nephew!” Ronan roared. “My boy is alive!”
He set James down with a thump but then pounded his back. “Word out of Amarid is that you’d been found dead in the Blackreaches, and William had your funeral. Caly said there were no new stars in the sky, but I was beginning to give up hope. Where have you been, lad?”
“I’m very much alive.” James sucked air back into his compressed lungs. “Though it’s been close more times than I can count.” He hesitated, then added, “I heard about Cormac. He deserved a better end.”
Ronan leaned back, gripping James by the shoulders as he looked him up and down. His eyes were amber as well, though more yellow in hue than James’s own, and it was like looking into the face of a wolf. “Was the Crimson Widow who did the deed, but your brother won’t move toward vengeance. Little fucker didn’t get an ounce of your father’s blood.”
His fingers tightened on James’s shoulders. “I’m sorry for Edward. He was a force to be reckoned with, and he deserved better than what he got. We know you chased the Ithicanian woman into theBlackreaches, and it’s not like you not to catch your prey. I hope you gave the bitch an inglorious death.”
James grimaced but only said, “I’ve a lot to tell you.”
“I’m sure.” His uncle slung an arm around James’s shoulder, leading him deeper into the room to where high-backed chairs faced a roaring fire. “Harendell will be wanting the same story, but as luck will have it, you can tell us both at the same time.”
James’s hackles abruptly rose. The scent of a familiar perfume filled his nose, and above the chair, he saw the gleam of white-blond hair. Hands turning to ice, James slowly rounded the heavy piece of furniture to find a pregnant woman with amber eyes smiling back at him.
“James,” Lestara said, hand curving around her swollen belly, “thank the stars you are still alive.”
75
Zarrah
Zarrah paced back and forthacross her tiny room in the Sky Palace, anxiety souring her stomach and giving her a throbbing headache. Despite extensive searches of Keris’s rooms, the rooms of all his guards, and, in a particularly violating turn of events, all of their persons, the Harendellians remained convinced thatDariawas behind the theft of the Ashford banking documents.
“She didn’t take anything!” Keris had argued with rising vehemence. “She was investing in fucking cows on Zarrah’s behalf. It’s not her goddamned fault if you can’t keep track of your paperwork! Anyone could have taken those documents!”
Yet it appeared Zarrah had deeply underestimated Harendellian organization, because the banker insisted that Daria was the only possible culprit for their theft. As a result, William had ordered that Keris and his retinue be confined to the Sky Palace until the documents were recovered. Which meant that her hard-earned proof of Alexandra’s attack on Valcotta was not on the way to Arjun, but still stuck behind a cursed portrait in a corridor.
“Think,” she muttered to herself. “Think!”
Except no matter how hard she bent her mind to the task, Zarrah had not been able to come up with a way to get the pages south. For all its beauty, the Sky Palace served remarkably well as a prison,as there was only one way out other than the long drop from thetop.
“Maybe the best bet is to arrange for those you left in Lestara’s rooms to be found,” Saam said softly from where he sat on her cot. “They’ll think it was her and let us out of this cursed palace.”
“Except they’ll notice the pages that are missing.” Zarrah kept up her pacing. “Alexandra knows what she did, Saam, and she’s desperate to keep that information from reaching Valcotta.”
“So we put them with the others.”
“Then all of this was for nothing!” She flung up her hands. “My reign isn’t half as secure as I might like, Saam. Too many of our people will suspect that I’m fabricating the offense to give myself grounds to aid myfamily in Ithicana.Or they’ll think Keris put me up to it. No one wants another war, especially not one with Harendell. I need something no one will contest, and those pages have Alexandra’s signature on them.”
And she was running out of time. The end of storm season was coming, and William was already making plans for an all-out invasion of Ithicana.
“I don’t see what other choice we have,” Saam said, then stiffened as a sharp knock sounded at the door.
Zarrah opened it to find a Harendellian man whom she knew to be Lord George Cavendish standing outside.
“Daria of Valcotta, your presence has been ordered by Her Royal Majesty, the Dowager Queen Alexandra. Come with me.”
Zarrah’s pulse thrummed, but she cast a backward glance at Saam that she hoped would dissuade him from doing anything foolish as she followed Cavendish into the corridor. He led her through the Sky Palace, their boots nearly silent on the thick carpet and the halls unusually empty. Reaching a set of doors guarded by yet more soldiers, she waited in silence while Cavendish went inside. He swiftly reappeared. “Search her for weapons, and then send her in.”
They roughly searched her but found no weapons. Everything hadbeen confiscated except for the tiny blade she had concealed in the twist of her hair. Zarrah went inside, Cavendish on her heels, and he shut the door with a heavy thud before standing against the wall with his arms crossed.
Alexandra sat on a sofa, and backlit as she was by lamps, it was impossible to see her face. Zarrah bowed low. “You wished to see me, Your Grace.”
