Page 19 of Captive of the Stolen Empire

My feet rooted me to the dark grey stones. I remained on the balcony long after his door closed. It did not reopen.

A strong, chill wind finally urged me to move inside, close the heavy curtains, and retreat into the meager warmth of the room. I trailed my hand over the book Lucien had left, savoring the fine leather of the binding. Pressed into the cover was the title,Archimond’s Treatise on War and Strategy.

A smirk tugged at my lips. At least the topic was appropriate.

* * *

Gabrieland I strolled through the inner gardens together, pretending to share a casual discussion of no consequence. We were allowed to roam the castle during the day, but only certain areas and always under watch. This courtyard was one of our favorites, with winding paths, thick hedges, and grassy expanses. A large fountain gurgled in the center and helped obscure our speech from listening ears.

“Has your new room been illuminating?” he asked.

Gabriel’s vague question brought the pain of my failure into the light of day. For three days, I’d tried to get Lucien’s attention. Revealing outfits, invitations to talk, to spend time together. Nothing worked. He hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to me since the first night I got his attention, and he avoided my presence as if I were a rabid dog.

Not that I had much experience in the ways of wooing men. Mother strictly warned me off it for cycles, and with all my focus on studies and learning to rule my city, there was little time for anything more than a random tryst. All for Sorrena. Nothing for oneself. That was the way of our people, or at least those of us born to rule.

Father’s place at Mother’s side was purely for show. They attended formal events together as custom and duty demanded, but otherwise led separate lives. Often Father took long assignments in other cities to expand our trade routes. Whether for the benefit of Sorrena or simply to avoid Mother, I could never tell, but I longed to join him. The stories he told of the places he visited and things he’d seen filled me with wonder. I read endless books about them, studying maps and ships just in case I got the chance to go with him. But no, Mother deemed that unnecessary.

“Not at all,” I admitted, returning my focus to Gabriel. “The rumors are far more interesting than anything that’s happened.”

By now, most of the castle assumed Lucien and I had slept together, likely without my consent. I didn’t need to talk to the others to confirm it. I could see the pity in their eyes and the searching looks of the guards, and I could hear the occasional comment whispered when they thought I wasn’t listening.

None of that mattered. Not really. If anything, it proved a worthy distraction and a reason to pursue the man for my use. My reputation was already tarnished, so what did I have to lose? Womanly virtues were not high on my list of values anyway.

“Hm…” he mused as we passed near a cluster of guards.

“It doesn’t hurt to keep trying.” I shrugged. “It’s not like anything else has been enlightening, and it doesn’t seem that this will be a short change of situation.”

Lady Reyna entered the gardens, chatting loudly with a few guardsmen. Her lithe form brushed up against a guardswoman who grinned at her in return. A young man dared to touch a lock of her shining, dark hair when she wasn’t looking. I scowled as she flirted and carried on with our enemy. They should have been her enemy too. Her city-state of Alidade, along with Lord Derrin’s city-state of Palero, had submitted to Ryszard willingly quite early on. Perhaps they truly thought of themselves as his guests.Fools.One more reason we didn’t involve either of them in any of our more strategic discussions.

I drew Gabriel to a halt, looking him up and down as an idea came to mind.

“Do I have something on my face?” His brows wrinkled as he cocked his head in my direction.

“No. I just had a thought.” I meandered to the nearby bench wrought of wood and deer antlers and patted the space next to me for him to sit. “What do women do to get your attention?”

He laughed as he relaxed into the seat, one booted foot crossed over his knee. “What haven’t they done would be the better question.” He shook his head and stared across the garden. “Let’s see, some of the more inventive ones wrote poems proclaiming their great love or sang a song they’d composed for me. Two I found naked in my bed at night. Another confessed to being pregnant with my child, though I’d never touched her and couldn’t even tell you her name.”

I sat a little straighter on the bench. No man had tried half so hard for my hand in Sorrena. Mother had discouraged the brave few who showed interest, too worried they’d grab at power or expect more than a simple romp in the sheets.

“I don’t recommend trying any of those things, mind you,” he said. “They don’t work, at least not on reasonable men.”

“No lovely ladies have managed to snag your eye?”

He flashed a pleasant smile as he turned to me. “Nowomen.”

“Oh,” I said, a hint of warmth rising to my cheeks. “I didn’t know.”

He shrugged. “It’s hard to find the right person. Now that I’m here, I wonder if I’ll have the chance at all,” he lamented with a sigh. He stared at everything and nothing, his attention far away with his thoughts.

One more reason for us to reverse the damage of recent cycles and free our cities.

Gabriel clamped a hand on my shoulder. “To answer your question, though, I favored those who didn’t try too hard. They knew themselves, and that’s a beautiful thing.”

Knew themselves, huh?

My hand wandered to the necklace about my neck, the sapphire suddenly cool despite the warmth of the sun above. The Mark of Sorrena had never felt quite so out of place.

I was the heir of Sorrena, Lady of the city. But that had been taken from me, not to mention my dreams of travel. I couldn’t be myself. All my plans for Sorrena, my role as heir, my hopes of seeing the world…none of that mattered anymore. Not here.

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