CHAPTER 32
Breakfast was over but I was still in the kitchen, sipping my second cup of tea, because Shana had served geskirin honey. It had a slight citrus flavor and once I loaded my tea with it, I couldn’t stop drinking it. Clover sat at the other end of the table, embroidering a length of green fabric.
I missed orange juice. The fresh-squeezed H-E-B kind. I missed tacos. I missed coffee.
I missed my family . . .
I took another sip of tea.
Kaiden popped into the kitchen and slid an envelope in front of me without a word.
I pried the flap open and pulled a single piece of paper out.
I need your help.
G
There was only one G who had interacted with me enough to ask for my help.
“Who brought it?” I asked.
“A girl,” Kaiden said.
“Did she say anything else?”
“She said that she hoped you bought some shoes.”
That’s what I thought. Something had happened at the Garden and now Galiene needed a favor.
Serendipity. For once Kair Toren had come through instead of biting my ankles to trip me.
Judging from the way things had gone so far, this was probably some sort of timeline trap that would result in all kinds of problems. That was fine.
I would handle them, and I would figure out how the Garden had found me. I had a good guess.
Everard would want to come with me, and I had to avoid that at all costs.
Not only were people still looking for him, but after last night, I needed to reassert my independence.
I could simply get ready and have the Shears escort me, but that would result in an argument.
A better move would be to leave quietly, without giving him a chance to protest, as if he didn’t even factor into this equation.
I had to pull off sneaking out without looking like I had resorted to sneaking out.
“Clover, I need to go to the Garden.”
Her eyes widened. “The Garden?”
“Yes. We’re going to do the usual lady outfit.” I turned to Kaiden. “Are the Shears still hanging out nearby?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes.”
“Please tell them that I’m leaving for the Garden in one hour and if their head doesn’t want a certain someone to escort me and run all over the city, he needs to come and pick me up. I will meet him in front of Taryz Teahouse.”
“What about His Grace?” Kaiden asked.
“What about him?”
“He won’t like it.”
“Kaiden, His Grace and King Sauven signed a treaty called the Accords. Because of that, Everard cannot enter Kair Toren unless he is invited. If he is discovered in the city, Sauven will kill him. His Grace doesn’t like to be told what he can and can’t do, so we need to protect him from himself.
That’s why in exactly one hour you’re going to find a way to distract him and keep him occupied in the basement. ”
He made a face, shrugged, and took off. I rinsed my cup and headed upstairs. I had to get dressed and do my hair and I needed to get it done quietly, without Everard discovering what I was up to.
I stood on the corner in front of Taryz Teahouse wearing my lower-tier lady outfit, with my hair done up and secured with silver jewelry.
I was also holding a basket, which no self-respecting lady of my social standing would be caught dead holding.
Etiquette dictated that I should’ve brought Clover, but this was a clandestine operation.
Considering Hreban’s attack last night, going out alone wasn’t the best plan, but I had the protection of the Shears.
Solentine must’ve taken a dim view of Hreban’s goons attacking our house, because he had beefed up our security.
Two Shears agents tailed me from the house all the way to Taryz and a third one was already there, waiting for me.
A carriage rolled up the street and stopped in front of me. The door swung open and I saw Solentine inside.
I abandoned all propriety and climbed in before he had a chance to exit and load me into it. I shut the door, landed on the bench across from him, and the carriage took off.
My newly minted cousin took in my winning ensemble and my basket. His eyebrows crept up.
Solentine was channeling a prince of rogues today.
He wore brown pants, boots, and a cream shirt with wide sleeves.
Over that he had put a sleeveless tunic of cinnamon-colored leather, decorated with golden designs and featuring a deep V-neck, and then added a formfitting black jacket with short wide sleeves, embroidered with a golden vine bearing two white flowers on his right shoulder.
The jacket was open, and a black leather belt crossed his body diagonally from the right shoulder to the left side, buckled in place just above his waist. He’d tossed his cloak on the bench and the leather belt with sheaths bearing his two daggers was on full display.
He’d also shaved and brushed his deep auburn hair. The signs of fatigue from yesterday were gone, as if they had never even been there. The curtain of the carriage window was pulled back slightly, and the golden sunshine slanting across his face set him aglow. He was like a living painting.
Talk about a thirst trap. Luckily for me, I was immune.
“My dear cousin,” he said. “Where is your maid?”
“Covering my escape. Would you have preferred picking me up at the house so you could spend the next hour saying things like ‘The Conquerors are still looking for you’ and ‘Please don’t be difficult for once’?”
He gave me a narrow smile. “I appreciate your care for my sanity.”
“Of course. You are my favorite cousin.”
The carriage rolled on. We were headed straight north. It would be a short trip, fifteen minutes or so. The Garden was up by the north wall and the teahouse was an almost straight shot south.
“What is your relationship with Ramond?” Solentine asked.
Straight to the point. “I’m a valuable asset, and he is using everything at his disposal to try to control me.”
“Do you have feelings for him?”
“Yes.”
“What kind of feelings?”
I sighed. “At the moment, I want to brain him with something heavy.”
Solentine nodded. “I know that urge.”
“I’m mostly angry with myself. He goaded me, and I took the bait. I don’t even know what came over me. When someone says ‘let’s put all our cards on the table’ . . .”
“. . . you never put all your cards on that table,” we finished in one voice.
I nodded at him. “Yes. That.”
“Don’t feel bad,” he said. “Ramond is very difficult to manage.”
“He knows what’s at stake. If we don’t alter the future, he will have to fight a punishing war.
He will halt the advance of the Crimson Empire in the north, but he will take heavy losses.
Things will get so dire, he will have to marry Omelyana of Gor to shore up his defenses.
I told him all of this because at the time I thought he was Reynald Karis.
Had I known who he was, I would’ve run away screaming instead. ”
“Ramond’s priorities are set in stone,” he said. “If he sees you as the key to halting that future, he will do everything to keep you. And I do mean everything.”
“I’m aware.”
“I would advise against sleeping with him,” Solentine said.
He’d finally come out and said it. “Are you attempting to safeguard my virtue?”
“Far it be from me to dictate what a woman does with her virtue. But you are my cousin now, and I see a disaster looming on the horizon, so I’m trying to shield you from it. Ramond has a way to make you feel . . .”
“Treasured?”
“Yes. Most people spend their lives trying to be noticed, often by the people they are closest to. Ramond doesn’t just notice, he sees you.
He stands head and shoulders above the rest, and when he takes an interest, you feel important.
He’ll treat you as a vital ally and acknowledge your talent and effort, and soon you’ll find yourself doing ridiculous things for his approval. ”
“Sounds like you should be careful not to sleep with him.”
He laughed softly. “We both prefer female company, but it might’ve been easier if our relationship was just that. Only my heart would be broken instead of the future of my family.”
The carriage came to a stop. I glanced out of the window.
In daylight, the Garden didn’t look quite as enchanting.
Without the lights and music, it reverted back to its previous identity as an ancient fort.
I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head.
Solentine put his own cloak on and pulled a black coif over his face.
The carriage door swung open, and a tall man wrapped in a faded cloak offered me his hand. His lancer’s coif was down, and his eyes were green and unrepentant.
Behind me, Solentine swore.
I put my hand into Everard’s, and he helped me down.
I turned to the driver, a young, compact man with a mane of dark hair. “How long has he been with us?”
“He got on at Taryz, my lady.”
Solentine descended from the carriage.
“Have you taken leave of your senses?”
“Not that I’ve noticed.” Everard took my basket. For a second, I thought about holding on to it, but playing tug of war with him in front of the Garden wouldn’t be a good look. “And for the record, you give me too little credit. I would take great care with your heart, Sol.”
Solentine rested his hand over his forehead and shut his eyes, as if he had been hit with a sudden, incapacitating migraine.
“Don’t be dramatic.” Everard faced me. “It doesn’t matter what he tells you.
The truth is the Demarr family is formidable but of limited means.
The Empire looms large across the border, ready to swallow them, while at home bigger predators hunt each other for power and money.
In this ocean of monsters, the Demarrs have to swim in someone’s wake.
I’m a great monster. They require my support. They cannot survive without it.”
“Sauven Savaric is also a monster,” I said.
“Yes, but Sauven is far away, and I’m right there in the Demarr backyard.” Everard smiled and pulled the coif to cover his face. “Something to keep in mind for the future. Shall we?”