Chapter 36 Kasira
KASIRA
THE NEWS OF ELYAE’S BANISHMENT SPREAD SWIFTLY THE NEXT DAY, and Kasira fielded as many questions as she could, wanting to control the narrative. The more guilty Elyae looked, the better she appeared by comparison, as both the target of Elyae’s attention and the one who exposed her.
“She didn’t have any explanation at all?
” Fen asked, slowing their shuffling. Kasira had joined them and Carlia for a game of cards as was their habit in the evenings, the Gold Room empty save for the three of them and the Talowell.
Iylis had brought them cups of tea and a plate of lavender biscuits, but no one had touched them, and the tea had long gone cold.
Kasira feigned disappointment. “Nothing. She just let Allaster send her home.”
Fen’s shoulders drooped, and Carlia wrapped an arm around them. “Maybe we should call it an early one tonight?”
Fen nodded, and they both bid Kasira good night.
She watched them go with an empty smile, sliding deeper into her armchair, hoping it might swallow her whole.
Lying to them had been more difficult than it should have been, her hesitance growing with every word, but she only had to last a little longer.
“Careful, Kas,” came a low voice. “That’s starting to look like regret.”
She closed her eyes, forcing her emotions out with a breath, and when she opened them again, Thane was in the armchair across from her.
There was a fervency behind his blue eyes that startled her, and she almost reached for a blade, but he only dropped a folded piece of paper onto the low table between them.
She didn’t have to open it to know what it was.
Elyae had been a little too easy to frame as the spy and certainly had the motivation for it. So after the mage’s banishment, Kasira had left a note for the spy in their book, knowing that if it disappeared, that meant the spy was still here. Apparently, they weren’t the only two who knew about it.
“A respectable effort,” Thane mused. “But your hunt ends here. Any future communications you have will go through me.”
Kasira didn’t respond. She only fed the note to the fire and left.
A somber air settled over the Library over the next few days, the disgruntled whispers about Allaster growing unchecked.
Many of the mages Elyae had been training with thought her dismissal unfounded; others simply saw Allaster’s general absence as avoidance.
Kasira danced a thin line between hearing their concerns but not assuaging them.
Bit by bit her entrenchment grew, shouldering Allaster gradually out like a sydara sapling smothering the roots of its fellows.
At the week’s end, Kasira donned Eirlana’s least restrictive dress for the Prince’s engagement party.
A soft rose-gold gown embroidered with a waterfall of silver stars, it clung tightly in the bodice before rippling about her hips.
The most daring aspect was the cut that ran to just above her knee, matched by the slits of the flowing wrist-length sleeves.
She admired the dress in the mirror, her dark hair in a braided crown courtesy of May.
This was not of a Kalish design—Riviairen, perhaps?
She hadn’t expected this little bit of rebellion from Eirlana, whose family would have balked at their daughter dressing in the style of a people who lived symbiotically with beasts.
After securing several hidden knives about her body, she snapped her fingers to join Allaster in the portal room.
“There you are. We’re going to be la—” He cut off at the sight of her. A flush crept into his cheeks, his gaze lingering long enough that she had to admit May had been right: Whatever his animosity toward her, a part of Allaster looked at her in an entirely different light.
She had dismissed it because, despite that part of him, Allaster didn’t want to like her.
Didn’t want to trust or rely on her. Because she was Kalish or a con artist, she didn’t know.
All that mattered was that she had been a fool to let it go unexploited for so long, even if the idea of pulling those strings felt like a betrayal of another kind.
She returned his flustered gaze with an evaluating look of her own.
He’d traded his Librarian’s uniform for an ankle-length coat of deep teal that split at his hips over a pair of dark pants tucked into black boots.
The coat had two rows of golden buttons linked by filigree chains, the collar and sleeves adorned with feathery swirls of gold and celeste, and it split at the collar to exhibit his henolite torc.
Her eyes followed the curve of the collar down past the hollow of his throat to his chest, and she tried not to smile when his blush deepened.
“You clean up nicely,” she told him.
“Where did you even get that dress?” he asked weakly.
“You say that like you think I stole it.” When he only stared at her expectantly, she sighed. “It’s one of Eirlana’s. Now, shall we go?”
Allaster straightened his already pristine cuffs, as if seeking something to do with his hands. “I don’t like leaving Thane here unsupervised.”
“May is watching him. What would you rather do? Toss him in a cell?”
“It crossed my mind.”
Kasira swept past him to the Kalish door. “He would be a fool to test her.”
“Still.” Allaster paused with his hand on the door. “The plan here is to get in, be seen, and get out. The less time May has to spend dealing with him alone, the better, and I have no interest in drinking fancy wine and making small talk with the Kalish elite.”
She eyed him. “And here I thought you had a taste for mylak.”
“It’s people I have no taste for.” He pulled open the door and strode through, leaving Kasira to grin at his back.
The door exited into a courtyard void of anything but green.
The bushes were neatly trimmed into identical shapes in identically sized stone beds, the walkways laid in an equilateral grid, and beyond them rose the castle.
Square and rigid, it was largely uninteresting to the eye save for the delicate filigree designs around the windows made of vylor that glinted iridescent in the sunlight.
How much of the precious resource had been wasted on decoration, she wondered, and how much would be again if May truly discovered a connection between beasts and natural artifacts like vylor?
That knowledge could prevent a war, stop Kalthos from coveting Jacara’s makhet, but it also meant returning a weapon to Kalish hands. A weapon used to kill beasts.
They would just find another one without it, she thought.
Before he could protest, Kasira linked her arm with Allaster’s.
She felt the muscles of his arm stiffen but swept him onward through the tide of conversing guests, not allowing her thoughts to dip below the surface.
She had only to make it through this night, and tomorrow, Vera would call the Conclave.
“Lord Allaster St. Archer and Lady Kasira Vitalis,” announced a voice above the gentle rush of string music.
Heads turned with their every step as they made their way to the center of the courtyard.
Octagonal in shape, it had paths splitting out from each side and a raised platform in the center.
King Carthur sat upon it on a throne, light glinting off his golden crown forged in the shape of rising flames.
Allaster led them up the steps, releasing her arm to bow deeply, Kasira following suit.
“Your Majesty,” Allaster greeted. “Thank you for your invitation.”
“Librarian.” The King nodded. “Assistant. You’ve been causing quite a stir in my court. My cousin is calling for your head.”
Kasira rose from her bow. “Hopefully not too loudly, Your Majesty.”
Allaster flashed her a warning look, but the King only laughed.
Kasira had never met him, but she had been around enough of his court as part of various cons to glean what sort of man he was.
The capital nobles dismissed him as a figurehead, bordering on foolish, who was easily swayed by the whims of his courtiers.
He enjoyed being treated like anyone else—to an extent—and he had no great love for his cousin, whose strong political stances had always made him look weak.
“Is Ambassador Vera about?” Kasira surveyed the gathering.
The King flicked a dismissive hand. “Engaged by other matters, I’m afraid.”
More like she refused to attend. Vera was sending a very direct message by boycotting the engagement party: She did not support this union, and anyone who did was no ally of hers. It was no coincidence that tomorrow she intended to call for the Conclave to be held.
“Perhaps we can talk later, Assistant.” The King’s voice boomed as another arrival queued at their backs. “I would like to hear more about how you came to be at Amorlin.” She and Allaster bowed again and descended the platform from a staircase on the left.
Allaster seized two glasses of wine from a passing tray and handed one to her. “Do me a favor and don’t open yourself to interrogation by someone who could petition to have you removed from your position.”
Kasira sipped her wine. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were worried about losing me.”
“Then it’s a good thing you do know better.” The words lacked any bite now that she understood their source, and she only smiled at him. He frowned back at her. “Why were you asking after Vera?”
“To prepare myself should we run into her.”
Allaster’s grip tightened on his glass. “Do you have something to discuss with her?”
This time, Kasira didn’t miss the edge in his voice. It was a good thing Allaster was such a terrible liar; it made it impossible for him to subtly gather information.
“What are you accusing me of now?” she asked wearily.
He studied his drink as he spoke. “You worked for Thane, and Vera was at your Malik camp the day you deserted.”
Kasira took the surprise that threatened to unravel her and repurposed it into indignation, letting her affront buy her time. “Have you been looking into me?”