Page 81 of The Tsarina's Favorite
“It’s a small price for our peace.”
“And I hate that you have to pay it.”She took my hand from the bar.“So I thought, maybe I could do something nice for you.”
“You’ve done more for me than anyone,” I assured her.
“Nonsense.”She let my hand go and then grabbed the key to open the cage door.She fit it in the lock and turned it.“I have half a mind to leave the key where you can access it, but I worry that someone else might find it and move it.”
“I can be patient.”
“You shouldn’t have to be.”She opened the door for me.“I don’t suppose she would treat you any better if she knew you understood?”
I stepped out of the cage and paused at Alaina’s suggestion.I hadn’t prepared excuses for not revealing myself to the tsarina.I had been a bit short-sighted in that probably, but so long as I could keep everyone ignorant of how much anyone else knew, I could keep the tsarina content and Alaina safe.
“Of course she wouldn’t,” Alaina said in answer to her own question, sparing me from having to dig for excuses.
“She wouldn’t want me around you if she thought I might speak to you too.”
“She would probably just keep you muzzled all the time,” Alaina said, her disgust so heavy as it dripped from her words that I half-expected to see a puddle of it beneath her.She crossed the room and went to the doors that led to her bedroom.“Come along.”
I didn’t follow.I trusted Alaina and did not think she had similar intentions towards me as the tsarina did, but I couldn’t make myself take another step in that direction.
“I am content out here,” I said.“Thank you.”
“Do stop being obstinate and contrary.”
I took a step backwards.
“Kaylay, come here.”
My back stiffened at her command.
“No,” I said, refusing to submit to a second minor, if slightly more benevolent, tsarina.“Use that tone of command with me again, and I will refuse to ever obey you.You will need to call the guards like the tsarina does.”
“You are so obstinate,” she grumbled.“I’m trying to do something nice for you, and you’re thwarting me.”
“You are being imperious with me.I get enough of that from her.I will not do it with you.”
“Kaylay.”
“I will go back into that cage and not come out,” I said.“You decide, right now, if you want a friend or a subject.”
“You’re my friend,” she insisted as she came over to me.“I just want to give you something.That’s all.I’m really trying here.”
“Yes,” I agreed.“You’re very trying.”
“Please, Kaylay?”
“Does it have to be in there?”I glanced at her bedroom door.“Could you not bring it out here?”
“I suppose I could, but wh—” Her eyes widened.“Kaylay, you don’t think that I— But I wouldn’t!”
“I don’t know that.Not when you speak to me like she does.”
“The Great Holy forbid that I ever become like her!”
The comparison between them bore an uncomfortable closeness.
“I would never,” she said.She reached out to stroke my arm twice, in the direction of the feathers.“Wait here.”
