Chapter 27
Lilias
I’LL BE SURPRISED
“But why is she coming here?” I whisper to Anura.
“You think she would tell me?” Anura replies. “That was the first time one of her attendants even talked to me.”
Anura is standing behind me as I sit at the dressing table before the massive mirror my husband said is also a window. I feel like a bug trapped in a glass jar, and Anura’s news isn’t helping.
Apparently, Acelina, the acting queen, wants to pay me a visit.
This morning.
In my quarters.
Anura also said something about a seamstress, which makes about as much sense as anything else in this godsdamned place.
“Oof,” Anura says as she frowns at my arm. “What are we going to do about that?”
I stare at my reflection in the watery glass.
My arms and shoulders are a patchwork of bruises from my training sessions with Petrys.
There’s a spot on my left shoulder that I can feel but can’t see, from where I hit a rock as I rolled away.
There are rope burns around my wrists from where Petrys taught me to escape if my hands were bound, and two palm-sized purple splotches from Petrys grabbing my arms.
I’m getting better at breaking his holds, but every time I figure out how to counter an attack, Petrys tries something new. Or several somethings. I run my fingers over my upper arm, tracing the dull outline of Petrys’s fingers.
“Tell her I fell off a horse?” I offer.
Anura frowns like she’s just bitten something sour. “I’ll get some powder,” she says.
An hour or so later, I’m sitting by the window torturing a piece of silk with a needle and thread and feeling each minute that passes crawl like a spider across my skin.
Acelina’s attendant told Anura she’d visit my quarters in the morning, but of course, someone of her status doesn’t need to give exact times, and someone of my status is expected to do nothing but wait.
I stab my needle into the silk and try not to growl.
It’s a beautiful day on the other side of the window. I wonder if Petrys is already waiting for me in the meadow, or if Alia is pacing up and down beside the mare’s stall, waiting for me to show up. I feel like there’s a small, panicked animal trapped inside my chest, scratching to escape.
There’s a knock on the door. Finally. Anura catches my eye, and we both smile with relief.
The door swings open before Anura reaches it. Acelina enters, followed by a train of a half dozen women. She smiles broadly, then looks around the room like she’s never seen it before. Maybe she hasn’t.
“This is quaint,” she finally declares, making it sound like the biggest room I’ve ever slept in is nothing more than a dirt hovel in the mountainside. “I have heard the snake likes to be on the ground floor,” she adds with a giggle.
I come to my feet, bow, and smile. She kisses my cheeks, then steps back.
“Well, let’s have a look at you,” she declares.
This must be code for something, because an older woman with a tight bun and a serious expression steps forward. She puts a wooden step on the floor in front of me, then ushers me onto it with a frown.
Acelina laughs as I hold my arms out to the side, allowing the woman to run a length of cloth over my shoulders.
“Beatryce is simply the best,” Acelina says. “And with your upcoming travels, you need the best.”
I blink. I haven’t heard anything about my upcoming travels. Perhaps this was something my husband was supposed to share with me. I stare at Acelina as the older woman tugs at my robe, wondering how to politely ask her to explain something I should probably already know.
Beatryce fusses with something at my neck, and my robe falls to the ground. One of the women standing behind Acelina gasps. I don’t need to turn around and check the mirror to know what they see.
Anura tried her best with powder and lotion, but come on. There’s only so much you can do to hide the bruises and scrapes I’ve gotten over the past week.
“I— I fell off a horse,” I say with a polite smile.
Acelina walks up to me and takes my hand in hers. Her eyes shine in the sunlight. Together, we glance down at my arm, where fading bruises trace the lines of Petrys’s long fingers. He was teaching me how to break away from a hold. And I did break away. But it hurt.
“You poor thing,” Acelina whispers.
Our eyes meet. The acting queen looks like she’s about to cry, and suddenly I realize how this looks to her.
She thinks Zarek did this to me. Gods, it must look like he uses me as a training dummy. I swallow hard. It shouldn’t bother me that Acelina thinks my husband hits me.
But it does.
“I fell off a horse,” I say again. “It happens. I ride a lot.”
Acelina shakes her head, then pats my cheek.
“At least he travels,” Acelina says softly as she steps back. “Once this tour is done, hopefully he’ll have somewhere else to go. Somewhere far away.”
The pity in her expression feels like nails dragging over my skin. I have to change the subject before I blurt out something about training, or Petrys, or I start to rant about how the obvious hand-shaped bruises came from, I don’t know, rocks or something.
“This tour?” I ask, keeping my voice light and my head high.
Acelina laughs again. It sounds a bit forced.
“Oh, yes. Act surprised when they tell you, will you?” she says. “It will be a grand announcement, but of course, the clothes have to be made ahead of time.”
I huff as the older woman pulls a cord tight around my waist.
“Don’t worry,” I reply. “I’ll be surprised.”