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Xandra made a face. “I’m the only one. But I trained in the same Imperial practice as you—minus the killing part.”
“Do you blend blood magic and fire magic, as the Cifwani people do?” Solia asked with obvious fascination.
“Yes, exactly,” Xandra replied. “One of my mothers is of Cifwani origin, just like your mentor, Ukocha.”
“May I ask when she came to Orthros? I wonder if I know her kin.”
Xandra chuckled. “No, she’s been here since the beginning.”
“You have something else in common with Princess Alexandra,” Cassia said.
“Oh, don’t give me away,” Xandra scolded cheerfully, although Knight was already betraying her secret, cutting in front of everyone in the hope of pets from her. “It’s so nice to simply be a Trial sister sometimes, instead of the Queens’ daughter.”
“Well met, Royal Firstblood.” Solia gave her a remarkably dignified nod for a royal encounter taking place over a shedding liegehound.
Xandra pushed at the tousled strands of dark hair escaping from her coronet braid. “None of that official title nonsense, not tonight. Let’s have some fun around the Ritual circle.”
“I’m Kia.” She gave Solia a wrist clasp. “Eudokia Hypatia, if you really want to know.”
“Hypatia, as in the author of New Cosmology?” Solia asked.
“You’ve read it?” Kia brightened, straightening her favorite turquoise mantle. She might have bitter differences with her mother, but she was proud of Hypatia’s place in the scholarly canon.
Solia nodded. “Tuura would never leave such an essential text out of my education.”
“I’m Nodora,” their sweetest Trial sister introduced herself. “I’m from the Archipelagos, so the shamisen is my specialty, but one of my fathers is from the Empire.” She held up the drum she carried. “If you wish for some Imperial music to make you feel at home, you have but to ask.”
“That’s a kind thought, thank you,” Solia said.
Zoe was soon clinging to Solia again, with Bosko not far behind. Arkadia and Javed’s eleven-year-old son wasted no time peppering Solia with questions.
“What was it like, riding your horse across the desert?” he asked. “Will you tell us stories about the Golden Shield? And the Battle of Souls?”
Zoe clutched a squirming goat under each arm so they wouldn’t nibble Solia’s boots. “Bosko! You have to say ‘please!’”
He swallowed and collected himself. “Please, Cousin Solia, if you have time, would you mind talking to us about when you were in the Empire?”
Solia smiled and pointed to the speires binding his mop of dusty brown curls. “You appear to be a Steward-in-training.”
Bosko nodded, straightening his shoulders.
“I’m happy to tell you about my experiences in battle, but only if your mother Arkadia says I may.”
Bosko raced off to ask for her permission, but it sounded as if Kadi was already swapping her own battle stories with Nike and Kella, who had unharnessed herself from her mount and levered herself into a chair. Tilili stretched out on the floor at their feet, batting one of the sucklings’ wooden horses with a lazy paw. From the other side of the circle, Apollon’s lion familiar made eyes at the sand cat.
Karege and Mak were laughing with Rudhira and Apollon, while Hoyefe asked Lyros about the famous artists in his bloodline. Javed had his and Kadi’s three-year-old daughter Thenie on his lap as he talked with Tuura about medicinal poultices.
With Komnena to smooth the way, all their friends and family were taking their seats around the wide, round coffee table at the center of the Ritual circle. Yet Solia lingered on the edge of the gathering. She drew in a breath, as if bracing herself against a threat.
Then Kassandra stepped into sight. She had arrived last, but Cassia knew the Oracle’s timing was always perfect in her mysterious way. The elder firstblood was always selective about how she flaunted her past, but tonight, she looked like the Imperial princess she had once been, wearing stripweave of purple and gold, her floor-length locks heavy with solid gold adornments.
“Ah, Kassandra,” Uncle Argyros greeted her with a gleam in his aura. “I see you escaped the ceremony. Did you manage to leave without causing a stir?”
She gave a rich laugh. “When have I ever squandered an opportunity to cause a stir?”
Apollon laughed with her. “Never.”
Solia gave her a deep bow. “Princess Efiriye.”
