Page 31 of Grave Flowers
“No, I’m not.” I allowed myself a wry smile. “I’ve yet to be crowned queen.”
“Well, if you are the—pending—queen of questions, then I must attend you with answers. I was originally a stable hand and then brought on to be one of Prince Aeric’s attendants because he asked for several more than King Claudius had,” Yorick said. “Soon after, he gave me the position as jester, saying he wanted someone youthful. Young eyes in an old job. He thought my bookish pursuits would lend to an intellectual humor and insight. Honestly, I think he didn’t find me suited for his entourage and wanted to reshelve me elsewhere, as though I were a stodgy old text among his adventure storybooks. It was a mercy. I’m too skinny to imbibe at his rate!”
Typical Aeric. Giving someone another position as opposed to dismissing them. It was surprising the palace wasn’t overrun with stray dogs and cats. Still, even as I wrapped my first impression of Aeric around myself like a comforting blanket, shivers pitter-pattered across my skin, one right after the other. In the short time since I’d met Aeric, I’d witnessed many examples of his foolery, and yet all those seemed buried by his eyes, pinning me like a knife thrower aiming for the throat after I mistakenly referred to Inessa in the present tense.
“Well, if it helps to know, I like you and require no alcohol consumption,” I said. “I don’t require much of my companions. In fact, thosewho aide me might find themselves with lots of spare time. Which they could spend in the library reading.”
Without missing a step, Yorick arched an eyebrow at me. “Is that so? Is Her Highness wishing to steal me away from Prince Aeric?”
“I’m new to court, and I need friends,” I said with a shrug.
“Intriguing.” He fussed with his collar, straightened his gloves, and grinned. “I have to admit, I like being fought over.”
“Then consider that I offer books and leisure, while Aeric’s requirements will have you drinking wine and swimming in a fountain with his other court boys until dawn.”
Yorick shuddered at the image and laid a hand over his chest at the horror. “Her Highness makes a very compelling case, I must admit. I would love to join your service.” Carefully, he paused, reached for his jester’s pin, and undid it. “I’m yours, forever and ever. I’ll let Prince Aeric know and enjoy watching him pretend that he isn’t greatly relieved.”
He pressed the pin into my hand.
“Why, thank you,” I said, touched. Slipping my arm through his, I smiled as we walked. He straightened, drawing back his shoulders, which always seemed pulled toward the earth. I glanced down at the pin. It winked in the light, so I couldn’t see whether the face smiled or cried.
I squinted, a facial posture becoming more familiar to me since coming here. I was faced with more light in Acus than ever before and was slowly coming to understand it better … though I found the revelations terrifying. I’d always thought darkness obscured but light did as well and was more powerful than darkness—it burned, scorched, combusted, carbonized.
Even now, the palace loomed before me, drenched in sunlight. It bounced off the long rectangular windows and carved out the walkways and balconies. Despite the distance, I could see outlines of furniture and art and people moving about the different levels. My gaze tugged upward even more.
It stopped.
There he was.
Aeric.
He stood atop the roof. A thick ledge ran around it, a militaristic artifice on the otherwise stately palace. Intermittently, stone guardians perched atop the ledge. They were also there for defense, though not against enemy soldiers but rather evil spirits who’d abandoned the Primeval Family’s court. The guardians were terrifying brutes with heavy scowling brows and open menacing mouths. Aeric stood between two guardians. The breeze tugged his hair into disorder, and his shirt was untucked. Unsurprisingly, he cradled a wine goblet with both hands, elbows braced on the rail. It was impossible to see his expression from this distance, but he stared down at me and Yorick. Aeric’s shirt and hair were liquid in the open air, but he seemed made of stone and affixed to the palace like a guardian—forbidding, staring, immobile.
Then, as we walked, his head followed us, tracing our movements through the garden.
Suddenly, there wasn’t enough sunlight in all the world to warm me.
Chapter
NINE
The next morning, I rose early but remained in my nightdress, perched on the side of my bed. Luthien was a suspect, but I hadn’t so much as laid eyes on him. I needed to figure out who he was. Annia had said he was from Crus, and while Crus was a bombastic kingdom that always longed to expand, I doubted they had assassinated Inessa. If they had wished to, they could’ve done it in Radix. Involving Acus was risky. I had to test Luthien first. If he wasn’t from Crus, I’d know he was lying. And if he was lying, I could then figure out whether he was a Radixan renegade or if he had been hired by an angry Acusan noble.
But my test would require something.
A coin.
And not a coin exactly. I needed a tampered counterfeit. Conversely to how Radixans weren’t allergic to grave flowers, Crusans were terribly allergic to any faulty metals. I knew where I might procure one. Over and over, I’d seen Father purchase items from Oscura smugglers and vow to never buy from them again because the objects never worked as intended and sometimes had terrible side effects—which was exactlywhat I was counting on: a deficient coin to learn whether Luthien was from Crus so I might finally grant Inessa her peace.
“I’m going to rest,” I told Sindony, trying to sound exhausted. “You and the other girls can have the day off.”
“Very well, Your Highness,” Sindony said. She spoke in a soothing, whispered voice as though I were tremendously ill. She probably thought I was. Dwelling in shadowed chambers during the day was not typical behavior here. Quickly, she and the other girls lit a few candles. They hadn’t bothered to open the drapes.
“We should go to the theater,” Sindony whispered to the girls. “I heard Prince Aeric is going to be holding auditions for a new jester, and the theater troupe for the play is rehearsing.”
“Jester auditions?” I interjected.
The girls glanced curiously at me and then looked at Sindony to speak on their behalf.
