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Solia’s gaze was distant. “He didn’t know my betrothal to his father was a ruse. He asked me if he could call me ‘Mother.’”
“He carries such guilt over your death,” Cassia said. “He will rejoice to learn the truth.”
“I once thought I could trust Bellator,” Solia pointed out.
“Ben is not like his father, any more than you and I are like the king. Ben and I both lost everything that night. He has been a faithful friend to me.”
At last Solia’s Tenebran gown was arranged to perfection, but she shook her head. She picked up her scarf from the Empress and held it out to Cassia. “We must find a way for me to wear this at all times. It will conceal my affinity from other mages, so I can reveal my power only when I am ready.”
“I already have a plan for that.” Cassia wove the scarf from the Empress around Solia’s head, attaching it to the Azarqi charms. The final result looked like a silk crown—or a golden aura around the head of a goddess. Kella strapped on Solia’s sword.
Cassia held up the mirror in front of Solia again. “What do you think?”
Solia looked into the glass, her face stony. But then she smiled slowly. “Oh, my clever Pup. There is one woman in the Tenebran imagination who wears both a gown and a sword, isn’t there? The goddess Angara.”
“One of the Fourteen Scions, eldest daughter of Kyria and Anthros,” Cassia said. “Men will tell you her sword is a symbol. But I say, let Tenebra see her mythical blade manifest as real steel.”
Lio should have been tense and alert, waiting in the pavilion for their first diplomatic encounter on this journey. Instead, he felt as if his head were full of syrup. It was going to be a long summer.
His only consolation was that Cassia was as sleepy as he was . Her yawns were a great improvement over her agitation of the night before. It seemed her time with Solia, Tuura, and Kella had done her good, as had Tuura’s tonic.
“I haven’t seen you in this robe before,” Lio murmured in her ear under a veil. It was a simple, elegant affair of blue that made him think of the cousin of moonflowers that bloomed during the day.
She cast him a sly glance. “You sound distracted from the task at hand, Ambassador.”
He slid his arm around her waist while he still could. “I admit to some preoccupation with taking you back to bed and removing that silk veil over your hair in much less time than it took you to put it on.”
She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, resting her hand on his chest. He drank up the little signs of affection that they must hide only moments from now.
Cassia touched her braid through the collar of his robe. “I hate that we had no time for a proper feast after you had such a long Slumber.”
Lio sighed. “I think Rudhira would have woken me with a Night Call if I’d spent another minute in the tent. It seems the mortals are determined to arrive as soon after twilight as possible.”
“Eudias and Ben should know better than to be afraid of the dark.”
There came the sound of hoofbeats. It was already time.
Lio checked the concealment spells Nike had helped him place upon Cassia. The experimental magic was an alloy of blood magic and thelemancy that demanded attention to maintain, but it was a brilliant innovation.
“I don’t know when I became the sort of Ritual father who advises you on propriety,” Rudhira muttered. “I hope you all go out for your wildest night on the docks after all of this is over. In the meantime, try not to look like you want to take a bite out of Cassia, hmm?”
Mak and Lyros laughed, while Lio sighed and put more distance between himself and his Grace. Every inch felt wrong.
But Cassia still stood at his shoulder in her medallion, his partner on the Hesperine side of the gathering. The Ashes were assembled beside them, with Solia to arrive at the appointed moment.
Two Chargers escorted Eudias and Sir Benedict into the pavilion. Lio smiled at the transformation in the mage. The cowering apprentice was gone. Eudias’s olive complexion and curly black hair showed his Cordian background, but he now wore the red-gold robes of a Tenebran mage of full rank. The wiry seventeen-year-old stood tall, carrying his magic like a friend, not an enemy.
Shy Eudias was the first to speak. “Ambassador!”
Lio clasped Eudias’s arm. “I thought we were past titles, my friend.”
“I suppose we are, Lio.”
“Tenebra seems to agree with you,” Lio said.
“Much better than Corona,” Eudias replied with feeling.
“Hullo, Ben,” Cassia said to the knight with a kind smile.
