Page 87 of A Vow of Embers

Her eyes narrowed at me. “I’m not above hard work, and neither are you. We know how to clean and serve.”

I immediately felt ashamed. I was being elitist. She didn’t say as much, but I heard it in her tone. “I’m sorry. But I don’t understand why you would choose to be a kitchen maid.”

“Thrax told me about how you have been in danger. I saw it when the pirates attacked us. Someone wants you dead.”

“That’s what they say, but it hasn’t happened yet,” I said.

“Yes, it has. There was an attempt on your life during your wedding processional. The phratry eliminated the assassins. They wanted to take one alive but weren’t able to. Xander and Thrax were keeping an eye out on the ground, worried that someone from the crowd might try to attack you.”

Was that true? I’d been so caught up in my own misery that I probably wouldn’t have noticed. Was that why he had looked relieved when I arrived at the processional? Not because he’d thought I would embarrass him by not showing up, but because he didn’t know whether I was alive.

It also explained why Xander was so angry when I stopped to help that elderly woman. I had thought he was mad because I was slowing him down, but it might have been concern over someone trying to kill me.

And I’d put myself in danger by climbing down from the chariot.

“Even before the attempt on your wedding day, I had already come up with this plan, and Thrax and the prince reluctantly agreed.”

I thought of Alexandros telling me the lengths he’d gone to so that it would seem like Quynh had gone home. How she’d cut her hair and was hiding her background so that she would be seen as a kitchen maid. “How will you being a servant help me?”

“Women are so often overlooked. Men don’t believe that we could be smarter than them or that we’re capable of defeating them, and sowe’re always perceived as not being a threat. Kitchen maids are the least threatening of them all. I will be unnoticed, unseen, forgotten. Servants know everything. If there is a threat to you, I will uncover it first.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “No. I won’t let you put your life at risk for me.”

“It’s not your choice. It’s mine. And you are the reason I made it through the labyrinth. I would have died a dozen times over if not for you. You protected me and now it’s my turn to watch over you. But that’s why we can’t be seen together. Why you have to keep away from me. People will get suspicious if they see us talking. I need the other servants to accept me and trust me.”

“They will,” I said, my heart sinking. There wasn’t anyone Quynh couldn’t charm. She was going to get her way, and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop this.

“And the nobles? Servants are invisible to them. Another way for me to listen and learn.”

This worried me so much. “You’ve just accepted everything the prince and Thrax have told you. What if they’re lying?”

“I’ve always considered myself a good judge of character. And I believe that Thrax and Xander are good men and that they’re telling the truth.”

I wanted to shake her. To tell her that this was madness. That she couldn’t protect me. She hadn’t been trained, wasn’t strong.

But I knew my sister. While she usually went along with what other people wanted, when it came to things that were important to her, she was immovable. She was going to be a kitchen maid and there wasn’t anything I could do to get her to change her mind. “I don’t want you to do this alone.”

“Oh, I won’t be. Thrax has insisted that he’s going to help.”

“And that won’t raise suspicion?”

“A soldier taking a liking to a kitchen maid? It’s so common that no one will think anything about it. He and his brothers have something of a philandering reputation, so we have a built-in excuse. He’ll makesure I’m safe. You’ve seen how wildly overprotective he is,” she said while rolling her eyes. “But you and I will have to stay away from each other.”

“That’s so unfair. I just got you back. I don’t want to lose you again.”

“You won’t lose me,” she promised. “But we will have to be careful. Tonight was highly organized. Once we had heard that Erisa invited you to dinner, I asked the matron for the evening free to spend time with Thrax. And he cleared out the guards on this floor, telling them that the prince desired privacy with his new wife so that you could ... be as loud as you wanted.”

My cheeks colored at this, but she pressed on. “Then Xander sent for you, giving you a cover for how you were spending your time.”

And he had done all that without me even knowing. Without talking to me about it. I didn’t know whether to be annoyed or grateful.

“And you will have your other sisters,” she said. “I do have to admit that it makes me a little jealous that you will be with them and not with me.”

“You and Kallisto are my sisters. My adelphia are my sisters in a different way. You would love them.”

She smiled at me. “If you do, then I will, too. I’m just glad you won’t be alone any longer. I know how much you hate that.”

“How long can you stay?” I asked.

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