Chapter 2
Reyn’s fingers caressedthe keys of the pianoforte, coaxing out something that was not a song, and yet was so much more than random notes. The Ferrinis had a beautiful instrument, and she loved spending the time when Selona had to work seated in front of it. She felt comfortable enough in the house to veer away from the popular dances and approved sonatas. Instead, she played what she heard and felt, the notes becoming a sort of diary entry, a reflection of her experiences that would never be played again.
“Oh, that was lovely. It reminds me of walking through the streets of Tryn.”
Reyn squeaked and her fingers, which had paused their movements momentarily as she thought over what to play next, pressed down on the keys in a jarring blare of sound. She turned to see Lisca standing in the room, a suddenly crying baby against her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Lisca said as she bounced the child up and down and patted his back. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, I’m sorry for upsetting Marseo. Do you think it would help if I played a lullaby?”
“It’s worth a try.”
Reyn turned back to the pianoforte and began a simple tune that she often used to calm her own mind. Within a few measures, the baby quieted, but Reyn kept playing. She looked over at Lisca, her fingers moving easily to continue the song. “I didn’t realize you were bringing your son with you today. I would have waited for you somewhere other than the music room.”
Reyn had arranged the meeting during her tea with Lisca and Selona two days earlier. Lisca hadn’t had Marseo with her then, and it surprised her that she had him in tow now. Not that she thought Lisca didn’t spend time with her child—every other word she had uttered at tea had been about him—but she was too busy working as a mediator and handling her Family’s business to watch him for most of the day.
“If anything, I should apologize for not warning you—we’re having a bit of a domestic crisis at home. The nursery maid was jilted, and all the staff are in high dudgeon over it. My parents, Khiran, and I have all been taking turns watching Marseo since he can’t handle their emotions. Of course, Papa and I are no help in the house, since we channel all the emotions we want to spare Marseo, so I thought I’d bring him with me. Khiran certainly needed the break. He’s been trying to calm everyone in the house all day.”
Lisca walked over to the divan along one wall of the room. “You don’t have to keep playing, you know. He’s fine now.”
Reyn looked at the child, now sitting in his mother’s lap, smiling and looking around the room. “I’m glad I could give you both a reprieve.”
“Why don’t you come over and tell me what you wanted to talk about?”
Selona and Lisca had teased Reyn when she had mentioned she wanted to discuss something with Lisca privately. When she matched them innuendo for innuendo, though, the teasing had stopped. They had been too busy laughing. Lisca had declared Reyn an honorary Lhanaperan by the end of tea, on account of the fact that no Moialan lady would ever have made so many jokes about the statues on display around Tryn. Proper Moialan ladies would have pretended they couldn’t see all the marble renderings of naked men.
Firing off lewd comments was easier than telling Lisca her real concerns, though.
“I’m not sure where to begin.” Reyn lifted her fingers from the keys, then changed her mind. She let her fingers drift. “I guess it started in Vairain. I mean, it didn’t; it must have happened before that, but Vairain is when I noticed it.”
“You mean when you traveled with Merine to Daalj?”
Reyn nodded. She and Princess Merine had journeyed across their home kingdom and through neighboring Vairain before reaching Daalj. Merine had convinced her father to let her visit the capital of Vairain. Once in there, she and Reyn had worked to establish her as a desirable match for the crown prince. Reyn had helped by making a good impression on the lords and ladies their age. To put it bluntly, she had flirted her way into popularity.
The notes Reyn played began to clash, matching her mood perfectly. She hastily lifted her fingers from the keys, afraid she’d upset the baby once more, and turned to face Lisca. “For the first time, I purposefully drew attention to myself. I was more of a wallflower than anything back in Moial. I didn’t much care for the men interested in courting me, and I didn’t want my mother to start talking about weddings, so I never encouraged anyone. But in Vairain, I flirted. And I was good at it.”
Lisca chuckled. “I bet you were.”
Reyn stood up. “I was too good, though. I had never done anything like that in my life, and I had everyone in the palm of my hand.”
She had thrived on the attention. And though she had monitored the constant lies and intrigues from the edges of the royal court in Moial for years, she had never doubted that she was making genuine friends. Deep connections. Except the one connection she had thought the deepest turned out to be anything but.
Reyn took a deep breath. She didn’t need to detail that encounter. “When we reached Daalj, I noticed that even if I tried to discourage someone, they wouldn’t give up. And everyone thought I was inviting more physical interactions than I was. If I talked to a man, he assumed he could kiss me. If I kissed him, he assumed he could get under my skirts.”
“I hate to admit it,” Lisca said, “but your experience sounds fairly normal for a beautiful young woman at court. Or away from court, for that matter. What exactly has you seeking my advice?”
“Well, that’s just it. At first, I thought it was normal. So did Merine. But then I noticed that proximity played a role. When I was talking to someone, they couldn’t take their eyes off me, but if I was separated from them, but still within sight, they might ignore me. I know it still sounds like normal reactions, but it wasn’t. I swear. The difference in intensity was too much.” Reyn dropped back onto the bench in front of the pianoforte. “I think I might be part succubus. Andros even said he sometimes sensed a lure from me.”
Lisca frowned. “Is Prince Andros an empath? I hadn’t heard that.”
Reyn winced. Merine’s husband did not advertise his magic. Reyn didn’t even know exactly what kind he had, just that there was something. He was not an empath, though. She knew that much. “No, but he told Merine he can sense lures. He said he occasionally sensed a weak one from me.”
“Well, I sense nothing, but that might actually be because of my empathy.”
“What do you mean?” Reyn had thought for sure Lisca would be able to identify her lure if she had one.
“If Prince Andros is a sensitive, he would detect the use of magic, something I can’t do. When I sense Khiran’s lure, it is because the emotion feels a little different from my power. I can’t even sense his actual emotions under his lure. I do sense your emotions. But if your suspicions are correct and you have a very weak lure, I may not pick up the difference.”
