“Yes, I remember your platform.” Elora appeared to suppress an eye roll, but his chest puffed up as if she’d complimented him.
“If they say there’s a plot, then there’s a plot,” the Chancellor said with conviction. Next to me I saw Finn tense up, narrowing his eyes at the Chancellor.
“Yes, I’m sure there is.” Elora nodded to Finn, who held the door open for the Chancellor. “I’d love to talk with you more, but you must hurry if you want to beat the worst of this storm. I don’t want you to get stranded.”
“Oh, yes, quite right.” The Chancellor looked at the sheets of rain coming down, and his face paled slightly. He turned back toward Elora. Bowing, he took her hand and kissed it once. “My Queen. I’m at your service, always.”
She smiled tightly at him while Finn wished him a safe journey. The Chancellor barely even glanced in my direction before diving out into the rain. Finn shut the door behind him, and Elora let out a sigh of relief.
“What were you doing?” Elora looked at me with disdain, but before I could answer, she waved me off. “I don’t care. You’re just lucky the Chancellor didn’t realize you were the Princess.”
I glanced down at my dirty, soaking-wet clothes, knowing I looked nothing like royalty. Somehow Finn still looked high-class, and I had no idea how he managed that.
“What was the nature of the Chancellor’s visit?” Finn asked.
“Oh, you know the Chancellor.” Elora rolled her eyes and started walking away. “He always has some conspiracy theory brewing. I should really change the laws so I have total say about who is appointed the Chancellor, instead of letting the Trylle vote. The people always fall for idiots like him.”
“He mentioned something about a Vittra plot,” Finn pressed. He followed her, staying a few steps behind, and I trailed in their wake.
“I’m sure it’s nothing. We haven’t had Vittra come into F?rening in years,” Elora said with an eerie confidence.
“Yes, but with the Princess—” Finn began, but she held up her hand, silencing him. She turned to him, and by the look on her face I knew she was speaking in his mind. After a minute he took a deep breath and spoke. “All I am proposing is that we take extra precautions, have extra guards on duty.”
“That’s why you’re around, Finn.” She smiled at him, something that almost looked genuine, but with a weird malicious edge to it. “It’s not just for your pretty face.”
“Your Majesty, you put too much faith in me.”
“Now that I can believe.” Elora sighed and started walking away. “Go change out of those clothes. You’re dripping all over everything.”
Finn watched her retreating figure for a minute, and I waited next to him until I was certain she was out of earshot. Although, if I thought about it, I wasn’t sure that Elora was ever out of earshot.
“What was that about?” I whispered.
“Nothing.” Finn shook his head. He glanced over at me, almost as if he’d forgotten I was there. “You need to change before you get sick.”
“That wasn’t nothing. Is there going to be an attack?” I demanded, but Finn only turned and started walking toward the stairs. “What is it with you people? You’re always walking away from questions!”
“You’re soaking wet, Wendy,” Finn said matter-of-factly, and I jogged to catch up to him, knowing he wouldn’t wait for me. “And you heard everything I heard. You know what I know.”
“That’s not true! I know she did that creepy mind-speak with you.”
“Yes, but she only told me to keep quiet.” He climbed the stairs without looking back at me. “You’ll be safe. You’re the Princess, the most important asset this kingdom has right now, and Elora won’t risk you. She just hates the Chancellor.”
“Are you sure I’m safe?” I asked, and I couldn’t help but think of that painting in Elora’s hidden room. The one that showed me terrified and reaching for nothing.
“I would never do anything to put you at risk,” Finn assured me when we reached the top of the stairs. He gestured down the hall to my room. “We still have much to go over. It’d be best if you forgot about this and changed into something warmer.”
FIFTEEN
education
After I had changed, Finn directed me to a sitting room on the second floor, down the hall from my room. The vaulted ceiling had a mural, all clouds and unicorns and angels. Despite that, the furniture looked modern and normal, unlike the expensive antiques that filled most of the house.
Finn explained that this had once been Rhys’s playroom. When he’d outgrown it, they had turned it into a room for him, but he rarely used it.
Lying on my back on the couch, I stared up at the ceiling. Finn sat in an overstuffed chair across from me with a book splayed open on his lap. Stacks of texts sat on the floor next to him, and he tried to give me a crash course on Trylle history.