A Posse of Princesses (35 page)
And despite Shera’s dark prognostications, it
turned out that Hanssa had accompanied Lios’s travel party—along
with four others. They’d stayed at royal posting houses all the way
north, a staid, proper party as different from a certain mad,
desperate dash as could be. Rhis even had some conversation with
Hanssa, who sat next to her at dinner. She discovered that she was
not the only one who could change over five years: Hanssa’s
sixteen-year-old passion for royally-born people had switched to a
passion for royally-born horses, especially those with a pedigree
for speed. Though she had learned to be charming—her taste in
clothes was exquisite—when left to choose her own topic, it was
horse racing. As soon as her broken toes (gotten in a fall when she
tried one of Taniva’s high-bred hunters) healed, she proposed a
royal horse race.
After dinner, she hopped away on an
ambassador’s arm.
And so Shera did not get her drama after all
but neither did she look for it. When the dinner was over and the
guests wandered off to explore the mountain retreat or to gather
for various forms of entertainment, Lios held out his hand—and Rhis
knew their promised moment had come at last.
Her last glimpse of Shera was at the other
end of the room where she sat in quiet conversation with Glaen, all
drama forgotten.
Rhis was chuckling to herself as she and Lios
walked out onto a long balcony bathed in the cool blue light of
both moons, one rising, one setting.
“Did you think about what to say on the long
ride to the mountains?” Lios asked. “I know I did.”
“I was singing too much,” Rhis admitted. “And
talking.”
“Time for my speech. It was a good one, too—I
had quotes in at least four of the languages you probably speak
better than I do, and I got in a couple of impressive metaphors
that I lifted from the latest play from Siradayel, but you know
what my mother said just before I left? She said,
Bring that
girl back, my boy. When I get old and my court shoes pinch too
tight to wear, it’s her I want to hand my crown to
.” He shook
his head. “Somehow I can’t better that. Though the court heralds
won’t like that about pinched shoes, if we ever tell them about
tonight.”
Rhis swept her gaze once over the soaring
mountains, their crowns of ice gleaming in the soft light.
I
want to remember this day forever
, she thought. Out loud she
said, “That’s your mother, and that’s Vesarja. What about you?”
Lios held out his hands. “But don’t you see?
There isn’t any me, or just me. I come with my mother and Vesarja.
They are an inescapable part of me. I wish I could say that my
mother’s temper will be so benign every day, but the truth is her
shoes do pinch—or so she says when she gets mad in council and
throws insults around like crashing plates. And as for Vesarja, I
wish I could give you the play’s version of being a queen, with
boxes of gems and a new gown every day, and an endless series of
courtly plays and surprises. You can have those things, but the
truth is, our part of the world is unsettled. Sveran Djur is
restless. He wants more land.”
“I know.”
“And Arpalon is in terrible straits. His
spending reached a crisis because he kept thinking he’d recoup by
marrying his daughter to a very wealthy king, but—so far—it hasn’t
happened. So he’s stirring up as much trouble as he can among our
neighbors, and Shera’s own mother is listening to him, because she
doesn’t need him making trouble on her border.”
“I know.”
“And the silk traders are unhappy because
Thesreve’s silk is better, so they are gaining ground in world
trade, and in short there is greed and ambition and danger aplenty
out there in the world, and our job will be to ceaselessly guard
against it. We will work hard.”
“I know,” she said.
“But it all changes if I can believe that you
will be there, every day, every night, by my side. I’ve had five
years to get to know other girls, and I have, and I liked many of
them, but finally none of them was you.” Lios gave an uncertain
laugh, his feelings as whirled as hers. “All right, I’ve talked
about what mother wants. What the kingdom wants. What I want. What
do you want, Rhis?”
“You,” she said, and took his face between
her hands, and drew him into a long and lingering kiss.
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