Page 27 of A Game of Veils

I offer a noncommittal shrug, refusing to return her smile. Uncertainty about how to proceed prickles over my skin.

I might have turned and left, but Aurelia moves toward me.

She stops with one of the narrow tables between us, resting her fingers on its smooth edge. “You were wonderful on the vielle. I’ve never heard anyone play like that before.”

I dip into the slightest of bows. Ever so pleased to have entertained her.

“Of course, I’ve never met anyone who’s created an entire language before either.” Aurelia looks down at her own hand and then at mine. “I’d like to understand you better, if you’re willing to show me.”

A chill shivers under my skin. She’s been here less than two days, and she already noticed some of my silent communication with my foster brothers?

Feigning ignorance, I pull out one of the small papers I keep in a sheaf in the pouch on my belt, along with a small pencil. I have to lean over my side of the table to write. I can talk this way if you need a longer answer.

When I turn the paper toward Aurelia, she shakes her head. “That’s not what I mean. You say things to the other princes using your hands.” She pauses. “If you don’t want to share that with me, I won’t push. I only wondered. After hearing the music you create, I have to think there’s a lot you could say.”

What does it matter to her? Why would she even care?

She sounds like she honestly does. The thoughtful curiosity in her expression tugs at something deep in my chest.

No one’s ever bothered to ask before—not a single one of the nobles who could have witnessed my vocabulary of gestures in the decade I’ve been developing them.

Even my family back in Rione, on the brief occasions I see them, has never known quite what to make of my muteness. On my first visit after my sacrifice, my older sister turned so despondent that I was afraid sharing the truncated secret language I was developing would make the situation worse. After five years trapped in the imperial court, my foster brothers felt far more like my siblings than she did anyway.

Bastien said we should unsettle Aurelia, trip her up. That’ll be easier to do if we find out more about her. If I accommodate her request in some small way, who knows what she might reveal to me?

I spread my hands in the fairly universal motion that says, I’m at your disposal.

What does she want to know?

She tilts her head as she considers. “How would you show that you agree with what someone’s said?”

I bring my thumb to my palm and curl my fingers around it.

“And if you disagree?”

I flick my thumb across my forefinger from tip to base.

Aurelia watches the motions and then imitates them. Not only observing but feeling the signal from the inside out.

My foster brothers sometimes use the gestures if they want to convey something between us when we’re around uncertain company, but only them, and not often. It’s far stranger watching her slender hand form the shapes like a secret message meant only for me.

She tilts her head toward the nearest bookcase. “And if you wanted to refer to books or reading?”

I aim two fingers out straight and brush my thumb over them a few times.

As the princess copies that gesture, some impulse drives me onward. I flick a finger toward her, make the reading gesture, and then expand the space between my thumb and forefinger wide.

Aurelia tracks the series of movements. “Do I read a lot?” she confirms.

She does pick things up fast. I nod to indicate that was the question I meant to ask.

“Some,” she says in answer. “The more I learn about practices of potion-making and healing herbs, the more I can use my gift without it becoming a strain. And I’ve always been curious to read the histories of both Accasy and the continent’s other realms.”

Those studies didn’t give her any sympathy for the rest of the empire’s conquered countries? Make her realize how privileged she’s been?

She seems interested enough in someone beyond herself now. She nods toward me. “How about you?”

I pinch my finger and thumb to almost touching. Just a little. My hand ripples with the sign I use for music, and then I lift my arms to mimic the pose of playing the vielle so she’ll grasp my meaning.

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