Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
T he day Her Grace, Queen Dafina of Neossós arrived in Papia was bright and warm, the perfect early summer’s morning. Auro was subdued, Leofric did not fail to note. Cosmo tried his best to cheer his brother up, but the attempted jests fell flat. Nothing would truly distract him from the knowledge that this woman was betrothed to Alexios. He might be Auro’s Alexios in private, but in the shining light of day he belonged to his people, and this young foreign queen. Leofric felt a pang for the young prince and his paramour both as they rode out to meet her party as they approached up the long, exquisite road leading to the Papian Royal villa.
Cosmo posed as Leofric’s tribune, so he wore the uniform of the royal guard and on a long ashen pole he carried the Papian signa, a carved mallard’s head with green enameled feathers. He rode a spirited dapple-grey filly called Hestia. Leofric only prayed that Cosmo would keep his mouth shut and refrain from humiliating him. As Leofric’s tribune, Cosmo was a direct reflection of Leofric, his commander.
The Queen’s party was far smaller than one might expect from a royal retinue, but Neossós was a small kingdom, made smaller by a plague that had claimed a lot of its citizens over the past year. Prince Alexios was now betrothed to their queen, and the two had plans to combine both kingdoms into one. A complicated notion. Papia would take on Neossós’ debts and weaknesses, but would gain access to valuable resources. The trade was not necessarily an equal one, but His Highness Prince Alexios had refused to leave an entire kingdom of people floundering and suffering.
Alexios dismounted, a signal the rest of the party should do the same. He bowed deeply and the rest of them took a knee in the road to greet Queen Dafina. “Your Grace,” he said. “Papia is yours.”
The Queen wore a sheer black veil to cover her face, pinned below a white gold circlet studded with pearls. Her palla and tunic were died heavy black as well, the fabric torn as a mark of mourning. “Your Highness,” came her voice from behind the fabric. She was of an age with Alexios, but she sounded weary as an old woman. “The honor is mine.”
“Your Grace may recall Leofric, the captain of my household guard?”
“Yes, of course. Well met, Captain.”
“You as well, Your Grace,” said Leofric with a respectful bow. “You honor all of us with your presence. I trust the roads were safe?”
“Very,” she said. Dafina pulled back her cumbersome veil, revealing a pretty face and sad eyes. She turned to Alexios and added, “And so straight, and level.”
Alexios beamed at the praise of his beloved roads. “Of course, Your Grace will remember Auro.”
“How could I forget the man who saved my life?” She swooped in and kissed Auro’s cheek, and unfortunately next turned her gaze to Cosmo. Leofric had somewhat been hoping he would evade notice entirely. “Have we met?”
“May I present Cosmo, my tribune,” Leofric said, resisting the urge to preemptively apologize for him. He’d done nothing untoward, Leofric told himself, even as another voice in his head added, yet. “He will be assisting me as we find accommodations for your men.”
Cosmo bowed gracefully. When he straightened up, Dafina cocked her head, giving Cosmo a long, searching look. Leofric braced himself, wishing that Cosmo would perhaps decline to speak, or even better, evaporate on the spot. The last thing they all needed was for him to make one of his lascivious comments to the future Queen of Papia. “Your Grace,” said Cosmo. “I have not yet had the distinct pleasure of basking in your radiance. Certainly, I would recall such an auspicious day.”
Dafina laughed, caught off guard. Cosmo had that way about him, Leofric had to admit. When he said the outrageous things he said, they didn’t sound false—simply crude in their earnestness. She offered her hand to Cosmo, who kissed her knuckles. “And yet,” she said. “I feel as though I know your face.”
“Cosmo is my brother,” said Auro.
Recognition dawned on her face, and Leofric saw at once a fissure of tension run through Dafina from head to toe. “Oh,” she said faintly. “Another one of…goodness.”
Cosmo looked puzzled, but he plainly sensed her change in demeanor too. Before Leofric could sidestep the moment, or usher Cosmo out of sight, Cosmo made attempt to smooth things over himself, with all the grace of a boulder rolling off a cliff. “Your Grace,” he said. “The captain has the matter of your men well in hand. Despite your fertile glow, you are in a delicate state. If it would please you, I could escort you to your guest apartments within the royal villa.”
“Delicate state?” Dafina echoed, her wide eyes casting frantically around the busy yard. Alexios looked mortified, and Auro ready to liquify. This revelation was obviously not the surprise to them that it was to Leofric.
Cosmo ploughed on, oblivious. Plainly he thought he was being ingratiating. “Yes, of course, Your Majesty. It’s the future of the kingdom you carry. And besides— Ouch!”
Leofric had finally gathered himself enough to elbow Cosmo in the ribs. Hard. “Be silent. ”
Cosmo’s mouth dropped open, and it was as if Leofric could see it dawn on him in real time that he had made a terrible mistake. Before he could continue babbling and make things even worse, Leofric wrapped an arm around the back of his head, covering his mouth with one hand like one might an unruly child.
Dafina regained her composure and smiled a strained smile. “Yes,” she said, too loudly. “I am certain one day his Highness and I will have many healthy children. But that day is still very far away. I think I shall find my own way to my apartments.”
She swept away with a small tail of ladies, casting a look over her shoulder. Leofric looked around, certain at least some of those gathered here had heard Cosmo’s pronouncement. He hadn’t known that Dafina was expecting a child. Certainly, it wasn’t public knowledge. Or rather, it wasn’t until the freckled menace fighting against Leofric’s grip had blurted it out for everyone in the yard to hear.
Cosmo squirmed in his hold, and Leofric hissed as Cosmo’s teeth clamped on his finger. He jerked back, releasing Cosmo, who flailed his arms to ensure his continued freedom. “What is the matter with you?” Cosmo asked him.
“Me?” Leofric fumed. “What were you thinking, saying that?”
“I was trying to be gracious,” said Cosmo. “I didn’t know it was a secret!”
“How could it not be a secret?” Alexios hissed at him.
“I don’t know,” said Cosmo. He scowled. “It was an honest mistake! I shouldn’t have said?—”
“You didn’t need to say anything, ” said Auro. “And now the rumors will be spread around the entire villa by nightfall.”
Cosmo at least had the grace to look abashed.
“I must go do what I can to smooth this over,” said Alexios. “Dafina will be furious with me, no doubt, thinking I told her private matters to everyone in my household.”
“But you didn’t!” said Cosmo. “I could—I could just tell. I thought it was obvious, but perhaps…”
Alexios sighed. “I don’t think that really matters in the end. Auro, come.”
Cosmo watched them go, looking genuinely distraught, which was a nice change.
Leofric massaged his hand. “You bit me.”
“Yeah, well,” said Cosmo aggressively. “You wouldn’t let go.”
“I had to stop you talking somehow ,” said Leofric. “And elbowing you didn’t seem to be cutting it.” Leofric gave himself a mental shake, smoothed the front of his uniform, and straightened his armor that had been knocked off kilter in his brief struggle with Cosmo. He considered that if Cosmo were to remain in his charge, he should start wearing thick gloves. Come to think of it, perhaps he should just be grateful that he was not scorched for his trouble this time.
“Come,” said Leofric. “I must continue my work. And a tribune should follow, and observe. Quietly. ”
Cosmo followed him to the stables, where they supervised the grooms and stable hands finding accommodations for the mounts the queen had brought with her. Leofric assisted where he could, calming nervous animals and guiding the Queen’s stablemaster, a youth called Titus, as he drove her massive carriage into the garage, newly erected behind the stables. Titus had a lot of opinions about the mounts they’d brought, and was not ashamed to share them. “ No, no,” he was saying now. “You can’t put Bijoux in with any other mares, she’ll bite their ears off.”
All went as smoothly as could expected, but Leofric found himself agitated all the same as he catalogued all the strange faces now flooding the villa grounds.
“What is it?” Cosmo asked him during a lull in the bustle of activity.
“I mislike this,” he admitted, unnerved. Cosmo was far too observant. Leofric had been certain to keep his face an impassive mask, but something must have alerted Cosmo to the fact that he was distraught. “Any one of these new faces could be an agent of Janus.”
Auro had told Cosmo all about the sorcerer who’d killed Dafina’s mother, and sent an assassin after Alexios. “Perhaps they should be questioned,” he suggested. “Their belongings searched and inspected?”
Leofric glared at him. “It is not for you to give such orders,” Leofric snapped.
“I didn’t?—”
“My charge—and yours —is to obey,” Leofric said. “I will ask His Highness his thoughts upon the matter.”
“You don’t trust your own instincts?” Cosmo asked. “Do you need His Highness to tell you the sky is blue, also?”
Leofric rounded on him. “How dare?—”
Cosmo smiled, and bowed. “As your tribune I live to serve you, Captain ,” he said mockingly. “Pay me no mind. It was merely the foolish notion of one who thinks for himself from time to time.”
Before Leofric could form a retort, Cosmo turned and left him there in the stables. Cosmo had been under Leofric’s feet, nose, and skin for a week now, and he was already beside himself. He had gone so far as to beg Alexios to find another suitable position for Cosmo somewhere in the villa.
“Leofric,” said Alexios tiredly, “Can you please just tolerate him a bit longer?”
And he’d sounded so world weary that Leofric had instantly felt guilty further burdening the young prince. Leofric, it seemed, was on his own. After the night they’d sparred, the spotty nuisance hadn’t been far from Leofric’s thoughts, so he couldn’t even have a moment’s peace inside his own skull.
Cosmo was there, at morning meal. There, in the baths. There in the bed chamber they shared in Prince Alexios’s apartments. There, in Leofric’s dreams, performing unspeakable erotic acts and laughing when Leofric begged for more. Each morning he woke tired as if he hadn’t slept, and hard as a table leg.
And Cosmo knew. He knew. Leofric didn’t know how he knew—perhaps he’d begun muttering in his sleep—but when he woke each morning, it was to Cosmo smirking at him from his bed opposite Leofric’s. He’d stopped his brazen flirting, for the most part, but his new modes of torment were even worse. The smile hovered close to one of pity, like Cosmo knew Leofric’s inner needs and felt truly sorry that he lay there in bed alone each night, woefully unfulfilled.
It was almost more than he could stand, especially when so much depended upon Leofric keeping his wits. With Cosmo gone, Leofric yanked his thoughts back to the present and left the stables. Outside in the yard, ordering men around and supervising Queen Dafina’s rear guard as they rode through the gate was a man Leofric had not expected to ever see again.
Leofric had met Kato in the spring, at the festival for the spring equinox. He was broad, bull-strong, with a shock of fine blonde hair and bright blue eyes. The night of the festival, while Leofric had been guarding Prince Alexios, Kato had been guarding the Queen of Neossós—Dafina’s late mother. He’d eyed Leofric with enough brazen curiosity that Leofric almost considered finding out if his intimate anatomy was of a size with the rest of him. Leofric hadn’t had anyone since before his brother’s death, not necessarily by intent but by urge. That is to say, lack thereof. Five years ago, he wouldn’t have hesitated. But that spring, he had.
And thank goodness, because Kato had assisted Janus in concealing his assassination attempt of Prince Alexios. When they had left Neossós, Kato had been nowhere to be found—it seemed as if he had joined Janus in hiding.
But here he was.
“Captain,” said Leofric stiffly, approaching him.
“Captain.”
“I did not expect to see you here,” said Leofric. He eyed Kato up and down, as if he could see through any possible deceptions the man might be plotting if he stared hard enough. Kato must still be working with Janus; Leofric couldn’t believe that Dafina had brought him here to Papia.
“I had not expected to be here,” Kato said with a rueful smile. He removed his helm and tucked it under one burly arm. “In fact, I did not expect to find myself gainfully employed at all.”
“I am just as surprised,” said Leofric curtly.
“Captain, apologies, but?—”
“Her Grace said nothing of retaining your services, after her erstwhile stepfather fled Neossós.”
Kato bristled. “Not to you , perhaps,” he said. “I believe she discussed it with His Highness, Prince Alexios.”
Leofric squinted, trying to determine if Kato were lying or not. He couldn’t quite decide, which worried him. With his eyes narrow, his lips pressed into a firm line, Leofric tried his best to hide his uncertainty behind a stern mask, but it didn’t seem that Kato was fooled.
“You can ask him, if it please you,” said Kato, just the hint of a smug smile playing about his lips.
“Oh, I shall.”
Hours later, Leofric prepared himself for the feast in Queen Dafina’s honor, seething. Kato had apparently been telling the truth, at least inasmuch as His Highness’s knowledge of his presence was concerned.
“I understand that you are loath to trust him,” Alexios had said. “And that’s all to the good. By no means do I think we should lower our guard entirely—but try to see it from his point of view. He had sworn an oath to guard Her Grace and her family, just as you have sworn a similar vow to me and mine. It could just as easily have been you doing evil, under the auspices of following orders.”
And, naturally, His Highness delivered his stern words in front of Cosmo, who grinned at Leofric from behind Alexios’s back, his mirth at Leofric’s expense plain as day.
Leofric had two uniforms saved for special occasions, and he donned one now. The tunic and cape richly died crimson, his breastplate far more ornate than the one he wore day to day. He’d bathed in a hurry, hoping to finish before Cosmo returned to the chambers they shared. Most likely the pest would be late. His position was only a disguise, after all, and he plainly did not give committing to the role any weight. Leofric checked the blade on his razor before soaping his skin and using it to scrape away the stubble that had begun to grow in on the side of his skull. The rasp of the blade over the thin skin of his scalp was soothing, in a strange way. A close shave required control and precision, a steady hand. He had done this so many times he barely needed to glance in the mirror above the wash basin. When he finished, he washed the blade and dried it on a towel. With a sigh, he looked at his reflection, turning his head to the side to inspect his tattoo, and thinking of his brother.
“Are you done primping?” Came an irritating voice from the doorway.
Leofric closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, calming himself. He turned to see Cosmo, dressed and ready for the feast. The two of them would be posted by the dais during the meal. Prince Alexios had shied away from Leofric’s suggestion that they closely question the Queen’s entourage, his misgivings about Kato notwithstanding, which had Leofric on edge before the meal had even begun. His Highness claimed that with the political situation so delicate, it would not do to offend the queen and her people by submitting them to such—especially after Cosmo’s gaff in the yard. It was a mistake, Leofric knew, and he hated to think that Cosmo had been correct. He should simply have performed the interviews himself, instead of waiting for Alexios’s permission to do so.
Leofric hated that, the impotent indecision he felt. The word “perhaps” had hardly been in his vocabulary before he’d come to Papia. Things had seemed so much clearer to him, before. In the legion, he’d never had to think much. In battle, his sword was part of his arm, the only part that mattered, and it did all his thinking. One day, perhaps, if he’d risen to gain his own command, he would have had to learn more of these twisty ways of diplomatic thinking, but at present, it was foreign.
The feast was in full swing, and Leofric stood the way the Imperator had taught him, eyes alert and wide, searching for any sign of a threat. Discipline is your strongest armor, the Imperator had taught him. You will spend one hundred days standing still for every one day you must act. But you must be ready for that day, whenever it should arrive. He gave himself exercises to remain alert while he stood for hours, focusing on each table of guests in turn and trying to learn something of each person seated there simply by studying their faces. It was a game that required quiet focus. He watched the servers, the queen’s ladies, and even the other royal guardsmen in the hall. He watched Queen Dafina, Prince Alexios, and Auro, who stood behind the table to serve wine to the most honored guests seated at the high table.
Alexios’s parents, King Nelios and Queen Clio, had been initially upset about Auro’s presence at the feast, but Leofric could tell that Alexios’s stubbornness might at last be wearing them down, now that it was clear Auro wasn’t going anywhere.
Watching the high table, Leofric could see Alexios and Dafina were becoming fast friends. They leaned toward one another, in almost constant conversation, and Leofric even saw Her Grace smile once or twice. She still dressed in mourning for her mother, but her face was unveiled for the festivities, and though grief still weighed her slim shoulders, Leofric knew she was far more comfortable with His Highness than when the two of them had first met. It seemed to him that the growing trust went both ways, as Alexios relaxed around her more and more as the night wore on.
It was imperative this feast and the subsequent negotiations go well, if Alexios and Dafina hoped to combine their two kingdoms. Hers was limping along on its last legs, and Alexios needed their resources to revitalize the roads in Papia. Long ago, the two kingdoms had been one city state, vassal to a larger empire. Those days were long gone, however, and recombining them would be no small feat.
Of all the faces Leofric spent the feast studying, he took great pains to ignore the man standing beside him. Cosmo would be better suited with almost any other ruse to explain his presence here in the royal villa. He was not cut out for this kind of duty. He fidgeted, shifted his weight, sighed. Scratched his nose, fussed with the pommel of his sword.
“Three quarters of the year I would be the ideal guardsman,” he complained under his breath.
“Would that it were any other season,” Leofric hissed back. “A statue would be better company.”
To his outrage, that only made Cosmo smile. “A statue would be just as useful. Nothing will happen in the hall tonight.”
“We cannot know that,” said Leofric, struggling to keep the anger from stealing his focus. “Such is the way of a guardsman.”
Cosmo huffed.
“Can you not stand still?”
“I can,” retorted Cosmo. The feast was in its fourth hour, and he shifted his weight, wincing. “Perhaps I can’t.”
Leofric couldn’t stifle his small smile before Cosmo saw it.
“Oh yes,” said Cosmo. “So much pride you take in being as useful as one of these stone columns. Perhaps less so, since the columns hold up the roof. All you hold up is your armor.”
Leofric bit down on his tongue, refusing to allow himself to be goaded. “You are a mere tribune,” he said coolly. “His Highness is not relying on you to keep him safe. Better for you to excuse yourself than continue distracting those of us with real work to do.”
Cosmo turned as red as their cloaks but for once held his tongue, which gave Leofric immense satisfaction. He strode mutely from the hall, and though no one else paid mind to his leave, Leofric followed him with his eyes until he’d left the feast entirely.
Cosmo couldn’t believe he’d let Leofric get the last word in. His wits had been wandering for hours as he stood there, watching a spider climb its way up a column to begin weaving its web. He watched the spider as long as he could, otherwise he would surely have fallen asleep on his feet. The life of a guardsmen had to be the dullest life imaginable, Cosmo thought. He would rather be scrubbing the villa’s chamber pots daily than do this ever again. At least when cleaning one could move. Perhaps His Highness had need of two valets, and he could spend his days with Auro, instead.
That was only part of what had him so upset. Despite what he portrayed, he felt like a complete ass after how he’d behaved in the yard, prattling on inanely while exposing Her Grace’s secret. Prince Alexios should have dismissed Cosmo then and there, for inserting his foot so violently into his own mouth in the presence of Queen Dafina.
Auro had been so upset, having to stand by and watch as Alexios played gallant suitor to someone else. All Cosmo had wanted was to cheer Auro up, to cut the awkwardness of the whole affair, and naturally he’d gone and stuffed up the entire thing, making it worse for everyone involved.
Cosmo had been so distraught he hadn’t even been diverted by the near constant eye-fucking he’d been getting from one of the nobles at the feast. The man was striking, handsome and broad shouldered, and he plainly had eyes for Cosmo. Normally Cosmo would have found engaging in such games endlessly fun, but not tonight. He stepped out into the garden, and the position of the moon told him four hours had passed, thought it felt more like four years. Embarrassed that Leofric had dismissed him as if he were nothing more than a troublesome gnat, and feeling sorry for himself, Cosmo wondered where he might find a glass of wine, or three.
“Greetings,” said a voice behind him.
He startled, and turned to see none other than the nobleman who’d been watching him all evening. He stood, ostensibly gazing out at the magnificent flowers blooming in Queen Clio’s gardens, but his eyes trained on Cosmo.
“Greetings,” said Cosmo respectfully. He inclined his head. “How may I be of service?”
He grinned wickedly. “I can think of a whole host of ways.”
Cosmo weighed the man for a moment. His interest was barely stirred—but stirred a bit all the same. He might be miserable, but Cosmo still had eyes. He still had hot blood pumping through his veins. The man’s cocksure proposition was charming, and Cosmo had been dismissed for the evening after all.
All the same, his gut instinct was to refuse. He could appreciate the beauty and strength in the man, the bearing in his posture, but he didn’t want him. Not the way he was accustomed to wanting. But then, he thought of the way Auro had avoided him all afternoon, furious about what had happened in the yard. He thought of Leofric, who flicked Cosmo away like a speck of dirt on his perfect uniform.
At least someone in this bloody villa wanted his company. Cosmo fixed a coy smile on his face. “I had wondered if you noticed my attempt to catch your eye,” he said.
“I noticed,” said the man. “That and other things.”
“You could have approached me in the hall,” said Cosmo.
“I would not want to distract one of His Highness’s men,” he replied, stepping closer. He wasn’t unattractive, Cosmo mused. Nothing like the harshly sculpted specimen that was Leofric, but perhaps a dalliance with someone else would help Cosmo take his mind off him.
“Lucky for you, I have been dismissed for the evening,” Cosmo said. “And I’m certain his Highness would be pleased if you were pleased, Sir.”
The man smiled. “You can call me Marcus.”
“Alright, Marcus,” said Cosmo, taking a step closer. He noted Marcus did not ask his name, but that hardly mattered. “What did you have in mind?”
Back inside the atrium of the Papian royal villa, there was an antechamber where dignified supplicants could wait upon the pleasure of the king and queen. There was a fireplace, a table, and several comfortable chairs. At this hour, it was empty, with everyone of note at the feast. No one would be expecting an audience with His or Her Grace tonight. Marcus wasted no time, helping himself to the flagon of wine that stood perpetually at the ready upon the sideboard. He drained one cup and poured himself another. “Come here,” he said, and his voice was gruff, and far braver in the privacy of the chamber. More demanding. Cosmo sauntered over, but when he leaned in to offer Marcus a kiss, the man fisted a hand in Cosmo’s hair and gave it a commanding yank.
Cosmo winced even as he smiled at the sting in his scalp. “Is that the way of things?” he asked playfully, just as he’d asked Leofric in the practice yard.
“ Quiet, ” Marcus hissed. “And hurry.”
Cosmo sighed. He’d had couplings like this beyond counting, and he couldn’t deny that from time to time he enjoyed being handled roughly, nor could he deny that the fear of discovery could spice such ventures—but for some reason, tonight, any desire withered and died within him as he went to his knees before Marcus. He slipped his hands up Marcus’s thighs, feeling for a subligaria beneath his toga and finding none. Cosmo hiked the draping fabric up to get an eyeful of Marcus’s turgid manhood, but before he could close his lips around the head, someone gave a shriek. “ Marcus! ”
Cosmo jerked away, letting the noble Marcus cover himself up. “Niella,” he gasped in surprise, shoving his way past Cosmo to chase her out the door.
I will most likely pay for this later, Cosmo thought. He got to his feet and helped himself to the rest of Marcus’s wine, and waited for the axe to fall.
It fell a scant three hours later. Cosmo, Marcus, and his wife all stood before Prince Alexios and his parents, the king and queen. Cosmo had stepped in shit far more aggressively than he thought. Of all the lusty adulterers no doubt present at the royal banquet, Cosmo had apparently been about to suck the cock of the one who was third in line for the Papian throne. Cosmo could not have picked a worse partner if he’d legitimately tried. Bloody fucking typical.
“You are of course dismissed from your position as Aedile,” said King Nelios to Marcus Ajax Velius, who was also his nephew by marriage—because, of course he was. “You may remain in Papia City, but you will have no further part in the governance of the territory.”
Marcus threw a filthy look at Cosmo, as if it were all his fault. “But Your Grace?—”
“Silence,” said Queen Clio, her gaze cold. “Be grateful your position in the line of succession is not being questioned as well. You are in violation of the legal contract of marriage, and if you stray again your wife may present her case here before us. If she has further evidence, you will be stripped of all incomes, and properties, which will be given to her to share with her next husband and their children.”
“Tribune,” said Prince Alexios to Cosmo. He looked terrified to be handing down royal judgements alongside his parents, but his voice was steady as he went on. “You have disgraced the entire Kingdom in front of my betrothed, Queen Dafina of Neossós, which I cannot abide. You are henceforth dismissed from your guard service as well.”
Cosmo kept his face a mask and bowed deeply to the prince. “Yes, Your Highness.”
They all stared at him for a while, until Alexios added, “Immediately.”
“Of course, Your Highness,” said Cosmo, a sinking feeling in his stomach. He was only thankful that Auro was not present to bear witness to this sorry display. Cosmo turned on his heel and left the villa. He could feel Leofric’s deep scowl on the back of his head as his steps rang out through the marble hall.
A few hours before dawn, Cosmo waited in the shadows beside the royal villa’s curtain wall, waiting for the night watchmen to make their hourly circuit. He had his face hidden in the cowl of a dark robe, as his freckled visage and hair were now well known about the royal villa. When he was certain the coast was clear, he climbed a vining plant up the side of the wall and down the other side, moving swift enough to land on the soft grass before the guards passed this way again. He landed silently, on the balls of his feet, and slipped through the darkened gardens to another vining plant. Both of these ladders had been grown by Auro, Cosmo could tell at once. It was difficult to put a name to the feeling, but when he laid his hands upon them, he felt his brother’s power. Auro’s grace might have waned, but echoes of it remained in all the things that grew upon the earth.
Cosmo swung up and over the balcony, the balmy summer evening clear and bright with silvery moonglow. The prince separated his bed chambers from the elements with a set of gauzy silken curtains, allowing the fresh air, and Cosmo, to slip in. Once inside, he thought the most difficult part of his infiltration to be complete, but he’d only taken two steps when a colossal weight collided with his side and knocked him to the floor. Cosmo bit his tongue in the struggle, and rolled onto his back to find Leofric kneeling above him, dagger at his throat. “You,” he said.
“Me,” Cosmo agreed.
Leofric did not move. There was temptation in his eyes, an urge to use the knife in his hand. It was as gone as soon as it appeared, but Cosmo had seen.
“What’s going on?”
Cosmo craned his head, twisting his neck to see Auro and Alexios emerging bleary eyed from the bed they shared. “Hi, little brother.”
“Cosmo?”
“I thought perhaps I owed an explanation for what happened at the feast,” said Cosmo casually, as if he didn’t have a bony kneecap trying to work its way through his breastbone and into his lungs. He coughed.
“Leofric, let him up,” said Alexios.
“Your Highness?—”
“Auro used to sneak in all the time, anyway,” he said, as he shrugged into a bed robe and offered one to Auro.
“Auro used—he what?” Leofric sputtered, rising off Cosmo’s chest at last.
Cosmo gulped grateful lungfuls of air as he pulled himself to a seated position.
Once Auro was dressed, he led Cosmo back out onto the balcony so they could speak in private. “You really made a mess of things,” said Auro, the moment they were alone.
Cosmo sighed. He had all manner of excuses and explanations ready, but when he saw Auro’s disappointment, they withered on his tongue. “I know.”
“Alexios had to dismiss you,” said Auro. “You know that.”
“I do,” said Cosmo. It was true. He did not blame Alexios for making a show of Cosmo’s discharge from the royal guard. And it wasn’t like it were actually his job. “I just wanted…I never meant to make things more difficult for you.”
“You never do,” said Auro, and he did not sound angry. He sounded tired. His voice was resigned, full of pity, and that was worse. Auro had to work with Cosmo, if he hoped to break the curse, but he would have been happier to have almost anyone else’s help. Something inside of Cosmo cracked at the realization that Auro never really had any faith in him at all.
They didn’t speak for several moments, instead standing side by side to stare at the stars. “I still want to… to help. To try,” Cosmo said at last, stumbling over the words. “Just because I can’t stay here with you any longer doesn’t mean I can’t search for Kryos’s grace.”
Auro turned to look at him, a calculating look in his green eyes. “I believe you,” he said. And then he smiled.
Cosmo felt a surge of relief, that Auro still trusted him, but it was short lived, because Auro was not done yet.
“But I don’t think it wise for you to embark on this quest alone.”