Page 20 of Kingdom of Dance

“No, it was lovely,” said Zinnia quickly, still feeling the awkwardness of their encounter the night before. “I appreciated the gesture.”

Basil’s eyes searched hers, and she knew he had grasped what she hadn’t said. That while she appreciated the gesture, she didn’t appreciate the reality. It was true, but it was hardly his fault. He didn’t know that she’d had other intentions for her evening. And he certainly hadn’t planned for her to be kept up the rest of the night by Idric.

A shot of pain lanced through her body, emanating from the point on her side where Idric’s talons had pierced her. She ignored it, used to the feeling. But hard on its heels came the phantom sensation of the other assault, the one that tore at her very being. She felt her whole body tense in memory of that pressure, sweat beading her forehead as her mind tried to reassert itself, assure her body that it wasn’t happening right now.

“Jasmine, what happened to your arm?”

The dowager queen’s concerned voice brought everyone’s attention to the princess in question. Jasmine was looking down at the two long scratches on her arm with a confused expression.

“I don’t know.” She pondered for a moment. “I think I fell on the rocks down by the shore.”

Their mother frowned. “I’ve always said it’s dangerous down there. You girls shouldn’t be scampering about so close to the cliffs and the ocean. Any number of disasters could happen.”

“Please, Mother, don’t take the seashore away from us,” Zinnia said, alarmed. “It’s our only escape.”

Giggles once again sounded from the younger girls, and Zinnia scowled. She hadn’t been referencing their secret, and she certainly hadn’t been trying to be funny. The others might see their occasional underground excursions as an escape, but she didn’t.

“No one’s taking anything away,” said Basil calmly. His gaze passed from Jasmine’s arm to Zinnia’s expression. “But it doesn’t hurt to be more careful.”

Zinnia excused herself from the table as quickly as she could, unable to bear the constant undertones and hidden meanings. Not on so little sleep.

Basil had considerately avoided committing her to any formal duties for a few days after her return—with the exception of the ball—so she at last found herself free to go where her heart had been tugging her since she reached the city.

Most of the girls were still a little bleary-eyed, but Violet and Briar both followed Zinnia from the table. They were almost out of the castle when pattering feet made the three of them turn, and Magnolia hurried to Zinnia’s side.

“You’re going to the shore, aren’t you?” the ten-year-old asked shyly. “Can I come?”

“Of course,” Zinnia smiled down at her, offering a hand. Magnolia seized it straight away, falling into step beside them.

“We missed you,” she said, swinging their clasped hands a little as the group descended the castle steps.

“I missed you all too,” Zinnia assured her, giving the smaller hand a little squeeze.

She glanced at the two stone dragons on either side of the castle’s doorway, remembering how happily she’d embraced them the day before. The evening’s encounter with Idric had left her in a more subdued frame of mind. It was hard to believe how certain she’d once been that dragons were creatures to be admired, not feared.

Basil had been wiser than she was. He’d known the magical beasts weren’t to be treated lightly, and he’d cautioned her about being too familiar with Dannsair and Reka. But even he had no idea of the true extent of the threat. And she could do nothing to warn him.

With a great mental effort, she pulled her thoughts from their dark path and focused on the bright sunshine of late summer. The cries of the gulls wheeling overhead and the salt she could smell on the air reminded her that she was home, where she belonged. The castle was very close to the city gate on the eastern side, and within moments, they were passing out onto the grassy cliffs, their guards trailing behind them.

When they reached the top of the rocky path leading down the cliff to the shore below, Zinnia paused, closing her eyes and breathing in the familiar air. A steady wind whipped at her hair, and she could feel it teasing persistently at some of her worries, finally detaching them from her soul like a scarf whipped from around unwary shoulders.

She knew from Wren’s talk of home that Entolia’s princesses were fortunate to have so much freedom. Probably no other royal house would allow its young ladies to prance down to the shore whenever they pleased, not only outside the castle, but outside the city itself. She supposed that with twelve of them, they became a little hard to manage within the building.

Something to be grateful for.

When she opened her eyes, Violet was watching her with a faint smile on her face.

“I think you missed the ocean more than you missed us, didn’t you?” she asked without rancor.

Zinnia grinned. “Never. But it was a close second.”

“I’m glad you’re back,” said Briar frankly, and unexpectedly. The unusual display of loyalty was explained as she added, “Lilac took charge while you were gone, and she’s much more controlling than you are.”

Zinnia and Violet both laughed. “Well, I’m back now, and as far as I’m concerned, you can once again run amok.”

Briar considered this. “I don’t think I want to run amok,” she said, in a voice far too serious for a twelve-year-old. “I just don’t want to embroider all day, or listen to lectures about proper behavior.”

Zinnia smiled indulgently, even as she shook her head. She often thought Lilac too uptight for her seventeen years. She couldn’t really blame her—no one understood better than Zinnia how a bevy of younger sisters all in desperate need of love and attention could age one too quickly. It was no fault of Lilac’s that the responsibility affected her differently from how it affected Zinnia. Still, despite their proximity in age, they’d never been close. Zinnia and Violet were much more akin in spirit.

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