Page 69 of The Tsarina's Favorite
I whispered, “Take several steps back.”
Alaina put a respectable distance between us.
The voices grew louder upon approach, oblivious to the princess.
“Have you seen it yet?”
“Only in passing.But I tell you, there’s something different about it.”
“I haven’t.”
“I kept meaning to get outside, but it’s been so cold.”
“I’m glad she took it in.”
“She should have brought it in weeks ago.”
“Your Highness!”
Alaina forced a smile in their direction.
I turned just a little to see the newcomers, and both to my relief and my shame, Drook, Agara, and Grigga stood in the foyer.They bowed and curtsied respectively as they approached the princess, presumably all there for the same thing: me.
“I did not expect anyone about at this time,” Alaina explained.
“We aren’t anyone,” Drook said.
“Have you seen it before, Your Highness?”Grigga asked.
“The tsarina gave me charge of it some time ago,” Alaina answered, “and since then, I think it knows who I am.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”Drook furrowed his brows and approached.“I keep telling anyone who will listen — I think it’s intelligent.”
“Birds of prey are well known for their cleverness,” Alaina said to downplay Drook’s implication.
“More than that,” said Drook as he approached the bars.“It has human eyes.”
“And it’s not just a man dressed to look like a bird?”asked Grigga.“With a good mask perhaps?”
“No,” Drook said a touch mournfully.“We know what a mask looks like.”
“Have you seen such a mask before?”Alaina asked.
“We once had a friend with a beak,” Drook said to Alaina.Then he turned to me.“Do you speak, friend?”
The temptation to reveal myself nearly overwhelmed me.This was forever, so what did it matter if I told these people who had been so dear and so good to me during my earlier trials?But Alaina was there too, and I didn’t want her to know that her pathetic bird friend was the disgraced prince of months earlier.Maybe, without Alaina, I could have reclaimed them, but not with her.And so I said nothing.
“And it hasn’t said anything to you, Your Highness?”Drook spoke to Alaina but never took his eyes from me.“Even though it knows you?”
“He stays quiet most of the time,” Alaina said.
“I’m sure he does.”Drook smiled.“Safest that way.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean—-”
“Of course you didn’t,” Drook interrupted.
To a princess, such an interruption was beyond rude, but Alaina relaxed at the assurance.Grigga and Agara turned their attention to Alaina, then to me, then pointedly to Drook.
