Heartened by this personal greeting, Isabelle decided to up the honor. “As I am pleased to meet you, Crown Princesa Xaviera.”
Xaviera dipped her tiara in Isabelle’s direction. She flashed a glare at Margareta and managed to give the impression of storming out even while maintaining the proper, decorous, floating pace.
Margareta said, “Isabelle, please accept apologies on my daughter-in-law’s behalf. I honestly don’t know what has gotten into her. I promise she will not trouble you any further.”
Which meant Margareta had not missed the armistice negotiations. She’d keep Xaviera away from Isabelle if she could. Not if I can help it.
The queen dismissed the other courtiers; now that they had witnessed the formal exchange of greetings, their presence was no longer required, and it seemed the queen wished to move on to more private matters. Kantelvar managed to avoid being shooed out, as did Margareta’s bodyguard.
Margareta said, “Xaviera is not your problem. Her husband is. Príncipe Alejandro knows my husband favors Julio for the throne. The only thing that prevents him from declaring so openly is the fact that Julio’s marriage is not yet consummated and confirmed in the Builder’s eyes. Alejandro will stop at nothing to see your marriage fail.”
“And yet the first assassination attempt came from your ally, Diego,” Kantelvar said. “What has been done about him?”
If Margareta’s stare could have incinerated its target, Kantelvar would have been nothing but a pair of smoking boots.
She said, “He remains ignorant of our suspicions. We must determine if the attempt on Isabelle’s life was a personal protest, or if he has been suborned by Príncipe Alejandro. I cannot move against him until I can prove to my supporters that he has betrayed us, especially as many of them disagree with our strategy of involving l’Empire Céleste.” Margareta turned her gaze on Isabelle. “It would help us to have some public guarantee of Grand Leon’s support of Príncipe Julio. It is time to fulfill your commitment and pledge l’Empire’s armies to our shared cause.”
Isabelle retreated into the waxwork expression she always wore in her father’s presence. Of course Margareta would try to get her to commit l’Empire without giving anything in return, but what could she say? Stall. Delay. Time was the thing no one wanted to give her. “I would prefer to talk to my betrothed first. It will be to him that any support is given.”
Margareta’s nostrils flared in irritation at this check. “It would help him to know what you propose.”
“I must know what he expects from me, and what he intends to give in return.”
“Being queen of Aragoth is not enough for you?”
Kantelvar stepped between Isabelle and the queen, raising his staff. “Majesty, Isabelle fully intends to deliver the might of l’Empire Céleste into Julio’s capable hands. In the end, there is no other choice. Tonight, at the masquerade, she will have a chance to meet Julio and all her fears will be allayed.”
Isabelle fumed and growled, “You have no right to promise that.”
Kantelvar’s hunch gurgled and Isabelle thought she heard a hiss of escaping air. He turned his head and said, “Please, Princess. You will get to meet Julio, and you will give him l’Empire’s support as you have been charged to do. You have no choice. At this point we are all just dancing a gavotte through the necessary formalities. Even Grand Leon knows this, although he pretends not to.”
Isabelle clamped her mouth shut rather than say something stupid.
“Give Julio his chance,” Kantelvar said.
It was amazing Isabelle could feel so jilted by a man she’d never met, but she had leapt all the way across the sky on hope and faith and desperation, and still she had no place to land.
“One chance,” she said. “Just one.”
Margareta said, “In that case, it seems to me that this audience is premature. We will speak again after the ball. Felix.”
This last was directed at the champion duelist, who stepped down from his place on the dais and escorted Isabelle and Kantelvar to the exit.
As he opened the door for Isabelle, he said in a gravelly voice, “There is nothing to be gained by delay. The sooner you commit your forces to the queen, the sooner she can convince your opponents that resistance is futile and more bloodshed can be avoided. Delay only weakens your position by making you seem feckless and indecisive.”
Isabelle stiffened. “As opposed to being pliant and easily stampeded.”
Felix shrugged and ushered her out. “It is a wife’s sacred duty to obey.”
“And do you give Margareta that same advice?” Isabelle asked.
“You are not the queen,” he said, and shut the door.
Isabelle was tempted to shout through the door at him, but Kantelvar took her elbow. “Princess, come. We have much work to do before tonight.”
Isabelle allowed herself to be towed along. “You told me Julio was a great swordsman, a statesman, and a sorcerer, yet everyone else seems to think of him as a puppet and a pawn.”
“I told you of the man he was, and the man he could be again with your help.”
Isabelle snorted. “What makes you think he wants my help? He’s made no effort whatsoever to contact me. Not even a message.” But as a wife she’d be expected to prop him up, and be blamed if she failed.
Kantelvar said, “Margareta was quick to take advantage of his accident to put him under her thumb. Once you remove him from her influence he should bloom into the husband you deserve.”
“And why can he not extricate himself from his mother’s sway?”
“Could you extract yourself from your father’s control?”
That rebuke stung. “It’s not the same. He is a príncipe with his own loyalists. I had no one.”
“Just a King’s Own Musketeer,” Kantelvar said. “A man who speaks with Grand Leon’s voice. He could have whisked you away whenever he wanted had he the wit to do so. Instead he chose to let you suffer in place so that he could preserve his tattered privilege.”
Isabelle recoiled as if she’d been slapped. Outrage boiled in her breast. “Jean-Claude has always been there for me!” But could he have stolen her away, given her a different life?
“As you say, Highness,” Kantelvar said. “I only meant to point out that you do have partisans, just as Julio does. All of Julio’s loyalists have been locked away from him, but Margareta cannot lock you away from your husband once you are wed, nor can she lock you away from court. Therefore you will have the opportunity to breach the wall she has set around him.”
Isabelle’s mind still frothed with fury at his suggestion that Jean-Claude had only been using her as an excuse to maintain his status. She wanted to pluck the lie from the air and smash it to a million pieces. Instead, it leaked into her mind, spreading out through her consciousness like a single drop of poison in a butt of wine.
Think about something else. “Then why have none of Julio’s partisans attempted to contact me, if they are so desperate to reach him?”
“They haven’t taken your measure. No doubt they will do so at the masquerade tonight.”