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A good teacher? Lyrastra?
“She really doesn’t like you,” Odessa said, looking at me.
That was a massive understatement considering the threat I’d just received.
“I’m still not exactly sure why,” I admitted. “She seemed to hate me even before she met me.”
“She pinned you to your bed at your first meeting. So I’ve heard.” Odessa seemed to be considering something. “She has some reason to dislike you. More than you may know.”
“There are many things I wish I knew, Odessa. But no one seems to see fit to tell me any of them.” I thought of Crescent. “Well, hardly anyone.”
Odessa pursed her lips. “Her husband was killed. Prince Tabar. You know this?”
“By Kairos, yes. To save Lyrastra’s life.”
Odessa nodded. “A life she did not particularly want anymore.”
“Yes, yes, she was doomed to loneliness. Spare me.” I rolled my eyes. “We all have hard lives. We all have our own sob stories.” Ten stillborn children, Draven had said. “Still, Lyrastra seems to have endured... a great deal,” I conceded.
Odessa looked a little gratified by the acknowledgement. “She did. And she had one small hope, too. With her husband’s death, there was one possibility still within reach.”
“And what was that?”
“Remarriage. To a powerful man. One who was much more worthy of her.”
“I thought the mates of princes or princesses could never remarry,” I observed.
“They cannot remarry outside of the royal family,” Odessa corrected. Her eyes met mine. “There was–is–one prince still left.”
My eyebrows shot up. “She wanted to marry Prince Kairos? Her husband’s brother?”
I had been striking out blindly when I accused Lyrastra of jealousy. But had my jabs landed better than I could have hoped?
“It may not be common where you are from, but within Siabra culture there is nothing shameful in the idea of a man marrying his dead brother’s wife. Indeed, it is seen as an honorable gesture to many.”
“But... brothers.” I wrinkled my nose.
Odessa looked as if she wished to say more, then she shook her head. “There is still more you do not know. But it is not my place. The proving ground is not meant to be a gossip hall. But when you look at Lyrastra next, I would ask that you look at her and see not just her enmity towards you but her lost hopes. She hates you, yes, because she truly believed she had a chance. To marry a man more honorable than her husband had ever been.”
A chance of happiness? Was that what she thought I had stolen from her? Would Draven have made her happy? Did he know that was what she had wanted?
“And to be empress,” I reminded Odessa. “Don’t forget that important part.” I paused. “And did she? Have a chance?”
Odessa studied me in silence for a moment. “I don’t think so.”
She started to turn away. “The question might more accurately be phrased as‘Doesshe?’ Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
