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“Unfortunately, Your Grace, the promise is still yours tokeep.” Ione looked down from her throne, confused. I said as nonchalantly as I could, “It was not my plan to step foot in Sythe—not yet, at least. Kalen and I were headed here. According to our witch, it seems my stone lies somewhere within the walls of this palace.”
“Your witch?” Ione’s chin tilted. I looked at Kalen as I realized my mistake, which was just one of many I had made since last night.
“That is of no concern to you,” Kalen recovered smoothly, redirecting the Sage’s gaze to him. “How did a piece of Gwyn’s soul end up in your possession?”
Ione shrugged. “I suppose you are right, the witch is no concern of mine. As far as the stone goes, I haven’t a clue what you mean. I’ve not seen it, though you are more than welcome to go pilfering through the dunes of my estate.”
I scoffed, open-mouthed. “Turning over shells on your beaches for our own amusement. What, are we children?”
“No, you are ants.” Ione sat forward, resting her delicate knuckles beneath her chin. “Below my eye-level, pesky yet impossible to stomp out.”
“Oh, I’d love to hear what you mean by that, High Mer,” Kalen’s grin widened, the burns around the lower half of his face only accentuating his taunt. Ione was not phased.
“You are to stay in my castle, under the protection of my guards, for however long it takes you to retrieve your stone. After which time you will be promptly escorted back to Leoth, and if I catch you entering my territory again,” she paused, looking both Kalen and me directly in our eyes, one at a time. “I won’t hesitate to make good on my other promise.”
At that, she took her eyes away from mine and began to stand. With that gentle flap of her wrist, four servants circled us, two males for Kalen and two females for me. I looked at my arms which were now in the handmaids’ unnaturally strong grips andback to Ione in alarm.
“You will take dinner with me, tonight. Once you’ve had time to rest and clean up,” she ordered. “The two of you look like alleyway drunkards and I don’t entertain that sort of depravity at my court.”
I saw only the black crown of her hair as she sauntered down the long hall behind her throne.
“IS YOUR HIGH MERalways so...gracious?”
I bit out the last word as my handmaids poured yarrow into my freshly cleaned wound. To my embarrassment, the cut across my thigh was not as deep or as gruesome as it had felt less than an hour ago. Now that the poison and blood had been washed away, I could tell it was nothing more than a superficial laceration. When Kalen asked, I would swear to him that my leg had nearly been defleshed from its bone. Not that he wouldn’t know the truth anyways.
“She’s usually much more deserving of the word, my lady,” answered the younger girl— Elowen was her name. “You see, she’s in a bit of a mood. Family drama as always, and the fact that her beau hasn’t visited her chamber once in the last month.”
She gave a sidelong glance under frosted lashes to her companion, Myra, who continued. “A Merlord named Tyr.” Her long pale fingers wrapped thick green weed around my leg. The puffed skin around the cut felt like it was on fire, but not a raging flame. More of a slowly kindled blaze.“He is quite the rake and...”
“And of course, she knows that!” Elowen’s pitchy voice wrapped around Myra’s.
“Of course, how could she not? He’s slept with nearly all of herpersonal servants.”
“Nearlyall,” Elowen bit back a laugh and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the two of them. Their conversation flowed with such accord, each thought feeding off the other. I also couldn’t help thinking how absurd it was that they were divulging their High Mer’s secrets to a stranger with such laxity. It was so odd seeing a servant talk of their regent as one might a schoolmate. Who knew, maybe in Aegedonia, fealty to one another wasn’t so important. It surely didn’t seem like Ione cared much for loyalty.
“I’m sorry,” I struggled to cut in, “I’m not sure you should be telling me anything of this.”
Elowen gave a comforting smile. “No apologies necessary, milady, and...”
“And we tell you about these things for no particular reason,” Myra continued, picking up on the last syllable of her friend’s sentence with a disorienting speed. “Just that we can.” She shrugged her shoulders, finished tying off the braid she had weaved through my hair with a piece of teal silk ribbon, and draped it over my shoulder. I marveled at the thick fishtail that had suddenly sprouted from my scalp.
“Really,” Elowen said, kneeling in front of me to tie the laces of my shoes. “It isn’t much more than that. The High Mer often calls us busybodies, but we can’t help what we are.”
“What you are?” I tucked my foot out of her reach so that the girl might look at me to explain, but it dawned on me before her eyes met mine. “You’re a phame?”
She nodded with a sheepish grin. My mouth turned down before I perked up. I didn’t want them to think I was offended so I quickly offered, “Well, it’s just that I’ve never met a phame before, or at least I don’t remember it.”
Elowen giggled from the other side of the room where she tidied the small mess we’d made getting ready. A pile of dressesmade from the thinnest fabrics was strewn messily across the thick white quilt on the bed, bundles of matching ribbons and too many pairs of intricately beaded slippers stacked neatly beside each other for easy accessorizing. Ione had gone to great lengths to make sure I was presentable on the first day at her court.
“That’s unlikely.” She folded one of the dresses across her midriff, pity etched in her eyes as she tried to explain something obvious to everyone who hadn’t had their memories taken from them. “Especially with you being from Leoth. Most servants there are our kin, taken in by the Preserver after the war in our homeland.”
I thought back to the Well, unable to comprehend how it could have only been a month since we had left and not a thousand years. Kalen had warned me that phames would be at the ball, but I hadn’t realized he had meant from the Light faction. I’d had quite a few other things to worry about then. Not even Rebekah had been able to focus my thoughts with mindless gossip as we dressed for the occasion.
Rebekah.
I looked up at the two girls before me, their frames short and stout. The curve of their high cheekbones was round, opening up their faces. Emerald green eyes glinted with delight as their tales grew wilder and more salacious.
While Elowen had the most colorless hair I had ever seen, purely frosted white, Myra’s fell to the curve of her back in long black waves. Just like Rebekah. Suddenly, everything about them reminded me of her. How they cantered across the marble floors swiftly and with purpose. The way their fingers were so thin, but strong, that they worked the ties and straps of my dressings dexterously. But above all, as they chirped on around me about who-knows-what, their voices melded into hers. I felt a sharp pang of longing for the friend I had left behind. Was shemy friend? I didn’t even know if she had made it through the attack. Shame clenched a tight fist around my heart for not even thinking to ask about her.
