Page 99 of Crown of the Dunes

I blinked, finding myself standing in front of a wooden door. My fist hovered uncertainly for a moment before I forced myself to knock. A shuffling sounded behind the door, followed by a masculine call of “One moment!”

The door swung open to reveal a man. His eyes widened in surprise at the sight of me, and I was taken aback.

“This must be the wrong house. I was looking for Aderyn.”

The man’s eyes brightened, glittering against his dark skin. “No, no. You’re in the right place.” He shook his head, making the golden beads adorning his braids jangle cheerfully. “She’s just cleaning up. Come in.”

As he stood aside, and I stepped into his home, it occurred to me that I recognized the man, having seen him around the palace a few times. The second thing that struck me was that Aderyn’s entire home was covered in brightly colored fabrics. Not just the decorative wall hangings and cushions scattered about to use as seating—long swaths were draped out over the furniture while bolts of embroidered silk were piled high on the table, nearly toppling over in their precarious stack.

“Sorry for my mess,” the man apologized. “I’m Neven, Aderyn’s husband.”

I turned toward him, eyebrows raising in surprise. Somehow, I hadn’t realized Aderyn had gotten married. It had never occurred to me that there could be the type of man who could burrow under her prickly exterior. While Keera had managed to befriend her, it seemed their friendship had formed much the way ours had: over a sword.

This man didn’t strike me as one familiar with a sword, instead looking at home among the colorful lengths of linen and silk he began gathering up and sorting into neat piles.

“I’ve been trying to expand Keera’s wardrobe into one fit for a queen,” he chattered at me as he worked, ignoring the way I stood awkwardly in the center of the room, fists clenching and unclenching at my sides in discomfort. “When I heard she might have need for a wedding gown, I got a little overexcited.”

A strangled noise escaped me involuntarily, somewhere between a cough and a growl. Neven’s head shot up from his task, the movement making the golden beads in his braids catch the light.

I clenched my jaw, trying to school my face to neutrality, although I was sure he could hear my teeth grinding. Regardless, Neven’s gaze was knowing.

“You know, I always love designing wedding gowns,” he started slowly, his tone so casual it betrayed him as he returned to folding his cloth, “but I had hoped I wouldn’t be crafting one for Keera so soon. She reminds me of my Aderyn, you know—feisty and incredibly hard to land, but worth the work. I pictured her with… a different kind of prince.”

He glanced up at me through his lashes, and despite the war going on in my heart, it warmed to him.

“Plus, if I am not busy crafting a wedding dress worthy of a goddess, then perhaps I can find time to make you something new,” Neven continued. “You know, we do make fabric in colors other than gray and black.”

A grunt of surprised laughter escaped me, and Neven smiled slyly. All at once, I understood how a weaver had wormed his way under Aderyn’s tough shell. As if summoned by the thought of her, Aderyn’s voice drifted into the room.

“Neven, my love, who are you talking to?”

A moment later, she rounded the corner, and I caught an instant of soft fondness on her face before she saw me. Then, her expression hardened back into a surly mask.

“You’re out of the palace,” she observed.

“If you wanted the riders to try and stop me, then you should have told them that,” I pointed out.

She let out a long breath through her nose. “No, I told them you could come and go as you pleased. I was hoping to give you as much time as possible to save the crops. I just didn’t think you’d use the freedom to visit my home unannounced.”

“It’s not a social call, I assure you. There’s something you should know.” Quickly, I filled her in on my suspicions about General Warrick.

As I finished, a muscle in her jaw began to tick, but she didn’t speak. Neven looked back and forth between the both of us in concern.

“Keera has been suspicious of the ambassador from Doran as well,” Neven eventually chimed in.

“As am I.” Aderyn sighed. “In fact, I’m suspicious of both the ambassadors—from Doran and Viltov. They’ve been sniffing around Kelvadan like scent hounds since they arrived, and I’m afraid they have caught a whiff of blood. The Ballan Desert is nothing more to them than another venue for their eternal war. The problem is that accusing either of them of any wrongdoing without evidence would be to hand them an excuse to declare war on us. We can’t afford to alienate any potential allies when we are in desperate need of food, and the time for military aid might not yet be past either.”

“We can’t let General Warrick get away with a murder,” I growled. I wanted to say that I wouldn’t let Prince Calix steal away Keera either, but I swallowed those words down. The glint in Aderyn’s eye told me she understood them nonetheless.

“And we won’t,” she assured. “You were the one who taught me your favorite way to duel. We’ll beat him using your favorite method.”

My lips quirked, even as worry boiled in my chest. “We’ll keep our guard up and wait for our opponent to make a mistake.”

The rumbling grew to a deafening volume, and I gritted my teeth. I clenched my fist tighter, imagining gripping the threads of magic I pulled into a knot in my mind. Slowly the cracked gray rock slid sideways, out of the carved path the water from the mountain spring should flow down to irrigate crops.

Sweat dripped down my brow and into my eyes where it stung and burned. I blinked against it, although the sensation was more welcome than the chattering echoing inside my skull. After nearly two weeks of this, I wanted to take a hammer to my own head, wondering if I split it open, the voices would be set free and scatter to the winds, finally leaving me in peace.

With a grunt, I opened my fist and let the boulder drop to the ground with a thud that reverberated through the soles of my boots. Despite the effort it took to pull myself free of the tangle of magic at the end of every day for the past two weeks, it was worth it.