Page 96 of A Dance of Shadows

“The channel’s water is a bit brackish. Not ideal for drinking or for the crops meant to support the forts’ food supply.”

Only the best for His Imperial Majesty’s thugs. A thought I keep behind clamped lips, though I’m sure Aurelia can put the pieces together from what I did say.

She hums to herself. “Do the canals only support the Darium forts, or have some of the farmers moved to be closer to the redirected waters as well?”

“What viable land there is for farming near the channel was already claimed. I suppose those farmers may have gotten some small benefit from the shift in the waterways.” Off-set by the Darium forces’ habit of grabbing whatever supplies they want without offering reasonable payment. I doubt the Coteans living close to the forts consider themselves blessed.

The next farmhouse we spot in the distance looks outright decrepit: part of its roof collapsed in, the paint worn off in patches. Aurelia sucks in a breath that sounds faintly pained. “I suppose some of the farming families ended up having to give up the trade altogether.”

“It’s been difficult for many. Some have shifted to crops that require less water or simply scraping by with a reduced yield… but there are those who couldn’t find the right balance and had to seek new work elsewhere.”

Aurelia’s next silence feels pensive. She’s taking my comments in, absorbing the situation.

Frustration prickles through me. How much can I even really tell her? I’ve barely spent any time at all in my home country inthe past sixteen years. What I know about the droughts is almost entirely secondhand from my family and members of the court in Delphine.

I know she wants to make this situation better—to find a permanent solution, not a brief respite like the rain clouds I’ll summon. What can I do to give her a more complete perspective?

I am going to need to stop to work my gift. Exercising my gift so intensively while on horseback would be incredibly unwise.

As much as I loathe the idea of bringing our military escort around the locals, who could better inform Aurelia of the challenges they’re facing than those who live here?

And I wouldn’t mind it if word spreads that the second-born prince is still looking out for his people. Or that the empress took a personal concern in the well-being of ordinary Coteans.

I grapple with the idea for several minutes until a long wooden building comes into view up ahead. I know enough about farming practices to recognize it as a market post—a place where nearby farmers gather to sell off or trade the produce that hasn’t been claimed in their regular contracts.

Resolve winds around my gut. This is as good a setting as I’ll get.

Now how do I ensure I don’t create a catastrophe by bringing these soldiers so close to the people who have very good reason to resent them?

I clear my throat. “The market post up ahead will make a good central spot for me to call in the rain. The locals may be intimidated by a larger intrusion… Perhaps I should go ahead with only a couple of guards.”

Aurelia picks up on my concern immediately, as I hoped she would. Her riding gown rustles as she glances around at our escort. “I’d like the chance to speak with the Cotean farmers, but it wouldn’t do to make them feel as if they’re being imposed on.Could most of you hang back? I’m sure it won’t take more than one or two swords to intervene if I’m actually threatened, which seems unlikely.”

Mutters pass between the soldiers. One of them lifts his voice. “Your Imperial Highness, we swore to His Imperial Majesty that we wouldn’t leave your side.”

“I’m not asking you to leave, just to give me a little more distance. What if you gathered on the left side of the building, in view of me but not right on top of the civilians who are simply trying to make their living. I’ll be all of ten paces away.”

One of her usual personal guards speaks up. “Kassun and I will stay right with her. We can protect her perfectly well from a few farmers.”

The derision in her voice with that last word scrapes at my nerves, but I let it pass. We’ll get our way more easily if the soldiers assume the locals pose no threat.

After a little more muttering, one of the soldiers sighs. “So be it, Your Imperial Highness. It may be best for us to keep watch for threats from farther abroad, after all.”

“Exactly. Thank you so much for looking out for us.”

She speaks with such warmth that it’s a wonder to me they don’t fall at her feet just like that.

When we dismount at the side of the building, I take advantage of the cover of the horses to admire my empress. The angles of her elegant features have always been gentle, but they’ve softened more with the growing swell of her belly. There’s a glow to her as if the love I know she already has for the child inside her is seeping out through her skin.

No one here except me realizes how fierce that light can become when she’s ready to fight in her own way.

She offers me a smile she keeps tentative and lets me lead the way around the market building. A few figures have emerged from the broad front doors, leaving behind the tables I canglimpse in the shadowy interior. The tart smell of cider carries from a stand set up between two of the doors.

Aurelia’s personal guards stick close behind her as promised. The locals take in them and the two of us in our fine clothes without any sign of recognition—but why would they know us? Aurelia has never ventured out this way before, and the last time I might have, I was many years younger.

The woman who’s stepped farthest forward raises her eyebrows. She speaks in Cotean, of course—I doubt she knows more than a few basic words of the language of our conquerors, if that. “Did you come to buy? You don’t look like our usual sort of customers.”

I draw my slim frame up as tall as it’ll go and firm my voice. Something lightens in my chest at the chance to use my native tongue. “I’m hoping I can offer you something better. I’m Prince Bastien, secondborn to King Stanislas and Queen Odile. I chose my dedication gift based on the difficulties this part of the country faces. I can summon rain clouds to give you some relief from the current drought.”

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