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A flash of disappointment surged through Lara, but she gave Ahnna a smile before shutting the door and flipping the latch. She stared at the bit of metal for a long moment, surprised the Ithicanians would allow her privacy, then she set aside the thought. Everything she knew about them was more speculation than fact. Better to approach her circumstances as though she knew nothing at all.
After donning the gown Ahnna had discarded and belting on her knives, which she was surprised to find sitting on top of her trunk, Lara circled the room looking for signs she was being spied on, but there were no holes in the walls or the ceiling, no cracks in the floorboards. Picking up her tray of fruit, she wandered into what she’d presumed to be the bathing chamber, only to discover it devoid of anything resembling a bath, despite the wooden shelves laden with soft towels, scrubs, soaps, and whole collection of brushes and combs. However, there was another door.
Lara pushed the solid slab of wood open, revealing a sloped courtyard resplendent with a lushness she had never seen before. The walls of the building were concealed by climbing vines laden with brilliant flowers of pink and purple and orange, and two trees with enormous split leaves climbed toward the sky, several colorful birds sitting on their branches. A pathway made of square cut stones framed by tiny white rocks meandered through the courtyard, but what took her breath away was the stream flowing through the center of everything.
The building, she realized as she stepped into the courtyard, had been constructed almost like a bridge over a small waterfall. The water cascaded over slabs of rock into a pool below, which flowed through a channel to another pool, and then yet another, before running under the far side of the home to whatever lay beyond.
At the base of the waterfall, by the pool, she noted the curved stone benches beneath the water.Thiswas where one was intended to bathe. Steam rose faintly from its surface and a quick dip of her toe turned her skin pink with heat. There was only one other entrance to the courtyard, and that was a door opposite to the one leading to her rooms.
Crossing the stream using a small footbridge, Lara walked up to the door and silently tested the handle.Locked.The rooms beyond also had a window that mirrored hers, but it was closed and curtained.
Tilting her head skyward revealed nothing but swirling clouds, and a quick test of the vines on the walls revealed them strong enough to bear her weight, should she choose to climb out. Countless ways to escape, which meant this home was not intended to be a prison.
A voice caught her attention.
“She’s awake then?”
Aren.
“About a half hour ago.”
“And?”
Lara hurried down the path next to the spring, dropping to her knees where the water flowed under the building.
“She was calmer than I anticipated. Mostly she wanted to know why I was wearing one of her dresses. I suppose we all have our priorities.”
Silence. Then, “Whywereyou wearing one of her dresses?”
“Because they were pretty and I was bored.”
The king snorted, and Lara crawled forward a few feet under the building until she could see their legs. He had a bow held loosely in one hand, which he swung back and forth. She wanted to go farther, to attempt to see his face, but she couldn’t risk being heard.
“She say anything of note?”
“I’ve had more exciting conversations with your cat. Your dinners together are destined to be lively affairs.”
“Shocking.” The king kicked a rock, sending it bouncing into the stream, splashing Lara in the face. “Most precious daughter, my ass. I’d bet he has boots that are more precious to him than that girl.”
I’ll take that bet, you self-righteous bastard,Lara thought.
He added, “These concessions weren’t what I wanted out of this treaty, Ahnna. I don’t like them, and I don’t want to sign the order.”
“You have to. Maridrina fulfilled their end of the deal. If we break faith, there will be consequences, the loss of peace being the first of them.”
They both started walking, then there was a scrape of boots, the measured thuds of two people walking up stairs, and Ahnna’s voice was faint as she said, “Giving the Maridrinian King what he wants will make him depend on us all the more. It might pay off.”
And just barely, Lara heard his response: “Maridrina will starve before it ever sees the benefit of this treaty.”
The embers of Lara’s fury burned hot on the heels of his words, memories of the gaunt children she’d seen on the streets of her kingdom filling her eyes. Straightening, she stormed up the path to her room, intent on finding that asshole of a king and plunging one of her knives into his wicked, Ithicanian guts.
But that would accomplish nothing.
Stopping on the path, she stared up at the sky and took a series of breaths, finding calm in the sea of fire that was her soul. As delightful as gutting herhusbandwould be, it wouldn’t solve Maridrina’s problems. Otherwise, her father would’ve sent an assassin a long time ago to do that very deed. It was not a matter of bringing down a man, but bringing down a kingdom, and to do that, she needed to play the long game. To delay her strike for when it would be most effective. To remember what she’d been trained for and why. Tobethe woman that her father had created to save their homeland.
A door slammed behind her, and Lara whirled around, expecting one of the servant women had come to offer her services.
She could not have been more mistaken.
