Page 7 of Clash of Storms
Malin shook her head sharply. "I believe my father is hosting a small dinner in his rooms later tonight. We would love for you to join us." They'd be safe to speak openly there.
Once the princess was on her way.
"But—"
"Later," Malin said. "I need to ask you something."
"Of course."
"I need a bottle of leviathan blood and I cannot tell you why."
Tove shot her a horrified look. "Malin! Such a dangerous weapon is forbidden. If you were caught with it...."
"I won't be caught."
She didn't have a choice. Thedrekiwarriors at court were powerful; though Árdís trained daily with the swordmaster, Master Innick, and could surely hold her own with some of the court, the princess was no match for the most dangerous of the warriors.
Árdís would need an edge if she was to escape.
"Please," Malin whispered. "No one shall find it upon me, and I shan't breathe a word of where I got it."
Tove's brother, Finn, was one of the leaders of the rebellion. Malin knew they'd been preparing themselves for war, if it should ever break out.
"This way."
Malin breathed a sigh of relief as Tove led her toward her brother's personal quarters.
"Finn's not inside, is he?" Malin whispered, as they reached Tove and Finn's chambers.
The handsome blond drekling had the sort of smile that could set her heart racing—and worse, he knew it. He'd almost stolen a kiss during the last equinox, and Malin had drunk enough wine she'd almost given it.
Something had stopped her however. Common sense, perhaps. She didn't truly wish to share her first kiss with a male who was familiar with half the female drekling population of the court.
Tove shot her an amused look. "Not as far as I know. Should I bring him to dinner tonight?"
"No!"
"He's fond of you," Tove teased.
"He's fond of anything in a skirt."
"Yes, but you were the one who denied him a kiss. He's barely been able to think of anyone else ever since. Let me invite him."
Malin could feel herself weakening. She'd been at court ten years, and hadn't yet found a male of her own. She liked Finn and admired his ideals. He was handsome. Kind. Why then, did she hesitate? "Maybe."
Tove squealed, hugged her, and then slipped inside her chambers. "I'll let him know you personally requested his presence."
Malin waited impatiently as Tove fetched the small bottle of leviathan blood. It burned like acid and could eat through anything—except the small spelled glass bottle it was trapped inside. Adrekiwas particularly vulnerable to their distant kin's poisonous blood.
"Thank you." She kissed her friend on the cheek when Tove returned, and slipped the glass vial between her breasts—such as they were. The lace edge of her gown hid any sign of the vial, but Malin cupped her breasts and tried to plump them a little.
A meaningless action, truly, but perhaps it was a good thing she was so lacking in assets. Nobody would even look twice at her bodice, which meant she could smuggle anything she wanted with impunity.
The secret of her success as a rebellion spy all these years had been her ordinariness. She was close enough to invisible in thedrekicourt. A drekling who would never be looked at twice; granted access to the inner workings of the court and the highest echelons simply due to her role as the princess's handmaid.
It amused her sometimes when one of the queen's viledrekiwarriors dared sneer at her.
I am going to bring you all down, and watch this court burn.
