Chapter Ten #3
Quinn opens her mouth to protest, but the woman gives her a withering glare. “Yes, your majesty.” Quinn bows in contrition.
Your majesty? There’s only one other person alive who merits that honorific. This must be the Dowager Queen Claudia of House Juni.
Ronan’s grandmother.
Queen Claudia glares at Adria from across the water. Adria bows as well and hastily walks back to the changing room, shooting a warning glare of her own at Quinn that says, “Don’t even think about following me.”
“It’s the fire in them,” says a voice from behind me. It’s Zara, the Guild Mistress of the Alchemists’ Guild, back at the palace again.
“Fire or not, there’s such a thing as manners,” says Queen Claudia. “You seem to have a better sense of that, from what I’ve heard.”
She gestures in my direction. Me? Someone must have been talking to her about me.
Ronan?
“Yes, your majesty,” I say. I can’t remember if I’m meant to bow to her, but the others did, so I do as well. I keep a tight grip on my towel; I feel exposed enough in front of these people without being literally naked.
“Are you enjoying your time in the palace?”
“Yes, ma’am. Very much so.”
“You see? This one has the grace to lie to keep the peace.” She smiles at me and looks me over, judging something. But she says nothing else. She’s still dripping as she walks back to the changing room with no towel.
With the dowager gone, Zara disrobes and enters the pool.
I hesitate. I have no love for the alchemists, but Larus did mention that it would be good to get to know her. Maybe I should join her.
“Do you know her?” I ask as I take a seat on an outcropping of rock that has been polished smooth by the water. “Quinn?”
She nods, moving closer to talk to me. Maybe she really is lonely. “For a few years now, since I was first invited to the palace after I joined the Guild.”
I know the question I want to ask her, but I’m not sure how it will be taken. “Are she and the king…well, are they together?”
Zara laughs. “Definitely not.” She leans in conspiratorially.
It looks like she wants to gossip, and I’m so glad.
“Quinn has been with just about everyone under fifty in the court, and I don’t think she plans to stop anytime soon.
Maybe they’ve slept together too, I don’t know. But I doubt it. He’s not the type.”
“What do you mean by that?” I have to ask. I try to appear disinterested, but I’m certain she sees through me.
I decide that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Rumors could fuel his interest in me, and if it gets back to him, that will also let me know something about whether Zara can be trusted.
“He’s not fire-born,” she says. “Whatever his habits are, he keeps them quiet. He doesn’t let many people get close enough to know.”
Everyone says that about him, but he let me be in a room alone with him after thinking about killing him.
Why?
Zara’s waiting for me to say something. “Kerensa save me from the fire-born,” I say. It’s a common saying in Nithyria.
Zara nods sagely. “A prayer truly worth praying.”
We chat for a time, mostly about how she came from Eki specifically to join the Guild and how it’s renowned around the world after the alchemy breakthrough.
“Of course, there are some issues here we didn’t have back home.”
“Like?”
She scratches her fingernails on the ledge of stone behind us, tension growing in her arms. “There are types of magic we aren’t allowed to research.”
“Aren’t allowed?” Who could possibly tell the head of the Guild what they can research? The Guild is on an equal footing with the temples within the church. I thought they governed themselves.
“What’s the Selaran saying? ‘Speak of Vahlo, and he appears’?
” she says, glancing at a group of men entering the room as we’re getting out of the water.
They aren’t the first men we’ve seen. It was difficult not to stare at first; I haven’t seen a man naked in some time, and some of the men at court are in excellent shape.
But the men who enter now are like gods, I can tell even from a distance. Perfectly chiseled bodies of pure muscle in shades of tan and brown. It’s a pity they’re wrapped in their towels, but maybe they’ll get in the water so I can have a better look.
I sigh in appreciation.
“He is very beautiful, isn’t he? Too bad he doesn’t deign to bathe with the rest of us. And too bad he’s…him,” says Zara, and I suddenly realize who they are.
It’s Ronan, walking with Taran and another guard I’ve seen before but don’t know by name. I hadn’t recognized them at this distance with their hair wet and slicked back.
Stupid sexy God-King. His body is literally as perfect as I imagined it. No, not imagined it. I didn’t imagine it; I just could fill in the blanks from the glimpses I got.
And the parts of it I felt when Soren touched me.
I feel the heat rising in my face again, and oh gods, I’m naked.
Zara drops a golden bangle on the ground as she puts it back on, and the clinking noise makes them turn.
Ronan spots me, and I want the ground to swallow me up and eat me. I try not to think about him looking at my body. I know I’m meant to seduce him, but not like this. I don’t want to be the vulnerable one. I wrap my towel around me as quickly as I can.
He's all the way across the cave so I can’t see him clearly, but I could swear he fucking winks.
I’m going to rip that eyeball right out of its socket.
“Slippery when wet,” says Zara, holding up her bangle to show it has returned safely to her wrist.
I smile. She seems genuine enough. Maybe she picked up on my “attraction” to the king and was trying to help me out as a friend.
Or maybe she has some other purpose in encouraging our relationship.
I’m feeling crazy again. This place is making me crazy. I don’t need to second-guess everything every single person does.
Or do I?