Page 27 of A Dance of Shadows

I shake my head vehemently, but she keeps going. “You need to leave it to us to make the necessary judgments. Just stay strong, keep your eyes open, and focus on the facts. You can’t?—”

“Mother,” Leonor breaks in, stepping up to the queen’s side. “I think he’s gotten the idea.” She motions to me to stand up. “Let’s get out of this stuffy place. I’ve barely had a chance to talk to my little brother as a brother. I’ll request pastries and coconut jam for us to enjoy in my apartment.”

My stomach has knotted, but I’m never going to give up my favorite local treat. Maybe Leonor will listen even if Mother won’t. She knows how to be firm, but she has a little of Father’s gentleness in her upbringing too.

Mother lets us go, but her last order follows me out the door. “Don’t convey a hint of this conversation to that woman, no matter what she says to you.”

I flinch inwardly. Does she really think I’d be duped so easily into betraying my own family?

Leonor sets her hand on my arm. “Don’t mind her,” she murmurs as we make our way down the spiraling stairs. “You know how much it bothers her to leave anything beyond her control.”

Like me, off in Dariu for most of my life, far outside my family’s reach. Making sacrifices she’d never have approved of for a gift she thinks is frivolous.

As we head down the hall to her chambers, Leonor passes on word to a page. We’ve barely sat down at the table on her small terrace before a servant is bustling in with the requested snack. He leaves us a pitcher of sanson juice as well and slips away after a quick bow.

I grab one of the crackly traditional pastries, split it open to reveal the tender insides, and dip my spoon into the pot of coconut jam. The moment I’ve spread the treat, though, I hesitate.

Eating isn’t the most graceful of tasks for me at the best of times. I’ve numbed myself to the stares and sneers that can follow, and most of the Darium nobles are so used to it they barely notice now anyway. The thought of my sister watching me fumble with my food sends a prickle of self-consciousness over my skin.

As I tear off a carefully tiny piece and pop it between my molars, Leonor smears her own jam across a fluffy roll. She doesn’t look straight at me, but I can see that she’s gripping the knife tighter than she needs to.

“You’ve been away so long,” she says. “And I still haven’t— Dina is only two. I don’t know how long it’ll take before Alvaroand I give her a sibling, and then for that child to be grown enough…”

She halts, a shadow of such gloom passing over her face that I want to grip her hand and tell her she’ll never have to send one of her children to endure the same fate I have, that I’ll stay in Dariu until the end of my life if it keeps my future niece or nephew safe.

That’s exactly the kind of sentimentality that makes Mother doubt my judgment, isn’t it? I know it wouldn’t be possible anyway. Marclinus will demand whatever he feels like demanding, and a child makes a more effective hostage than a man who’ll be by then past thirty.

Instinctively, I make the brisk gesture that says,I’m fine.

Leonor blinks at me. Then her expression tightens with a more immediate sort of sadness.

She doesn’t know what I’ve said, but she knows I was trying to say something. All I’ve done is remind her of how difficult it is for me to do that.

I tug at my pouch and retrieve a new piece of paper.I’m fine, I print there, as if there’s any chance she’ll believe me.Don’t worry about me.

Leonor’s eyes fill with even more sorrow than I saw in Mother’s, and the sweetness of the jam turns to dust in my mouth. “Oh, Lorenzo, how can we not worry about you? Even if this new empress has some reasonable ideas, for you to be so keen on her… And besides that…”

She struggles to go on, which maybe is for the best, because a second later there’s a rap on the door. When Leonor calls for them to come in, one of the Darium soldiers pokes his head past the doorway.

“Prince Lorenzo’s presence is requested back at the imperial court.”

Of course it is. Why would Marclinus allow me even a full hour alone with my family?

The confirmation of how much he controls my life only adds more distress to my sister’s expression. I squeeze her hand for whatever comfort the gesture will offer and make the best show of confidence I can striding out to follow the soldier to the imperial building.

The Darium court is circulating in the gardens next to their secondary palace. As I step through the arched hedge that serves as a gate, my gaze veers straight to Aurelia’s walnut-brown hair.

She’s standing next to Marclinus by one of the flowering shrubs. Resting one hand on his forearm and tilting her body toward him as she talks, with one of those soft smiles that can unravel me in an instant.

But she’s aiming it athim.

I tamp down on the surge of jealousy before it’s more than a jab through my chest. She’s playing along like she has to. I can’t resent her for that.

Even if it kills me to watch.

I’m not sure I’ve seen her behave quite that fawningly toward him before, not when he looks even-tempered rather than in need of placating. Then again, who knows what might have happened behind closed doors that she hasn’t had the chance to relay to the rest of us?

It’s clear he didn’t have any particular need of me. He doesn’t even glance my way to acknowledge my arrival… and neither does she.

---