Page 50 of The Exile's Curse

The smile died. "Someone changed him."

"Yes."

"Do you know who?" She was moving again, heading for her room. He hurried to keep pace.

"No." It was one of the few failures of his career. They'd arrested two other men, both of whom had killed themselves before they could be fully interrogated. Which shouldn't have been possible. But short of Aristides freeing the Truth Seekers to interrogate everyone at court, and in the parliament and beyond, that had left few trails to follow. "But I will. Eventually." He hadn't given up on the case. He never would.

Her expression turned savage. "Good. Because I would like to have words with whoever it was."

"So would I."

She flashed a smile that was closer to bared teeth than amusement. "Perhaps we have something in common still after all, Lucien."

They'd reached her room, and she fitted the key into the lock while he stayed silent, not sure how to respond.

Lucien. She'd said his name. Not Lord, or Truth Seeker, or Major. Just Lucien. As she used to.

Kindly meant, perhaps, but another prick to his heart that he didn't let himself respond to for fear of ruining things.

"Sleep well, Lieutenant," he said at last.

She blinked at him, and there was something, for a moment, in her expression that made him think she appreciated him not pushing her.

"Good night," she said and slipped into her room, closing the door.

He heard the lock turn again.

There. She was safe.

He'd done his duty.

He could go to his own room and pray for sleep himself. He'd earned that much.

But instead he stood there, in the dark hallway, wishing he could have said something more, hand flexing against the urge to knock. To ask her to let him in. To hold on to the moment a little longer. And it was many long minutes before he was finally able to turn away and leave.

Chapter 16

"All right," Honore said as the appointed hour for breakfast was coming to an end. “We have a change of plans for this morning. Lady Katiya has seen fit to invite the women in our party to attend a ceremony with her."

Chloe's ears pricked up. She had been late to breakfast, and despite guzzling tea and eating her fill of fried bread and eggs and the soured cream with preserved fruit that the Andalyssians had served, her head still reminded her that she'd had too little sleep and too much of that goddess damned kafiet. Not hungover precisely, but not looking forward to spending the morning sitting in the back of some meeting room taking notes while Honore and the other senior officers talked trade with the Andalyssians.

A social event might not be much easier, but Katiya had been friendly and her sister entertaining. There would be, at least, less chance of disgracing herself by dozing off. She poured herself another mug of tea as Honore continued.

"I expect this won't be the first such unexpected invitation. Nor do I think it prudent for us to refuse at this point. Not until we have a better view of how things lie and what parts of these things we can avoid without giving offense." She tilted her head, spreading her hands before flattening them on the table with a huff of a breath.

Understandable that she would view the invitation as somewhat frustrating. She had more pressing tasks. It was a mark of respect that Aristides had chosen her to deal with such a complicated mission. But perhaps he hadn't factored in the more...traditional nature of the court and the fact that some parts of this wedding would be segregated by sex. Hopefully not too many, or Colonel Brodier was going to have to choose between offending the king's fiancée or failing her empire.

She didn't know when Lucien was meeting with House Elannon, but he and several of the others had left breakfast early. She'd been relieved not to be assigned to his team. Their late-night walk had been too comfortable for a moment or two. Better to stay away from him.

"I'm given to understand that our uniforms will be acceptable," Honore continued, "so no need to change. The ceremony begins shortly. Someone will come to fetch us." She turned her attention to Captain Theisse. "You will take charge of the treaty meeting until I can join you."

Captain Theisse nodded. "Of course. You will miss some of the boring preliminaries, but we'll take notes."

Colonel Brodier looked as though she'd rather not miss any of the preliminaries, boring or otherwise.

"Do we know what the ceremony involves?" Chloe asked.

Honore shook her head. "The message called it the tscherov. I haven't had time to ask more than that. I only received the invitation as I was leaving to come to breakfast."

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