AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He heard footsteps resume in the corridor inside the guest house. Perita’s aura moved toward Cassia’s rooms. The door banged open.
Lio didn’t breathe as he observed the women’s exchange through a gap in the curtains. But Cassia’s quick tongue didn’t fail her. Perita soon went about her duties as if nothing was amiss. While she and Cassia opened a trunk of gowns, Lio withdrew and slid the curtains tightly shut with a subtle act of Will.
Lio joined his cousin under the archway on the other side of the courtyard. “Thank you.”
“I told Lyros I’d get a thank you. He was betting on a fist in my face.”
“I’ll save that for the training ring.” Lio gave his cousin’s shoulder a shove. “It wouldn’t be fair for me to attack a hungry opponent.”
“Don’t rub it in,” Mak threatened. “Lyros and I wereworkingall night.”
Mak appeared as if he had just come on duty in his regalia of a knee-length black fighting robe and sandals laced to the knee. His brown hair and the darker brown braid of Lyros’s attached at his temple were neatly bound in his speires, the iconic hair ties of Hesperine warriors. But there was an edge in his aura.
Lio looked at his cousin ruefully. “Breathing down the mages’ necks is more fun at the beginning of your watch than the end, I take it.”
Mak waved a dismissive hand, although his irises had retreated to a rim of brown around his dilated pupils. It had been a long night, and Mak and Lyros’s Craving for one another must be troubling them.
The Solstice Summit might alter history and be the greatest triumph of Lio’s diplomatic career, but his idea of bringing the enemy home for a visit put all of Orthros on the alert. Lio regretted the burden he placed on the Hesperines’ army, especially since Hippolyta’s Stand consisted of only four people, and they were his aunt, his two cousins, and his Grace-cousin.
Lio sighed. “I’m sorry you’re stretched so thin.”
“I’m glad we have enough work to go around,” Mak replied. “Besides, some of the Prince’s Charge are here to reinforce us. Patrol is a lark when the famous Hesperines errant who serve under our First Prince fill our ears with tales of their adventures Abroad. Perhaps you, Lyros, and I will make our own legends before the Summit is over, eh?”
“When we made it through the Trial of Initiation together, I never imagined that scarcely a year later, we would be responsible for the conduct of Cordian mages within our own borders.”
Mak half grinned. “Not bad, is it?”
With a laugh, Lio massaged his aching gums. “I’m grateful we’re in this together.”
Mak crossed his powerful arms over his barrel chest. “Challenge gladly accepted. What are Trial brothers for?”
“Throwing a punch at me for putting everyone through this.”
“I’ll save that for the training ring, too. Iamready for breakfast.”
“When do you and your breakfast get to the end of your watch?”
“As soon as your breakfast is sitting in her chair at Chrysanthos’s council. Then the mage is our relief’s problem.”
“Who’s your relief?”
“You are, you lazy scrollworm.”
Lio stood up straighter. “The Stand is officially assigning me a watch?”
“After your magic saved us so much trouble in Martyr’s Pass, don’t think you can escape lending us a hand again. You’re on watch from now until the diplomatic events start at midnight, and you won’t have time to change in between. Go put on something sharper than your veil hours robe and report back here for duty. Your orders are to ensure the safety of Orthros’s only ally in the embassy while she attends council with our enemy.”
Lio smiled, baring his fangs. “My pleasure.”
THE EMBASSY’S READER
Cassia always woke toa strategy. She pulled the impossible out of her sleeve in the midst of a crisis, or she pieced the plan cautiously together over time with the secrets she cultivated. With her own counsel as her only guide and her only judge, she succeeded by the skin of her teeth.
But tonight, she would commence the strategy she and the Hesperines had collaborated on together.
They would not just succeed. They would be victorious.
Cassia stood at her dressing table and let her handmaiden armor her for the coming campaign. Perita smoothed the crimson gown while Cassia ironed out the words she would say. Perita brushed her hair while Cassia untangled the consequences in her thoughts.
