Page 10 of Promise of Darkness
She wears black leather from head to toe, with a ruff of raven’s feathers around her throat. That moonlight hair is braided back fiercely, and silver moons drip from her ears. No dress for her. She’s a warrior princess, prepared to hold a sword at someone’s throat if needed. I’m the one dressed up like a gift, though the black silk cape I wear hides my starlight dress. I’m not quite prepared to reveal it just yet.
Curse it. I feel like a peacock, displayed on a platter on the dining table.
“You didn’t tell her.”
My sister doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t even move her eyes.
And a thought occurs. “You knew.”
Andraste didn’t need to tell mother about my failure. She’s already won. I’m to be sent as tribute, a sacrifice to peace. The path to being named heir is clear for her without so much as a hint of bloodshed.
It’s so well done, I’d almost clap, if I wasn’t about to be sacrificed.
“It’s not like that,” she finally says. “I—”
“It sounds exactly like that,” I point out with a tight smile. “You’ve won. You barely had to even lift a finger. All that talk about finding another court….”
“Vi—”
“Don’t.” We both know anything that comes from her mouth next is insincere. She can afford to be gracious. “You’re Mother’s heir. That’s all that matters.”
My mouth tastes like ash. What am I going to do? When I return in three months’ time—if I return—what am I coming back to?
It’s unwise for a princess of the blood to remain in another’s court. It creates too many opportunities for politicking nobles. Too many pathways to dissent. I’ll always be a knife held to my sister’s throat unless….
Unless I disappear.
“There are things you don’t know.” She finally looks at me.
More cursed secrets. I’m starting to realize how peripheral I am to Mother’s court. Andraste’s always at her side, whispering in her ear.
“All these little secrets,” I murmur, twitching at my cloak. “It’s starting to make the skin between my shoulder blades tickle.”
Almost as if someone’s already planted a knife there.
“You’ll understand, one day.”
“Oh, I think I understand now.”
Andraste’s gaze drops to the hem of my skirt, and her eyebrows hit her hairline. “You’re not wearing the dress Mother had made for you.”
My fingers brush against the midnight-dark silk that caresses my legs. Tiny pinprick diamonds are woven throughout the fabric, so it seems as though a cloak of pure night clings to my body. “I thought the white lace seemed a touch too virgin sacrifice. This suits me better.”
“Where did you find it?”
“Find it?” Andraste spends most of her time in hunting leathers. I’d have thought fashion would have been the last thing my sister would ever willingly discuss. “I had it made on a whim several weeks ago. It… It seemed a little more fitting for the night. After all, he’s the Prince of Evernight. Therefore, why not wear the dress that makes me resemble the stars?”
The faintest of smiles plays about Andraste’s lips. “Has Mother seen it?”
“Not yet.”
I can’t explain why I withheld the dress. Only a gnawing sense the queen will not approve.
Andraste laughs. “Oh, I can’t wait to see her face when she does. Wait until the last moment to reveal it, or she’ll strip you to your skin.”
The precise thought I’d had. For a second, some of the old camaraderie we’d once shared whispers in the night.
Of course, she’s happy. You won’t be around to block her path to being named princess-heir.
