“Your what?” Yara demanded.
“Fiancee?” Books mused. “Definitely not the emperor, then.”
Sespian’s eyebrows flew up. He hadn’t understood Basilard’s comments, of course. Perhaps that was for the best.
“Allow me to explain,” Maldynado said. “As I mentioned earlier, I believe I can get into Rabbit Island. Even if the guards have heard that I’m disowned, Mari should be willing to vouch for me.” He hoped he wouldn’t have to perform any favors to earn that vouching. “And I imagine it won’t surprise anyone if I have a bodyguard and a lady friend.”
“A fiancee?” Akstyr asked.
“Just so,” Maldynado said. “And I believe Basilard would be a very convincing bodyguard. As for Akstyr, Books, and the emperor, someone will have to row the boat I’ve reserved for our use.”
Books made a choking noise. “You want the emperor to row your hirsute haunches across the river?”
“He can steer if rowing is a problem,” Maldynado said.
Fortunately, Sespian responded with an amused snort.
“Once we dock,” Maldynado said, “I’ll loudly give orders for my crew to stay and keep the vessel ready for my departure. On the way to the resort, Yara, Basilard, and I will arrange to create a distraction of some sort, the type of thing a few dock guards might be dispatched to investigate. Then you three can sneak aboard the steamboat.”
“Why do I have a feeling it won’t be that easy?” Books asked.
“Amaranthe’s schemes never go as planned either,” Maldynado pointed out. “You’re smart. You can compensate.”
“Somehow that sounds more convincing when she says it,” Books said. “Sire, what do you think?”
Sespian dropped his chin on his fist-he liked to do that when he was pondering, Maldynado had noticed-and gazed at the rusty nuts and bolts scattered on the dusty ground.
“You’ll do fine if you have to subdue a few thugs, Sire,” Maldynado said. “I can attest to the fact that you’re decent at sneaking up and putting a knife to a man’s throat.” Sespian hadn’t shown any appreciation for flattery thus far, and didn’t acknowledge it now. Maldynado pressed on. “You’ll have Books and Akstyr with you too. Akstyr’s got his magics, and Books… He’s tall and spindly, but he’s gotten decent with his fists.”
“Such a magnanimous accolade,” Books murmured.
“Shouldn’t my vote matter here?” Yara asked. “You haven’t explained why you need a fiancee. I’d, quite frankly, rather play the role of oarsman.”
“My lady, you wound me with your distain.” Maldynado started to lay a hand on his chest, but remembered Books poking fun at his tendency to do that and offered Yara puppy-dog eyes instead. She glared, and he switched tactics. “To answer your question, I plan to get information by pretending I wish to return to the warrior-caste lifestyle and by agreeing to do whatever’s necessary to get back into my father’s good graces.” His stomach turned at the thought. A pretense only, he told it. “Given my previous disinterest in being in anyone’s good graces, I thought my turnaround would be more believable if it were because I’d found the woman of my dreams and decided to marry her.”
Yara’s lips reared back from her teeth like those of a trained attacked dog ready to crush a man’s jewels.
Maldynado continued speaking, though he knew his next words might truly endanger those jewels. “And if she’s expecting, my change of heart will be even more believable. What kind of warrior-caste father would want his child growing up as a commoner?”
“Child!” Yara blurted.
Books rubbed the back of his head. “This is starting to sound like an Amaranthe plan.”
Maldynado stood straighter. “Do you think so? Would she be proud?”
“I’d like to say she’d be appalled by your entire last forty-eight hours, which included crashing a dirigible and blowing up a steam lorry, but… I can’t.”
“Nope.” Maldynado smiled. “Crashes and explosions have become her hallmarks of late.”
Basilard signed, She’ll be proud if your antics get the emperor the information he needs.
“Ah, yes, always back to business. What do you think, Yara? Will you play the part of adoring fiancee if it’ll help the emperor?”
“ Adoring?”
“That part isn’t required. You just have to make it believable.”
Yara sighed and dropped her arms. “Will there be touching?”
“No,” Sespian said with a warning look to Maldynado.
“Wait a moment,” Maldynado said, “it wouldn’t be convincing if we kept a distance. Mari knows me, after all.”
Sespian and Yara glared at him.
“You don’t have to go,” Sespian told her. “You can be on the boat crew.”
“No, no, Sire, I have to take her. My sister-in-law will find it suspicious if I have a change of heart for no obvious reason. Yara and a pretend-baby-on-the-way make a good reason.” And, he had to admit, he wanted to see her in that dress, but he’d best not admit that aloud, not if he didn’t want her to throw a knife at him. “Besides, I’m hoping her presence will keep Mari from wanting to be entertained.”
That drew a round of blank looks from everyone.
“By me,” Maldynado clarified.
The blank looks did not turn into expressions of enlightenment. Would he have to draw pictures?
“By my man parts,” Maldynado said.
More than one set of eyebrows lifted.
Yara’s lip curled again-it was good at that. “That’s disgusting.”
“Oh, no, they’re quite fine.” Maldynado waved to his lower regions. “You’re welcome to see them anytime if you don’t believe me. Perhaps it’d even be wise, in case someone questions you about my manhood while we’re perpetrating this ruse. You wouldn’t want to say anything in err, would you?”
Yara’s lip curled up further until it was in danger of swallowing her nose. “I meant that it’s disgusting that your sister-in-law would proposition you!”
“Oh, yes,” Maldynado said. “She’s done so during more than one family gathering. For whatever reason-well, we all know the reason-she finds me quite irresistible.”
“Maldynado… ” Books managed a pronounced sigh as he said the name.
“Have you ever returned her… ardor?” Sespian asked.
“Of course not. With my brother’s wife? I have some scruples, you know.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve slept with someone’s wife,” Books said. “Isn’t Lady Buckingcrest married?”
Maldynado folded his arms across his chest. “Not to any of my brothers.”
Yes, come now, Basilard signed to Books. Maldynado has standards.
Of course, Books signed back. What was I thinking?
“I wish I understood that hand language,” Yara said.
“They’re mocking me,” Maldynado said.
“Then I really wish I understood it.” Yara’s eyes glinted.
Maldynado thought to scowl at her, but he’d best not do anything to squash improvements in her mood, slight though they may be.
“Enough of this foolishness,” Yara said. “Let’s visit your lecherous relative and get this information as swiftly as possible.”
“Does that mean you’re agreeing to become my fiancee?” Maldynado went down on a knee and opened his arms, inviting her to run into his embrace.
“Let’s just say that I believe your family would be highly skeptical that you’d agree to settle down and take on responsibility unless you’d been suitably whipped into submission by a woman.” A thoughtful expression came over Yara’s face. “Yes, actually, a good overbearing woman who bosses you around and takes none of your frivolity is just what you need. I do believe I can play that role.”
If Yara meant that to concern him, she’d be disappointed. Maldynado offered his best lazy smile. “Whatever you say, dear, so long as you do the whipping while wearing that dress.”
A perplexed wrinkle furrowed Sespian’s brow. “It’s hard to imagine you’re the group’s charm specialist.”
“Actually, that’s Amaranthe,” Maldynado said. “I just get all the women.”
“Not all of them,” Yara said.
Maldynado kept his response, one of we’ll see, to himself.
Pike’s salve hadn’t healed Amaranthe entirely, only “enough so you won’t die overnight.” Locked back in the crate, she hunkered in a ball, face buried in her knees, the walls pressing in from all sides and denying a change of position. Moving wouldn’t have been wise anyway. Any time she so much as twitched, a scab opened up and fresh blood or pus dripped down her arm or leg and splashed onto the waste-stained floor.