Page 59 of A Reign of Embers

I yank my attention back to the map and talk Lorenzo through the far easier passage he’ll have heading in the opposite direction from Valerisse’s forces. I spell out the exact markers that will lead to the imperial caches I’ve mentioned and demonstrate the necessary patterns for unlocking the entrances.

All the while, the pressure of the knot climbs up from my stomach through my chest to my throat.

When I’m finished, my foster brothers gather together in a circle that doesn’t include me. They knock fists andexchange encouraging words, all of them girding themselves for the journey that’s supposed to start in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

For all their bravado, the strain of leaving Aurelia behind shows in their shadowed eyes and tensed jaws. They’re throwing themselves into more danger than most of the soldiers under her rule are facing, not because they like the idea, only because she’s asked it of them.

And it’s going to wrench at her just as much. It already is. She hides it well, but I can see it in every shift of her face when she’s around them, every careful lilt of her voice.

If they don’t return, she won’t even be allowed to mourn them. While she gave my brother a public spectacle of grief he sure as shit didn’t deserve.

No matter how I feel about them, it isn’t right.

Instead of heading straight back to resume my duty watching over our empress, I head down to the palace barracks. The men in my assigned dormitory are all sleeping, various snores mingling together. I walk past them to my bed in the corner and pop open my small trunk that holds my possessions.

Digging through the layers of the two changes of clothes I now own, my fingers close around a thin, smooth metal band.

Not totally smooth. Without even pulling it out into view, I’m aware of the rough edges where the strip of metal was cut through.

My hand tightens around the broken band. I close my eyes, and the image swims up of Father fastening it around my wrist and activating the enchantment so my bangle would match Linus’s.

Aurelia might have offered me one small token of affection, might have put a little faith in me, but she isn’t even really my wife. I’m not the one who married her, not inthe official ceremony that was supposed to establish our bond, if you believe both parties need to be literally present.

But perhaps I still have enough of a divine blessing lingering on me to do one right thing before the woman I’d die for risks the men she actually loves for the good ofmyempire.

I tuck the band away, my mind already spinning through the practicalities. When I leave the barracks, I make my way to the dining room where I know Aurelia will be having lunch.

Her gaze ticks toward the doorway the moment I enter. She’s always aware of me, just as I am of her.

Let me put that awareness to good use.

When she departs the head table, I fall into step alongside the other guards. She heads to her chambers, offering compliments and smiles to all the nobles who pass, as if she isn’t in the process of tearing her heart out.

My resolve firms even more.

I follow her into her bedroom and take my post inside the door. She scoops up her cat and turns toward me before I can decide how to broach the subject.

“Everything went fine with your meeting?” she asks. Because it isn’t a given.

“There were no casualties,” I say with automatic derision, and catch myself. “But I think there’s one more important thing we need to take care of before they leave.”

Aurelia frowns. “What’s that?”

“I’ll have to get everything in order. Just—delay their departure another day? I’ll explain tomorrow when it’s all prepared.”

Her brow stays knit, but she tips her head in acceptance, because somehow I’ve earned that much trust already.

May I prove worthy of it in every way she could want.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Aurelia

The gray-robed cleric of Kosmel motions to the creatures scampering around the temple’s looming silver statue of the trickster godlen. “I’d imagine Kosmel will approve of your intent. Please don’t overly disturb the rats if you can help it. They do have as much of a right to use this temple as the rest of us.”

He steps back, giving me, Cleric Pierus, and the cluster of guards and soldiers around us a clear view of the base of the statue. There must be at least two dozen of the large rodents, sleek and glossy-furred thanks to their portion of the temple offerings. Their bodies rustle against each other with a faint skittering of claws against the stone floor.

I tamp down an instinctive shudder. Kosmel looks after his patron animal well, and it was their example that helped my oldest ancestors survive to found my home country. All the same, my studies in medicine have made me all tooaware of how many diseases the creatures can carry and spread.

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