Page 101 of Rise of the Vicious Princess

She entered the palace and headed toward her chambers, Reuben close behind. When she reached her wing, the night shift guards were waiting at the guards’ station. Vellis looked up from the notes she was making in the register.

“Good evening, Your Highness,” she said, scooping up a stack of papers. “I have three items that need your approval before I close out the autumn records and file them away.”

Charis paused. “Yes, Vellis?”

The guard rustled through the papers and pulled out three pieces. “I have the visitor log from the night of the first assassination attempt, the notes from the investigation into the archer’s background, and a list of medicines Baust provided during Tal’s recuperation. Are those still needed for further investigation, or shall I archive them with the rest of the season’s records?”

“I . . .” Charis’s mind spun, and tendrils of her earlier panic snaked into her thoughts. She simply couldn’t think clearly enough to give Vellis the right answer. The guard stood waiting, the papers extended toward Charis. “I’ll look these over and get back to you on that in the next few days.”

Charis took the papers, waited until Vellis and Gaylle had cleared her chambers for entry, and then bid them all good night. Mrs. Sykes had her nightdress and a cup of hot cocoa waiting beside a cozy fire. Charis made short work of her nighttime routine and then sent the woman home.

Tal still hadn’t returned, and so Charis settled into a chair beside the fire, sipped her cocoa, and looked at the papers Vellis had given her.

The investigation into the archer’s background hadn’t revealed much, but it hardly mattered. The would-be assassin had given up Bartho’s name, and that was the clue that mattered. Charis set that sheet aside and looked at the next paper.

The list of medical supplies Baust had used to treat Tal’s arrow wound was sobering, but it hardly merited saving out of the archive. She took another sip of cocoa and looked at the final sheet.

She’d studied the visitor log for her wing on the night of the ambassadors’ ball with Mother the day after the assassination attempt, but nothing had stood out. No one on the list beyond her own staff—who’d had good reason to be there, not that it had saved them in the end—and the members of the nobility who’d sent a gift for the princess to potentially wear in their honor at the ball. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Still, she looked at the list again, her eyes lingering on every name as Tal entered the chambers.

Milla

Fada

Luther

Lady Ollen

Lord Westing

Lord and Lady Rynce

“I see Mrs. Sykes wisely sent for cocoa this evening,” Tal said as he approached.

“You can have it,” she said, setting the papers aside.

He picked up her cup and took a sip.

“What am I going to do, Tal?” She pressed her fingers against her forehead. “I can’t figure out how to beat Rullenvor’s armada. Not with the Rakuuna sinking ships from beneath the water. How can Calera survive without trade routes?”

He set her cup down and crouched before her. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but . . . soon you’ll have Alaric’s help.”

Her lip curled, and she wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them to her chest. “I don’t want his help.”

“I don’t know a single person who does, but the fact is the Rakuuna, and by extension Rullenvor, seem singularly focused on plundering Montevallo’s mountains for jewels.” He met her gaze, and for once, she couldn’t read his expression. “I have no doubt Alaric will pay any amount to assure his son access to your throne and your ports.”

“Is that the answer, then?” She frowned. “We pay for the privilege of keeping our ships afloat?”

“I don’t like it either, but we can’t ration medicine, cloth, and spices much longer before we run out.”

She looked at the fire as something dark and painful twisted within her. “I thought I was saving my people by offering up the betrothal, but we’re still trapped. What if the jewels run out? Or the Rakuuna demand something else? Something we can’t afford to pay? Or—”

“Or what if a payment of jewels buys you enough time to figure out how to stop this?” Tal sounded like he had utter faith in her, and somehow that made it worse.

“But I can’t stop this, Tal. I can’t. You saw what those creatures did to the merchant vessel. There is no safety at sea if the Rakuuna decide to take it from us. And I still have a traitor who wants me dead, and Alaric arrives tomorrow, and I’m going to sign my life away, but my kingdom still isn’t safe. I’m not safe.” Her voice shook. “I’m going to be alone with an enemy prince for the rest of my life.”

He leaned forward and took her hands in his. “Charis, you will not be facing this alone. I swear it.”

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