Fantasy of Flight (16 page)

I groan. “Not you, too.” Shard chuckles as he moves away and toward Ice.

I walk with Crystal to the food hall that night. We no longer have guards. I guess we’ve proved we aren’t a threat. We turn through the archway and Crystal walks into someone’s back. I steady her as she bounces back. The “someone” is Ashawn, Jovan’s youngest brother. My heart twists only a little at his familiar blue eyes and carved face. But the reminder of Kedrick is not as bad as it once was.

He looks over Crystal’s head at me. “Frost, isn’t it?” he asks. Has he been waiting here for me to pass?

I give a short nod and try to keep my breath even. This is the closest I’ve ever been to Ashawn. There is no way his smile would be so genuine if he knew I’m the Tatuma.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. And a pleasure to have seen you fight,” he adds.

I raise my eyebrow. “In the dome or the pit?” I ask and immediately bite my tongue. That was not smart.

His answering smile is dashing and charming and I find myself wanting to smile with him. Kedrick had the same charisma, Jovan, too, when he uses it. Within Ashawn’s smile, I do detect some slight alarm.

“My, Miss Frost, in the dome, of course,” he replies.

“My thanks for the compliment, Prince Ashawn. Please excuse us,” I say and gesture Crystal ahead of me.

There is a commotion at our end of the hall. It seems Shard and Ice are the cause, though several of the Watch appear to have joined in.

“Girly! You gotta try this,” Ice yells. He catches a bit of fruit in his mouth. I shake my head at him and escape to get something to eat. I’m tossing up whether I can safely take a pear when someone sidles up beside me.

It’s Macy, Blaine’s wife. Timid Macy is braver than the tenacious people she sits with, the first female of the assembly to approach me yet.

“H-hello, Frost,” she says. I dip my head at her and continue picking up food, making sure to react in the opposite way to my instinctive response.

“I wondered if...I could ask you a question?” she asks, placing a large portion of meat on her plate. She follows this with two more hunks of meat. I doubt she’s aware of what she’s doing.

“Go ahead.” I’m burning with curiosity, but I make it sound like I’m doing her a massive favor.

“How would someone learn topunchlikeyou?” She speaks so quickly, it takes me a moment to comprehend her words. When I understand, I can hardly believe it.

“You want to fight? Why?”

She starts loading on bread rolls with shaking hands. I can’t help a wide-eyed glance as she adds this to her already decent pile. Macy follows my look down to her mass of food and blushes. “I had a plan – letters. But someone stole them. Now I have nothing. I can’t get away.” Her words spill out in a tumble.

My mouth dries. Letters? Is she talking about the urn of documents I took? My heart sinks.

Some of those letters are revolutions old. She’s been planning an escape from Blaine for so long and I ruined her carefully laid plans.

“Does this man hurt you?” I ask softly. She looks down at me with wide eyes and clamps her mouth shut. I hurry on, sensing her withdrawal.

“In my childhood, I was severely beaten. I know how it is to be hurt this way.”

“You do?” she asks. Tears welling in her eyes. I nod.

“Yes,” she whispers. “He h-hurts me.”

Blaine beat his own wife. Vile, disgusting excuse for a man. Why doesn’t Sole do something about it? He was the most timid of the delegates, or actually, of any Bruma I’d met, but it was his sister! Surely he could summon the courage to protect her. Jovan must not be aware of Blaine’s cruelty. I remember how he reacted to my beating. I’ve never experienced such tight fury on my behalf. Jovan would kill him - which wouldn’t be such a bad thing - but I knew from my own experiences Macy wouldn’t want her troubles advertised.

I put my plate down and grip her hand. “I don’t know of any place where a woman can learn to fight, but leave this with me. I’m sure there must be others who want the same thing, noble or otherwise. Perhaps something can be set up.”

She bobs her head up and down frantically. “I have money I’ve put aside. I can pay you! I just need a couple of moves to hold him back.”

I smile at her eagerness. Learning self-defense is a lot more complicated than she thinks. I doubt training her personally will fit into Jovan’s plans. But maybe I can get in touch with Alzona. She’s always looking to make money. “In the meantime, do you want me to deal with him?”

She makes a squeaking sound. It takes me a moment to realize it’s a laugh.

“No, he isn’t back for another month. I was hoping by then I could have learned a little,” she says.

“Macy,” someone calls out. “Stop talking to the trash, dear.” I look over my shoulder. Arla.

“Stop talking to the trash, dear,” I mimic under my breath. Macy laughs. A real laugh this time. I smile as her eyes light up. She should still be beautiful. Blaine has aged her prematurely. He’s made her forget happiness, taken away any liveliness. I can’t wait to make him pay.

“I do that, too,” she whispers. “Thank you.” She shuffles back to her position in front of the throne table.

I sit off to the side and listen as Blizzard rages about how many people could be fed with the food the others are wasting in their game. A tournament has started between the four tables around us, and our own. Something involving catching fruit in your mouth from changing distances. It looks kind of fun, but I can see Blizzard’s point. These men are already full and there are people in the Outer Rings who will starve to death tonight.

Blizzard nudges me, giving me a look. I relax my brow, realizing I am frowning. It’s too quiet. Why has everyone hushed? I swivel around.

Jovan is standing.

“We near the end of the First Sector,” he speaks. There is a groan. No one wants to leave the warmer weather of this time of revolution. ‘Warm weather’ is relative to Glacium. There is still a frost on the ground every morning. The King smiles. “But, it is not all bad news. As is tradition, there will be a ball at the end of the week.” The women cheer, the men groan.

“As Arla did such a good job last time, she will organize the festivities again.”

I snigger as I remember the lies I told her before I left the castle. The beautiful woman casts a coy look to Jovan. I snigger again when the intended target misses it completely.

“She makes me sick,” a woman whispers loudly. I look over and see it is Greta. I giggle and she gives me an uncertain smile.

“This ball will also act as a farewell for those of our Outer Ring guests who decide to return to their homes. Announcements will be made the day before for those who have been selected to join the Watch. Those who are asked will give their answer at this time,” he continues and looks down briefly at his fisted hands, which he is leaning on behind the throne table.

“As you know, I have been in war negotiations with Tatum Avanna on Osolis.”

My mouth dries. I thought the hall was silent before, but it wasn’t.

It is now.

The others at our table exchange hushed murmurs. Obviously, news of the possibility of war hasn’t reached farther, which I find strange. Shard and Ice don’t seem surprised, though.

“Unless a satisfactory peace agreement is reached on both sides by the end of the Second Sector, the assembly will be moved to the Sixth Sector instead of continuing on to the Third. This will enable the Watch to stay close to the Great Stairway,” he says.

The shouting starts.

“But we don’t even have the Tatuma anymore!”

“They’re the ones who killed Prince Kedrick!”

“That is all,” Jovan finishes.

I leave the hall straightaway, not trusting my face to remain emotionless with this news. Jovan must think war is eminent. Why else would he be planning this unusual shift back to the Sixth Sector?

I reach my room and pace. Unless Jovan is lying through his teeth, my mother is resisting all efforts at peace. It’s been months. Surely if peace were attainable, it would have been achieved by now. Twelve messages should have been exchanged in the year since Kedrick’s death. I scrunch my face, pausing briefly in my frantic movements. Actually, twelve didn’t seem like that many. Only six answers, six attempts at negotiations by each party.

Could a ruler decide they were going to war after so little communication? Maybe I’m panicking over nothing.

The door crashes open and Jovan bursts in.

I look up at the ceiling instead of glaring at him. “I see your manners haven’t improved at all. What if I was having a bath?” I ask.

“If you were having a bath, I would join you,” he shoots back.

I gasp at his rudeness. “You forget who I am, King Jovan. Do not talk to me like that.”

He glowers at me, his eyes searching the room. “You’re still here.”

I look around. Has he lost his mind? “Why wouldn’t I be?” I ask.

“I thought my news might make you run,” he says. “I’ve learned running is how you deal with things.”

I huff and fling myself backward on the bed. “For the last time, I wasn’t running back to Osolis! Why would I do it without the map? I don’t have a death wish.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

I groan. “Solis, you are so annoying,” I mutter under my breath and flop an arm over my eyes.

“What?” he asks. I don’t answer. The bed dips as he sits beside me. My skin prickles. Is he looking at me?

“If you weren’t trying to get back to Osolis, what did you find out about the assassin’s arrow?” he asks.

I lift my arm and look at him. Our close proximity on the bed is making me notice things about him I don’t normally notice. Like how his lips seem soft, though the rest of his face is all hard planes and chiseled features. And how some hair hangs across his forehead.

“Took you long enough,” I say. “I thought this would have been the first thing you asked me.”

“Unlike you, I’m not throwing myself into dangerous situations to find Kedrick’s killer. I think you’re a fool if you think my brother would have wanted you to die bent on revenge.” Ouch.

I swallow hard and break eye contact. “It was another dead end. Seedyr wood is only used to make spears for the very poorest of the Outer Rings. The weapons master I talked with said no one sold Seedyr wood arrows. There would be no point as the wood is easily broken.” I put my arm back over my face as I continue.

“The arrow was made by the assassin, and apart from knowing they must be poor, I have no further leads,” I mumble.

“You’ve had the arrow the whole time,” he guesses, in a low rumble.

“Yes.”

“You lied to me?”

He pulls my arm from my face and leans over me, his hair falling forward. I brush the silky strands off my cheek. I push at his shoulder and he sits back. “You can’t get angry at me for lying. You’ve lied to me, too.”

“When did I lie to you?” His expression goes blank. Its absence makes me realize how expressive he’s been since I’ve been back.

I put a finger on my lips. “Hmm, let’s see. How about when I asked you if there had been another message from Osolis before you left on tour.”

His cheeks redden.

“Jovan, what’s going on? Why didn’t you tell me before you told the assembly? I know you’re still angry at me, but I would have liked some warning.”

“I was unsure how you would react. I judged it best to tell you at the same time as the others. And I only lied because your mother made some…cruel remarks in the message. I did not want to repeat her words and hurt you.”

I shrug. “It wouldn’t be anything I haven’t heard before. What was it? ‘You can kill her if you want, it would save me the job’? ‘She’s been tainted by your world’?”

He looks at me with startled eyes. “Did you read the message?”

I laugh. “No, I just know my dear mother. Please tell me what is happening. Not knowing has been wreaking havoc on my mind for months.”

Jovan lies on the bed next to me. “Things are…not good. Your mother is demanding exuberant payment for the ‘insult’ of stealing you. She says she will take this in the form of a portion of land on Glacium.” He turns to give me a sheepish look. “I told her I was torturing you for information and you would be killed if she didn’t return with a more reasonable negotiation.”

I ponder this seriously. “Might have worked with a mother who loved her child,” I decide.

He raises his eyebrows and props his hands under his head. “So it seems. That was when I got her reply saying it was good riddance.”

“I doubt you’ll give her land. Will you give her money?”

Jovan snaps, “Of course not. My brother was killed on her fucking world! It seems she’s conveniently forgotten that.”

“It will be war then,” I say, disappointment coloring my voice. I sit up on the edge of the bed.

The King’s voice is tight. “Olina, I have tried my best. But I can only reason with a reasonable person.”

I nod and take a shaky breath. “I know. Believe me, I’m not blaming you. If anything, I blame myself. If I hadn’t tried to show Kedrick my face, none of this would have happened. Kedrick would still be alive and we wouldn’t be trembling on the edge of anarchy. It’s just. Now, there are people on both worlds I don’t want to see hurt. It’s conflicting and more than a little confusing.”