Page 149 of A Game of Veils

Her head has drooped against Raul again. My sense of the time prickles through my body. “We should get you back to your room. You’ll need all the sleep you can get to be alert for tomorrow.”

As do we, if we’re going to defend her.

We pull on our clothes, Lorenzo moving to help Aurelia with her gown. Seeing the affection shining in his face as he sets his hands on her waist afterward, the unhampered joy with which he kisses her, I find myself smiling despite everything that’s wrong.

She’s brought a lot of rightness into our lives too. Started to mend the cracks that’d formed inside each of us.

We’d better be able to do the same for her.

We guide her through the hidden passages back to her room, where Raul extends his gift into the shadows to confirm that no one’s arrived in her absence. Aurelia offers us all one more brief kiss before slipping away from us into the darkness of her chambers.

Silence hangs over us on our trek back to our own bedrooms. Even Raul, for all he got to show off his sensual prowess tonight, seems more brooding than triumphant.

I’ve had my conflicts with the prince of Lavira—the sense of unity between us fractured with Pavel’s death, and I lost most of my patience for his posturing. I shouldn’t have let our differing approaches distract me from the fact that we’re all on the same side. All three of us still know what matters most.

When we emerge from the unused bedroom into the hall, my pulse stutters. Neven is standing outside the door to my chambers, his mouth slanted at an uneasy angle.

As we hurry over to him, he turns to meet us. Relief lights in his bright brown eyes but doesn’t wash away the tension on his face.

“There you are.” He drops his voice to a hush. “I saw something—I thought you might want to know.”

My heart thumps faster. “What?”

He jerks his thumb toward the back end of the palace. “I took a run through the woods and then was walking back to cool off, and I saw a bunch of workers tramping out toward the wall with carts of stone and wood and who knows what else. What would they be building out there in the middle of the night?”

Raul scowls. “Something for the trial tomorrow.”

I don’t even need to think about it. I motion for the others to follow me. “We’d better take a look and figure out as much as we can.”

Some of the nobles who don’t have to worry about competing for their lives tomorrow are still enjoying themselves in the hall of entertainments. Music and laughter tinkles through the hallways as we make our way to the nearest staircase.

We amble out into the night as if we’re simply taking a casual stroll. When we reach the edge of the woods, Raul peers into the darkness and sweeps his hand through the air.

The shadows thicken around us. We walk on, cloaked by his gift, even our footsteps muffled by a layer of condensed darkness.

Neven points us most of the way. I can tell when we’re close enough to the workers for Raul to sense them because his expression tightens with concentration.

Voices start to reach us through the woods. It takes several more steps before we can make out the figures between the tree trunks.

At least a dozen workers bustle around by the high stone wall that surrounds the palace grounds, lit by a few lanterns resting on the ground nearby. They’re definitely building something—they’ve already constructed part of what looks like a ramp veering up higher than the wall.

As I watch, one woman uses her gift to send a slab of metal flying up toward the top of the ramp, its edges gleaming wickedly in the lantern-light.

They aren’t talking much, and when they do, they’re mostly keeping their voices low. I only make out a phrase here and there:

“…make sure the angle…”

“…over by the river…”

“…careful of the edge…”

Nothing I overheard tells me the purpose of this structure or what else they might be planning to construct out here. I exchange glances with my foster brothers, but they look similarly puzzled.

Whatever task the emperor has set his people to, it must be part of tomorrow’s trial. And it looks as if he and Marclinus are upping the ante by several measures.

Naturally they’d want an epic finale to their sick competition.

I ease a little closer, but the comments my ears catch are only focused on the immediate concerns of putting the structure together. No one remarks about what the ladies it’s presumably for might have to do on it.

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