And maybe the stirrings overtook me the most when I was with Aster. How had I come to love her in such a short time? As if on cue, she tapped on my door and entered. She had a cart and her chosen army with her—Yvet and Zekiah. They were too small to be barrow runners but were able to earn a meal in the kitchen by doing other tasks.
“We’re supposed to gather your things for you, Miz, and haul them over to your new quarters. If that’s all right with you, that is. But I think it has to be all right, because the Komizar ordered it, so I hope you don’t mind if we fold up your clothes and put them in this here—” Her face flooded with worry, and she rushed toward me. “What happened to your cheek?”
I reached up, touching my cheekbone. I found it hard to lie to Aster, but she was too young to be drawn into this. “It was only a clumsy fall,” I answered.
She frowned as if unconvinced.
“Please,” I said, “go ahead and move my things. Thank you.”
She clucked like an old woman, and they went about their work. If all went well, I’d be in my new quarters for only one night. They gathered the belts and underclothes that Effiera had given me first, then went on to the dresses. Aster grabbed the towel on the bed that Calantha had brought, but as she lifted it, something heavy fell from it and clattered to the floor.
We all sucked in quick breaths. My jeweled knife. The one I’d thought was gone forever. Calantha had had it all along. Aster, Yvet, and Zekiah gawked at the knife, took a step back, then looked at me. Even in all their innocence, they knew I shouldn’t possess weapons.
“What should we do with that?” Aster asked.
I knelt hastily, scooping it up as I grabbed the towel from Aster. “It’s a wedding gift from the Komizar,” I said and wrapped it up again. “He wouldn’t be happy that I was so careless with it. Please don’t mention this to him.” I looked up at the three wide-eyed faces. “Or to anyone.”
They all nodded, and I shoved it into the bottom of the cart. “When you take these things to my room, please unload the knife carefully and place it under all my clothes. Can you do that?”
Aster looked at me, her expression solemn. She wasn’t buying any of it. None of them were. Their innocence and childhoods had been stolen long ago like Eben’s. “Don’t worry, Miz,” Aster said. “I’ll be careful and put it in a real good place.”
I started to stand, but Yvet stopped me and leaned forward to kiss my injured cheek, her little lips moist against my skin. “It won’t hurt for long, Miz. Be brave.”
I swallowed, trying to answer without turning into a blathering fool. “I’ll try, Yvet. I’ll try to be as brave as you.”
Betrayed by her own,
Beaten and scorned,
She will expose the wicked,
For the Dragon of many faces
Knows no boundaries.
—Song of Venda
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
KADEN
I sat at the Council table, listening, nodding, trying to add a word when I could, but once again Lia had commandeered my thoughts. With every drop of blood within me, I was certain I needed her here. That she needed to be here. But it seemed almost impossible now.
I had known.
I knew what he was planning, and I said nothing because it was everything I thought I wanted—“the steps to justice,” he called them—and I wanted justice. That’s what I had called it too. But I knew we were twisting words. It was vengeance, pure and simple. It was all that mattered. I was certain that the day I looked into my father’s eyes and eased him into his last breath, my own breaths would grow fuller. That the scars I bore would miraculously disappear and be forgotten. Any price seemed worth that prize. Innocents die in war, Lia. I had said those words countless times to myself as justification, even when I learned of Greta’s death. Innocents die. But now I pictured Berdi dishing out extra helpings of stew, myself dancing in the streets of Terravin with Gwyneth and Simone … and there was Pauline, as kind and gentle a girl as it was possible for any earthly being to be. They had names now. Their faces were sharp and clear, while the face of justice had grown dim.
At the same time, I couldn’t forget the people of Venda who had taken me in either. They had adopted me as one of their own. Nourished me. I was Vendan now, and I knew their need was great. We were a kingdom that struggled every day at the hands of those who showed no compassion. Didn’t this land deserve some measure of justice? And the answer to that I knew was an undeniable yes.
I won’t let any harm come to them.
I had made a promise to Lia I wasn’t sure I could keep.
The meetings were running long. Governor Obraun was remarkably easy to sway, agreeing to double the loads from his mines in Arleston. Almost too agreeable. The other governors balked, claiming they couldn’t squeeze blood from a stone. The Komizar assured them they could.
You have an agreement. How wonderful for you.
“Nothing to say, Assassin?”
I looked up, and Malich smirked at me from across the table, delighting in catching me in other thoughts.
“We all have practice at squeezing blood from stone. We’ve done it for years. We can do it through one more winter.”
His smile faded while the Komizar’s grew, pleased that I had pushed the cause. He nodded, our long-held understanding reestablished.
CHAPTER SIXTY
PAULINE
We were waiting on the fringe of the citadelle plaza for Bryn and Regan, hanging in the shadows of the towering spruce, when a soldier galloped wildly past us. He fell from his horse at the foot of the steps, appearing half dead. A sentry rushed to his side, and the soldier said a few words we were too far away to hear, and then he passed out. The sentry disappeared into the citadelle as two guards lifted the soldier and carried him inside.
A crowd began to gather as word spread of the soldier. He had been identified as being from Walther’s platoon. Minutes passed and then an hour, and there was still no sign of Bryn or Regan.
By the time anyone emerged from the citadelle again, the square was full. The Lord Viceregent came out and stood at the top of the steps, his face stricken. He smoothed back his white-blond hair as if trying to compose himself—or perhaps wishing to postpone what he had to say. His voice cracked in his first few words, but then he gathered his strength and announced that Crown Prince Walther of Morrighan was dead, along with his platoon, butchered by the barbarians.
My knees weakened, and Berdi grabbed my arm.
Silence choked the crowd for a moment and then mother after mother, sister, father, wife, brother, fell to their knees. Their anguished wails filled the air, and then the queen appeared on the steps, thinner than I remembered, her face ashen. She walked into the crowd, and she wept with them. The Viceregent tried to offer comfort, but there was no consoling her or anyone else.