Page 75 of A Reign of Embers

Of course, Her Highness Queen Benvida is not one to allow herself to show she’s rattled for long, even among her nearest relatives.

Mother lifts her chin and manages to peer down her noseat me even though I’ve got half a foot on her. “My goodness. Raul, what are you doing here without any announcement of your visit? No one told me you’d arrived.”

Fernam folds his arms over his chest and shakes his head with a fondly exasperated air I’m much too familiar with. “You didn’t offend the empress so badly she sent you on your way, did you?”

My first urge is to glower at the both of them. That’s also my second and third urge. Thankfully, I manage to find my way to a fourth option, which is to flatten both my smile and my voice just slightly.

“You didn’t hear about my visit because I didn’t want anyone knowing. I’m here to convey a message from Her Imperial Highness, for your ears only. Considering the precarious situation you’re currently in with an army of traitors on your doorstep, I assume you can understand the need for subterfuge.”

Mother blinks at me, a more subtle sign that she’s startled. I’ve managed to surprise her twice in the space of a minute. Wonders upon wonders.

“She sentyou?” she begins in a tone so puzzled it’s definitely insulting, and then recovers herself again with a pat of her pale hair. “Well, I suppose there’s a certain sense to that. She might not have wanted to risk any of her most skilled soldiers, and she’d know you’d be more familiar than any with the palace.”

Naturally her first assumption would be that I was sent because I’m more expendable.

Before I can respond, she motions to the table. Her voice turns cloyingly gentle—affectionate, but the kind of affection you’d extend to a wobbly toddler. “Why don’t you sit back down, and we’ll discuss this message of yours? I’m sure you’ve had a stressful time getting here.”

Yes, dodging the soldiers patrolling the highways at the border wasn’t a laugh riot. I haven’t had a proper bath in days, and my clothes probably smell of the poor horse I pushed to its limits getting up here that fast.

And I’d do it all over again in an instant if it means they’ll listen to me.

I do sit, because it’s a reasonable suggestion despite her delivery of the suggestion, and retrieve the letter from my jacket. “You’d better read Aurelia’s message first. She lays out exactly what she’s hoping for, and I can answer any questions you have. I assure you, she means every word of it.”

As I set the letter on the table between us, my mother’s eyelid tics. It occurs to me after the fact that I was a little too familiar in how I spoke about our empress.

Oh, well. Maybe that’ll work toward convincing her that I know Aurelia’s mind.

Stay focused, Raul.

Mother slides the letter closer, taking in the imperial crest pressed into the wax seal. She sits down in a chair at the other side of the table and works the envelope open. Fernam sinks into the seat beside her to read as well.

I clasp my hands on the table to stop them from fidgeting. It’s almost amusing watching both the queen and the crown prince fight to control their expressions as they absorb Aurelia’s promise—and the confession she’s offering them as leverage.

Mother opens her mouth and closes it again. I can tell she reads the letter at least twice, as if she thinks it might say something different on the second go. Fernam lets out a bark of a laugh and then schools his face impassive again at Mother’s chiding glance.

Mother aims her evaluating stare at me. “She can’t be serious.”

I splay my hands. “I don’t see how she could make herself sound more so. She thought long and hard about how to convince you just how serious she is.”

“There must be a trick to it. You’re out of your depth here, Raul. There’s no circumstances where the empress would agree to divest herself of her own empire. And she’s making this supposed offer to the other conquered countries too?”

My teeth grit, but I manage to let the insult slide off my back. “All except Accasy, because she could hardly travel there herself to deliver the message, but she’ll do the same for them too. Why is it so hard for you to believe? She started out as one of us, a royal under the empire’s thumb. She lived that life for twenty-one times longer than she’s been empress.”

Fernam speaks slowly as if he thinks I won’t understand otherwise. “But she did become empress. By all accounts, she worked very hard to obtain that position. That certainly speaks to a great ambition.”

An edge creeps into my voice. “Yes, it does.” I catch myself and drag in another lungful of air before continuing in a milder tone. “Her ambition is as it always was to free the rest of us, including her own suffering country, from the empire’s claws. She obviously couldn’t say so to you explicitly when she was here before, since she didn’t have the power to make good on the ambition at the time and her husband would have executed her if he’d caught wind.”

Mother clicks her tongue. “That’s all easy to say, much harder to prove. If she expects us to throw our citizens into this civil war on her behalf, we’ll need more than pretty words.”

“She has given you more than words. She’s offered up knowledge you could use to turn all of Dariu against her if you revealed it. What more guaranteecouldshe give that she’ll follow through on her promise?”

Mother’s expression softens, and I realize my voice has risen. I’m playing into her impression of me as a hotheaded cretin again.

I tuck my hands under the table so she can’t see them if they ball into fists. But instead of clenching them, I trace the line of my wedding band again.

Marc placed this ring on my finger. I can still see him with that small but warm smile as he declared us all Aurelia’s husbands alongside her. The prick actually complimented us, welcomed us farther into her life.

He’s back there right now, looking after her while the rest of us can’t. And… I actually believe heislooking after her.

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