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Lio rubbed a hand over his mouth as if hiding a smile. “Cassia and I had best be off. Thank you for your aid tonight.”
“You have my gratitude,” Cassia told them.
“And you know you have ours.” Kumeta gave a rare smile. “You know the Departure would mean withdrawing the entire envoy service from the field. As the one helping us prevent that, you need not call us ‘Master Envoys,’ you know.”
Cassia smiled back. “Thank you, Kumeta. And you, Basir. I am glad to see you safe.”
Basir’s expression softened. “Away with you, now.”
Cassia escaped with Lio out the other end of the alley. As soon as they were alone in a back grotto, he stopped and wrapped his arms around her. She tried to muster a jest about Hesperines absconding with maidens, but all she could do was hold him. With her heart beating against him, the painful tightness in her chest eased.
He ran a hand over her hair. “I know.”
“The toy booth was a complete disaster. Somehow, the more truth we speak, the more stubbornly everyone ignores the evidence before their eyes. I’m so sorry, I tried everything—”
“It isn’t your fault.”
“I must return there without the embassy and make amends with the toymaker.”
“She would consider it an honor if you chose the works of her hands as gifts for those you love. Might I suggest you take dolls home for Zoe, Bosko, and Thenie? Such a gesture would mean a great deal to the toymaker.”
“In Orthros, male children play with dolls?”
“They don’t in Tenebra? Even though fatherhood is so important to mortal men?”
“Boys play with swords.”
“Childrenare given weapons?”
“Itishorrifying, isn’t it?” Cassia shook her head. “Well, I will pick out dolls for the sucklings and show my support for the toymaker.”
Lio sighed into her hair. “It all might have been easier if I hadn’t gotten us off on the wrong foot the moment everyone arrived.”
“Master Gorgos deserved what you said.”
“But I should have known better than to resort to insults to make my point.”
Cassia truly should have known better than to breathe a word about a Tenebran queen. She could thank Lio’s delicacy about her grief for Solia that he had not remarked on her slip. “I ought to have resisted the urge to debate with the lords over their warmongering. We can’t afford to antagonize Lord Adrogan and Lord Severin. I cannot deny the sword is a necessary means of survival in the mortal world.”
“They also cannot deny that women like you have proposed less harmful solutions to conflicts.”
“I feel for the mothers of Tenebra. Their cries for peace fall on deaf ears.”
Cassia sensed Lio’s magic in her mind, felthimwithin her, as if he were reaching for her sinking heart and catching it before it drowned.
“Ohh.” She relaxed against him. “You’ve never done it quite like this when we aren’t feasting.”
“Is it all right with you?”
“Mmm.” Her eyelids slid half-closed. She turned inward, reaching for him with her thoughts. “I had no idea we could come this close any time.”
He held her close, mind and body. “Our nearness knows no borders, my rose. Nothing can come between us.”
She slid her arms around his neck. “You must be careful when you do this, though. For even in the absence of the Feast, it is very arousing.”
Chuckling, he eased deeper into her thoughts. She let out a little moan and parted her lips.
“Oh, that is a sweet invitation.” He took it and kissed her.
