She looked over her shoulder. “The women of the court would like to help ease the suffering of our people.”
My breath caught. It wasn’t a joke, or something they were doing to mock me. I could see it on their faces—they wanted to help. Or at the very least, they wanted to be seen helping. Which for my purposes was much the same thing.
“Thank you,” I told them, pressing my hand to my heart. I inclined my head to them, and I heard them all rush to bow at the gesture. “By all means,” I said. “Let us continue.”
My heart swelled with emotion, and I felt threads running near my fingertips. I struggled to breathe slowly, trying not to disrupt them, and it occurred to me that I had to practice my abilities, or happiness here would be a very dangerous thing indeed.
The next morning, I had the luxury of waking alone, but instead of a husband, I found a note on the floor by the balcony. Kairos told me. Meet me in the garden.
I tossed the note into the fire, calling the ishru to dress me and leaving the chamber as fast as I could.
Zeph was waiting outside my door, and I smiled. “Morning, my queen,” he greeted me.
“Good morning. Zeph, can you take me to this garden I’ve heard so much about?”
“The Royal Garden?” he asked.
“I believe so.”
He gestured forward. “Right this way, my queen.”
He led me through the castle, and then out the courtyard and down a sloping road that curled under the castle, pointing out the army’s barracks and training grounds and a road that he said led to a small beach under the cliff.
When we arrived at a thick green hedge, two guards stood by a break in it. They bowed to me.
“Why is this garden guarded?” I asked them.
“It was a favorite retreat of the former queen,” Zeph told me softly. “Ever since her death, the king has kept it as she wanted it.”
“The king was married before?” I asked, and then realized my error. “His mother,” I murmured. “Who cares for it?”
“There are gardeners, my queen,” one of the guards said, dropping his head to me.
“Are they currently at work?” I asked, panic striking me.
“No, my queen. We can keep them out, if you wish.”
“Yes,” I said. “And, Zeph, would you mind staying here? The garden is guarded anyway, and I should like a little time alone, I think.” This must have been why Kata suggested such a place. She would have known I could be here unguarded.
He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, my queen. I will remain here. If you need me, shout.”
I turned and took a deep breath, and went into the garden.
The two thick green hedges continued on inside, forming a wide pathway. It turned, and still the walkway continued. It turned again, and there it opened, onto a wide square with roses and dense beds of flowers with a stone bench in the center. I left the square, following the hedge on the other side of it to another walkway. This one turned twice and led to a large fountain.
The next room in the hedges had a line of three trees, so large and leafy that they shaded the whole space between the hedge, and their roots grew up knotted from the ground. A long, narrow fountain burbled with a bench near it, birds dashing to and fro.
“Shy,” whispered Rian, appearing from around the hedge.
I ran to him, hugging him tight. “Rian!” I yelped softly. “I thought it was Kata who sent the note.”
“It was,” he told me. “I just wanted to come with her.” His arms pulled tighter on me. “I heard about the communes. You could have been killed. You know that wasn’t the Resistance, don’t you?”
“I know. I heard they were pirate traders. And I’m safe,” I assured him, hugging him back. “It is so good to see you. But my guards are right outside. What if they catch you?”
“We’re safe in here,” he told me.
“How do you know?”
He grinned. “This isn’t my first time in the garden, Shy.”
I stepped back from him. “Who else do you meet in here? Where is Kata?”
He lifted a shoulder, glancing around. “She’s coming. I have an informant in the castle.”
“Who?”
His head tilted. “Come now, you know I can’t tell you that. It’s important the king never suspects you know as much as you do.”
“Did Kairos tell you about the Summer Palace?” I asked.
His face turned grim. “Yes. I’ll find out if he’s still experimenting on people. I can only imagine how frightening that was for you, Shy, but you know he kills these people, yes? Sometimes with a farce of a trial. Sometimes it’s towns taking justice into their own hands and burning people, or hanging them.”
I looked at my hands. “He wants everyone to hate Elementae as much as he does.”
He sighed. “Is Kata right? You’re an Elementa?”
I raised my eyes. My oldest brother, my hidden ally in this hostile place. I nodded slowly.
“Skies, Shalia,” he breathed, rubbing his forehead. “We need to get you out of there. We have an opportunity while he’s away.”
Hope fluttered up in my chest, but it didn’t last. “Rian, I can’t. I can’t leave. He’ll come for me—he’ll come to the desert and make our family pay.”
He stood from the bench. “You can’t stay. He will murder you, Shy. He’ll make a spectacle of your death.”
“I can control it,” I told him. “There’s a reason I have this power. I know that now. I’ll practice. I won’t let it get out of control.”
“To hide it for the rest of your life?” he said bitterly. “This power is incredible. In other countries it’s worshiped. You want to pretend that it doesn’t exist while you have a family with him? You want to teach your children to hate what you truly are? What Kata is?”
“No,” I said, standing too. “My children will not learn his kind of hate.”
“How can you prevent it?” he said. “Unless you stand against him.”
I shut my eyes. “It is so easy for you to say, Rian. You weren’t there when Torrin came back to be burned in the sands. You didn’t have to see the cost of rebellion and war. You weren’t there when Calix ordered more men dead because you stole his coin.”
“And you weren’t there when he started all of this, when he killed Kata’s people, and he would have killed her and me both if she hadn’t stopped him.”
I drew in a breath. “No. I wasn’t there. But why were you, Rian?”
“To help!” he said. “The Vis sent word to the desert for aid. And I took our men and answered the call.”
I drew a breath. I didn’t believe that Rian had somehow transgressed with Kata’s sister, did I? “What about Amandana?” I asked.
His head tilted, surprised, but he didn’t look ashamed or angry. “Amandana? Kata’s sister?”
“Calix said he was supposed to marry her, but he saw you with her instead. That she betrayed him.”
He frowned, shaking his head. “Amandana?” he repeated. “She and I were friends, in a way. She and I were together before the battle, but not … not in the way you’re suggesting, little sister. I don’t know what he saw, but she didn’t betray him with me.”