Saski looked surprised. “Queen Gaelle? She is—” She looked at Dietrich. “—she is nothing like Esofi to say the very least, and we can thank the gods for that. Why do you ask?”
“I only wish to understand Esofi better,” said Adale. “Her upbringing must have been very different from mine.”
“You can scarcely imagine,” said Saski dryly.
ADALE SET HER jaw and attempted to yawn without actually opening her mouth. Under normal circumstances, she would not have cared about being seen yawning in the middle of a service, but this was the lunar service, and Esofi was sitting only a few seats over.
Against her better judgment, Adale had accepted the help of her mother’s ladies in preparing for the service, since Daphene and Lethea had an admittedly weak grasp on looking presentable for religious functions. Then, to Adale’s horror, her mother had announced that they were all going to the service.
Now Adale sat in the front row of the Great Temple of Talcia, dressed in a gown she hadn’t even known she owned until a few hours ago, with too many bracelets around her wrists and an uncomfortable silver hairpiece digging into her scalp. The ancient archpriestess seemed completely unfazed by the presence of the entire royal family in her temple, as well as the presence of all the lesser nobles, aristocrats, and upwardly mobile merchants who had followed them. She simply went on hobbling through the rituals as though this service was no different than any of the others that had preceded it.
Adale risked another glance at Esofi. The princess was watching the service attentively, a peaceful smile on her face. Occupying the seats between the princess and Adale were, of course, the twins. There was no escaping them.
Adale let her thoughts wander. Then, when she was bored of even that, she set her attention to counting the stars painted on the enormous mural of the night sky behind the altar. After what felt like an eternity, the ceremony came to a close. Unfortunately, she could not escape straightaway. The crowd was taking its time to disperse and her mother seemed to be indulging them, accepting greetings from her subjects as though she had nothing better to do.
Adale had initially planned on staying for as long as Esofi did, but the service had left her short-tempered and irritated. Fortunately, the streets were well-lit and still reasonably crowded from the service. Adale began the short walk back up to the castle, and if a pair of well-intentioned watchmen followed her from a respectful distance until they were certain she’d made it home safely, she told herself that she did not notice.
The castle was quiet still, and she was grateful for that. As she began the journey back to her room, pulling fitfully at the comb in her hair, her gaze fell upon a pair of servants who had clearly been counting on the hall being empty for a while longer, judging by the intensity of their kiss.
The couple consisted of a palace maid and a tall, dark-haired woman that Adale realized she’d already seen once before.
“You again!” said Adale. The hunter woman broke the kiss and turned to Adale with a strange smile. Taking advantage of the distraction, the maid ducked out from under the woman’s arm and escaped down the hall, giggling madly.
“Here, don’t you have work to do?” asked Adale, well aware of her own hypocrisy. The woman’s smile only widened. Her lips were a strange, dark color, almost black. “Or are you just out to kiss everyone in the castle?”
“Not everyone, Crown Princess,” said the woman. “For example, not you.”
Adale frowned, moderately offended. “Well, why not?”
The woman laughed and bolted past Adale, quick as a deer. Stunned, Adale spun around in time to see the last of the woman’s long black hair whip around the nearest corner. Adale hurried after her, but when she turned the corner, the woman was gone.
Chapter Five
ESOFI
The presents from the twins were already beginning to pile up, but Esofi was having difficulty focusing on them. There had been another dragon strike yesterday, at Adelsroda, a town only three days ride south of Birsgen. The refugees were already moving north under royal guard and expected to arrive in Birsgen within the week.
On Esofi’s desk rested a map of Ieflaria marked in bright red ink at the site of every dragon attack in the past year. The marks left a wide but distinct inward spiral pattern, with Birsgen at the heart.
The next attack would be at the capital. She could feel it.
She wished she could set aside the entire matter of her engagement until the dragon issue was resolved. It was a struggle to even keep a level head, for she was quite unused to this degree of romantic interest. Back home, everyone had understood that she was engaged to a foreign prince and to pursue her would have been a waste of time. Even if someone had been inclined to court her, Esofi would never have accepted it. Probably.
Some days had been lonelier than others.
Her ladies were not being shy about making their opinions of her suitors known. Lexandrie was staunchly in favor of Svana, while Mireille asked her of Adale almost constantly, and Lisette seemed to prefer Brandt, citing that the question of heirs would come up sooner or later.
At long last, there was a knock at the door. Lexandrie, who had been reading quietly in her usual spot on the sofa, rose to answer it. His Majesty’s young squire, Ilbert, was standing there, waiting to escort Esofi to her meeting with King Dietrich and his generals.
That day, they would be discussing the permanent placement of the battlemages until more could be trained. The call for magically gifted Ieflarians had been sent out, and Esofi could only hope, for now.
For the meeting, Esofi brought only Lexandrie with her. Esofi’s annoyance with her cousin had not quite dissipated yet, but Lexandrie was acting as though nothing was wrong, and Esofi didn’t have the energy to quarrel with her. Besides, Lexandrie was the only one of her ladies who would be of any sort of use during the meeting. Though her magic was not as powerful as Esofi’s, she still had a good eye for details and a mind for strategy.
They departed with Ilbert taking the lead. He was a well-behaved young man or at least wise enough to pretend to be so when he was around Esofi. She wasn’t sure who his parents were, but she supposed they must be important, for King Dietrich to have chosen their son to be his squire.
They met in the war room, which reminded Esofi a great deal of the one back home in Rho Dianae, where her parents and all their advisors would occasionally discuss grim things with somber faces. Esofi and her siblings had been allowed to attend these meetings under the condition that they would not make a single sound throughout.
The large table in the middle of the room was painted with a map of the entire continent, Ieflaria at the center. Gleaming silver pieces had been placed upon it to mark the recent dragon attacks, mirroring the map on her own desk.
Esofi knew the names of all the military commanders that His Majesty had invited but could not match the names to the faces. The Ieflarian military was a bit different from the Rhodian, and the pins and stripes that indicated rank were strange and unfamiliar to Esofi. Fortunately, King Dietrich arrived quickly, saving Esofi from having to hide her ignorance, and the meeting began.
“They are coming from the northeast,” said Captain Lehmann, indicating the Silver Isles on the map. “Their routes are unpredictable, but they do not seem to ever travel through Xytae. They would rather pass over the sea than deal with the Xytan Legion, it seems.”