His gaze narrowed. “You think I’m persecuting them?”
“Calix,” I said, coming closer to him and tugging his hand. “This child proves that you’ll have an heir, and the prophecy is merely the prattle of some misguided fool. I just want to make sure you’re not resorting to violence when you don’t have to. Not when we’re starting a new age of peace.”
He drew a long breath, but his fingers entwined with mine and he lifted my hand for a kiss. “How can I argue with that?” he said. “Very well. We won’t act on the information. We’ll keep collecting it for a few days, if only so people can have their coin.”
I nodded, but it didn’t feel right, not after Calix’s rabid need to get information on the Resistance. In agreeing, he was silencing my concerns, but could I trust him not to act on the information?
He pulled me close for another kiss. “Why don’t you go rest?” he said. “I’m sure dinner will be a theater of supplicants tonight, so you may want to prepare for it.”
I shrugged—I was tired. “Very well,” I told him.
“I’ll escort you,” Galen offered.
“No, Galen, we have far too much to do,” Calix said. “Unless you need an escort, my love?”
I shook my head, even as Galen frowned at his brother. I was only halfway down the staircases when I heard voices and saw Kairos making a guard bend with laughter.
Grinning, I joined them. “Oh, Kairos,” I said, shaking my head.
He chuckled, putting an arm around my shoulders and kissing my cheek. He nodded to the guard and led me away. “How did he take it? Is he building a white stone sculpture in your image?”
I elbowed him. “He’s very happy.”
“And you, little sister?” he asked. “Are you happy?”
I smiled. “Of course. I can’t wait to be a mother.” A sudden realization made joy bubble up inside me. “And we’ll have to bring the baby to the desert to be blessed. Kai, we’ll get to see everyone.”
“See them?” he scoffed. “Father’s going to be so smitten with his grandbaby he’ll probably give up the desert altogether. The whole d’Dragyn clan will have to leave the desert for the Trifectate.”
I laughed happily at the vision—that was truly what peace meant. Not just the day when my brothers would stop dying at my husband’s sword, but the day when they would all be welcomed in the Tri City. When everyone gathered around my child, working together to make a better world so that he or she could inhabit it.
“And when we go to the desert,” he said, hugging my shoulders gleefully, “the clans will celebrate until the mountains shake.”
Foolishness
“Absolutely not,” Calix said. Rather than attend court dinner, Calix insisted we stay in our reception chamber so that the court could come to us. “Go to the desert? With my unborn child? No. Never.”
“It’s tradition,” I told him. “The baby needs to be blessed in the desert, or it won’t be healthy and strong. I could even show you the lake, and we could look for the elixir.”
He waved his hand. “Foolishness. Trifectate babies are perfectly healthy without setting foot in the desert. It’s unnecessary.”
“It’s necessary to me,” I told him. “The whole clan gathers, and there are songs and dances. Light and love. I want my family to bless the baby, Calix. I want that for my child.”
“Your family is here,” he told me. “Now, we must speak of more important things. I’m sure we should wait for the tour until your belly grows—everyone will want to see my child growing in truth.” His hand covered my stomach, warm and gentle. “I wonder how long that will be.”
“Not long,” I said. “I haven’t bled for more than two months.”
He nodded, pleased. “Excellent. We will tour you around the country as soon as arrangements can be made.”
“What about the Consecutio? They are eager for us to attend.”
He lifted an unrepentant shoulder. “They will manage their disappointment. It’s not nearly as important as allowing the country to fawn over you.” He kissed my forehead. “My precious wife,” he said. He grinned. “Wait until you see the jewels I’ve commissioned!”
I shook my head. “I don’t need any of that. I just want to go to the desert, Calix. Let my family come and bless the child. It will be good luck.” I tugged his hand. “Please. We needn’t go into the desert; they could all gather in Jitra and meet us.”
He kissed me again. “No,” he said, smiling at me.
Zeph opened the door. “My queen, there are vestai who wish to pay their respects,” he told me.
“Send them in!” Calix crowed.
Two men entered, bowing low. “My queen, we came to offer gifts for you and your child,” one said. He handed me a basket of strange, brightly colored fruit. “These were brought from my estates in the south,” he told me. “Only the most delicious food for the future king.”
Calix beamed at this.
“A necklace, my queen,” said the other man, holding a stone as green as Galen’s eyes on a leather cord. Calix took it in delight, lifting it from the tiny wooden chest it was in to string it around my neck.
“Lovely,” Calix told me. “A stunning jewel for my own priceless gem. Vestai, you please me.”
They bowed at this. “Thank you, my king!”
Calix grinned as they heaped honors upon him. I smiled and sat there while courtiers kept coming with gifts that seemed to have materialized out of the air. Or maybe not—maybe they had all been waiting for this, for the child who would change everything.
While courtiers fawned over Calix far more than they did me, I took a moment to go out to the balcony. The wind was strong, and I found myself staring at the narrow bridges that connected the castle to Galen and Danae. I couldn’t see any activity at Danae’s castle, but I wasn’t sure if she had left to return to the desert yet.
When I turned to the other bridge, Galen was standing on his balcony.
Glancing over my shoulder to see Calix still quite occupied, I went toward Galen’s side. The bridge reminded me of the one I was married upon at Jitra; it was white stone and a little wider, but it didn’t have sides or handholds of any kind. Taking a breath, I stepped up onto it, walking a few feet forward.
The wind pushed me so hard I swayed, and I froze, looking down the hundreds of feet to the churning ocean water.
“Shalia!” Galen called, seeing me. He didn’t hesitate, striding across the bridge, his hand meeting my waist and gently pushing me back. “It’s not safe up here. Certainly not in your condition.”
I stepped onto the balcony, and his hands left me as he glanced at the large windows. “You must be aching to remind me you were right,” I told him. “About the information. That he doesn’t want peace at all—he wants submission.”
“Maybe I wasn’t,” he said, but his eyes moved away from mine. “He said he won’t pursue the information.”
“But he still has it,” I said. “It seems like a very careful distinction.”
“You are queen,” he told me. “Your life is full of careful distinctions.”