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“Yes. I know all the childhood secrets that still make him blush.”
Cassia laughed. “Do tell. What sort of embarrassments lurk in dignified Ambassador Deukalion’s past?”
“Oh, where do I start?” The princess flopped down on one of the benches by the fountain. “I think the worst one has to be when he went to Wisdom’s Precipice with Mak and Lyros.”
Cassia sat down on the bench across from her. “That sounds ominous.”
“It’s the tallest cliff yet discovered in Orthros Boreou. It’s up the coast from House Komnena, and the sea below is full of jagged rocks. The dive is actually a treat if you know how to levitate, but the Gift doesn’t give us that ability until we’re newbloods. Lio, Mak, and Lyros got the bright idea to take the dive to see if they could scare their levitation skills into appearing.”
Cassia stared at the princess, struggling to find the humor in the situation. “Couldn’t they have killed themselves?”
“Not quite, but the fall certainly made them wish they were dead. They climbed right up to the top all full of themselves, jumped straight off, and fell like stones into the ocean below. They floated in misery until the current washed them up at House Komnena, where Lio’s mother wasverydistraught, and you can imagine how Lio’s father feels about anything that upsets her. Even now, ‘Don’t take a dive’ is Apollon’s way of reminding Lio not to do anything to worry his mother.”
“Their injuries must have been catastrophic.”
“Don’t look so green,” the princess reassured. “Apollon took them straight to the healing Sanctuary, where Javed and their wiser friends gave them an earful. Mak and Lyros were put out about missing training, and of course Lio spent the whole time apologizing.”
“I can count on one hand the times I’ve heard him apologize,” Cassia mused.
The princess raised her eyebrows. “How did you get him to stop?”
“He so seldom has cause,” Cassia said in surprise.
The princess smiled thoughtfully. “I knew you were a good influence on him.”
Cassia could only reply with a laugh, for she didn’t know what to say. No one had ever called her a good influence before. Everyone had said quite the opposite. Happily she had left “everyone” back in Tenebra, and they could not tarnish the generous opinions of a Hesperine princess.
“Well,” the princess continued, “it only took a week for their injuries from Wisdom’s Precipice to heal, at least the physical ones. They still bear the scars upon their pride to this night.”
“Growing up Hesperine is more…eventful…than I imagined. I still have so much to learn about life in Orthros.”
“Don’t worry. Everyone feels that way when they first get here, even those of us who were Solaced as children. We spend our whole youth learning.”
“Lio has told me something about Hesperine education. I think your service must be your duties as a princess.”
“Yes, although there aren’t many royal duties left over anymore. My elder siblings and their Graces have been doing this for so long. Their descendants, too. I’m younger than most of my grandnieces and grandnephews by several ‘greats.’ At least when Rudhira meets his Grace, their children shall be properly younger than me. I look forward to spoiling them.”
“I know the feeling,” Cassia confessed. “I’m getting to know Lio’s little sister.”
“You must be enjoying that!” The princess had a knowing look in her eyes that made Cassia see her resemblance to the Queens for the first time.
“I am,” Cassia replied. “More than I can say.”
“Who can resist doting on the new sucklings? Especially those of us who are friends with Lio and Mak. We just can’t stop crafting gifts for Zoe, Bosko, and Thenie. They deserve to be spoiled, after all they’ve been through.”
“What does a princess do for her craft?”
Her gaze gleamed with mischief. “Bugs.”
“I beg your pardon?”
The princess stood up and gestured for Cassia to follow her. “Here, I’ll show you.”
She led Cassia to one of the beds of ornamental greenery. Cassia realized what she had taken for a tiny spell light hovering among the fronds was in fact an insect with luminous wings.
“This is a star moth,” said the princess. “I bred them, actually.”
“You bred something this beautiful? That’s remarkable!”
