A Dance of Shadows (The Royal Spares #3)

Chapter 50

Chapter Fifty

Lorenzo

W hen Aurelia brushes past me at our last stop before we reach Vivencia, I can tell from the stiffness of her stride that something’s wrong.

She pauses a couple of feet away from me, peering at the small-town pub some of the servants have been sent into for refreshments while the nobles relieve themselves one last time.

Her voice comes out in an urgent hush. “I need all of you. As soon as we’re back at the palace. In the room at the end of the passages. I just need to be sure he won’t know I’m gone.”

As I nod, she’s already striding onward with the new, more swaying gait brought on by her protruding belly. Then her words sink in.

What could have happened that she needs to talk to the three of us immediately, not even waiting for the evening when she can much more easily incapacitate Marclinus?

How in the realms am I going to fulfill the promise I just made?

In a matter of minutes, we’re called back to the carriages. I clutch the goblet of ale that somehow ended up in my hands and stare blankly into its amber depths while the marchions and marchionissas I’ve been stuck with today converse away.

If we want to ensure Marclinus doesn’t go into Aurelia’s chambers while she’s slipped away… we need him not to be in the palace at all. I can’t imagine any task within its walls that would guarantee he wouldn’t set it aside and call on her without warning.

The tremor of anguish that ran through her words spurs on my spinning thoughts. I can conjure a false summons… To somewhere far enough from the palace that it’ll take him away for quite some time… But I don’t want him to realize he was misled.

By the time we’re drawing through the gate around the palace estate a couple of hours later, a firm plan has come together in my mind. The impatience to enact it gnaws at me.

The moment I step out of the carriage, my gaze darts across the front courtyard in search of a member of staff I can target.

There—that stable hand in a cluster of figures tending to the horses and carting out luggage.

I project a voice as if from right behind her that only she will hear. “Quick—get a horse and ride to the Temple of Triumphant Spires. Tell the cleric that the emperor will be arriving and expecting to hear his evaluation of the city’s conduct in his absence.”

The stable hand startles and glances around, and one of the footmen behind her gives her a nudge to push her out of the way. That’s enough confirmation for the teen. She hurries off to the stable.

There’s another flurry of activity at the end of the convoy, various pages and footmen milling around the arriving nobles. I pick out a page in a particularly dense group and conjure another voice by his ear. “Find His Imperial Highness and tell him the cleric of the Temple of Triumphant Spires wishes to speak to him about the state of the city at once!”

As with my first target, the man jerks around with a flinch. But even though he can’t discern the order’s source, he takes it at face value. Setting his face with determination, he strides over to the front doors Marclinus has just disappeared through.

I stroll up the steps and through the entrance at a relaxed pace as if I’m enjoying the chance to stretch my legs after the long journey. I’m just ambling down the front hall when Marclinus comes marching back toward me with an irritated expression.

“Bring the imperial carriage back around!” he hollers to the nearest footman beyond the doors.

Relief unfurls through my chest. I was hoping that the dire omens Raul and I conjured to hurry the emperor home would also make him want all the local news in a hurry, and it appears I gambled right.

The temple of Creaden I’m sending him to lies toward the opposite end of the city. Even if he barely speaks to the cleric, I’ve bought us a couple of hours.

Aurelia has drifted to the far end of the hall to watch her husband depart. I offer a subtle signal that all’s now well. She tips her head without meeting my eyes.

Setting her hand on her rounded belly, she offers the nearby noblewomen a weary smile. “I think I’d better get some rest before our first feast back home. All that travel does take a lot out of a person.”

As she heads to her chambers, I veer toward mine. A few doorways away from my own bedroom, I duck into the unused one with its draped furniture.

Raul and Bastien straighten up at my entrance, their stances tensed with anticipation. I alerted them to Aurelia’s request with a hastily projected voice as soon as I was sure of my plan.

“Is he gone?” Raul asks, and grins at my nod. “Good work, Lore.” A somber cast darkens his face again. “Let’s find out what our empress needs.”

It only takes a few minutes to travel through the hidden passages to the abandoned room by the old servant entrance. In our months-long absence, a layer of dust has settled over the mismatched furnishings and the floor. As Raul flicks on the lantern we’ve left down here, Bastien breezes the dust away with a warble of his gift.

“It’s good to be back,” he says, but he can’t put all that much conviction into his words. The tight set of his mouth shows he’s as worried about Aurelia as I am.

To the benefit of all our sanity, she doesn’t keep us waiting long. Footsteps in her new, more awkward gait shuffle beyond the wall, punctuated by an unexpected mew . Raul’s eyebrows are already shooting upward when the panel slides open to reveal Aurelia with her striped cat tucked against her shoulder.

She gives us a wry smile that doesn’t quite reach her solemn eyes. “Sprite was very offended that I left her to the staff’s care for so long. I didn’t want to risk her yowling for me if I left again so soon.”

At the stroke of her fingers down its back, the cat butts its head against Aurelia’s ear and begins to purr. I can’t complain about its presence when it clearly adores our empress as much as we do.

The three of us move toward her as if drawn by a magnet. For the first time in weeks, we can envelop her without any fear of discovery.

I touch her cheek and draw her into a soft kiss, reveling in her nearness. Raul ruffles the cat’s fur with a chuckle and then slides his arm tight around Aurelia’s waist. Bastien slips his hand around her other arm and twines their fingers together.

A current of worry runs through the companionable warmth, as much as I wish we could relish this moment.

“What’s the matter, Rell?” I have to ask. “It sounded as if something’s gone wrong.”

The shakiness of her next breath sends alarm jangling through my limbs. Her jaw flexes as if she’s working to keep her voice even. “Linus laid into me this morning in the carriage. He’s known that Marc told me about their situation from the start. He said it’s all been a test to see if I’d turn on one of them… and I’ve failed by showing a preference for Marc.”

My heart lurches. On either side of me, my foster brothers go rigid.

“Right,” Raul says in a snarl. “Because why wouldn’t you be just as eager for more torment as for the one who doesn’t toss you into caves and graves?”

Aurelia shakes her head. “It doesn’t have to make sense. They’ve never cared much about fairness in the past, have they? But I don’t know what to do. He said… he said now that we’re home, they’re going to ‘destroy’ me, whatever exactly that means. I don’t think I’m safe as long as I’m in the same place as them. So either I leave, like we almost did before, or…”

Bastien stares at her. “Or we get rid of both of them. But—you haven’t had the baby yet— Without an heir?—”

She grimaces. “I know. So maybe the best thing is to run. The baby won’t matter if she doesn’t stop my husband from getting rid of me . And we’d have to act fast. At least for today, we have the small advantage that I don’t think Linus has had the chance to tell Marc he’s given up the game. Marc’s made a show of assuming that I’m truly devoted to him and the empire. Once he finds out I have no more reason to trust him, he won’t trust me at all.”

“Today.” Raul’s free hand clenches at his side. “How the fuck can we off the both of them in one day without getting caught?”

“I don’t know. If I go into hiding, there’s a chance I’ll be able to return later with the supposed heir and make a case then…” Aurelia glances around at us wide-eyed. “But if you come with me, you’ll be throwing your futures away.”

I break in with a jerk of my hand. No.

The other three gazes fix on me. My heart thumps hard in my chest, but I don’t even have to think about what I’m going to say. It’s as if I’ve known it forever.

“No matter what we do, we won’t be throwing anything away. Our fates are twined with yours, as they’re meant to be, before we get you on that throne and every day after. I’m never going back to Rione, not for good. However it works, whatever we have to do, we’re all staying here in Dariu like the family we are. We’ll rule this empire together.”

I meet Raul’s eyes and then Bastien’s, daring them to argue with me. Instead, I get a slow smile stretching Raul’s mouth.

Bastien blinks at me and then raises his chin with a short laugh. “Lore’s right. The trip we just made only proved that we can do so much more here than our childhood homes.” He squeezes Aurelia’s hand. “And I don’t want to leave you. Ever.”

“Gods know there’s nowhere I’d rather be than at your side, in the shadows or out in the open, however you need me.” Raul kisses her temple.

Their confirmation sends a surge of confidence through me. I am right. We’re all part of this mad scheme. It’s not just Aurelia’s plan anymore.

Someday ages from now, we’ll be in the history books as either the empire’s greatest traitors or its saviors—every one of us. And that thought doesn’t scare me the way it might have before.

A glimmer of an idea lights in my head. I balk instinctively, my mother’s chiding voice echoing from my memories.

You get too caught up in emotion, Lorenzo. How can you think clearly when it’s blurring your reason?

My conviction rings through those doubts. How can anyone think clearly about me when they barely know me?

Everything I feel hones my mind and my intentions. I’ve come up with solid strategies. I’ve gotten us on track.

I’m going to save the woman I love, because this love makes all of us stronger. It’s already toppled one emperor and planted a new heir in the imperial line.

The current emperor has claimed his place through his own sort of illusion. Unfortunately for him, I have plenty of experience with those.

Aurelia’s eyes have welled up. She blinks hard, with a chuckle that sounds a little choked. “We still don’t even know how I’m going to stay standing. With both Marc and Linus to contend with…”

“We don’t have to deal with both of them tonight,” I say.

She releases Bastien’s hand to swipe at the few tears that have seeped from her eyes and gives her cat a reassuring scratch of the chin. “What do you mean?”

“If we remove just one twin from the scenario, the other loses his advantage. He can’t complain about the loss without revealing the life-long deception. He’ll be thrown off-balance, and that’ll give us time to arrange a public ‘accident’ the way we always planned.”

Bastien studies me with increased intensity. “Who are you thinking we tackle first, then?”

“Aurelia pointed out that Marc won’t know she’s aware of the full deception yet. Before Linus switches places with him at the end of the night, we need to find a time for her to lure Marc out.”

I smile at her. “You have plenty of means of knocking a man out. And we have a whole network of passages where no one knows to look. We drag him down here, find out if he and Linus have been plotting anything else you should know about, and then dispose of him when we have the chance.”

Raul’s grin returns, fiercer than before. “We chop him into bits and toss him in the river.”

Aurelia’s gaze goes distant in thought. A little more color comes into her sallowed complexion. “I think that could work. If you can secret me into the emperor’s apartment?—”

Raul cracks his knuckles. “I can remove the barriers on the panel to his room, just like I did for yours.”

“Perfect. Then I can go in and call out to him while he’s in the hidden room. All I need is for him to come out to find out what’s wrong, and I can dose him with a sedative.” She rubs her sapphire ring.

Bastien has perked up too. “We’ll forge a note supposedly from him. Say he’s tired of switching off and has left seek his fortune elsewhere or something like that. So Linus won’t have any idea what really became of him.”

I can picture it already. “Linus will be so confused and overwhelmed by having all the responsibilities thrust on him, it won’t make any sense for him to attack Aurelia. He’s going to need her, at least at first. He’ll probably act out more in front of the court, but that will make orchestrating a believable accident even easier.”

The corner of Aurelia’s mouth has curved upward. “I’ve even gotten some ideas from my would-be assassins. Maybe a rock could fall on his head or he could get trampled by a horse.”

I caress her cheek again. “One step at a time, all the way to the throne. We’re going to make it happen.”

I’m setting an imperial homicide in motion, and I’ve never felt so sure of anything in my life.