CHAPTER 17
Sakura
After a week of having his company, the silence was deafening.
Not that Sakura missed the weapon-smith’s loud chewing or unasked-for teasing. But after the last few weeks alone with her mother, and most of the three years before that, the additional company had been nice. Even if he was a commoner.
They were finishing their afternoon tea when a loud voice outside Mother’s sitting room disturbed the monotony. Sakura kept her face toward the delicate plate in her lap, but her eyes slid toward her mother, waiting to see what the queen would do.
“See what the trouble is,” Queen Arisa commanded sharply, snapping her fingers at the footman standing next to the door. “I’m not accustomed to suffering interruptions.”
Bowing quickly, the footman scurried into the hallway. The voices grew louder for a moment when he opened the door.
“I know it’s out of the ordinary. But the queen requested—”
Sakura took a careful sip from her teacup and watched Mother from the corner of her eye. The queen leaned forward, her eyes narrowing.
The footman hurried back through the door, but his stride was even as the queen required. When he reached their chairs, he stopped and bowed deeply.
“Who is out there?”
He straightened, but his eyes remained focused on the floor. “One of your guards, Your Majesty, that was searching for our recent guest’s acquaintances. He claims that you wished to speak to him as soon as he returned.”
The queen was silent for a few moments as she eyed the door. Finally, she turned to the footman with a decisive nod. “He is correct. Please send him in.”
“Another guard, Mother?” Sakura murmured as the footman strode away. “Are you admitting defeat, then, and ending our exile here?”
The queen ignored her, watching the door with a regal expression that bode poorly for the guard in the hallway if his news did not satisfy.
But why would the queen be so invested in Keenan’s companions? She wanted Sakura to use him to gain her crown and then discard him.
“What is your report?” Queen Arisa barked as soon as the guard was inside the room. “Where is the man you were to bring me?”
Instead of cowering as the indoor servants often did, the guard pounded his right fist against his chest and stared stiffly past the queen. “Gone, Your Majesty.”
“Gone?” the queen seethed. “Were my instructions unclear? He was not to be harmed!”
“To my knowledge, he wasn’t,” the guard replied evenly, not breaking his solid stance. “He was there when we arrived. But when the fighting was over, the man watching him was unconscious, and he was nowhere to be found.”
“I thought he was bound,” she said in a low, dangerous voice.
“My scout says he was, Your Majesty. But we found no sign of him within a hundred feet of the camp.”
Usually, Sakura would have kept silent, but the weapon-smith must have rubbed off on her. “Are you speaking of the guard that was traveling with Keenan? Is it not desirable that he managed to escape?”
Instead of answering, the guard flicked his eyes from the queen to Sakura and back. Mother turned her lips up in a patronizing expression. “Sakura dear, would you see to the supper plans for me? The cook had an item or two of concern, but I will not have time to attend to it.”
“Of course, Mother.” Sakura doubted the cook had any issues with a meal that had been planned for a month, but she would gain nothing by commenting on that fact. Clearly, her mother wanted her out of the way.
Sakura didn’t appreciate being dismissed like an unruly child, but she could do little about it.
A servant brought her a letter from Hari as she left the sitting room. Knowing the cook didn’t truly need her help, she found a seat in a nearby alcove and eagerly broke the seal. But her brother’s letter didn’t bring the joy it usually did.
Father hadn’t made an official declaration yet, but Hari had guessed right: the ceremony to crown him as heir was to be part of his eighteenth birthday celebration.
His pleas for her to come home were stronger than they’d been at any point in the last three years. Time was running out; why should she stay at the winter castle any longer?
Carefully folding the paper back along its lines, she tucked it away in her waistband and leaned against the nearby window. She hadn’t sent letters to any of their nobles yet. Mother’s plot was the only chance she had to keep Hari from being saddled with the throne.
But surely the weapon-smith had already abandoned the quest and taken up the search for his friends instead. She could still find him with the way-finder, but could she persuade him to help her?
“Longing for the company of your prince, my dear?”
Sakura clasped her hands in her lap. “He isn’t a—”
She broke off. Mother had made it clear that they were to continue the charade; after all, she would have servants attending her when she found Keenan. If one of them leaked Sakura and Queen Arisa’s true opinions, he might change his mind about the quest.
Not that it mattered, given she’d already expressed herself rather plainly to his face.
The queen smiled knowingly. “I applaud your prudence in holding to his statements about himself until the truth is proven. However, there’s no need to pretend with me, dear. We both know who he is, just as we both know how he’s held in your heart.”
Sakura ignored the absurd statement. Gazing out at the forested slope, she turned her mind to the weapon-smith hiking across it. Could she truly bypass the law if he retrieved the item Mother wanted?
“I understand your silent worries.” Mother lowered herself onto the bench next to Sakura and rested a hand on her shoulder. “I felt similarly when your father joined his guards for training exercises when we were younger.”
If Sakura weren’t a princess, she would have rolled her eyes. The very idea of comparing her relationship with Keenan to that of Mother’s with Father!
“But your fear is needless this time, Sakura dear.” Mother gave her shoulder a little squeeze. “Your prince will have no trouble reaching his destination or returning to us after.”
Sakura faked a smile and clasped her hands a little tighter.
This must be the moment she was supposed to beg to leave so the passing servants would spread the gossip.
“It shames me to admit it, but…I do miss him. The thought of him traipsing across the kingdom without me is enough to break my heart.”
Mother shook her head. “I understand your feelings, but the journey is much too harsh for a well-bred princess.”
“But I love him, Mother!” Sakura protested, pressing her hands to her chest as she acted out her part. “How can you expect—true love—to be separated for so long?”
She choked over the words, but the queen’s eyes softened anyway. “You feel that strongly about this?”
Nodding, Sakura widened her eyes and hoped she looked pleading rather than ill. “I’m sure the journey will be worth the hardship if it means that I can spend the time with my dear Keenan. And he will return more quickly if I…help.”
“Then you shall.” Turning, Mother waved imperiously at a passing footman. “My daughter intends to make a journey. Instruct her maid to pack for the princess and herself, then notify the captain of the guard to select a man to accompany her. And send word to the stable to ready three horses.”
Beckoning to Sakura, the queen strode off toward the portrait gallery. “Come, Sakura dear. We must equip you to aid your beloved.”
When they reached the gallery, Queen Arisa closed the door behind them, turning the seldom-used lock with a quiet click. Sakura wandered across the room ahead of her, her eyes skimming the paintings and valuable objects that were stored at the winter castle.
She paused in front of a tiny emerald resting on a mahogany stand. She’d heard about it when her mother detailed the many possessions that made the Koyoshu family powerful. She’d studied it from a distance when the long, lonely days at the castle grew too tedious. But she’d never touched it.
The afternoon sunlight shining through the windows glinted off the faceted surface, sending an array of tiny green sparkles across the back wall.
“We’ll engage the enchantment to disguise it as a pea before you leave, of course,” Mother said briskly as she stepped up beside Sakura. “It would never do for someone to steal it for the value of the gem.”
“Yes, of course,” Sakura replied absently. It always sparkled brightly, but it seemed to have an extra glimmer today, as if it knew it would soon be losing its shine. Or perhaps that it would be given the opportunity to be useful instead of sitting uselessly on display.
“It will highlight many desires when you touch it,” Mother warned as she approached. “Be ready.”
Nodding, Sakura let her hand hover over the emerald for a moment while she mentally prepared herself. Then she picked it up.
A hundred impressions assaulted her mind, flashes of light that tugged her in every direction. Aya in the stables, the book she’d been reading in the library. The alarm clock in Kurowan that she’d been working on when her prophecy was given.
And then another drew her attention, a bright beacon somewhere in the far west, deep in the ocean.
Dai.
She jerked back, the priceless object rolling off its stand and sending tiny green dots of light around the room as it bounced across the floor.
“Really, Sakura dear!” Mother admonished. “You should take better care of that.”
Shaking, Sakura stepped slowly forward and bent down to retrieve it. But she hesitated, the clear impression of Hari’s friend still haunting her. How could the way-finder reveal anything about his location? Was it capable of a morbid sense of humor?
“I know your mind is more disciplined than that,” Mother chided. “You must focus on your heart’s greatest desire.”
Yes. Perhaps if she focused before touching it, she would only sense the one desire instead of a multitude.
Closing her eyes, she pictured the crown sitting in Father’s office, then superimposed it over an image of Keenan scowling at her in the garden.
No—heart’s desire. Maybe the moment when he winked at her in the library would work better. Or when he helped her pick up the books she’d dropped.
A pleasant warmth spread through her chest as she pictured his friendly smile.
She set a finger on the way-finder. The other desires flickered, but they were like pinpricks of stars this time.
And to the south, a burning beacon filled her mind where she somehow knew Keenan was hiking through the mountains.