He’d been gone for months, however, and the dolofan had been captured several weeks ago. If Kimisara couldn’t barter passage, maybe they only needed to distract Casmun long enough to get through. An assassination would easily accomplish that. Fortunately, the men had been caught.
Something wasn’t quite right, though. Stesh and Kamron were too unconcerned about failing their mission. Rather, they acted like it simply wasn’t complete yet.
The more Alex thought about it, the more he felt sure there was a traitor within Casmuni high circles. Someone stood to gain from Banneth’s death, and that someone would release these men when the time was right. By holding the Kimisar in prison, they were already inside the palace perimeter.
The king of Casmun was about to be murdered, and there was no way Alex could warn him.
80
DESPITE HER INITIAL objections to shopping, Princess Lani walked through the marketplace with a bounce in her step. She linked arms with Sage and led her through the streets and into a dizzying array of shops. As quickly as she was met at the doors and offered the latest items and styles, Banneth’s sister must have been a common sight and a free spender, Sage thought. Sage herself wasn’t much for shopping. She was more interested in the city itself.
The rooftop gardens, she learned, weren’t just for food and decoration; they provided natural cooling for the homes and businesses. Abundant water from the seven springs ran beneath homes in canals and along gutters in the streets, providing both waste removal and additional cooling.
“Do you always ask so many questions?” Lani said after she’d finished explaining the network that delivered the soiled water as fertilizer to the fields between the city and the river.
“Yes,” Sage replied. “But you know so much.”
“Attend as many council meetings as I have and sewer facts will be drilled into your head,” the princess said dryly. “I think half their time is spent explaining everything like I can’t remember the ten times they told me before. Men love to hear themselves talk.”
Sage had never attended such a high meeting, but Alex said almost the same thing about them.
Alex.
The thought of him hit her so unexpectedly, she stopped in the middle of the street.
“Are you well, Saizsch?” Lani looked at her with concern. “Your face is white as a zara flower.”
Sage wiped cold sweat from her forehead. “I am well. My thoughts were not pleasant.” She pushed them from her mind. “But you have remembered me to ask about your exclusion from the council today.”
Lani’s expression changed, anger making the green in her eyes dominate the brown. “If it weren’t for Minister Sinda, I would still be on the outside of matters, but when I came of age last year, he insisted I be allowed to attend. He said it was only right, as I was now able to make decisions in Banneth’s absence.”
No wonder she admired the man. “Minister Sinda sounds like someone I would like,” said Sage.
Lani relaxed and smiled. “Once you have shared water with him, I know you will.”
“His looks are good, too, I think,” said Sage slyly.
Jealousy flashed across Lani’s face. “He is too old for you.”
“Really?” Sage said innocently. “I am only one year younger than My Princess.”
Lani realized Sage was teasing and scowled at her. “How did you know about us?”
There was no way Sage would admit what she’d overheard last night, but she had observed the attraction at dinner. “The true question is how My King could not notice,” she said. “But I was learned to see such things.”
“Learned?”
“At home I worked for a matchmaker”—Sage used the Demoran word—“a woman who creates marriages.”
Lani’s brow furrowed. “I thought you were Nikkolaz’s sister.”
Oops. Sage needed to be more cautious about what she said. “Yes, but he gets all the land so I must work.” Lani nodded sympathetically, and they continued along their way, Sage telling the princess more carefully chosen details about her background and learning much about Lani herself.
“You train in combat, too?” the princess asked as she straightened the shoulders of a dark-green dress on Sage in a shop. The outfit was similar to the one she’d worn last night, but the color and fit were much better. “You should join Reza and me in the afternoons.”
Sage blinked in surprise. Tashaivar didn’t seem like a very princesslike thing to do, and she said so.
“I have studied tashaivar since I was six,” said Lani. “When a girl has no mother, it is considered a sign she should be raised with more masculine care.” She cocked her head to the side. “You lost your mother at an early age. Is your custom not similar?”
Sage shook her head. “No, I am unusual.”
The princess stepped back and giggled, putting her hand over her mouth.
Sage frowned. She must have chosen a word that didn’t mean quite what she thought. “I just said I am not shaped correctly, didn’t I?”
Lani burst out laughing. “Yes, you did!”
81
ALEX STRETCHED AND exercised within his cell, working off some of his restlessness while trying to keep the shackles quiet for the Kimisar sleeping across from him. Stesh said they typically slept during the day, no doubt waiting for the night they’d escape and carry out their mission. Judging from the cycle of meals, it was now afternoon. The man who fed them hadn’t responded when Alex spoke to him in Kimisar, so he likely didn’t speak the language. Alex had no way to tell anyone what he knew.
The door down the passage opened, and a man strode toward them carrying a torch. When he stopped between the occupied cells, Stesh looked up from his straw mattress. “Is it tonight?” he asked lazily.
The man answered in Kimisar. “No, I need a few more days. Plans may be changing.”
It was him, the traitor. Alex shrank back against the wall, trying to be invisible.
Stesh sat up, suddenly wide awake. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“You will do as ordered,” the Casmuni man said. “But your target is the same. My targets may have changed.”
The Kimisar looked unconcerned once more. “Decide who you want blamed already and let us out. Kamron needs a bath.”
The man ignored him and turned to face Alex. “You’re the one brought in yesterday?” he said in Kimisar.
Alex squinted against the bright light. “I am,” he answered.
The hand that held the torch wore several rings with large stones. Alex could barely see his knuckles. “Why were you in the desert?”
Stesh answered for Alex. “Gispan says he was in Demora for the past year.”
“That does not explain why he came to Casmun.”
Alex swallowed. “I was pursuing two Demorans.”
The man brightened. He pulled a ring of keys from his belt. “Come with me, I wish to discuss them.”
He wanted to know more about Sage and Nicholas so he could frame them for Banneth’s murder.
Stesh had stood and moved to the front of his cell. “I’m sure our friend can tell you many, many things about Demora.” His teeth glittered in the torchlight, making him look like a predator. “And if he doesn’t want to, we’ll know why.”
The man glanced back with the key half turned in the lock. “Why would that be?”
“Because he is not Kimisar.”
Alex’s heart skipped a beat and then began pounding in his chest. What had given him away? The Casmuni frowned at him. “Demoran?”
“Either that, or he has become Demoran in the last year. He wouldn’t be the first.” Stesh spat in disgust.
The sound of the tumblers of the lock falling into place echoed through the room.
Alex charged out of the cell, slamming the Casmuni against the bars across the way. The torch dropped into a puddle and sizzled before going out as Alex swung the chain linking his wrists at the man’s head. In the sudden darkness, he half missed and nearly lost his balance. He turned and ran for the main door, but the chain between his ankles wasn’t long enough, and the Casmuni man had almost caught up with him as Alex burst out the door.