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“Everyone needs help seeing the light sometimes,” Eudokia replied, “even someone like you, Cassia, who is expert at reading between the lines.”
“I don’t know when I became suspicious of Hesperines, as I am of mortals.”
“When Konstantina left you bleeding?” Menodora guessed.
Cassia’s hands tightened. “Even she is motivated by love.”
“You have brought the rules of politics to the table,” Eudokia said, “for those are the rules at which you have become expert, after great effort. But the table you are playing at in this case is friendship—and romance. Fortunately, you have just as many allies in this game, and we are allowed to help you learn the new rules. Shall we speak plainly?”
Menodora smiled again. “You will lose no tokens with us. No gargoyles will leap out to strike down your pieces, and we are a kind audience who will encourage your moves, not critique them.”
Their offer of friendship was too genuine and generous for Cassia to question. Hesperines had taught her to recognize a gift when she saw it. She would not throw this one back in their faces.
She felt a sense of brotherhood with Mak and Lyros. Dare she imagine achieving camaraderie with Menodora and Eudokia as well? Although they had never shared a rite of initiation, could they come together in this time of dread and conflict and, in their own way, be Trial sisters?
Sisters. Adult sisters who were friends. As Cassia and Solia might have been, if things had been different.
Cassia looked from Eudokia to Menodora. “I admit, I weary of hidden meanings. I would value your honesty. But your patience as well.”
“You have both,” Menodora promised.
“Why don’t we take a walk?” Eudokia asked. “The city is beautiful at veil hours, when the lights are out. You can see even more of the stars.”
“We won’t let you get lost,” Menodora promised.
“Thank you.” Cassia let them lead her out into the night.
TRUTH IN THE BLOOD
Kia and Nodora walkedwith Cassia and Knight on a meandering tour of the lanes between the guest houses. Glimpses of the harbor glittered at them between the tall, stately buildings, then the high walls and gargoyles cast their velvet shadows again.
What Kia had said about playing by new rules was true, more than Cassia wanted to own. For all her expertise at court, she struggled for words now. She treasured this offer of confidence from Kia and Nodora, but she had little idea what to do with it. She had never learned how to be this kind of sister. She was still learning from Perita how to be a good friend to other women.
Kia rescued her from the silence. “So did Lio explain what happened between him and Xandra?”
“He—that is, I— It would be wrong of me to pry.”
“Only natural you should wonder,” Kia replied, “but it’s a question best addressed to Lio himself.”
Nodora’s brow furrowed. “Has he not told you?”
“We spoke of it once. I thought I understood what had happened, but now I realize the precise details did not come across amid his…diplomacy.”
“Unsurprising!” Kia huffed.
“He talked all around it.” Cassia frowned. “He told me she was a silk maker named Xandra, that’s all. How can a silk maker be a princess whose craft is bugs?”
Nodora’s eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter. “She raises the worms that spin the silk. When they become moths, their cocoons are harvested and turned into thread.”
“That’swhere silk comes from?Worms?”
“That settles it,” Kia declared. “Lio did a wretched job of explaining.”
“Kia, I think perhaps one of your objective analyses would be a reassurance to Cassia on this occasion.”
What a new world Cassia found herself in, where people spoke of objective analysis and reassurance in the same breath. She had never known hard facts to bring any comfort, and she felt only trepidation as she, Kia, and Nodora traversed an open plaza. A gurgling fountain carved in the shape of garden birds had never looked so menacing. But the two Hesperines had been kind enough to offer Cassia the truth. She needed that, no matter how it hurt.
“Rest assured we have complete privacy,” said Nodora. “If we happen to pass anyone, they won’t overhear.”
