Sage was too tired from her fake smile of the past hour to resist the real one that suddenly spread across her cheeks. It felt good.
Banneth caught his daughter and lifted her up as the woman in red came down the steps in a manner of stately exasperation. When she reached the bottom, the king extended his free arm to her, and she stepped into his embrace. “Brother!” she said. “I have missed you so.”
Banneth kissed her cheek. “And I you.” He squeezed them both for a few seconds, then groaned but did not set the child back down. “You are getting too big for me to hold.”
The woman, a chessa—princess—if she was Banneth’s sister, stepped back and pursed her lips. “I told her this, but she will not listen.”
“I don’t know who she learned that from,” Banneth said, tugging the little girl’s russet-brown braid, and both princesses scowled at him. “We have guests.” He turned and gestured for Sage and Nicholas to come forward. Sage had been staring openly at the domestic scene, thinking the king was full of surprises. She’d known about a sister, but the daughter was unexpected.
“Yes, I know.” The woman waved to a servant waiting off to the side, and he rushed over, carrying a tray.
Water was quickly poured and shared, and names given. Banneth’s sister was Alaniah, but after exchanging looks with her brother, the princess told Sage to call her Lani. The girl was introduced as Reza. Now that Sage knew their relationship, the resemblance was obvious; Banneth and Lani had the same straight nose and coal-black hair, and Reza had her father’s smile.
“You are most welcome here,” Princess Lani said. “I look forward to hearing about your land and your journey.”
“As I look forward to telling,” said Sage.
Lani jumped a little. “You are a woman.” She looked her up and down with wide eyes. “I’m sorry I did not see that.”
Sage blushed. “My own clothes were…” Bloodstained? Torn? Soiled? “Too hot,” she finished.
The princess had eyes the color of moss and earth, framed by thick, black lashes, and they lit up, showing much more interest and curiosity than before. “You must tell me about Demoran clothes, but first come.” She turned to lead them up the steps. “There are rooms being prepared for you.”
They all followed Lani, Banneth carrying Reza, who chattered so fast Sage couldn’t understand more than a few words. Something about teeth—the princess pointed to a gap in her mouth—a sword, and wine. The last was said with a disgusted face. Apparently she’d tasted some and was not impressed.
“Lani,” said Banneth when Reza paused for breath. “Our guests will stay in Hasseth’s and Tamosa’s rooms.”
The princess stopped in the middle of the steps to stare at him, her mouth dropping open in a perfect O. “I have baths ready in the east wing,” she protested.
“It is little trouble to move them,” he said.
Lani glanced at Sage with wide eyes, then turned back to the stairs. “As you wish” was all she said.
Banneth leaned closer to Sage. “Hasseth is my son. He is away at school.”
He did not say who Tamosa was.
76
ALEX HAD BEEN worried how the people on the streets would react to a chained Kimisar prisoner, but once inside the city gates, he was shuffled to walk surrounded by fighters on horseback. From inside his cocoon, he saw and heard little that wasn’t several feet off the ground. They wound their way up to the top of the hill, taking a path that kept the journey from being steep, but made it very long.
He was not led into the palace, but rather under it. Prisons didn’t frighten him—they always had weaknesses. Escape might finally be possible, but he wouldn’t leave without Sage and Nicholas.
Yet he’d not counted on such a clean prison. Alex was stripped naked and his head and much of his body shaved. Then he was dusted with a vile powder to kill any lice that might remain. His clothes were tossed onto a cart and taken across the antechamber to a furnace. He felt the loss of Sage’s notes and the letter more than that of the lock pick in his boot. It was almost like losing her, but there was nothing he could do.
They gave him patched breeches and a lightweight shirt, which Alex took his time in putting on to keep the shackles off for a few more minutes. Without his boots or the cloth strips tied around his wrists, his arms were bleeding and his ankles swelling with bruises by the time he reached his cell. The straw pallet in the corner looked fresh, and he sank down on it as the bars were closed and locked behind him.
Maybe he should’ve revealed himself. Sage and Nicholas were in the palace above, by all appearances being treated well. If the Casmuni trusted them, their word could set him free. Or their association with him could shatter that trust. It mattered little now. Even if he could make the guards understand he was Demoran, there was no guarantee they’d tell anyone else. Their job was to hold him. Who he was didn’t matter.
Alex leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Tonight he would rest. Tomorrow he’d decide what to do.
“Kimisar.” A rough whisper interrupted his doze.
“I’m asleep,” Alex replied in Kimisar.
“They said you were caught near Demora,” the voice said.
“I was,” Alex mumbled, his words thick with sleep. “So what?”
“Are you one of Captain Huzar’s men?”
The name had Alex swimming for the surface in his consciousness. “Yes, you?”
“No, but I knew him years ago.”
Alex forced his eyes open. “How did you get here?”
A man slouched against the bars in the cell across from his, studying Alex with sharp, golden-brown eyes set over an oddly delicate-looking nose. “We came on a mission. Won’t be here much longer.”
“Execution?” Alex’s heart pounded at the thought. Most Kimisar spies in Demora ended up on the block, and vice versa.
The Kimisar shrugged. “Something like that. You got a name?”
“Gispan. You?”
“Stesh.” He pointed his thumb at a lump sleeping in the cell adjacent. “That’s my brother Kamron.” He shifted against the bars. “So what has Huzar been doing over there?”
Briefly Alex described how the Kimisar captain had scattered his company for months and drawn them together to make an escape once the Jovan Pass had cleared of winter snow. He left out the plan to use Prince Nicholas as a hostage.
Stesh snorted a little. “Always the hero. Couldn’t just leave those idiots who got themselves trapped.”
Still playing the part, Alex bristled. “Says the man lying in prison.”
“I don’t expect anyone to come after me if I fail.”
“How did you know Huzar?” Alex asked.
“We joined the army together at sixteen,” said Stesh. “Parted ways five years ago when I went into the dolofan. Haven’t seen him since, but his noble sacrifice of going back for you men didn’t surprise me at all.”
Dolofan were spies and assassins. No wonder Stesh expected to be executed. Alex had never had a chance to speak to one like this. “I wanted to be a dolofan, too,” Alex said. “But they wouldn’t accept me. Never found out why.”
“I can answer that just by the look of you,” said Stesh. “You’re one of those fools who thinks honor means something.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Just like Huzar.”
77
SAGE ALMOST COULDN’T believe the quarters they were given. While hot water was being carried in, Princess Lani showed her around the apartment, which included its own washroom with a bathtub set into the floor, a dressing closet the size of Sage’s room in Tennegol, and a sitting room that could be closed off from the bedroom. Light blue and gold tapestries covered the walls, giving the rooms an airy feel, and the wide bed was adorned with an embroidered silk coverlet. Sage’s hostess led her through a set of gauzy curtains and outside to a private patio that overlooked an enclosed manor house–sized garden. Around the edges of the courtyard, several other marble porches peeked through tangled vines of jasmine.