Chapter 76
Together
Colsar’s chambers are larger than I expected. I pause in the doorway and take them in. High ceilings. Wide windows facing the gardens. The room feels preserved exactly as he left it, as though the palace understood he was coming back.
"Your rooms are too small for all of us,” he says, moving past me.
"We will sleep here until the Moon Chambers are ready."
I cannot hide my excitement. "The Moon Chambers. Finally."
"There are three bedrooms off this main chamber. Cambra and Saurin will each have one," he says, his eyes on the children.
I look around. It is not a difficult arrangement to agree to. We have barely set the children down when a knock comes at the door.
Edrin. He is taller than I remember. Or perhaps I remember him differently, the red-haired page who used to wait in the outer corridor, uneasy as he delivered correspondence to me, his expression tightening whenever he looked at my hands or my face.
He still flushes easily. He bows too quickly, the same way he always did, and something in my chest pulls.
"Highness." He straightens. "I am glad you have returned safely." A pause. "My father. General Rorin. You brought him home."
“Your father did more than we can ever repay,” I say. “And thank you for getting word to Colsar. I don’t know if we would be here without you.”
He nods once, something moving through his face that he does not try to contain.
"Edrin," I say. "Where is Maridale?"
The composure returns, carefully. "Gone, Majesty.
After you fled, the king became..." He pauses, choosing his words carefully.
"Angry. Several servants were punished. Some went missing.
He believed them responsible for not alerting him to what had happened with your brother, or for failing to protect you directly.
" He looks down briefly. "Maridale was afraid she would be next. She left before he could decide."
The pang arrives before I can stop it. "Do you know where she went?"
"No, Majesty."
I hold that for a moment. Then, "Torsin and Emva?"
"They were in the southern valley when you disappeared. Maridale sent word that you had left." He shakes his head. "They never returned."
I look at Colsar. He looks back at me.
"And Brinette?" I ask.
Edrin's frown arrives slowly. "I am not certain, Majesty. She was here often, after you left. The king summoned her regularly." He pauses. "He had her examine the dress choices for your dinners. When you were gone he still wished to...prepare for your return."
The particular quality of that sentence takes a moment to fully arrive.
“For my return,” I repeat.
Colsar's sucks in a breath, his fists clenched.
"Yes, Majesty." He clears his throat, glancing at Colsar nervously. "And then one day she was summoned and simply did not come. He sent for her twice more. She was never found."
Something passes between Colsar and me without needing words.
Edrin hesitates. Then, lower, as though the walls might carry it, "There is more you should know, Majesty.
While you were gone..." He glances toward the floor, as though there is something beneath us.
"Strange sounds began coming from below the palace.
At night mostly. And the servants who upset the king. .." He stops.
"Say it," I say quietly.
"There are rumors," he says carefully, "that those who displease him do not simply disappear. That they become something else." His jaw works once. "Creatures of the night. Something you hear before you see. Most of us have learned not to be in the lower corridors after dark."
The silence that follows has a particular quality.
"Thank you, Edrin," I say. "For telling me. For all of it."
He bows again, still too quickly, and leaves.
Colsar moves to the window. He does not speak. The set of his shoulders tells me everything he is not saying.
I am here, but you do not need me. I will let you handle this.
I call for Wyn. She appears within moments, her attention already set before I have spoken.
"I need someone who can investigate quietly," I say. “Four names. Maridale, my former lady's maid. Torsin and Emva, who are supposedly in the southern valley." I pause. "And Brinette."
"Of whom shall I begin?" Wyn asks.
"The southern valley first," I say. "I need to confirm my friends are safe.
" I look at her steadily. "As for Brinette.
.." My chest pulls in a way I do not entirely manage.
"She was likely spending time with Matron Oramin while I was gone.
I hope she did not meet the same fate. But I need someone to confirm it. Quietly."
Wyn nods and leaves.
I stand there for a moment after she goes and I let myself feel it, the particular pull of people who were kind to me in a place that was not kind, scattered now, unaccounted for.
"The Princess of Yorali is leaving just as the Matron is revealed as a deathmage," I say. "I do not trust her. Or anyone in this palace, given the circumstances."
“Asharin.”
I turn to Colsar. "We stick to the plan. We push for Fiorakis to be named heir. It secures her claim and makes everyone let their guard down. They will think that is what we came for."
He exhales once, but it does nothing to soften him. “I want to kill him for what he has done. Not just for what he did, but for thinking he could do it again.” Colsar closes his eyes, his voice lethal. “Why the fuck is he having dresses made?”
“Colsar, focus,” I say quietly.
"I will not let my daughter inherit a kingdom destroyed by corruption," Colsar says. "I never cared before about the throne. But now I do. We will rule this country and fix it.”
“But Asharin, he must pay. He will pay. It is not negotiable. And if he provokes me, it will be difficult to restrain me.”
“Yes. But we must first be strategic." I pause. "The deathmages are Yorali. And it is Yorali magic that is required to open Morrath. It is all connected. We focus on learning what we can about Morrath and exploit its weakness when we find it."
I grab his arm. “I know you want to secure the throne now. I know you want revenge, but we must be strategic. We are not feeders. We cannot even enter a country full of creatures capable of killing us. He has a considerable advantage."
"He has been having dresses fitted for you," Colsar says again, his voice calm in a way that reveals he is not.
I grab his hand. “Do not get distracted. Do not be what he expects."
He pauses. "We are assuming Yorali only wants Morrath. But what if it is not Morrath they want. What if it is you? Or the children?”
"That would not make any sense."
“It would not. Except a deathmage found its way to Alarna. Then an army of them to Gyarin. Then, conveniently, to Matron Oramin of all the Matrons.”
I say nothing. He is not wrong.
“We must treat it as one threat," he says. "Yorali, Morrath, the deathmages. All connected. We tell no one what we suspect. Not yet."
"We learn first," I say. "Then we move."
He nods once.
Cambra and Saurin are shown their rooms. Wyn takes her position outside the twins' door without being asked, which tells me everything I need to know about her.
I take the children and tell Saurin and Cambra to rest. Both look as though they might argue. Neither does.
I spread a blanket on the floor near the window for the babies while I go to draw a bath, and I am still pulling the water when I hear it.
A small frustrated sound. Then another. I come back out.
Fiorakis has pushed herself up onto her arms and is lifting her head with the particular concentration of someone conducting very important work.
She is trying to get somewhere. It is not entirely clear where.
Ari lies beside her watching this with calm and complete interest, one hand open against the blanket.
I laugh before I can stop it. Colsar appears from the basin in the corner, still drying his hands, and sees them.
Something crosses his face that I have not seen before, open and unguarded and entirely real.
He crosses the room and scoops them both up, one in each arm, and stands there holding them with a pride so complete it has nowhere to put itself.
He presses his mouth to the top of Ari's head, then Kiss's.
"Bring them when you're done," I say.
I get into the bath, ready to wash the day away.