Page 50 of A Dance of Shadows

One of my personal guards speaks up before I need to. “Your Imperial Majesty, how will we accompany Her Imperial Highness?”

Linus waves him off. “My foster brother can prove himself too today. The prince can protect her well enough.” He aims a cruel smile at Bastien. “After all, if he doesn’t bring her back, his entire family will succumb to asp venom.”

I can’t tell whether my husband is hoping to lose me to the bog so he has an excuse to execute the Cotean royals, or if this is simply more punishment for my interference in Rione. He wants to make my quest as difficult as possible. He probably thinks Bastien will be colder with me if we’re alone.

I let my expression tense as if I’m uncomfortable with the idea, though actually I’d rather be able to talk with Bastien openly. He’ll certainly do far more to defend me and our unborn child than Linus ever would.

“If weshouldencounter any danger on the road…” I begin.

Linus clicks his tongue. “This hardly seems like dangerous territory. Do Cotean marauders typically linger in bogs, Bastien?”

The prince shakes his head, but his voice comes out stiff. “I will do my best to see Her Imperial Highness through this task safely, but obviously with more protection?—”

“Ah, I’m sure Elox will watch over her.” Linus pats me on the shoulder with a condescending air. “I’ll see you tonight, wife.”

He steps back into the carriage with a motion to the driver. My guard who spoke up, the man named Kassun who’sexpressed concern for me in the past, shoots me a worried look as if offering to argue on my behalf.

My gut tightens at the thought of how Linus might punish the dissension. He’ll be even swifter to lash out at an ordinary guard who questions his judgment than he would have with the high commander.

I offer Kassun a tick of my head as if to say,It’s okay. Go on.

He scowls, but he returns to his seat on the back of the carriage. The horses draw the vehicle back toward Delphine.

I turn toward our own steeds. “Well. I suppose we’d better get started.”

Bastien’s shoulders have come down with Linus’s departure. His gaze skims over my dress. “Canyou ride in that thing?”

I study the flowing silk gown. “I can make do. I don’t think it’ll get through a bog unscathed anyway.”

Retrieving my small knife from its sheath on my belt, I grasp the silk folds with my other hand. With a couple of swift jerks, I carve a tear through the fabric from mid-thigh to hem on either side.

Now it’s shaped more like the riding dresses I’d have worn when going out back home.

The corner of Bastien’s mouth quirks upward. “Not very imperial.”

I brush my hands together. “If Linus is going to send me off to be a medic princess rather than an empress, some adjustments need to be made. Now where’s this bog?”

Chapter Nineteen

Aurelia

Once we’ve clambered onto our horses, Bastien guides his to the south with a jerk of his head for me to follow. “I’ll get you there as quickly as I can. My recollection of the route is a bit hazy, but… We’ve had to lead search parties down to the Erlich Morass a few times, looking for civilians who’ve gone missing. It’s not the safest of places.”

As we set off at a trot, a shiver passes over my skin. “ShouldI have insisted on bringing my guards?”

“I doubt they’d have been much help unless they’ve spent time in southern Cotea before. It’s not marauders we need to watch out for but sinkholes and murkpits.”

I grimace. “Sounds lovely. We’ll have to hope the josemine is growing close to the fringes.”

Bastien shoots me an affectionate glance. “I’ll get you through.” He pauses, a hint of redness creeping up his pale neck. “I was always too scared to go right into the swamp when I was a kid, but I memorized all the cautionary measures. AndI’ve tackled much more frightening things since then. A bog is nothing next to Marclinus.”

I can’t restrain a snort at the comparison.

The prince pulls ahead of me on the road to better serve as a guide. He sets as fast a pace as the horses can handle without exhausting them, making conversation nearly impossible.

A knot of apprehension lingers in my gut, but the fresh late-summer air tickling over my skin is even more refreshing than when it gusted through the carriage windows. The pastoral fields around us are as soothing a scene as I could have asked for.

Just this once, I’m roaming the world free from my husband and his agents. I might have the horror of Linus’s challenge weighing on me, but I can rock with the horse’s strides and drink in the scents of grass and wildflowers without wondering how I look to anyone else.

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