"Princess Ailadi of Morila," my mother said. "King Osrec and Queen Ralehari are the only ones who know we intend to name you heir. They are overjoyed at the prospect of their daughter as the future Queen of Catonia."
I frowned, sorting through faces and finding none to match the name. "I've never met her, so she must have been too young to attend the annual balls. How old is she?"
"She turns eighteen soon. Old enough to be a bride." My mother's smile turned soft and she seemed entirely too pleased with herself. "She has no paramour, and neither do you. So, you might actually marry for love, the two of you." She turned that smile on my father, and it changed, becoming warmer, flirtatious, the smile of a loving wife rather than a queen. "Like your father and me."
27
IDRILIA
“A bloodline is a gift.
A family is earned with love, loyalty, and sacrifice.”
—Elurian proverb
"Your sister is here, Your Highness," Ursa said from behind me. "I told her I'd see if you can receive her."
Cardilia never came to my suite of rooms unannounced or even announced for that matter. If she wanted to see me outside of the obligatory family dinners our mother insisted on, she sent me an invitation with her maid, and that didn't happen often either. My poor sister was forced to spend her days in court with our mother, learning how to be the future Queen of Tarina. Even my brother had to attend for at least several hours a week because he was Cardilia's stand-in. I was lucky to be the third child who could get away with doing whatever I wanted, more or less.
I turned around to tell Ursa that I would see my sister in a minute, just as Cardilia walked out into the garden, shielding her eyes with her hand against the glaring sun.
"I thought I would come over and see what all the fuss was about," she said.
My sister had never shown any interest in my work beyond the absolute minimum necessary to show that she knew what I was doing with my life, and it was usually done over dinner.
The flower was a pretext, but I didn't know for what. It wasn't as if we shared secrets or gossip or she needed my advice about anything.
Perhaps Mother had sent her?
That was possible. Maybe our mother thought that sensible Cardilia could talk some sense into her eccentric sister.
She crossed the distance, unconcerned about her beautiful gown dragging over the garden soil. As always, it was a shade of blue, the color of a winter morning, and edged with silver embroidery, our house colors. There was no need to wear those colors outside official duties but, given that my sister had to spend hours in court daily, which required formal attire, it made sense for her entire wardrobe to be made of varying shades of silver and blue.
"Is that the flower?" She crouched next to me and gazed at the Silver Princess, who sat behind her glass under the steady hum of the chiller.
"Yes," I said. "The most expensive nightlight in Tarina."
Cardilia tilted her head. "It's very dim. Unhealthy looking."
It was true, but I was nevertheless offended on the Silver Princess's behalf. "She's recovering. I wish you could have seen her in her native soil. When I found her, the petals blazed like captured starlight." I smoothed my hand over the glass, as if I could caress the delicate flower. "She nearly died on the way down the mountain, and for two weeks I thought she wasbeyond saving, but the chiller holds the cold steady, and she is slowly healing. Do you see this root?" I pointed. "It's new. Thread-thin, but it's reaching down into the substrate instead of groping at the air, which means she's not just surviving, she's actually establishing, or trying to. The trouble is the magnetism. She evolved on a mineral-veined slope, where the field strength is enormous, and she feeds on it. I can chill her perfectly, but I cannot give her that, so she may never bloom again, and she certainly won't set seed, which means I can't propagate her. I need to study her right where she grows, but the problem is finding her in the first place. She's extremely rare. The best place to look is on Elucia's side of the border, but I promised..."
I trailed off.
Cardilia's eyes had gone glassy and fixed, her polite smile frozen in place, and she was nodding at intervals that bore no relationship to anything I was saying.
I laughed. "Oh, Cardi. I'm boring you."
"No, no," she protested. "I'm listening."
"You stopped listening at 'recovering.'" I took her by the elbow and steered her away from the glass. "And you're sweating." I pointed at her upper lip where she was glistening. "Don't let Mother see you like that or she will demote you and announce Lotian as the crown prince."
She winced and wiped the sweat off with her finger. "Not funny, Idri. Not funny at all." She actually looked worried.
I frowned. "Did I just hit a nerve? Did you have a fight with Mother?"
"No, nothing of the sort." She let me lead her into my sitting room.
It was cooler inside, the shutters half drawn against the afternoon sun.
