Chapter 26
Ser Elías loaded his things onto his horse. I watched quietly, tapping my shoe.
“I’ll be back soon,” he promised. “Listen to Ser Willoughby.”
“Yes, yes,” I told him.
Ser Willoughby arrived beside us and fastened a large satchel onto the back. “We’ll be alright, Lord Commander,” he said. “I’ll keep Her Highness far from harm.”
“Do not let out of your sight, Ser Willoughby,” Elías ordered.
“I know.”
“She will try to evade you,” he added. “You must always be expecting her to flee. No matter what she tells you, she is scheming. Remember that. She thinks you’re stupid.”
“I feel like that is outdated information,” I argued.
Willoughby bent a brow, turning slightly to check. “But it was accurate at one point?” he asked.
I shook my head in a bold lie. “No, I meant…” I thought of an excuse. “I have been so well-behaved as of late. I hardly think I need watching.”
They both turned.
“You don’t agree?” I asked. “Rude.”
“When will you return?” Willoughby asked Elías.
“Well. I’ve lost a day already,” he explained. “But, I think I can make it up in the Riverlands. I know a shorter route.” He looked at me. “Do not make me regret my decision to leave you behind.”
“I won’t,” I said. “Besides. I’m only out here to see you off. Then I’ll return to Mr. Evergreen the moment you are gone. Don’t worry. I’ll be in the Palace.”
He looked at Willoughby. “Trust your instincts, son.”
“Yes, Ser,” Willoughby replied.
Elías addressed me. “Do not evade him.”
“I won’t,” I said.
“I mean it, Svana. He trusts you, and there is a special place in Hell for people who abuse the dumb and good-natured.”
“I’m right here,” Willoughby said. “I’m actually quite intelligent, I’ll have you know.”
“If you end up dead in the country, it will be no one’s fault but you own, Princess. Is that clear? I will not persecute a good knight for your debauchery.”
“Well, we know that’s not true,” I said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t have reprimanded him.”
“Svana,” Willoughby breathed. He shook his head once. “Don’t.”
Elías shifted. “What did you say?” he asked.
“Lord Commander, I did tell her–”
I shook my head. “Yes, and I’m saying–”
He cut me off. Suddenly my cousin’s eyes were fiery in a way I’d never seen. “I said to leave it,” he told me. His voice was dark. “Leave it means leave it. Not do it anyway.”
I scoffed. “Excuse me? And who do you think you’re speaking to?”
Elías frowned. “Enough.” He leered between us. “Out with it. Her, not you,” he said.
I straightened, vindicated. “Ser Willoughby thinks it’s his place to decide if I instruct you to revoke his punishment in regard to how quickly he responded at Mr. Evergreen’s fire,” I said, cocking my head at my foolish cousin. “It’s not.”
Elías was quiet. “Is that what you think is best?” he asked. “That I revoke his reprimand?”
“Yes,” I said.
He nodded.
“I’m not upset,” Willoughby said. “I deserved it. I was not where I was supposed to be.”
“I will tell you what you deserve and what you do not deserve,” I snipped, angry.
“And you do not deserve to hinder your career opportunities because your bratty princess orchestrated your failure and then got caught. So shut your mouth and let me speak to the Lord Command before I have you reassigned to ferry duty.”
Eli paused. He studied me. Then he grinned. Really grinned.
“Praise,” I told my cousin. “That’s what you deserve. Praise.”
“Svana,” Willoughby said. “No.”
“Yes. Daniel, listen to me. You cannot be everywhere every time, and you did your very best to be anyway, despite my insistence that you remain outside. I see no failure to uphold your vow and I will not permit such scrutiny upon a man who only wishes to do his best at every assignment, every day. I won’t allow you to take the fall for something I designed to happen.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry I led you astray. I’m sorry I enlisted Josie to distract you.
I’m sorry I was selfish. Let me fix it. Please. ”
After a second, he sighed, then nodded. “You humble me, Svana.”
“No, Daniel, you humble me. Truly. Thank you for letting me correct my wrongdoings.”
Elías listened. He exhaled, then nodded. “You’re becoming a true queen. His Majesty will be proud to hear it. Though I’ll leave the messier details out.” He checked the straps on his steed again.
I eased immediately. “Thank you.”
“I’ll ride hard. Fast. I’ll come back with knights,” Eli said.
“And I will see you when you get back,” I said.
“And we will discuss everything. Everything I need to correct to be a better Queen. I want to take this seriously, Eli. The fact is, I want to be better. I want to be someone my subjects respect because they can trust her, not because they must. And I understand that I put Ser Willoughby in a bad position. That I put myself in one, and Miss Josie. I won’t do it again.
I won't leave the grounds for as long as Wil…” I cleared my throat.
“...Willoughby is watching over me, and not while Mr. Evergreen is ill.”
I checked Daniel’s expression to see if the near-slip had been obvious. It was unmoving.
Willem. I’d almost said it.
“Good,” Eli said. He faced me from the horse. “I’ll tell your father about the footman. Myself and Derek will interview the staff. The cook was closest to him, I believe. We’ll weed out any connections if we find them.”
I preened, watching my knight speak. He was so smart. So good at what he did.
“You were very brave, Princess,” he said. “When you called that boy out by name. Most people would’ve run or hide somewhere, or hoped they didn’t see them. But you address him and to his face. I’m proud of you.”
I smiled. “Thank you. But it's really your fault I recognized him at all. You know how my memory fogs with faces. But you pointed him out before we left. You said he looked weird, and I remember trying to think of why.”
Elías bobbed along. He turned to Willoughby to say something else, and then it hit me, what he said in the kitchen back home. He never forgot a face.
I thought about it, about those five, simple words: he never forgot a face. I thought about the meaninglessness of the skill. Then my stomach sank.
Elías was a liar.
My eyes darted between him and my cousin. I could hear myself breathe. Nothing else. They laughed about something, the yard sort of spun.
Either my Lord Commander and closest friend was a liar because he did, on occasion, forget a face, or my Lord Commander and closest friend was a liar because he didn’t. He knew Willem’s face and he called him Evergeen anyway. On purpose. And Mr. Evergreen knew Elías, and didn’t tell me. On purpose.
“Princess?” Elías asked. “What say you?”
“Huh?” I asked, returning to the moment.
“I said we should have dinner, just the three of us, when I return,” he said. “Yes?”
“Oh.” I nodded, despite the rapid fire of questions that entered my head. “Yes, of course.”
How long had he known Willem was here? Had he even tried to deliver my letters? Did he care?
“Svana?” Elías asked. “I have to go.”
“Right. Yes,” I said. “Safe travels.”
He offered a curt bow. “Stay out of trouble.”
“Sure, yes,” I said.
“I’ll send word as soon as I intend to leave so that you know when to expect me. What would you like me to tell you father?” he asked. “Did you think of anything?”
“...Tell him whatever you like, Ser. I thought of nothing.”
“Right. I’ll make something up then,” he said. He mounted his horse. “Get some rest. I’ll see you when I return.”
“God speed,” Willoughby said.
Elías’s shape blurred into the brightness of the horizon. My cousin and I met eyes, and after a moment of that he said, “You’re not up to something, are you?”
“What?” I scoffed. “Don’t try to predict me, Daniel. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“I’d just like to know ahead of time,” he said. “I think that’s a fair ask.”
“I just conceded toward remaining here. Did I not?” I said. I turned to walk back into the Palace, toward Mr. Evergreen.
“Would you like company?” he offered. “Not that you have a choice. I kind of feel as though I should keep close to you, lest I suffer the wrath of the Lord Commander.”
“He can be hot-tempered,” I noted. “But he also trusts your judgement. And he’s no longer here. So. What you do is up to you.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” he said. “I think he perked up a little when you threatened to reassign me. I think it excited him, maybe.”
“Excited him? No.” I paused in stride, turning to him. “First of all, nothing excites Elías except new books, and second of all, he picked you for this detail, you should know. Like, on purpose. Not because he didn’t have other options. He had plenty of them.”
“Yes. I’m very blessed,” he said.
“No,” I said, insisting. “You misunderstand what I’m telling you. Ser Elías, the Lord Commander, picked you for this journey, and despite my unfiltered protest of including you. He truly believes in your ability. You should as well.”
“You protested including me?” The corners of his grin bent. “The Hell, Svana?”
“Yes, I did,” I confessed. “And as cold and selfish as that sounds, or perhaps was in the moment that I begged him not to bring you–”
“Christ. You begged?” he asked.
“Yes, Ser Willoughby. I begged. But, as I was saying, in the moment that I was begging, I was not aware of your nature. Your true nature, not what you show people. I did not know you as a person, and it’s not easy for me to…
to openly invite someone new into my inner circle, let alone on such an important trip in which my whole life changes for the worse.
I was scared. I was naive. I was wrong. I’m sorry. ”
He knit his brows. “Elías said you chose me.”
“He said that? And you believed him?” I asked. “God, maybe you are an idiot. No, I didn't choose you. Until you began riding with me, how many words had I actually ever said to you?”
“I don’t exactly count,” he said.
“Right, but you probably could, yeah?” I asked.
“Things are different. We’re not children anymore; we don’t see each other,” he said.