Page 54 of Conspirators' Kingdom

“Why didn’t you say anything? We discussed what would happen.” Mereruka pinched the bridge of his nose.

Her stomach was empty and the dry heaves weren’t coming this time. Progress. Vasilisa swapped her bucket with a pitcher of water. She rinsed her mouth as best she could and drank the small amount remaining. Vasilisa disappeared into the void to dispose of the evidence of her weakness.

“It needed to be done, and I was confident I could keep it down until I could be alone,” Taisiya replied, her throat raw.

“That was foolish,” Mereruka hissed. “I need to know these things about you before we make plans. You need to trust me, or we’ll be ripped apart at court. It won’t be so easy when we reach Maat.”

“Trust you?” Taisiya scoffed, “I trust you want Maat’s throne very badly, and that you’re prepared to do whatever it takes to secure it. I’m willing to help because it means I will be queen. But so far as my personal problems are concerned, they’re no business of yours.”

“No busi—” Mereruka began, his finger raised as if to scold.

“Are you seasick, Princess Consort?” Bas asked as he entered the cabin, interrupting Mereruka. He produced a small flask and handed it to Taisiya. She drank, grateful for the fresh, herbal flavours replacing the taste of her own bile.

“Of a sort,” Taisiya replied.

“The princess consort has an aversion to the sight of bloodshed. She’s just explained she didn’t trust me enough to say as much,” Mereruka griped.

Bas shrugged.

“You were an ass about the marriage. I’m not surprised.”

“Traitor,” Mereruka grumbled.

“You’re a good son, Bas,” Taisiya smiled.

He blushed, looking uncomfortably at his feet. She supposed he was embarrassed to be called a son by the woman who had only just married his father.

“Um, you know, I’m older than you, Princess Consort,” Bas confessed.

“You don’t look a day over nineteen.” Taisiya frowned.

“I’m forty-two. I’ll be an adult when I’m fifty.”

“Gods below, h-how long do shapeshifters live?” Taisiya asked, dreading the answer.

“Six hundred years, give or take a few centuries. Buthemostly barters for years of life, so I expect I’ll be around as long as he is.” Bas smiled.

Taisiya turned wide eyes on Mereruka. Did her new husband expect to live longer than six centuries? What kind of world had she just entered? The ground beneath her feet shifted.

“I suppose now is as good a time as any to get these things out in the open,” Mereruka said as he shepherded her to a bank of cushioned benches along the far, windowed wall.

She sat down beside him and tried to rein in her shock. Just how different were they, these foreigners? To live so long and never bat an eye at all those many years? Did they know mage lives ended so much sooner? Was she like a short-lived pet in their eyes?

“I am two-hundred and fifty-eight years old, and, provided we survive to take the throne of Maat, I expect to live until I’m a thousand. Longer, if I can accrue more years of life through my deals with others.”

A thousand years! He was already well over the age when even the longest-lived mages expected to draw breath. She suppressed a hysterical laugh with sheer willpower. Taisiya had long expected to marry a wealthy, elderly nobleman, and a prince of over two hundred most definitely fit the bill.

“But—” Bas began, but Mereruka held up his hand to stop him.

“Mages don’t live that long,” Taisiya said, swallowing her astonishment.

“Not usually, no. But as my wife, you will share in my bartered years. If we succeed, I will make a deal with you so that we will share the same lifespan. There’s no need to think too deeply on these things until after we have our crowns.”

“I see,” she said. What else could she really say to that? The sheer scale of her ignorance was beginning to daunt her. Best fix that, and fast. “Why don’t you tell me all about your family? If we’re going to be killing them, I should know my enemies.”

“Alright, now recite them back to me,” Mereruka said.

Taisiya, an eager pupil, had been taking in all the information she could about his family members and how to identify them at court. If she considered the fae she’d seen to be a strange, colourful lot, she needed to be prepared for his siblings. He watched with some pride as she replied.

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