“And your romance with Prince Sebastien,” Clotaire continued with a sly smile that verged on fatuous, “I couldn’t be happier. Initially, I had planned for you to contract with a different court, a more influential ruler, but then Uhtric imploded—defying all predictions—and Stearanos and Oneira both removed themselves from the playing field. Soren has emerged as a major player in the balance of worldwide power, surging into the lead, which offers us very particular prospects. This love affair fell into our laps, which only sweetens an already rich opportunity.”
“You did know,” Rose breathed. Not really a question. No wonder Madame Hendricks had turned a blind eye. No wonder her father hadn’t been visiting as often as had been his habit before.
“I more than knew; I gave permission.” He cleared his throat, catching Shoshan’s pointed glare. “We both did.”
“Though I thought I was choosing for your happiness,” her mother said in an odd tone. “I didn’t know—I still don’t understand, in fact—how thisyouthfulfirst love with Sebastien plays into some grand political scheme.” She emphasized “youthful,” making it sound as if she didn’t expect the affair to have lasting impact.
“If Sebastien offers to marry Rose, as well as to open Soren’s court to her, then that creates another level of confusion and a smoke screen to allow our deception to take place,” Clotaire explained, his fervor growing, his bright, brittle gaze on Rose. “I worried that you might not be capable of feeling—or at least feigning—the kind of emotion required for a love affair, but you’ve managed quite well so far. All you need is the offer and a ring.”
“What deception?” she asked with patience she didn’t feel, willing herself not to give away that Sebastien had already offered marriage. She’d begun to have a very bad feeling about this, with all of these secret agendas, doubting everyone’s motives—including her own.
“This is the brilliant part,” her father said, clasping his hands together and setting the combined fist of them on the table, leaning in as he spoke. “Rose will accept Soren’s contract to be court sorceress. You might have to nudge Sebastien along into a marriage proposal. Women are skillful at such manipulations, especially in these early days of your relationship, when he is still besotted with you and doesn’t yet fully understand what a lifetime commitment will mean.”
He continued on, blissfully unaware of Rose’s growing ire.
“When your contract is transferred from Madame Hendricks, the current holder, to the king, the geas will transfer along with it, when the new contract is signed in blood. But the person signing that contract will beThorn, not you.” He finished with a rictus of a grin, apparently waiting for congratulations.
“I don’t understand the implications,” Rose replied. “Thorn would be contracted to His Majesty?”
“Everyone wouldbelieveshe is contracted, but she wouldnotbe!” he answered, voice rising to a triumphant shout. “Remember: she is not bound by the original blood geas, which means there is nothing to transfer. She would be a free agent. Then I will take her away and keep her carefully warded, as she has been so effectively all her life, and teach her what she needs to know. Our secret weapon.”
And still a prisoner. Had their father ever seen them as people at all?
“Thenyoucan step back in,” Clotaire continued gleefully, “and take up your role as sorceress in the bosom of the king’s court, a king with ambitions to rule more than his own realm. Only you will not be bound to obey him. He’ll believe you are his tool, but he will be ours!” Clotaire grinned, waiting with the air of a man expecting congratulations.
“Diabolical,” Rose commented as neutrally as possible.
“I’m glad you agree.” He beamed at her. “And, if you extract that proposal from Prince Sebastien, as I have total faith you can do, you will become a princess, and possibly queen someday, once Soren has served his purpose.”
“Am I to marry Sebastien or is Thorn?”
“You should do that, as I doubt Thorn will hold up long under scrutiny. It will be wisest to spirit her in and out quickly, to avoid any gaffes she might make in her ignorance of the world. It’s not as if you’ll be constricted by the marriage vows. Enjoy him if you like, and when you’re queen, you can eliminate him.”
“Sebastien is fifth in line for the throne,” Rose pointed out. Did her father not care at all about whether she loved Sebastien or that she’d have scruples about marrying him under false pretenses? Or, maybe he didn’t since he seemed to assume she wasn’t capable of love, which… could very well be the case.Not actually human.
“Yes, well…” Her father waved that off, his smile taking on a manic edge of glee. “With you embedded in the court and a free agent, the heirs ahead of Sebastien can be handled judiciously over time.”
Handled.A nice euphemism for murder. It seemed that, in this grand scheme, Rose would become the serial killer of Sebastien’s family. A fitting task for an inhuman creature of the Dream. What a glorious future her father envisioned for her. But there were other questions.
“And how am I a free agent in this scenario? If my contract isn’t transferred, the blood geas will still bind me to Madame Hendricks.”
“That’s the beauty and subtlety of this plan.” Her father opened his doubled fist and laid his palms flat on the table. “Madame Hendricks will still hold your contract,but she won’t know it. The physical copy of the contract will be with Soren and it won’t occur to Hendricks to enforce your obedience.” He waited a beat, black eyes stark inside the wide white rings of his excitement, flicking back and forth between Rose and Shoshan. “Don’t you see? She won’t be giving you instructions that the blood geas obliges you to follow. If Soren tries to command you, it won’t work. No one will even know that Thorn even exists, which will allow us to use her power, effectively doubling what you can do. You will be able to work your considerable sorcery without the leash that constricts everyone else.”
“The witch Gornicka had a double,” Rose commented, feeling as if she stood a little outside her body. “One of them eventually killed the other and no one knew which was which.”
“Fairy tales.” He brushed that off. “This is a gift beyond price that I’m giving you. Don’t you realize that every magic-worker in existence would sacrifice anything to be in your position? You will be bound to no one and nothing. You’ll be able to accumulate wealth of your own. Your debt won’t bind you. You’ll haveultimate freedom to do anything at all, and Thorn’s power to supplement yours.”
“And you would be there to assist with it all.”
“A team, you and I, like always.” His expression wrinkled into something that he likely hoped looked like paternal affection but came out distorted. “After all these years of keeping this to myself, it’s so good to share it. To finally speak of it. To both of you,” he added, a bit too hastily, giving Shoshan a weak smile. “I’d long hoped—I’d envisioned—that we three would work together. Our small, private army of liberation. This isn’t how I planned to unveil my scheme, but I’m honestly grateful for this opportunity, as I didn’t know how I’d tell you when the time came. Frankly, all these years of silence and secrecy have worn on me, every day. You don’t know how hard it’s been on me, every moment afraid the truth would come out. And now it has, but not to our enemies. We can be allies in this. It’s truly a relief.” He blew out a breath and grinned at them, clearly recalculating when he saw no answering smiles.
“Shosh, I don’t expect you to forgive me, as I said already, and you do not have to be complicit, but Rose…” He reached a hand across the table toward her, sliding it across the wood, his sweating palm leaving another track in the gloss, like a snail’s slime across a leaf. She did not reciprocate, instead setting her hands in her lap. “Rose,” he repeated, leaving his hand there, his smile insistent. “We will make a great team. With your powerful abilities and my connections and planning, with Thorn’s sorcery as our secret weapon, we can accomplish great things. You can truly become Empress of the Known World, just as I’ve always promised you.”
And there it was. The end game: total power, the same thing everyone seemed to want.
“I thought you intended to free the magic-workers from this system that binds them to the blood geas in childhood.” At the last moment, she lifted her tone on the final word, to dress it up as a question, rather than an accusation.
Clotaire nodded, then wobbled his head from side to side. “That’s the point of rule,” he said, though unconvincingly. “We can only change the system from within. Once I am in charge, with you at my side—both of you, if you choose, Shoshan—then we can change the laws.”
