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A servant bowed in the doorway, first to Helia, then me. “The King summons you both to attend him.”
Of course he did.My father always knew how to catch me off guard. Probably von Uster, the spymaster, Council member, andhead of the Roja, had informed him of the situation in the courtyard.
I expected Helia to demand time to wash and dress before meeting the King of Tal, but she only asked to be shown the way, pulling me along in her wake without quip or question.
Despite their similar looks, Vanya and Helia were very different people. It made it easier somehow. Neither was meek, but this woman did not challenge me. She ran me over. I could imagine her commanding armies and brokering deals. She made me want to step aside and let her handle the whole mess. There was no instant attraction, no push and pull and inscrutable looks.
Introducing Helia to my father, the past and present overlapped. In the same chair, gaunter and coughing, he ranted while she listened before snapping that it was certainly nother faultsomeone kidnapped her just outsidehis city. He retorted I was in charge of eradicating the bandit problem, as if he had not given me this task only last night.
Helia then declared she intended to move into the Women’s Tower, as it was the safest place in Tal. My father waved his hand, making it Solovyova’s problem that only Talian noble women were allowed to reside there.
At no time did Helia mention the involvement of her aunt. My father did not seem to care who I married, only that the water seer tested this woman as well to ensure her powerful enough to strengthen the weakened magic in our bloodline.
No one asked me a single question.
I bowed when we entered and when we left. Only when my father demanded I also—quietly—find the impostor and hand her over, did something in me rebel. I wanted to punish Tempest for her deception but no one else would lay a hand on her. But I had intended tosearch either way.
If the maid was right, Vanya was long gone and my wants mattered little, so I did not argue with my father, and when Helia demanded I arrange for rooms in the Tower afterward, I sent servants to do just that, relieved she did not expect me to woo her. Every time I looked at her, I saw another’s face.
I should want her—Vanya. Tempest. Princess—hanged.
I was angry and hurt. I could admit as much to myself. Embarrassed and, when I let my thoughts wander, drowning in grief.
On the way back to Helia’s chambers, I decided to let the maid go. My father had given me the guards and coin to investigate inside the city and the steppes beyond. Having one woman followed should be easy enough.
Alone again in Helia’s outer chamber, I hesitated. Too much was up in the air and though I wanted nothing more than to hide in Alexei’s room, orders needed to be issued, appearances kept up.
“So do you want to marry?” I asked from the doorway. I still needed the wedding. After my father’s show of power last night, I needed it more than ever.
“No,” Helia called from the bedroom. “Are you coming?”
Instead of explaining how I did not want to taint my memories of these chambers, how I wanted nothing more than to hide and forget, I followed her inside. It remained how we’d left it, captives and all.
“Then why are you here?” I asked. Growing up, I’d been told the Oberwaldian mountain princess would be fortunate to have me—for who did not want to beQueen of Tal? Many, seemed to be the answer.
Helia stared down at her tousled aunt. “My mother swore when I left that if I could convince Tal to void the marriage contract, she wouldn’t push it. But arguing with the king would get me nowhere.”
“Three years ago, I wrote to Oberwalden requesting we break the contract.” A shadow of the anger I once felt boiled up in me. They were the reason I could not marry Eki openly. That I could not protect our child.
“Yes.Youdid. Not the king or queen. What choice do you or I have?” She sighed and from the sympathy in her eyes, I knew she had heard at least some of what happened three years ago.
“So, you’ll convince the queen?” I scoffed. “My mother has many strengths, but she never goes against my father openly.”
Helia grinned. “Why do you think I requested to stay in the Tower? I’ve heard only Solovyova rules there, and when she decides something, even the king follows.”
I nodded slowly. It was not a bad plan. If anyone could convince my father, it would be my grandmother. A part of me wished her luck. I had known revenge would not be free but had not anticipated those closest to me would be the ones to pay the price.
Alexei…Mariska and Eki could not go the same way.
“As my father said, I must search the city and countryside for robbers and pretend princesses,” I said, needing to leave these rooms and memories. “I’ll release the maid at the eighth bell. What do you want me to do with your aunt?”
“Could you arrange for a private prison cell where no one asks questions?”
The proposal shocked even me, who’d plotted for years to kill those who wronged me. Tal’s prison was famous for the horrors itswalls hid. To send a noble lady there… but I had told Helia I’d do what she wanted with her aunt.
“If that’s what you desire.”
It seemed no matter what I wanted, busy days lay ahead. Perhaps I should let them make me forget Alexei’s death, and erase Vanya’s haunting green eyes and drawn face as she revealed she deceived me all along. But I had never been good at letting something lie. There was no reason I could not find my own answers while following my father’s orders. After meeting the assigned riders and organizing the search outside Tal, I would take charge of the one inside. It was time to get to truly know my city and citizens, starting with retracing Alexei’s final steps.
