Third Daughter (The Dharian Affairs, Book One) (37 page)

“What exactly are you attempting, my lady?” Janak asked with a wheezed breath.

“I’m going to rescue you, Janak!” she cried, but she could see his point. There wasn’t room for two on the ladder, and she might only jostle his grip.

“That’s my job, your majesty.” His voice was still strained. “Yours is to save our Queendom. Please make sure that you turn this infernal ship around before it reaches our Queen, will you?” That last sounded far too polite for Janak. And far too much like a goodbye.

“Janak, the weapon is disabled,” she said quickly. “The Queen is in no danger. But you are not relieved of your duties.” Tears crowded her vision. How could she help him down? She was afraid the fight had taken what strength he had left. “I’m wounded, Janak!” she lied, desperately. “And I’m dangling on the side of an skyship, and your sorry
raksaka
hide is blocking my path. So get thee down safely, or I’ll be tempted to toss you off this ship for endangering a member of the royal household!” Aniri peered between her boots.

Janak didn’t look up at her, just gave a breathy chuckle instead. “Your majesty is an extremely bad liar.”

“Janak, please save your breath—”

Another paper lantern took that moment to explode near the bow of the ship, making it lurch underneath them. Aniri drew in a sharp breath and held it until she was sure Janak still had hold of the ladder. Then she looked up to Ash hovering above her, beseeching his help with her eyes.

“Janak,” he called out. “Your lady needs to get below deck immediately. We need to rise above these floating mines or none of us will survive.”

Janak didn’t say anything, but he started to move—one jerking, heart-stopping step at a time as he climbed one-handed down the ladder. Aniri had no idea how he had managed to climb up in the first place. She descended after him, and Ash soon followed.

At the bottom, Priya was beside herself, fluttering between Aniri and Janak, trying to decide who to attend to first. Janak slumped against the railing, all energy fled, the only motion the unsteady rising and falling of his chest. His eyes were closed, and Aniri couldn’t tell if he had fallen unconscious or not. She could see his wound now, a gaping hole in his chest, and his tinker uniform stained dark with blood.

Ash touched her shoulder gently. “I’m going to the engine room. We need to drop some ballast and get above these mines.”

She nodded, still looking at Janak, then turned to Ash. “Do you need me?”

“No.” Ash gave her a small smile. “This is a Jungali vessel. We will negotiate a landing with Dharia shortly.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Attend to your guard.”

She nodded, and Ash hurried belowdecks. Aniri bent to Janak.

“You saved my life,” she said, quietly.

He didn’t open his eyes, but the corners of his mouth quirked. “’Tis my job, my lady. Please tell the Queen that I performed it.”

“Tell her yourself.”

The quirk grew into almost half a smile, then lapsed into a slackness that could only mean he had passed out. Aniri’s hand shook as she checked for his pulse. It was still present, but faint. She prayed it would keep beating until they could reach the ground and a proper doctor to save the man who secretly loved her mother.

Aniri’s royal garments were even more stiff and uncomfortable than she remembered. It hadn’t been that long since she had worn full, Dharian royal dress. But a lifetime of adventuring and spying had been compressed into a few short weeks, and her body had grown accustomed to that freedom.

She stood on the far side of her mother’s receiving room while the Queen looked over the final treaty documents. They were smeared with fresh ink and lacked the neatness Aniri would normally expect, with several things crossed and amended. They had been put together hastily in the twenty-four hours since Prince Malik successfully negotiated the landing of a Jungali skyship outside the gates of Kartavya, the capital and heart of Dharia.

Aniri hadn’t seen the prince much since then. He and Karan had been locked in meetings with the Queen and her advisors. Her sister, Nahali, had been involved in the negotiations, and Aniri imagined the prince now had more occasion to speak with the First Daughter of Dharia than the Third. Aniri had spoken briefly with her mother, singing Prince Malik’s virtues as a worthy ally, but she wasn’t surprised when her presence was no longer needed.

It was just as well because she wanted to attend to Janak’s recovery. His injuries were grave. The court’s best surgeons did what they could to stop the bleeding and repair the damage, but Janak was lucky Garesh’s bullet went clean through his shoulder, missing his lungs and merely destroying the use of his arm, at least temporarily. Time would tell on that, as well as his overall recovery. He had not yet awoken from the heavy vapors the surgeons had given him.

That didn’t stop Aniri from sitting at his bedside, softly telling him all he had missed while she had been foolishly off adventuring on her own. She even asked him quiet questions about her father, but only when Janak’s angular face was slack with drugs and there was no hope of any answers.

She wasn’t ready to hear them yet.

Her burning need to find her father had evaporated into smoke, like his sword. Someday, she would seek him out and demand to know why he was such a coward. Why he had forsaken them. For now, it was enough to know that, when it counted, she hadn’t run away and abandoned the ones she loved like he had.

The Queen rubbed her eyes. Her face was heavy with lack of sleep, but she seemed finally content with the treaty papers neatly stacked in front of her. The Queen’s court waited outside in her Grand Chamber to hear the details. The entire countryside had been buzzing about it since they’d arrived in the skyship. Aniri decided it was time to approach her, before the public could commandeer her attention again.

“Your Highness?” she asked, keeping her station by the door.

“Come, Aniri!” her mother said, rising and sweeping her silk dress around the side of her desk. She motioned Aniri closer. “I’m sorry, child. I haven’t had much time to spend with you since you returned.”

Her mother hadn’t called her
child
since… Aniri stumbled on a stray bump in the stone flooring, but managed to quickly recover. “You’ve been busy with important matters—”

“I’ve been busy too long with important matters.” The Queen surprised her by taking Aniri’s shoulders in her hands and looking into her eyes. “It’s your birthday, child, and I don’t even have a gift prepared for you.”

“There’s no need, Mother. I have
you
, safe, and that’s all the present I need.”

Her mother smiled sadly. “Your father used to say the same thing to me every year.” Aniri tried not to cringe under that knowledge. She hadn’t told her mother yet—that she knew the truth. That there was no reason to protect her from it any longer. But the fact that her father had abandoned her, her mother, their country… the wound was still too raw for Aniri to share it.

“You’ve always had his eyes,” her mother said, drawing Aniri out of her thoughts and stealing her breath. “But since you’ve returned, I’ve seen so much more in them.”

Then the Queen hugged her. It took Aniri a moment to remember to put her arms around her mother’s tightly drawn corset. She felt awkward in the movement and wished she knew how to do a better job of it. Then her mother released her and looked at her again.

“You’ve done well, my Third Daughter.”

Words caught in Aniri’s throat, but she cleared it, determined to have her say before the prince came to sign the documents and make it official. Before Janak awoke to a new Jungali-Dharian coalition and possibly new duties.

“Mother…” she started, but somehow her rehearsed lines fled her mind in the presence of her mother.

“Is there something you want to ask me, Aniri?” Her mother’s smile was gentle now, as if Aniri was a child she had to coax.

“No.” Aniri frowned, unsure what that was about. “I… there’s something I wanted to tell you.” She paused again, gathering courage. Her mother’s face was lined with worry and time, having gone too long without a love in her life to ease them. She had lost the man she loved long ago and gave everything to her country instead. Aniri took a deep breath. “When father died,” she said, the lie lying heavy on her heart, “I thought there could never be someone else who could take his place. That there never
should
be someone… else.”

Her mother’s face darkened, and the circles under her eyes became more pronounced. “He was a good man. I loved your father a great deal.”

“I know.” Aniri took her mother’s hand and nodded to emphasize her point. “I know you did. As did I. But it’s been a long time since he left us…” Aniri swallowed. “…and I want you to know you have my blessing to find someone else to love.”

Her mother smiled through her surprise. “My dear daughter, I hardly need your permission to—”

“I don’t mean the courtesans, Mother.” Aniri gave her a knowing look. Her mother’s eyes widened slightly. “I mean, you have my blessing to marry again. To someone who is not my father. Even someone who, perhaps, is not exactly from royal lineage.”

A flash of fear crossed her mother’s face and leapt straight into Aniri’s heart. Maybe she had stepped too far. She dropped her mother’s hand and affected a more casual air.

“I spent a lot of time with Janak in Jungali,” she lied again, knowing it was the shortest pathway to the truth. “I’ve already told you of his heroics on the skyship. He’s a good man, Mother, and an even better
raksaka
. But I think it is time you allowed him to retire from his active duties. Perhaps let him take a more courtly role.”

“This is what you wanted to tell me?” Her mother’s eyebrows lifted.

“Yes.”

Her mother slowly nodded, eyes still curious, probing Aniri’s face. But that was all she would say about it—all she
could
say without straying into matters of the heart that were none of her business. If her mother returned Janak’s affections, Aniri would bless their wedding with her love for both of them. The Queen seemed like she might press for more, but a soft knock sounded at the door.

Her mother smiled. “I believe the young prince has arrived to sign the treaty.”

Aniri ducked her head in acknowledgment and took a step back from the desk to give the Queen room to receive him.

“Come!” she called, and the door creaked open. Ash strode in, dressed in the finest Dharian courtly attire that could be obtained at short notice and tailored to fit him. He wore it with ease.

“Your majesty? Are you ready?” He caught sight of Aniri, and he checked himself in his long strides toward the Queen’s desk. He made a quick bow, hands pressed together. “Arama, Princess Aniri.”

Aniri returned the gesture but omitted the words. Ash’s gaze lingered on her, as if expecting a response. Then he hastily turned back to the Queen. “I apologize for the state of the documents, your majesty. But I won’t apologize for the contents. I think we’ve crafted a fine agreement.”

“Agreed.” Her mother’s smile was as bright as Aniri had seen in some time. She seemed quite taken by the prince. Which Aniri could completely understand. After his daring act of bringing the rumored weapon of war to the Dharian capital only to propose peace, return her Third Daughter, and defeat his own war general… if it were possible, Aniri was quite certain the Queen would adopt the barbarian prince as a son. And he was handsome too, even more so with the lack of shave shadowing his face. Given time away from treaty negotiations, she was sure his earnest heroics would win him any lady’s hand he cared to claim—in Dharia or Jungali.

Her mother and Prince Malik bent over the treaty, checking the final corrections and adding the flourish of their signatures. Aniri did not miss the irony that Dharia and Jungali were signing a peace treaty on her birthday. The day she had longed to arrive now stood empty of all the things she had wanted from it. Devesh had betrayed her. Her father had destroyed her dream of finding justice for him long before, only she didn’t know it. And now that her birthday was here, a simple piece of parchment on her mother’s desk had set her more free than any date on the calendar ever could.

Only now she wasn’t quite sure what to do with that freedom.

The treaty meant her mother did not need Aniri to enter into a peace-brokering marriage with the prince of Jungali. And the prince… he could return to his country, bearing a shiny new alliance with Dharia and an amazing new technology that would bring great things to his people.

He had no need of her either.

She had no claim on him and nothing to offer. No reason she could give for him to stay, not even a day past the signing of the treaty, and yet… her heart was heavy with the thought that this might be their last chance to speak. Courtly duties would soon pull him away.

She might not even see him again before he left.

The prince straightened and bowed to the Queen, who pressed her hands together in acknowledgment. Her mother swept the papers up in her hands.

“Now,” she said to the prince, but also including Aniri with a glance, “I have to freshen before we can present our new treaty to the court. I’m afraid the night’s work has drawn down my energy. Will your highness excuse me for a few minutes while I have my chambermaids attend to me?”