Page 23 of A Dance of Shadows

I don’t imagine the vicerine cares all that much about the people of Rione… but that doesn’t mean she enjoyed watching them suffer either.

I can only answer as if she was being fully serious—and as if I agree with her sentiments. “I suppose it’s important to him to make a statement at the start of his reign. Set the tone for all future relations, with the empire as everyone’s foremost concern.”

“Indeed. The incorporating of the local mythology was quite clever.”

“How lovely to be appreciated.” Linus appears behind us with a teasing flick of my hair. “I’ll take gossip if it’s all about my virtues.”

Bianca bats her eyelashes at him in a gesture I think might be instinctive at this point. “And you have so many of them, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Hmm.” My husband looks oddly unconvinced by his often-time lover’s flirtation. Is he objecting to even her paying attention to me now?

His head swivels until he catches sight of Lorenzo in the crowd. “I think the entertainment has had a Rionian flavor for too long. Our resident prince can show his countryfolk how it’s done in Dariu!”

He waves to Lorenzo, the motion punctuated by a snap of his fingers. “Someone fetch a vielle or what have you for Prince Lorenzo. I want to hear that gift of yours. Remind us of home.”

I can tell the prince has stifled a grimace. He accepts the instrument a page rushes to his arms. With another shout, Linus quiets the local musicians so all attention is on his foster brother.

He’s yanking on Lorenzo’s strings as if he were a puppet. Showing off how he can command the Rionian royal in his court.

I fight to keep my jaw from clenching.

As a Darium tune spills into the evening air with the heavenly tones Lorenzo adds with his gift, Linus hooks his hand around my elbow and tugs me away from Bianca. Before he’s taken more than a few steps, High Commander Axius and Counsel Etta—the other advisor who joined the coronation tour—approach us.

Neither of the advisors’ expressions look celebratory. Axius appears particularly grim. “Your Imperial Majesty, I was hoping we could find a moment to speak as soon as possible.”

Linus rolls his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re peeved that I didn’t lay out every detail of the day for you beforehand. It went fantastically, didn’t it?”

Etta’s face manages to turn even more pinched. “It’s simply—if you have any other diversions in mind?—”

Linus cuts her off with a scoffing sound and yanks at my arm again. “I’ll do as I please, and you’ll be happy about it. Now I’d like to have some time with my wife.”

As he ushers me past them, Axius catches my gaze with a brief dip of his head. “You both made quite an impact today,” he says.

Is he complimenting my contributions as well?

Linus’s fingers clamp harder around my elbow. He pulls me onward, speaking to me rather than the high commander. “I think you’ve celebrated enough, wife. I’ve called one of the carriages around so we can return to the palace.”

My stomach sinks, but I fix my smile in place. “I am rather tired from all of today’s events.”

I set my hand on my belly in the hopes of reminding him of one very important reason I have to be fatigued. Linus’s gaze flicks after the gesture, but his eyes only harden.

Maybe he doesn’t enjoy switching off with his twin either. Maybe he’d rather have found out my child was the result of straying than believing it’s his brother’s. That his heir still isn’t really his, but that he’ll have to accept it as legitimate.

I walk with Linus to the carriage obediently. As I clamber inside, my gaze catches on lantern-light gleaming off white-blond hair farther down the road.

A tall, slightly gangly form I think is Prince Neven’s is just slipping through a temple doorway there. I peer out the window as the carriage glides past and note Sabrelle’s sigil over the doorway.

Is the youngest prince making appeals to his patron godlen? Has she been harassing him with demanding dreams again, making him feel as if he still isn’t contributing enough?

Or perhaps his inability to stop today’s chaos has gotten under his skin.

I can’t express my concerns to my sole companion. Linus shifts restlessly on the bench across from me, aiming more sharp grins my way but saying little. If anything, his reticence makes me more nervous than if he was chatting away.

At the imperial palace building, Linus escorts me straight to my chambers with his hand resting on my ass. He gives me an extra shove as we step over the threshold, one that has me stumbling on the polished floor beyond the view of my guards.

My husband kicks the door shut behind us with a thud. He stalks closer to me, his chin raised imperiously high.

“What were you thinking, dashing off into the masses like a common medic?” he demands. “Not even a medic—one of those folk healers who doesn’t even have a gift for it.”

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