Page 169 of Grim and Oro
I keep an eye on her balcony, from mine. I watch the fire in her hearth flicker; I see her silhouette through the curtains. Then—I watch it disappear.
It’s the middle of the night. She’s leaving.
I follow her from high above, flying, circling, but all she does is visit the agora. She’s watching too—for what, I’m not sure.
She visits the agora five times, and I’m overhead, studying her every move. Familiarizing myself even more with her every habit. Then I watch her sneak into Juniper’s bar.
Of course. The keeper of secrets. Why is she visiting him? What is she after? Which secrets will she exchange for information? I should sleep. I should be doing anything else—but I stay until she leaves, then follow her home.
Only after that do I visit Juniper.
“King,” he says merrily, not disturbed in the slightest by the fact that I nearly kicked his door down just now. “What will it be? Rum? Wine?”
“Neither,” I say, leaning against the bar. “I know the Wildling was here.”
His smile widens, and his eyes flicker in curiosity. “Yes, yes. A gemstone herself, is she not? A sharp one. I’m guessing you want to know what she asked me?”
I nod.
“You know the price.”
I narrow my eyes. “I’m your king.”
He lifts a shoulder. “Then I’m just a simple barkeep.”
I nearly throttle him; I don’t have time for his games. Then I think of what I said to Enya.I’m dying. Might as well give up all my secrets. I wage a brief internal battle before ripping my sleeve over my bicep to reveal my mark. “I’m dying. Happy?”
Juniper doesn’t look as concerned as he should. Instead, he looks pleased. “That secret surely bests hers,” he says. “The Wildling wanted to know about Moon Isle. About how to get on it, undetected.”
Moon Isle? I’d suspected she wanted to know aboutme, about the castle, about any way to betray me. Why would she want to go to Cleo’s land?
“Thank you,” I say.
Before I can leave, he stops me. “Because you’re king ... I’ll tell you this. The Wildling is a target. There are threats against her from multiple realms. They want to see her dead.”
Dead. I don’t know why that word, said in relation to her, makes me grip the edge of the bar. “Did you tell her that?” I ask. The barkeep shakes his head. “Then why tell me?”
He lifts a shoulder. “Your traded secret was better than hers.”
The Starling’s demonstration is in the Hall of Glass. It’s been centuries since I’ve walked these corridors, and for good reason.
My family is here. They are painted on the walls.
I try to walk by quickly, but my brother’s portrait snares me, and I freeze in front of it. Cold washes down my spine.
He was righthere. Those eyes were alive, they were ready for a long life. They were bold and fierce.
More so, after he had fallen in love.
Love. We were always warned against it, though it was never forbidden. My parents taught us love was dangerous for rulers, but it was also rare.
My parents weren’t in love. I suspect my father loved my mother, but he wanted to control her even more. And she seemed to simply tolerate him, for our sakes and the sake of duty. The only time I ever saw a true connection between them was on the battlefield. It was where they had met—in training. My mother bested him in a duel, and he, on his knees, begged her to go again. And again. And again.
He always said he never won a duel, but he won her. As if she was a prize. Something to be possessed. Then he locked her away in his castle. She wasn’t allowed to fight in many battles over the years. Her light seemed to dim with every decade. When she died, she was fiery bright. Fighting alongside her husband, the king, only because he knew our forces needed her to have any chance of winning.
“You fool,” I tell my brother’s portrait, while simultaneously reaching out to touch his heart. “I miss you. I wish you were here. You would know what to do.”
The hall fills quickly. Advisers, nobles, and other Sunlings from court surround me, murmuring. Predicting. They give me compliment after compliment about my gilding, and all it does is remind me of the pride in my father’s eyes, when I killed the attendant.
