Nine
Walking into the Assembly event, Yslie thought she knew what to expect. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that gossip would spread between the Emperor’s court and the Assembly. She had focused so much on what Peroen thought when he learned that she could only see the past that she had forgotten Triese had spoken in front of more than just him.
“Why is everyone so wary of me?” Half an hour into the event, and it was obvious that the politicians were nervous around Yslie. They maintained a careful distance and made sure not to touch her even accidentally.
If it weren’t for Peroen’s steady presence at her side, she’d begin to fear she reeked of something rotten. Thank heavens Pianti had agreed they could show a united front this evening rather than forcing them to mingle separately. Though, she had advised them to make their alliance look more political than romantic.
“I told you seeing the past isn’t useless. They thought they were safe from you and the other oracles spying on them. Everyone’s heard the reports that looking into Pynth’s future offers no clarity at preset. Your people have told us that too much is in flux, especially now that an Assembly of hundreds makes the decisions instead of a single emperor.” Peroen reached out and squeezed her hand. The physical reassurance shouldn’t have meant so much to her, especially as it went directly against Pianti’s advice, but the naturalness of the act only made it mean more. “They can argue that any futures seen might not happen, but the past can’t be changed.”
“Exactly. It can’t be changed, so what good is my power?”
“Ignore Triese’s voice in your head, Yslie,” Peroen said gently. “You can see what anyone in this room has been up to. How many secrets do you think each politician is hiding?”
Yslie wanted to respond that she was not a spy, that she didn’t look into people’s pasts for no reason, but their window of isolation had come to an end.
Brevin made his way directly to them, showing none of the hesitation most others had when they saw Yslie that evening. He bowed deeply to Peroen, and almost as deeply to her. “I am so glad you joined us this evening, dyela . I am even more overjoyed to see you again, Yslie.”
At her side, Peroen went stiff. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
Yslie opened her mouth to make the introduction, but Brevin was already talking. “That’s because apart from glaring at me when I spoke to Yslie, you purposefully avoided me last time. Don’t worry, I completely understand. I wouldn’t want to see me talking to her if I were you, either. That’s why I came over now, while you are with her. I didn’t want you to worry that I might steal her affections.”
Peroen scowled. “I trust Yslie.”
Brevin grinned. “But you still don’t want to see an incubus flirting with her.”
If she didn’t intervene, Yslie suspected the conversation would continue in a similar vein for some time. “If you didn’t want to antagonize Peroen, then why did you come over?”
“To make a decision. I might have a reputation for working for whoever will pay, but some money isn’t worth accepting. Normally, I’d say no and move on. But I don’t feel right ignoring the request I received two afternoons ago. Some things”—he looked pointedly at how closely Peroen and Yslie stood—“shouldn’t be interfered with.”
Then, despite his words, he reached out and claimed Yslie’s hands in his own. The look he gave her was full of meaning, if she could decipher it. For a single heartbeat, she looked at him in confusion, then she realized he had deliberately mentioned when he received the request he didn’t want to ignore. Touching her hands was because Brevin assumed the same as many others—that she needed contact to scan his past.
Yslie closed her eyes and sank into Brevin’s past. She let her power drag her back two afternoons, then watched him turn down a job. Her eyes popped open. “It seems we owe you a favor.”
Brevin let go. “Don’t let them win, and I’ll consider the debt repaid.”
???
Peroen struggled not to slap the incubus’s hands away from Yslie. He understood what was going on, but he still didn’t like seeing another man touching her. It was irrational, yet nothing he told himself was going to suppress the urge. If Yslie had touched Brevin, instead of the other way around, it would have been better. As he had said, he trusted Yslie. He didn’t trust the incubus.
After what felt like far too long, but had probably been less than a minute, Yslie thanked him and he walked away.
“Why do we owe him a favor?” Peroen grumbled.
“Because he gave us valuable information. It sounds like at least one faction isn’t confident that the Assembly will vote to make your selection of a bride for you, so they’re laying other plans.” Yslie looked around, and when she was sure they wouldn’t be overheard, she continued. “Someone tried to hire Brevin to influence you to pick Odela. I know I’ve seen the man who offered him the job before, but I didn’t catch his name. Let’s move around and see if I can spot him.”
They moved through the gathering, stopping occasionally to talk to more Assembly members and continue their original campaign. Not only was it not a given that the Assembly wouldn’t take away Peroen’s choice, he wanted people to see Yslie and talk to her. Once they met her, their fears about her powers lessened, even if nothing but a completely clean conscience—impossible to find among politicians, it seemed—would allay them completely. Moreover, no one could speak to Yslie for long and not recognize how much she cared about Pynth.
The evening wore on, and Yslie never spotted the man who had tried to hire the incubus. She was frustrated when they left. “I know I’ve seen him before. But I suppose not everyone who attended the first event was present tonight.”
“We’ll have more opportunities,” Peroen pointed out. He wrapped his hand around hers now that they had left. “Pianti is securing us invitations to all the most influential gatherings.”
Yslie chuckled. “Your enthusiasm is overwhelming.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t tell me you actually enjoyed tonight?”
“The double-speak and maneuvering? No. Spending hours at your side? Yes.” She shrugged. “Besides, it was better than an evening at court.”
Yslie abruptly stopped walking. Peroen felt the tug on his hand as he took a step without her and turned back. “What’s wrong?”
“Court,” she exclaimed. “That’s where I saw him. The man who tried to hire Brevin is one of the courtiers who flocks around Triese.”
“But he was hiring someone to make me choose Odela?”
“Well, I saw him with Triese early on. I typically avoid her, though, so maybe he changed his allegiance.”
They started walking again. Peroen tried to remember which courtiers had been present when Triese told him about Yslie’s power. “Describe him to me. Maybe I’ll recognize him.”
“Early thirties, tall, brown hair.”
Peroen waited, but she didn’t add anything else. “That’s all?”
“I’d recognize him if I saw him, but I don’t know how else to describe him.”
“What shade of brown is his hair? Narrow lips or full?” Peroen shook his head. “When we get back to the palace, I’ll work on a sketch and you can tell me what needs to change.”
“Or I could point him out at supper tomorrow night.”
“I want to send a note to Pianti first thing tomorrow about what we learned. She’ll want to know who it was.”
They made their way back to the palace and Peroen showed Yslie a side door that let them in close to his room. She said nothing when he led her there, though she blushed a brilliant crimson when she picked up a few of the cushions they had left scattered around and moved them next to the table.
There were already supplies for sketching strewn over the table’s surface. Peroen searched for a blank piece of paper.
“Peroen?” Yslie reached for one of the drawings mixed in with the other supplies. “What is this?”
His cheeks warmed. “A sketch.”
She picked through the papers, pulling out all the sketches he had refused to show her during their portrait sessions. The ones he had claimed weren’t good enough to share.
“This is not Triese.” She pointed at a simple charcoal drawing of a woman in the traditional goddess pose.
“I never wanted to worship Triese. It felt good to draw you as a goddess instead of her.”
“How many sketches of me do you have?”
“That’s all of them,” he said, not quite meeting her eyes.
She wasn’t fooled. “You’ve drawn something more than a sketch, haven’t you?”
“I might have spent several afternoons working on a painting of you.” He looked up. “You were the only oracle I actually wanted to paint.”
She blushed. “How annoyed were you when I refused to pose?”
“Not annoyed. But disappointed.” He held up a hand, forestalling any apology she might give. “And also, not. I enjoy how we spend our time together.”
She pursed her lips, turning over his words, then nodded. “Me too.” Then she speared him with a look. “I want to see the painting.”
“Not until it’s done.” He’d deny her nothing, but strategic delays were only sensible.
She narrowed her eyes, and he thought she’d argue. After a long moment, she shrugged, instead. “Fine, but I’m still not posing for you. I want to see how you imagine me.”
“As long as you remember that I am a mere mortal. No matter how much I try, my art will never come close to capturing all your beauty.”
“Peroen!”
He leaned over and kissed her. “What? It is the simple truth. You are beautiful in a way that transcends lines and colors, shadows and light. Your beauty is because of who you are, not just how you look.” While she blushed, he pulled out a length of charcoal. “Now describe the man to me again. Start with the shape of his face.”
???
“Are you certain it was Marsone?” For a woman who’d had hours to come to terms with the information, Pianti still sounded shocked by Yslie’s report of what she had seen in Brevin’s past.
Peroen had explained it all in a note he sent early that morning, but he hadn’t been surprised that she wanted to meet that afternoon and go over it all again. They sat in the courtyard, a space that was much more comfortable now that it wasn’t set up as a miniature throne room. Peroen and Yslie sat together on one side of a table that held goblets and several pitchers filled with juice, Pianti and Qilar on the other side.
“We ventured out among the courtiers before coming here,” he told Pianti. “The man Yslie saw was definitely Marsone.”
He understood her worry. Marsone was one of his father’s favorite sycophants. Either the Emperor favored Odela for reasons of his own, or he was working with a large faction of the humans in the Assembly. Peroen found it difficult to believe that any Assembly members would willingly align themselves with the tyrant they had wrested power from, but not impossible.
“Has Envaho finally realized that the responsibilities he gave up are directly tied to the privileges he demands?” Qilar’s hand moved toward his hip, as if he’d grab the hilt of a scimitar he no longer wore.
“Envaho?” Yslie asked.
“My father’s name.” Peroen said. “Something Qilar might be the only person to have used in the past decade.”
“Calling him ‘the Emperor’ makes him sound invulnerable.” Qilar raised a brow. “He is a man with a fancy chair in a large house, nothing more.”
“And we need to keep it that way,” Pianti added. She turned to Yslie. “Could you tell if Marsone was aligned with a faction in what you saw?”
She closed her eyes and Peroen wondered if she was remembering the vision, or if she could revisit it at will now that she had seen it once. “He said ‘we’ a lot, but that could just mean him and the Emperor.” She opened her eyes. “Nothing I saw makes it clear one way or the other. What I want to know, though, is why Odela? From what I saw at court, Marsone favors Triese. Even today, when Peroen and I walked past to double check that the man I had seen was Marsone, he was with Triese. Is he spying on the competition?”
“Unlikely,” Pianti answered. “I’m not surprised he gravitated toward Triese. He probably spends time with her for his own amusement, but doesn’t care if she becomes empress. Whatever is going on with Odela is separate. Marsone is a tool in Envaho’s hand.”
“Why would anyone in the Assembly work with Father?” Peroen didn’t have Pianti’s extensive knowledge of both the court and the Assembly, but he knew enough. “They don’t share any goals.”
“They might not be working with him.” Pianti tapped her index finger against the tabletop. She repeated a simple rhythm three times before her hand stilled. “Odela has spent time both at court and among Assembly members. She would have tailored her approach to each group to gain their support. Unfortunately, I no longer have many contacts at court, so I don’t know what she’s told Envaho.”
“What about the Assembly?” Yslie asked.
Pianti sighed. “I’m missing something there, too. I had thought she had posed herself as the only oracle interested in politics, gaining support mostly because the rest of you hadn’t approached the Assembly members. But if that were the case, after meeting you all, more factions should have shown signs of supporting Triese, because she’d be easily manipulated, or Sophenie, because she’d ignore them.”
Peroen frowned. “Or Yslie, because she cares about what is right.”
“The magical races do support Yslie.” Qilar inclined his head in her direction. “You impressed them.”
“But the humans have united behind Odela beyond their normal factions.” The tap-tap-tapping resumed. “I haven’t been able to figure out why.”
And that bothered her, Peroen could tell. Not because she didn’t know, though he was certain she wasn’t happy about that, but more worrisome was the fact that she couldn’t find the answer. For so many people to keep a secret should have been impossible.