2. Rahzlyn #2
“Don’t answer,” I insisted, hardly in the mood to appease the baroness of Dioscuri and its surrounding towns. “She’ll go away eventually.”
“We can’t ignore the baroness. She may not be a Chosen, but she answers to King Zephyr. A slight to her is a slight to him—who is a Chosen—and therefore a slight to the Astrals. Do well to remember that,” she said before unlatching the door. “Hurry and go make yourself look presentable.”
I tiptoed in retreat, nearing the staircase right as the baroness burst in with several guards dressed in Gemini’s bright yellow uniforms. Nausea roiled low in my stomach when I spotted the baroness’s son, Jere, grinning smugly at me.
“My darling Iris!” the baroness exclaimed. “I am so glad you are open today.”
“We aren’t, actually,” I called from beside the banister. “Gemini’s Tempus ends tomorrow. We’re not a tavern or brothel, open throughout the season.”
The baroness slowed her movements. Nahn nervously patted the baroness’s yellow gown dry. Her guards wore the Zodiacal symbol of Gemini crested into their golden chest plates: two vertical lines between two curved horizontal ones. Their stares hardened on me.
I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at the annoyingly serious brutes. I couldn’t imagine being followed everywhere by anyone like them.
“Hello, Roselyn,” Baroness Jacostah greeted me stiffly.
“It’s Rahzlyn.” I returned her greeting with an equally tight smile.
“Right.” Her tone was nothing short of mocking.
Nahn’s exasperated face each time I’d mispronounced my name brought me unparalleled glee as a child. Somewhere between youth and adulthood, the name stuck for me. It became a defiance to the woman my grandmother pretended I was, and a haven for who I wanted to be.
Whenever I tried to explain the name’s significance, I was met with arched brows and rolled eyes.
“Well.” The baroness inspected me. “You’re awfully muddy this morning, Roselyn.”
“She looks delectable, as always,” Jere said, appraising me with lustful eyes that made my skin crawl.
His brown hair was slicked back by a gel not even the rain could tarnish. Most found him handsome, but his vulgar entitlement repelled me.
“How kind of you to notice, Baroness.” I curtsied, ignoring her son. “Surely you didn’t come here simply to remark on my appearance?”
The baroness’s mouth parted in shock. Nahn stepped between us. “Of course not. Have a seat, the both of you, and I’ll brew some tea for us while my granddaughter tidies herself.”
“She can stay,” Jere barked.
Nahn straightened. “She’s hardly dressed appropriately—”
“I quite enjoy her wildness.” He grinned, his smugness grating my insides. “I command her to stay. I have a fondness for taming creatures. We recently acquired a Hippogriff breeding farm—”
“To what do we owe the pleasure of your arrival today?” I asked tightly, desperate to change the subject. I sat beside the fire, draping a nearby blanket over my lap. “With it being Tempus still, we were expecting to celebrate as a family.”
A lie, of course. We hadn’t formally honored Tempus since Pahn got sick years ago. It wasn’t that we no longer believed in Gemini or the other Astrals; we’d simply lost faith since Pahn’s illness took over.
Each of Gaianos’s twelve territories had their own Tempus, the sacred month-long period in which the sun passed through each territory’s constellation.
It was a time to recognize the natal days of each territory’s inhabitants and worship their respective Astral.
Most establishments—save for public ale houses and taverns and the like—closed for the celebrations.
Cancer’s Tempus would begin tomorrow, marking the end of Gemini’s. The start of Tempus was often met with quieter reflections and peaceful ceremonies; the end brought mass celebrations and festivities across the kingdom.
“I have some news I wanted to share with you, Iris,” the baroness gushed.
Nahn secured a pot of water in the hearth for boiling. “Does it have to do with the upcoming ceremonial trial for that new Scorpion princess?”
My grandmother always was a gossip fiend.
“None of the other royals are planning to attend again. If King Zephyr isn’t, then I most certainly am not. You couldn’t pay me a thousand travel stones to step foot on those cursed Scorpion skylands. Especially with the apostai out of control there.”
“Yes, but a royal not attending another royal’s coronation?” Nahn wondered. “Is that allowed?”
“It’s not in the Treaty, though it certainly is bad form.
Last we went was nearly ten years ago with the previous Geminian king.
We traveled thousands of miles to watch a woman drown.
That cursed queendom is so far out of balance that not even the Cancerian or Piscean queens are strong enough to help end their drought. ”
“Indeed,” Nahn said quietly. “I have heard awful things about the curse. I couldn’t imagine a drought lasting nearly twelve years. All those lands and waters dried up, and those poor people—”
“Yes, those poor barons.” The baroness sighed. “Elected into their positions, only to be stuck with impoverished, starving cities to oversee.”
My hands clenched beneath the blanket.
“Yes, yes,” Nahn agreed. As if sensing I was about to blurt something in defiance, she cast a warning look at me. “The apostai have gotten out of hand there.”
“Every Scorpion I have ever encountered has been manipulative and vengeful. If any queendom deserved such a curse, it’s Scorpio,” she prattled on.
While Scorpio was thousands of miles away on the other side of the Equator, many were too afraid to speak of the cursed queendom and its violent inhabitants.
Even for those rich enough to afford travel stones, a ban on travel to the cursed queendom had been enacted for the last twelve years due to safety concerns and civil unrest.
“I hope that wretched curse doesn’t make its way into our kingdom the way the apostai have started to,” the baroness fretted.
“Not all rebels are bad, Mother.”
“Jere!” she scolded. “You mustn’t say such things. Gemini has blessed our family; we should not give him a reason to curse us.”
“King Zephyr may be young, but he is strong and healthy and wields his air magic plentifully,” Nahn assured her. “Look at this storm we have today.”
Desperate to escape this conversation, as well as Jere’s blatant leers, I gathered the blanket in my lap. “I should probably go check on Pahn.” It was best to keep him secluded and idly occupied, otherwise we risked triggering one of his fits.
“Nonsense,” the baroness said as Nahn poured steaming water into her teacup. “You are the purpose for our visit.”
Jere’s grin widened.
“Me?” I questioned suspiciously. “What could I possibly—”
“You’re a grown woman. You’ve proven yourself incapable of doing anything noteworthy in your life. It’s time you take a husband.”
Nahn’s teacup clattered against the tiny plate in her hands. “Baroness—”
“Simply Jacostah, Iris, I insist. You’ve been treating my condition for years and have kept it discreet, as I’ve asked you to.”
“Jacostah,” Nahn amended. “Roselyn is my granddaughter. I will decide what is best for her.”
“She is beautiful, no doubt, and it is no surprise that my son has taken quite a liking to her.”
I glared at Jere as his grimy lips tugged into a wide, knowing smile.
“Plenty of others have too,” Nahn said. “Despite my efforts, she has no interest in them.”
“They’re all boys,” Jere interjected. “She needs a man who can teach her domestication.”
I huffed in frustration. “And you need a stick up your—”
“Roselyn, dear,” Nahn warned lightly.
Jere bristled, his eyes alight with challenge.
“The fact is, Iris, your granddaughter sits on a high Hippogriff, detached from reality. I have tried—” Her words died on an abrupt cough.
“I have tried to sway Jere to consider other options, but he has had eyes on her for some time. This, I must confess, is truly what brought us here today. We both know my condition is permanent. I want to make sure Jere is taken care of should anything happen to me.”
My heart pounded defiantly in my ears. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Your condition is quite stable, Mother.”
“Jere is convinced your granddaughter is the woman for him,” Baroness Jacostah continued as if I weren’t three feet away from her.
If Jere were half the man he proclaimed himself to be, he wouldn’t need his mother to speak for him.
“I think we could form quite a beautiful partnership through marriage to my son.”
My heart came to a crashing halt.
“With grooming and lessons on manners by some tutors from an Academy, she would make a satisfactory daughter-in-law. Her only duty would be to make my son happy and look pretty at court. Honestly, at this rate what else could she possibly be good for, if not a wife to my son?”
What the baroness wanted the baroness got. When it came to her son, rarely did she deny him.
“Baroness—”
“Jacostah, Iris, especially if we are to be in-laws!” she gushed. “Now I know times are tough, what with the king’s newest tax law and all. This could be a way to ensure your shop’s continued success, hmm? You’ve built such a thriving business that I would hate for anything to happen to it.”
The silent threat lurking beneath her words hung in the air. Marry your granddaughter to my son, and you’ll continue to have my financial support. Deny my son’s wishes, and it will be the end of your shop.
Jere’s reputation as a spineless brute preceded him throughout the city. I’d done my best to dissuade his interests without inspiring the wrath of his mother, to no avail clearly. And after what the baroness had done to our grandfather years ago…
Hot adrenaline sent me storming up the stairs, not sparing any of them another glance.
“That means she’ll think about it,” Nahn said, her voice carrying after me. “We would be honored.”