Page 3 of Winter's Fate

Kat set her cup and saucer on the table. “I need your assistance. As an emissary.”

And there it was. “No.” Laena didn’t have to think about that one. She was done with palace life, with all the bullshit manipulations, the stifling rules and the lies. Always the lies. “And you’re not even queen yet. Soyoudon’t need my assistance. The council needs it. The regent needs it.”

It was as close as a ‘you can’t make me’ as Laena could get without saying it outright. As tempting as that would be.

“But next year I’ll turn twenty,” Kat replied, “and then I will be. Declan wants me to begin taking more responsibility. In preparation.”

Declan. The regent, elected by the council to rule until Laena came of age after the deaths of her parents. That power was transferred when Kat was named heir.

“Still listening to everything that dried-out old goat has to say, are you?” Laena said.

Irritation flashed across Kat’s face, there and gone in an instant. She straightened her spine, defensive on behalf of Declan. For reasons unknown. “He is no such thing. He is a mentor and a true friend to Etra.”

Katrina wouldn’t recognize a dried-out old goat if it walked up and introduced itself as such. Not even twenty years old and she was one herself. Just sitting there, watching Laena, ignoring the tea she’d set aside. Like she could wait there all day for Laena to ask why she needed an emissary, and to where.

Because as well as Laena knew Kat, Kat also knew Laena.She knew that Laena would be itching to know the details. And though she hated herself for it, shedidwant to know. With a palace teeming with advisors and courtiers and dignitaries, why did Kat wantherto do this?

Another sister might want to bring Laena back into the fold, to welcome her home after the trials of the last few years. But not Katrina. Laena should punish her for it, banish her and her scowling guards from her home and demand that she never return.

Curiosity won out, though Laena took care to maintain her casual posture. “All right. I’ll bite. Why do you need an emissary?”

Kat rewarded her with a thin smile. It would have been triumphant but for the shadow of worry in her eyes. Whatever this was about, Kat was concerned. “Silerith is stirring,” she said. “I believe they mean to break our peace.”

Laena snorted, and Kat raised her eyebrow once again. She’d really been practicing with that thing. But though they’d attended all the same tutoring sessions and studied all the same histories, Kat’s attention hadn’t turned to diplomacy until well after Laena had mastered the subject. As the second daughter, she’d had the freedom to daydream and doodle instead of paying attention.

Silerith was a behemoth of a country, one of the two that made up the mainland. They were secretive to the point of hermitry, but aside from overeager border patrols with a tendency to scoop up inattentive hunters who accidentally crossed into its lands from Aglye, the country had not caused trouble in decades. True, its current king was an unknown entity even after near a decade of ruling. But the same could have been said of his father.

Mainland politics. Mainland problems. Etra was a small island nation, barely holding its own, but neither Silerith nor Aglye had shown any interest in attacking or conquering. Theyweren’t precisely friends, but Aglye at least was a reliable trading partner. What signs could Silerith possibly have given to make Katrina believe they meant to break the peace?

“I doubt the Ruthless King will listen to anything I have to say,” Laena said.

“I do not need an emissary to Silerith,” Kat replied. “I need one to Aglye. To cement our alliance in case Silerith does grow ambitious.”

Cement the alliance. Those words had a tendency to be paired with a commitment far beyond that of an emissary. Laena narrowed her eyes. “Are you hoping to marry me off?”

Kat’s expression didn’t change. “Would you accept such a plan if I proposed it?”

A clear deflection. Laena watched her sister for signs of the truth, wondering if the ink was still wet on some ill-conceived marriage contract. Certainly Aglye’s king should have no interest in ‘cementing an alliance’ through marriage, especially to the disgraced princess of what he would view as a forgettable island nation. King Hawk was young and handsome, and Aglye was powerful enough to negotiate whatever marriage contracts it might desire. It was generally expected, or had been during Laena’s time studying in the palace, that he would marry a rich courtier from his own lands and add to his already bursting treasury.

But it was impossible to tell whether marriage was indeed Katrina’s plan, or if she truly wanted to send someone to negotiate a firmer treaty. Laena had been gone a good five years now, and Declan had trained her sister well; Kat’s expression was inscrutable. Wide-eyed and guileless, the picture of innocence. Whyshouldn’tshe ask her sister for a favor? What in the worlds would prevent Laena from helping the country that had shut her out and shunned her?

Laena didn’t trust it. “How long have you known Ben was gone?”

Kat flushed, and Laena felt a surge of satisfaction. One could never school all her expressions, no matter how much she might wish to. Her sister brushed a hand over her skirts, smoothing unnecessarily. “Well…”

But Laena had no intention of allowing her sister to finish. She rose, brushing off her skirts and sending a scatter of garden dirt out over the floor. She’d regret that come cleaning time, but Kat’s horrified look made it worthwhile.

“Get out,” she said. “You’re no longer welcome in my home. I will not serve as your emissary, or your marriage bargaining chip, or whatever else you have in mind.”

Kat waited a beat, then rose with a grace Laena had once aspired to. She made her way to the door, lifting her gown as if to protect it from the filthy accommodations. Not that Laena had done anything to dispel that notion, but she knew Kat would act this way no matter where she lived.

Laena had chosen to give up the throne to live, unwed, with a commoner. Their abode, no matter how clean or cozy, no matter how happy—and he was gone, so it was not that—would never have met her sister’s standards. Katrina didn’t know, couldn’t know, that Laena’s reasons for leaving went much deeper than Ben. The heartbreak was real enough, but leaving had never really been a choice. It had been a necessity. Far more of a necessity than love alone could ever warrant.

When she reached the door, Kat paused. “I hope it was worth it,” she said. “Your little scandal with the stablehand.”

With a final glance around the room, which suggested she very much doubted it had been, the queen-to-be opened the door and flounced out into the sunlight.

CHAPTER 2

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