My father waved a hand. "That is your mother's department. She handles the marriage negotiations. Talk to her."
I arched a brow. "You just told me she isn't well and that I shouldn't upset her."
"This won't upset her." He picked his pen back up, indicating that the audience was over. "Tell her your plan for Arlen. It will give her hope."
35
KAILIN
I keep Alar's only letter in my pocket at all times like a talisman. The paper is starting to fray at the edges, and some of the writing is smudged where my tears fell, but it's the only piece of him I've gotten since he left, and I cherish it.
—From the journal of Kailin Strom
"Today is the day," Shovia said across the table from me.
"The day for what?" I asked.
"For a new letter from your paramour."
I grimaced. "I hate that word. Please don't use it when talking about the man I love. And why do you think a letter will arrive today? Did you suddenly discover a new secret clairvoyant ability?"
"Nope." She took a bite out of a piece of bread. "It's simple deduction," she said after she finished chewing. "It has beenalmost a month since he left. Two weeks on the road to get home, one day to sit down and write a letter using his and Codric's cipher, and two weeks for the letter to get here."
As if I hadn't been doing the same math. "According to this calculation, the first letter will arrive five days from now."
"Unless Alar took less than two weeks to get to Catonia," Codric said. "He could have shaved off a few days by pushing for longer days and shorter stops. Knowing my cousin, that's exactly what he did."
When a knock sounded at the door, Shovia arched a brow at me. "Told you. Mail is here."
Lunchtime was when mail was delivered in the officers' wing.
Morek pushed from the table. "I'll get it."
My heart was thundering in my chest while I waited for him to finish chatting with the guy at the door and tell us what was delivered.
"Thank you," he finally said and closed the door. "Shovia was right," he said as he walked toward me. "A letter from Alar, addressed to his friends."
Addressing it that way meant that he was keeping me a secret from his parents. I was a little disappointed, or a lot, that it wasn't addressed to the love of his life, or even just my name.
Morek handed me the fancy envelope with the Catonian emblem.
"Why are you giving it to me? It's addressed to all of us."
Morek shrugged. "Because you deserve to open it first and see if there is anything in there that needs to remain private. He might have put all of us on the envelope to fool those who scrutinize his mail in Catonia. Inside, he might have written personal things."
My stupid heart leaped with hope. I needed Alar to tell me that he missed me so badly he couldn't sleep at night because he kept thinking about me.
I opened the envelope and pulled out the two folded pieces of paper that were inside. The writing was illegible.
"It's written in cipher." I handed the pages to Codric. "You'll have to read it to us."
"Give me a moment. I can't read it cold. I have to write it out." Codric got up and went to his and Shovia's room.
He returned with a stack of papers and a pencil, and while he worked, some of the old animation came back into his face. His lips moved as he scratched out letters, frowned, corrected them, and the rest of us watched him.
Alar's first letter, the one I kept folded in my pocket and carried with me everywhere I went, had come in plain hand because he'd had nothing to hide, and he hadn't mailed it from the palace, where every letter was read before it was allowed to leave.
Finally, we might learn the real reason he'd been called back home.
