24. Laude
Chapter 24
Laude
From the vantage point of the balcony, I watched choppy waves crashing to the rocky shores and splashing angrily upward, as if trying to reach for me and pull me under. My heart was like the dark churning water, all because I was a liar.
Beatriz had changed. She defended me in front of others. She made sure we wouldn’t be apart. But the dagger at my calf could have been a shackle, reminding me that I was a terrible friend. The vials in my pockets pressed against my leg, poisoning any chance of the smile on my face being real.
I had a job to do, even if I didn’t like it. What was the queen thinking, training me and sending me off on this sort of mission? I wasn’t a killer. Car-rye ! I could barely handle the tension between Cosme and Beatriz during our travels. Queen Cottia had made it clear that she and I would always be in danger as long as her old boss lived. But when it came down to facing the whyzer, I wasn’t sure I could act.
Bowing my head, I said a silent prayer: Ancient One, please, give me a way out of this crazy mission. You could strike down the evil man on your own. Don’t you say in your Tome that vengeance is yours?
The humid air shifted, tousling the updo I had braided and arranged on my head. Disobedient curls sprang loose from their intended location and decided to land on my shoulder. Just as I grunted my frustration at having to do my hair again, a word came to me: There .
The hairs on my arms stood at attention, and my gaze roved over the sea. Sunlight cut between the clouds and shone on a ship all the way on the horizon. It could have been a smudge on a painting for how it looked. Whoever traveled on that ship would be the answer. They had to be my way out of this plan or even possibly part of the plan itself. I swallowed the lump that formed in the back of my throat, resigned to Queen Cottia’s crazy schemes but hoping for a better strategy to come along.
“Princess.” I ran to the chamber doorway. A servant from Aracibel arranged Beatriz’s hair because she said that touching Beatriz’s head would be beneath me.
“Is something wrong?” Beatriz perched on the chair before the mirror with an impeccable posture that anyone else might confuse for confidence. She didn’t trick me.
“Of course not, I-I was wondering if you would mind if I took a walk?” A beat passed, and I added, “With Jaime because I would never consider going on my own, and I love Jaime’s company.”
She flicked a deadpan stare in my direction. “You aren’t a prisoner. Though I would love if you could be back here before the banquet so we can enter the hall together.”
I dropped a quick curtsy. “Of course, Princess. Of course.” My feet skipped across the floor with a much too lively step, so I tried to slow them down to play a dignified lady-in-waiting. Granted, I should have stayed with Beatriz if I wanted to be the picture of perfection. Then again, when you get a word on the wind, you must test it.
The passage, in all its polished glory, wound on the outskirts of the building until it reached a set of stairs in the corner. I decided to take the back way so as not to arouse suspicion about my comings and goings.
Every step downward pulled me faster to this unknown entity across the sea. What if I had to use the blade and this whole thing would cause our trip to end before it even began? I cringed at such a thought. When I reached the bottom floor, there was yet another set of winding passages to maneuver. The waning light made me want to spark my finger, but the servants started lighting sconces in their rough stone part of the palace. They gave me strange looks as if they’d eaten something sour. I tried to purse my lips like Beatriz and act unaffected. Inside, my blood pumped hard at such judgment.
Come on, Laude, you have a mission.
When a back door opened to the outside world, I could have leapt out with delight. Of course, I maintained the regal pace as best as possible and darted out the door to the side of the palace. There were a million stairs to climb down, but eventually, I made it to shore. The long deck stretched before me with only sailors tending the two galleons on this dock.
The heavy clomp of my boots along the wooden planks punctuated my heartbeat.
Whistles pierced the air from sailors appreciating my beauty.
I spun my head around to meet two men on board the ship to my left. They wore rough-spun tunics, wide grins, and thick wagging eyebrows. These twins leaned against the side, eager for my attention. Though they might have passed for handsome only a few months ago, they had nothing on Jaime, so I kept my nose high and sped past. Maybe I should have searched for Jaime first.
But the closer I got to La Lavia , the more I could see the new ship headed toward us.
“Senorita Laude?” asked a fellow from our galleon. “Would you also like to board?”
“Also? Who else is in there?”
The young man grabbed a wide plank. “The prince and the rest of the Dotados.” He set the plank between La Lavia and the dock for me.
“Thank you! Thank you!” I rushed up onto the deck. Why were they meeting out here rather than inside the gigantic palace with all the nice rooms and comfortable furnishings?
By the time I made it into the corridor with my former quarters, my skin crawled with apprehension as if a million spiders had decided to attack all at once. No one stirred inside the sturdy walls of La Lavia . I stepped toward the end of the passage to the room Beatriz and I had shared and opened the door. Light cut through the one high window onto the space between the narrow beds. It remained empty and untouched since the morning. Where could they be?
I placed each foot gently on the floor, but the wood seemed to groan in response with every footfall. The only place I could think of going was the tiny meeting room. If what’s-his-ears attended the meeting, he might spook, and I might end up at the end of magical fingertips.
Every step downward and closer to the room had my mind firing double time. Did anyone really know about my parents? Could little me be a threat to anyone’s rule? I should turn around and stay with Beatriz. I should forget I ever learned how to use a blade, albeit I couldn’t fight someone like Cosme who’d been training all his life. I could only take someone by surprise. When it came down to it, I’d always been happy being small and having a simple duty. Why mess with a good thing?
Then, voices drifted through the walls. I creaked the last few arm spans to the room. A slice of light shone beneath the door to a room that should have been empty.
A groaning plank from within quickened my heart rate. I turned to leave but steeled my nerves despite the tremors wracking my body. The door opened, and a shadowed face said, “It’s only Laude.”
“Tell her to join us.” Cosme’s voice carried an authoritative note.
A sigh escaped my parted lips, and I pressed forward into the tight space. The fellow at the door had been what’s-his-ears, and all the Dotados, including my very own Jaime, squished inside the four walls around an overgrown table.
“There’s another ship on the horizon,” I said.
A tip of Cosme’s head sent Ears out the door. Jaime met my gaze with a warmth brewing in the green and honey speckles in his eyes, and my tummy did a little flip. How did he manage to turn me over like a pancake with just a look? But I had to focus on the task at hand.
“It has to be the Black Knight, right?” I closed the door behind me and slid onto the end of the bench on the door side.
Fermín, Lucas, and Zichri took up all the space on the bench beside me. Cosme, Minerva, and Jaime had their same spots across from us, but they fit much better without me squeezed next to them.
“Well, are you all going to tell me why you’re having a secret meeting on La Lavia without me or do I need to pry it out of you?” I planted a pointed look on Jaime because everyone knew he was the one I’d pry information from.
Cosme chuckled. “Ignacio said the walls of the palace are crawling with people behind them, so we’re all staying here. We’re sending Fermín and Ignacio on patrol during the dinner so we won’t be ambushed during the festivities. Lucas stays with me and Minerva with you girls.”
“Beatriz won’t like that.” I glanced at Minerva. “No offense. She just doesn’t know you.” A painful second passed where Minerva and Cosme gave each other the endearing love-of-my life glimpse. Did Jaime and I look like that and make the entire room uncomfortable? I winced and continued, “Well, I have a confession to make.”
The heads in the room spun toward me. I chewed on my bottom lip. Jaime had encouraged me not to keep Queen Cottia’s plans to myself, and I wanted to burst at the seams from all this time holding-my-tongue business. “I can’t go home with you.”
“What do you mean?” Zichri’s eyebrows drew together.
Cosme straightened into his regal posture as if he might command me otherwise. “Have you told Beatriz this?”
“No, I have not, but I promise it’s to our benefit. We must follow the ma—” my throat constricted. I gulped in several deep breaths. “Can we get someone to destroy the original and break this curse?”
Cosme gestured to Fermín, and the fellow nodded.
“Thank you. As I was saying about whomever is behind these attacks. Queen Cottia has her suspicions and there is something about me you must understand.”
Zichri shifted in his seat and twisted to meet my gaze. Jaime gave me encouraging nods.
How much to share?
“Cosme, I am the daughter of your mother’s maid, which you know, and I’m also the product of Pedroz.”
The air in the room stilled. I had to continue. “You see, I-I have a claim to the throne, and apparently, it is stronger than the current regent’s.”
“What?” Cosme’s voice was a whisper.
Minerva smiled, a genuine one with teeth and laugh lines like I hadn’t seen from her before. “Do you need help getting into the palace?”
“You can do that?” I almost jumped out of my seat.
She laughed. “I’m tied to a few kingdoms and know their comings and goings. You’ll need to gain the council’s favor.” Something in her countenance shifted and shriveled. “They’re not happy with the new regent but,” she bit her lip, “dare I ask?”
I bobbed my head with fervor. “Dare you ask what?”
Minerva eyed Cosme, as if she requested permission to continue speaking.
“Are you asking if I’m legitimate?” My words came out squeaky from my throat closing in on itself. The story behind how I came to be hurt in a way I couldn’t explain. Thorns wound their way around my lungs even considering what had happened to my dear mamá who I never got the chance to meet.
Cosme chuckled with not a hint of mirth. “Did Mamá train you?”
“She did.”
“In gifting or,” Cosme tipped his chin downward, “in her special skills?”
The lump in my throat had to be the size of a hurricane. My tongue turned limp from how ridiculous and outlandish my mission sounded, even to me. “I’ll need someone to transport me.” I pinned Lucas with a look that shouted my request at him.
Jaime shook his head, probably still unsure about the fellow’s loyalties. But Minerva already had the job of transporting Beatriz, and I didn’t want to risk Beatriz’s life when things could turn deadly in the snap of a finger.
Zichri gestured for my attention. “You know, this Black Knight might like the idea of installing a young, impressionable queen in a major port city.”
“So long as Laude has a way of taming whoever leads the new rebellion,” Cosme added.
“Taming?” The question flew off my lips.
Cosme steepled his fingers, as if he calculated something in his head. “How does Mamá want you to dispose of the Black Knight?”
I bit so hard on my bottom lip that I tasted blood.
Footfalls stomped in the hallway. Ears flew into the room. “We’ve got a visitor from Pedroz, but I daresay they spoke of deals behind closed doors. They’re the ones we’ve been waiting to encounter.”
“Minerva?” Cosme placed a hand on her delicate wrist.
She smoothed a palm over the table, opening a rippled hole in the middle of the wood. The view beyond focused into a grand sitting room not so different from the quarters where I’d left Beatriz in the palace. Minerva climbed into the portal and stepped into the space, her body shifting to a horizontal position from my vantage point, but a natural standing position for her.
Cosme followed suit, and so did Zichri.
Jaime reached for my hand. “Will you accompany me to the banquet tonight?”
I chafed at having to lift my leg over the table into this strange portal. “Can we just walk into the palace the normal way?”
His eyebrows shifted halfway up his forehead.
“I’ll take that as a no.” I clung to Jaime’s arm and let the strange tugging pull me through space to the polished quarters in the Aracibel palace.