Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Aurelia
“ I t’s lucky your visit coincided with Ardonelia,” Queen Anahi says, sweeping her arm toward the terrain before us. “We consider this spot Santia’s most spectacular vantage point, and it’s most splendid at festival time.”
I can’t argue with her assessment. The Rionian royals led our small court on a short hike along the crest of the hill where the capital is nestled. Here on the plateau at the highest point, the entire city sprawls before us, stretching out toward the sea.
In the fading daylight of the early evening, the colors of the godlen of love and beauty splash across the white-washed buildings and sparkling waters. The setting sun has streaked both sky and sea magenta mixed with rosy pink. Enchanted globes glow with similar hues where they float in the city streets and squares below us. Pink banners wave in the warm breeze.
The clamor of joyful voices we left behind can’t reach us at this high vantage point, but faint strains of the festival’s music—romantic odes to Ardone and pulsing beats designed to stir feet to dance—drift up. The whole vista is such a sea of passionate light and color I could almost believe nothing exists before us except love.
Until I glance in the other direction. On the far side of the rocky arm that embraces the city’s bay, nothing but verdant wilderness stretches as far as the eye can see—except for the gray stone walls of a hulking Darium fort that protrudes amid the vegetation. A single pink lantern hangs on its highest tower in honor of the godlen this day is dedicated to, but otherwise there’s no sign of revelry there.
That fort must be the primary base the Darium forces use to maintain control over Santia—and thus the entire country. The dwindling sunlight catches on the imprints of white bones painted on the otherwise black uniforms of a few officers who’re moving along the outer wall.
My stomach tightens. Summoning a smile, I turn to my husband beside me. “It’s too bad we can’t bring these wonders to the rest of the empire. The whole continent holds so much beauty that few get to experience.”
Marc slips his hand around my arm far more gently than his twin would have. “I can only imagine the beauty would quickly be ruined if every interested party started tramping through. But I am glad to be among those lucky few.”
I stroke my fingers over his in a brief caress. “And I’m glad to be able to enjoy it with you.”
I don’t want to lay on my affection too thick. Marc may value me more than his brother does, but he’s also the more strategic of the two. He might be the first to question my motives if my demeanor shifts too much all at once.
But the more he thinks I’m truly falling for him, becoming even more enamored when faced with Linus’s awful treatment in contrast, the more his trust in me will grow. And hopefully I can stir more tender feelings in him as well, not just for the child I’m carrying but also me in my own right.
The more he cares, the more he’ll want to protect me from his twin—whatever it requires, whether I agree to help him or not.
Marc gives my arm a soft squeeze. “There’s much of even Dariu you haven’t gotten to see yet. We’ll have to tour more of the country when there’s time.”
I beam at him. “I look forward to it.”
As the staff who joined us on this venture begin setting up the equipment for the festival’s grand finale, someone clears his throat right behind us. Marclinus and I turn to find one of Lorenzo’s cousins—Gaspar, I draw up from my memory—dipping into a respectful bow.
“Your Imperial Majesty, I was hoping to get your input on how my family and the people of our estate might better help the local imperial forces. We’re situated not far from one of the forts. I can’t help feeling we should be able to do more.”
Marc’s gaze remains its usual cool gray, but he inclines his head in acknowledgment. “If you can, I’d certainly like to arrange it.”
Gaspar starts to stroll along the hill-top courtyard, leading Marc to walk alongside him. “My first consideration would be the food supply. We can definitely…”
His voice fades from my hearing as the two men leave me behind. I stifle a grin and resist the urge to glance across the plateau at Lorenzo.
He’s been doing his part, nudging his family to divert my husband when they can. Which gives me the chance to approach the most vital parts of that family on my own.
I meander over to where Queen Anahi is now standing with her daughter by the low wall that surrounds the high courtyard. Their conversation peters out at my arrival.
I offer them a polite smile and cast my gaze toward the scenery on both sides of us. “Thank you for including us in this part of the festival. I appreciate getting to see the wilder side of Rione as well as the city’s grandeur. A country is so much more than its buildings.”
The queen’s answering smile stays equally mild. “That’s very true. I understand your home country has some imposing terrain of its own.”
I give a light laugh, the memory of Accasy’s towering forests and grand mountains sending a pang of homesickness through my heart. “It does indeed.”
With a surreptitious glance around, I confirm that none of the dozen guards who’ve accompanied us on our outing are standing close enough to overhear. Then I tip my head subtly toward the fortress down the slope. “It must be a little suffocating sometimes, having armed representatives of the empire watching over you so closely.”
As her daughter’s stance tenses, Queen Anahi’s gaze goes even more distant. She’s suppressing her actual feelings, of course.
“We have no complaints,” she says. “They ensure our security as well as that of the entire empire.”
“You have your own soldiers, who I’m sure you’ve chosen for their loyalty.” I’ve seen several of them in the royal colors of sky-blue and silvery gray stationed around the palace. “It’s been long enough since there was any trouble here that I’d imagine you don’t need quite the same level of extra help. I was thinking of suggesting as much to my husband.”
Lorenzo mentioned that his mother was skeptical of my intentions. I’m hoping that this overture might offer a little proof that I’m not out to tyrannize her people.
To my surprise, Queen Anahi’s mouth twists with what looks like genuine discomfort. “I think we have an excellent balance now, actually. Better to be sure there isn’t more trouble in the future. We wouldn’t want to disturb the empire.”
Is she only saying what she thinks I’d want to hear?
I knit my brow. “The empire functions best when we all trust each other to rule our own people as much as we can. I assure you, I have no doubts that you’ll conduct yourselves well.”
It’s a vague enough statement that it couldn’t be seen as treasonous. Let her recognize the gesture of good-will I mean it as.
The queen studies me for a moment. I think I see something soften in her gaze, but then she simply draws her posture a little straighter. “Then please trust that when I say we prefer the current level of oversight, I do mean that. The governing of a country can be quite complex. It may be difficult to recognize all the elements in a few days. But I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”
She eases to the side just as Marc strides over to rejoin me. Princess Leonor shoots me a quick if tight smile before following her mother.
My husband nods to them in bland acknowledgment. “Is it almost time for the display?”
Queen Anahi motions to the apparatus her staff have set up. “Everything is prepared, but we wait until the sun has completely set for the best effect. It should only be a few more minutes now.”
The last haze of light gradually fades from the sky. As the queen signals for the staff to get started, I tuck myself closer to Marc with my hand around his arm, shoving down the pang of longing to be with my princes instead.
Bianca sashays over at my other side and glances at both me and Marc through her eyelashes. “My husband is being dreary at the moment. I thought I’d enjoy the rest of the sights with better company.”
Marc chuckles, and I offer her a companionable if cautious grin. If she needs to escape Ennius, that’s one scheme I’m more than happy to help with.
“I gather this should be quite an impressive sight,” I say to her, just as the first enchanted projectile hurtles from the apparatus with a pop and a sizzle.
For the first few seconds, I can’t see anything, only hear that slight hiss as the ball hurtles up toward the sky. Then it crackles apart in a shower of light, as if pink stars are raining down on us from above.
The Rionian staff launch another and another of the projectiles into the sky. The magic imbued in them guides some of the bursts of light into the shapes of Ardone’s sacred symbols. Glittering roses bloom among the actual stars. Salmon leap into the distance. Swans glide over the city with flares of their broad wings.
As I crane my neck to take in every detail of the display, a wave of dizziness passes through my awe. My head goes momentarily fuzzy, as if my thoughts are whirling like the lights above.
What am I supposed to make of Queen Anahi’s remarks? Was she trying to convey some subtle message, or did she mean exactly what she said?
Why would she ever want more Darium soldiers around rather than fewer?
I can’t piece that puzzle together, and I’m not sure whether it’s because of the fog of fatigue that periodically grips my mind or because she didn’t make any sense at all.
My grip on Marc’s arm tightens instinctively to keep my balance. As applause ripples through the courtyard with the last of the projectiles, my husband glances down at me.
“It appears the show is over. Shall we make our return? It’s rather late and still a fair hike back to the palace—it wouldn’t do for you to get overtired.”
My gaze darts to the royal family, but I can’t imagine how I’m going to make any further progress with the queen tonight. And Marc will like feeling I appreciate his concern.
I lean against him. “Yes, I think I’d like to be off my feet before much longer.”
As the staff pack up their equipment, word passes through the crowd of nobles and the soldiers standing guard around us. More staff light lanterns to guide our passage. With a few of the imperial soldiers taking the lead, our procession heads along the broad path cut into the rocky hillside.
The route is wide enough for three to walk comfortably abreast. Bianca keeps pace with us, still peering up at the sky. “They do know how to honor a godlen here. Although with such gorgeous landscapes, perhaps Ardone considers the whole country a notch in her belt.”
Marc makes a chiding sound. “Dariu has plenty of natural splendor of its own.”
“Hmm, in many places, to be sure, but I can’t say the estate of my birth or of my marriage would provoke much awe.” Bianca gives me a light nudge. “Why do you think I spend so much time at court?”
I can’t help smiling at her teasing tone. “Ardone leaves her blessings in more modest ways as well, you know.” I point to a patch of thin, pale leaves dotted with pink bell-like flowers, turned yellowish by the lanternlight. “A tea from those blooms encourages blood flow, which brightens the complexion… among other more vital concerns.”
“Ah, excellent—a medic empress and a beauty advisor.” The vicerine winks at me and points out a shrub we’re just passing. “Does that one have any special qualities?”
“It’ll give you the runs if you eat any part of it.”
Bianca snorts and turns the conversation into a sort of game, indicating various plants we pass and seeing what I have to say about them. Some of the Rionian vegetation I don’t know from my studies, but I recognize enough to keep her entertained.
Marc listens along watchfully, interjecting an occasional comment but seeming most happy to listen to me share my knowledge, which feels like a victory in itself. It’s good for him to remember there’s at least one area in which I’m more of an expert than he is.
The path slants downward to circumnavigate a particularly craggy portion of the hill’s crest, which juts above us in a shallow arc. The lanternlight stretches our shadows long across the looming rocky surface.
A slightly cooler wind sweeps beneath the arc, and I inhale deeply with a loosening of my lungs. Bianca tips her face toward the outcropping as if amused by watching our elongated silhouettes.
A faint cracking sound reaches my ears. That’s all I have time to register before Bianca yelps and shoves me to the side.
I collide with Marc just as a chunk of rock as big as my head plummets from the crest—right where my head was just an instant ago. It slams into Bianca’s shoulder.
She stumbles farther into me, another, thinner yelp seeping from her lips. Blood springs from the wound gouged into her upper arm.
My legs stiffen in the midst of a sudden chaos of hollering voices and swinging lanterns. My guards look me over while Marc’s hands rest protectively on my waist. The other soldiers churn through our small crowd, scanning the curving outcropping for any further signs of danger.
My heart thumps on, loud enough to echo through my skull. If Bianca hadn’t pushed me out of the way, that rock could easily have killed me. Even my guards didn’t recognize the threat in time.
She saved my life. And she risked her own to do it. She could have died.
A tiny regret unfurls inside me that she didn’t yank me in the other direction, and maybe Marc would have followed and met his own doom. That wouldn’t have fixed my problems anyway—actually, it might have compounded them, given that then I’d be left to my own devices against his more brutal twin.
A flare of scarlet yanks my thoughts back to the present. More blood is streaming down Bianca’s arm to dapple her bright purple dress.
I grab her and press my hand against the gaping wound, doing my best to staunch the bleeding. My pulse hammers faster. I don’t have any bandages—there isn’t even dried seaweed here.
My voice sounds strained when I raise it. “Is there a medic nearby? Vicerine Bianca needs attention.” Far more than I do, thanks to her.
Bianca sways slightly in my grasp, blinking at me. Her own remark comes out a little dazed. “I promise I didn’t do that for the attention.”
The statement is so absurd I sputter a guffaw. “It was rather mad. You’ve ruined your gown.”
Another absurd statement, but it gets a laugh out of Bianca, even as more of the color fades from her smooth brown cheeks. “Better to lose a gown than our empress. Should I have some of those pretty flowers you showed us or would that make more blood flow out?”
A couple of the soldiers have hustled over. One wraps a cloth bandage around Bianca’s wound while the other hovers her hands over the spot. “I have a minor healing gift. It won’t stem the bleeding for long, but it’ll help you get to the proper medics in time.”
As they rush Bianca toward the palace ahead of the rest of us, my hand now stained with her blood falls to my side. Marc catches it before I can smear crimson across my own gown.
My husband looks down at my red-streaked palm and then the rock lying in our path. His gaze turns outright chilly as it sweeps over the nobles around us. “What a strange coincidence that such a horrible accident happened just as we were walking by. If rock falls are so common along this path, surely you should have warned us, Queen Anahi?”
The queen steps forward, her eyes wide enough that I think she was equally startled by the near-catastrophe. “I assure you they’re not common at all. You have my immense apologies. If I’d had any reason to fear for you or your wife’s safety?—”
Marc’s head jerks away from her as if he’s disinterested in hearing any more of her reassurance. He scans our companions again in the hazy lanternlight before glancing at one of his guards. “You didn’t mention any unexpected magic.”
The man at his side shakes his head. “Nothing nearby. But if someone targeted the rock itself, I might not have sensed it at that distance.”
“Next time, you should all act faster,” Marc snaps, narrowing his eyes at our host of soldiers. He eases closer to me. “My wife and I will make our way back to the palace with only our personal guards. The rest of you may follow well behind. And if there are any further incidents, you can be sure my punishment will be swift and unpleasant.”
As he swivels on his heel, bringing me with him, I manage to catch Raul’s gaze amid our gathering. With a hasty gesture, he conveys that he didn’t see anything amiss.
Perhaps it was just an awful coincidence.
While my husband guides me onward in the midst of a tighter ring of guards, my pulse starts to even out. The accident has played into my own plans. Marc is feeling even more protective of me.
And the incident revealed that when push comes to shove, the woman I was hesitant to consider a friend cares more about my well-being than even her own. I never would have guessed.
If I can count Bianca as a true ally, that’s a victory in itself. Because if someone among us is looking to eliminate me, I’m going to need as many of those as I can get.