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He laughed at her expression and held up his hands in self-defense. “
I’m
not the one who took her for a lover,” he said. “It was Rhan.”

Rhan was Nelson’s youngest son, a man of indiscriminate affections and irresistible charm. One of Corene’s favorite people in all of Welce, as it happened, though he couldn’t be trusted for a minute. “Rhan. Of course. So he seduced and abandoned her—”

“You would have to get his version of the story to be certain of that,” Nelson said gently. “But all accounts agree that there was a baby girl born of the union.”

“Ah,” Corene said. “Poor Leah. But did she bring the baby here? She hasn’t mentioned a daughter.”

“No,” Nelson replied on a sigh. “Taro offered to care for the child—”

“Leah’s related to
Taro Frothen
?” He was the torz prime, one of the most powerful men in all of Welce. Corene couldn’t believe it.

“She’s his niece.”

“If she’s part of the Five Famlies, she must have been at the Chialto court pretty often. Why haven’t I ever met her before?”

“You probably did, when you were much younger. She looks much
different than she used to—she’s changed her hair and her style of dress. I might not have recognized her myself except that I was searching for her.”

“I still can’t believe that a daughter of the Five Families is living in the slums of Palminera.”

“I believe when Darien proposed the move she would have preferred any situation that took her out of Rhan’s vicinity.”

“And now?”

“Now I am hoping to bring her back with me. I think perhaps the heartache will have faded enough that she will be willing to resume her old life again. And perhaps be a mother to her daughter—who could use one.”

Corene tried to remember who had been on the premises whenever she had visited Taro’s property during the past five years. There were always people clustered around the torz prime—he collected them as easily as other people collected shells or coins. “So Taro and Virrie are raising Leah’s daughter? I wonder if I ever met her.”

“Many times,” Nelson answered. “Her name is Mally.”

Now Corene was so shocked she almost fell off the bench. “She’s the decoy princess? The one who’s been standing in for Odelia all this time?”

Nelson nodded. “The one whose life changed forever when we realized Odelia was not fit for the throne. She will always have a home with Taro, and he’s the man I’d want raising
my
children if I wasn’t around, but the situation is far from ideal. Mally has no place at court anymore. No parents looking out for her. What is to become of her? Leah should come home and care for her daughter—and so I told her.”

“Well, Rhan should care for her as well,” Corene said. “Shame on him to ignore her all this time!”

“It is not entirely his fault,” Nelson said. “He could hardly show a partiality for her if she was masquerading as Odelia—not if we wanted the fiction to hold. Nor could I single her out, nor any of us related to her by blood. It nearly killed my wife to know she had a grandchild that she could not kiss and make a fuss over.”

“Well, I suppose that makes sense,” Corene said reluctantly. “But I will still scold Rhan the next time I see him.”

“I think you should,” Nelson said. “He has behaved very badly in all this.”

“It is what one expects of an Ardelay.”

Nelson laughed. “It is indeed.”

“But tell me what’s going on in Welce! Zoe’s letters are so haphazard you can’t really tell what’s happening, and Josetta is too kind to dwell on scandals. So tell me everything. Who’s in trouble? Who’s in favor? When will Darien be crowned?”

You could hardly find a better person than the sweela prime to pass on a quintile’s worth of gossip, and they spent a very enjoyable twenty minutes while he shared the latest news. But there was one name noticeably missing from his report.

“You’ve said nothing about my mother,” she said when he was done. She was proud of herself for keeping her voice so level.

He gave her one quick, keen glance. “I thought you must have gotten her news directly from Alys.”

Corene shook her head. “Not a letter. Not a word.”

“Ah. Well, then, I suppose you don’t know she’s moved out of Dominic Wollimer’s house and petitioned to dissolve the marriage.”

“I didn’t, but I can’t say I’m surprised.” It had seemed clear that Alys only married Dominic because she thought his heirs would be in line for the Welchin throne. That was why she’d gotten pregnant, too. Once the primes had decided Darien should be the next king, Alys had no incentive to stay with her husband. Corene took a careful breath. “I suppose such a separation will make it difficult on the baby, once it’s born.”

“Ah,” Nelson said again. “Sadly, she miscarried a few ninedays ago. Shortly after you sailed, in fact.”

Shortly after the primes chose Darien. “Miscarried?” Corene repeated.

“That’s what she claimed.”

For a moment, she just stared at him. Nelson made no effort to look away, just held her gaze with steady compassion. He knew what she was thinking, of course:
How lucky I am that the whole royal court was excited about my birth, or I might have been “miscarried,” too.
All these ninedays mired in Malinquese politics, and Corene had almost forgotten how ugly life could be back in her own palace. Or at least, in her mother’s household.

“How challenging for her,” she said at last. “I hope she recovers soon from the loss.”

“Yes,” he said. “Well—I think she already has.”

When Corene was silent, Nelson slapped his hands on his thighs and then came to his feet. “So!” he said, a little too heartily. “I think we are all caught up and agreed on our next steps. We will stay for this celebration and we will be gone the next day. We will leave Steff behind to maneuver his way among his bloodthirsty relatives, but we will take Leah back with us. And if Filomara tries to stop us—well, she will see that Welchin soldiers are fiercer than she expects.”

“Yes, it sounds good,” Corene said, her words ringing somewhat hollow in her ears. She was ready to leave Malinqua behind, but not at all eager to return to Welce. She knew she was tired of court life, but she didn’t know what to replace it with, and nothing awaiting her in Welce held any particular appeal. Then there was the matter of Foley. Once she was back in Chialto, would he disappear from her life? How would she hold on to him? How would she convince him that if she wasn’t a princess, she could love wherever she chose? What if he convinced
her
that he thought of her only the way he’d thought of Josetta—as someone to protect, not someone to love? Wouldn’t Welce be even drearier then? It was all she could do not to sigh out loud.

“Don’t worry,” Nelson said, sensing her dissatisfaction, though she hoped he hadn’t correctly interpreted the cause. “Everything will be fine once we’re home.”

TWENTY-ONE

T
hat night’s dinner was the most enjoyable meal Corene could remember since she’d arrived in Palminera. There was something about the presence of the sweela prime that loosened people’s tongues and made them want to talk, made them vie with each other to tell their stories. Nelson listened, he laughed, he asked incisive questions until every one of them sat back with a little glow, believing that they had
finally
been heard and understood. Some capricious chance had put Melissande next to Nelson at the table, and their delight in each other’s company spilled over to everyone else in the room. Corene even caught Bartolo smiling once or twice, and she couldn’t remember ever witnessing that before.

Quite a change from breakfast,
she thought.

After the meal, Lorian came to the doorway and nodded at Filomara in a silent communication. She came to her feet and asked Nelson to withdraw with her for private conversation—then, after a moment’s hesitation, included Steff, Garameno, and Harlo in the invitation. Corene caught the look of desolation on Jiramondi’s face, quickly masked; Greggorio didn’t even seem to notice he’d been excluded.

Corene glanced swiftly at Melissande and Liramelli, jerking her
head toward the door, and they both nodded. Five minutes later they were all ensconced in Corene’s room, while Foley retreated to his own quarters.

“I love him!” Melissande exclaimed, flinging herself onto a sofa. “Nelson! You could talk to him for
years
and never get bored!”

“I liked him, too,” Liramelli said. “But I think he would be exhausting to be around for any length of time.”

Corene laughed. “Both statements are true,” she said. “He is the personification of all the sweela traits.”

“So, is he really here to take you away from us?” Liramelli demanded. “I’m not ready for you to go! I’ll miss you so much.”

“Yes, I am very sad to think of you leaving,” Melissande said.

“And I am sorry to leave the two of you, but it is time I was gone,” Corene said firmly. “I think, after last night, even Filomara will be happy to see the last of me.”

Liramelli groaned and buried her face in her hands. “Last night! All those things you said!” She looked up, her expression serious. “My father was so upset. He and my mother stayed up talking for hours. He said he had never put events together that way, that it took an outsider to see a pattern all of them had overlooked.”

“So now he thinks there might truly be a murderer on the loose in the palace?” Corene asked carefully.
And he doesn’t think it’s himself?

Liramelli nodded. “He says he will talk to the empress about initiating an investigation. But who can be trusted to lead it? Anyone close to the throne could somehow be involved.”

“It is very unnerving,” Melissande agreed. “At the same time, it is a little bit exciting.”

Liramelli sighed. “I think I would prefer it if life was duller than this.” She looked over at Corene with a doleful expression. “When you and Nelson Ardelay leave—are you taking Steff with you?”

“No,” Corene said. “He wants to stay.”

Liramelli brightened immeasurably at that. “That’s something else my father said. Steff is the one person we know who hasn’t been scheming for a throne for the past twenty years. We could trust
him
, if nobody else.”

Melissande lounged back on her sofa, one hand idly playing with her
hair. “I think our little Liramelli has an attachment to Steffanolo,” she said. “She can hardly say his name without blushing and stammering.”

Liramelli rewarded her by doing both. “That’s not—that’s not true! I mean, of course, I do like him, he’s—he’s very pleasant to be around—”

Melissande sat up and spoke more briskly. “He is a perfect prospect for you in temperament and heritage,” she said. “If you like him, all the better. I think your father should petition
now
for you to marry him.”

Now Liramelli’s face was scarlet, but she tried to carry on as if they were merely having a political conversation about advantageous alliances. “My father wants to see an heir declared before he marries me off. He still thinks it might be Greggorio.”

“Whom you could also wed, but there would be nothing but heartache there, if you loved him,” Melissande said. “He will not be faithful to his wife.”

“Which wouldn’t bother
you
, I suppose,” Liramelli said a little spitefully.

Melissande laughed. “It wouldn’t,” she agreed. “But Greggorio and I would not suit. He finds me unfathomable and I find him—tedious.”

Corene was curious. “Who
would
you marry, given a choice of heirs?”

“Jiramondi,” Melissande answered promptly. “I like him, and we wouldn’t interfere with each other. Whereas Garameno—” She considered. “I suppose we would tolerate each other. But he thinks I am a flighty girl, which makes me want to behave badly and—you can see we would quickly wear on each other.”

Liramelli’s face was troubled. “My father says—well, of course I am not supposed to repeat it—my father says Garameno will never be emperor because he cannot produce heirs of his own.”

“According to the gossip I have heard, the accident damaged his legs but left him functional in all other areas,” Melissande said delicately.

“Yes, apparently, but there was some—some test all three nephews had to undergo. To prove they could actually father children. And Greggorio and Jiramondi passed, but Garameno did not.”

Melissande threw her hands in the air. “Oh, this is endlessly entertaining! You Malinquese and your
tests
! Do you not know how many bastards have sat on the thrones of the southern seas before your scientists devised their precious examinations? Kings and queens have been
unfaithful since the day the first one was crowned! It does not
matter
if a man may sire children or a woman may bear them. Someone will always step in to make sure another child is born.”

Corene was laughing. “As I am living proof,” she said.

Melissande turned her bright eyes toward Corene. “So if
you
were choosing,” she said, “which of Filomara’s heirs would you want?”

She tried to close her mind to it, but the image of Foley would not be banished from her thoughts. Not a royal match, of course. But more and more, as these chaotic days unfolded, her ideal of the perfect man. Faithful. Capable. Devoted. Someone who didn’t try to control her, who didn’t want her to comform to some picture of her that he already had in his head. Someone who made the world safe for her so she could explore it.

She didn’t see how she would ever muster the desire to spend her life with any other man.

Melissande was watching her with interest, and even Liramelli—not nearly so attuned to others’ moods as Melissande—was regarding her with speculation. Corene forced an unconvincing laugh. “I would create havoc throughout the court by picking someone everybody despised,” she said. “Some lord’s bastard son or exiled nephew. Just to stir things up.”

“Yes, that does seem very much in keeping with your personality,” Melissande agreed.

Liramelli came to her feet, rubbing her hands against her trousers as if to brush away the quirks of the conversation. “Well, things will be very stirred up over the next few days,” she reminded them. “The party is only two days away!”