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“As long as I get my start with you, I can put up with his schemes.” With a sigh, she turned to go.
Lio caught her hand. “Do you feel ready for tonight’s event?”
She arched a brow at him. “Somewhere between the window seat and the bath, we managed to discuss politics to my satisfaction.”
At her mention of satisfaction, Lio’s gaze trailed over her. “I hope I have not been remiss in my responsibilities.”
She smiled slowly. “You have neglected nothing, I assure you, Ambassador.”
He cleared his throat. “I want you to be well prepared to meet Second Princess Konstantina. She will do her part to host the embassy in deference to the Queens, but under protest. I’m afraid it will be quite a confrontation.”
“After the time you spent last night familiarizing me with Konstantina’s views on key political issues, I have my bearings for my encounter with her. I will consider this round two, after round one with Elder Firstblood Hypatia upon my arrival.”
“You proved yourself to Hypatia with courage and grace. Konstantina is a member of the royal family, however, and the scribe of all our laws. She has influence and resources that even her mentor Hypatia does not. This will be a challenge.”
“One of the greatest we have faced,” Cassia agreed, “but I would rather face an ancient, brilliant scholar of Orthros, even the most vocal and powerful Hesperine opponent of the Solstice Summit, than any Tenebran mortal enemy of our cause. After everything I have been through to arrive at an audience with the Second Princess of Orthros, I shall not meet her without resources of my own.”
“True words, my rose.” Lio caressed her hair. “Konstantina’s respect is a great gift, if she chooses to bestow it. Although I forfeited it when I proposed the Solstice Summit, that will not reflect on you. She will judge you for yourself, for she is just. If anyone can soften her blows to our cause, it is you.”
“The loss of her favor truly pains you.”
“When I decided to do this, I had to accept the consequences. I knew a rift with Aunt Kona would be one of them.”
“Aunt Kona. That makes sense. She’s your Ritual father’s sister.”
“And my mother’s colleague. My uncle’s friend. My teacher in light magic and law. My people’s princess.”
“Do not despair of her good opinion. I will make our case to her.”
He kissed her once more. “May the Goddess’s Eyes light your path tonight.”
After he took his reluctant leave, Cassia went into her room, leaving the courtyard door open to let in the roses’ fragrance.
A compulsion drove her to one of the heavy iron storage chests that furnished her guest room. She raised the lid and reassured herself her gardening satchel remained inside undisturbed. She unfastened the old canvas bag’s tarnished buckles and checked on the contents.
The glyph stone was as Cassia had left it. She ran her fingers over the glyph of Hespera engraved on the white marble, although the symbol was nearly invisible from centuries of wear and the more recent stains of her and Lio’s blood offerings. The ancient capstone was shedding mortar into the bottom of her satchel, especially from the broken corner where she had chipped off the shard. But the magic in the mother stone beat strongly in time to the pulse in her pendant. She could rely on the Sanctuary ward resident in the stone, just as she had when it had still been part of the long-forgotten shrine of Hespera at Solorum.
As Queen Alea had promised, the glyph stone’s own magic was protecting itself from discovery. Even from Lio. How would Cassia ever find the strength to tell him the place where their love had begun was no more? He need never know she had rescued the glyph stone mere moments before Chrysanthos had razed the shrine.
She wanted to leave Lio happy in the belief that she had collected her pendant and rose seeds from their Sanctuary and left it standing. She and Lio were keeping the shrine’s legacy alive. Makaria, the human mage of Hespera who had originally cast the Sanctuary ward there, had died in the persecutions of the Last War, but her magic lived on. Her lover Laurentius, a worshiper of Anthros, had sacrificed his life fighting to help the Mage King bring a just era to Tenebra. His cause lived on, as well, in the Solstice Summit.
Whenever Lio saw the shard around Cassia’s neck, he smiled. When she planted the seeds and grew roses for his residence, he could enjoy them without grief and see them as reminders, not ruins. Cassia could no longer bear to live in the ruins of happier times.
Cassia sifted through the other artifacts she kept hidden in the glyph stone’s lee. If not for the Sanctuary ward, her sister’s linen garments would be sure to draw attention by the potent smell of the flametongue oil that gave them their magical properties. She cupped Solia’s carved wooden pendant in her hands. It felt warm in the cool air of the room, its ivy symbols as alive as the glyph stone in their own way.
If the Summit succeeded, if Cassia’s work in Tenebra was done, she would never need this again. She would finally have done justice to her sister’s legacy.
Cassia tucked the pendant away, fastened her satchel, and closed the Hesperine chest. She went and knelt before her travel trunk from Tenebra. She paused in reverent solitude for a moment, then, for the first time, opened the chest of her sister’s gowns of her own accord. She would wear a princess’s gown to her official presentation to the Queens’ eldest daughter. Cassia could scarcely believe it, but she no longer dreaded the necessity of wearing one of the dresses remade from Solia’s wardrobe.
Cassia had thought her anger the only force that could make these into something more than grave shrouds. But there was magic at work upon them now. If Zoe clutched at these skirts one time, they would transform, and Cassia would no longer grieve to wear them.
STAR MOTHS
When Knight got tohis feet suddenly, Cassia looked up from the chest. Her hound leaned eagerly toward the open door, ears pricked and tail wagging at something in the courtyard. Or someone.
“Do we have a visitor, darling?” Cassia got to her feet. “Let’s go see.”
Knight bounded into the courtyard. Cassia followed him out to find him twining around the legs of a Hesperine, shedding all over her plain, undyed robe. Cassia opened her mouth to call off her hound, but then their visitor laughed. The Hesperine endured Knight’s licks on her hands and face with a pleased, albeit surprised, expression.
