“You must be getting tired. It’s time for us to go.” He called to Ulrix that we were retiring. It drew laughs from those within earshot.

I saw Rafe watching from a distance as if he might spring. I grabbed a fistful of the Komizar’s shirt, yanked him close, and whispered through a razor-tight smile, knowing we were being watched, “I will sleep in my own quarters tonight. If this is to be a marriage, it is to be a real one, and you will wait like all good bridegrooms do.”

The haze of wine was flushed away by his anger. His eyes cut through me. “We both know there’s nothing real about this marriage. You’ll do just as I—”

“Now it’s your turn to think carefully,” I said, returning his glare. “Look around you. See who watches. Which do you desire more? Me or the fervor of your people? Make your choice now, because I promise you—you can’t have both.”

His expression went cold, and then he smiled, releasing my wrist. “Until the wedding.”

He yelled for Calantha to escort me to my room and disappeared back into a circle of drunk soldiers.

CHAPTER FORTY

KADEN

I was already weary of this governor. He never stopped talking. At least the small squad of men who accompanied him were mostly silent. It was clear they feared him. If not for his province’s crucial importance as a supplier of black ore to the Sanctum, I would have let him trail behind us on the road to choke on our dust.

It was only another day’s ride before I could be rid of him. He’d fit in well with the chievdars, though. His favorite topic was domination over the enemy swine and all the ways they should be sliced and strung. Wait until he learned we had two enemy swine sleeping in the Sanctum. Neither I nor the men traveling with me had told him, hoping to avoid another tirade.

Most of the time when he spoke, I tried not to listen anyway. Instead I thought of Lia, wondering what had passed in the last eight days. I had charged Eben and Aster with making sure she had everything she needed and called upon Griz to look after her too. He had taken a liking to her, which was not in his nature—but Griz was strong in the old ways of the hillfolk, and the gift had heft with them. With the three of them watching after her, she would be fine, I kept telling myself.

I thought of the taste of our last kiss, the concern in her eyes, the softness of her voice when she asked about my mother. I thought maybe the tide was turning for us. I thought about how much I couldn’t wait to return to her and listen to her chant the acknowledgment of sacrifice. Paviamma. Every word that—

“And then I said to him—”

“Shut up, Governor!” I snapped. “For three blessed hours, until we set camp, shut up!”

My soldiers smiled. Even the governor’s squad smiled.

The governor puffed out his chest and scowled. “I was only trying to break up the monotony of the ride.”

“Then spare us. The monotony suits us fine.”

I went back to my thoughts of Lia. How could I tell her that I knew in my gut from almost the beginning that we were meant to be together? That I had seen myself growing old with her. That a gift I wasn’t even sure she really possessed had told me her name long before I ever laid eyes on her.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

PAULINE

Bryn leaned forward, looking into his cider. He was the youngest of Lia’s older brothers, always the cheerful, fresh-mouthed one, who got into as much mischief as Lia. The past several months had sobered him. There were no grins on his face now, no quips on his tongue. “Regan and I secretly cheered when she bolted. We never thought it would come to this.”

“Walther too?”

He nodded. “Maybe him most of all. He’s the one who left false leads up north for the trackers.”

Regan leaned back in his chair and sighed. “We had all voiced our opposition to shipping her off to a stranger and strange land. We knew she’d be miserable, and there are other ways of creating an alliance with a little persistent diplomacy—”

“But apparently, Mother wouldn’t hear of it,” Bryn interjected, the first hint of bitterness in his tone.

The queen? “Are you sure?” I asked.

“She and the Royal Scholar were the first to suggest they accept the proposal from Dalbreck.”

That was impossible. I knew the queen. She loved Lia, I was sure of it. “How do you know this?”

Regan explained that after Lia disappeared, there was a huge row between his mother and father. They were so incensed they hadn’t retreated to their private chambers to vent their anger. “Father accused her of undermining him and making him look like a fool. He said that she never should have pushed the matter if she couldn’t control her own daughter. They shot the sordid details at each other like they were poison arrows.”

“There has to be an explanation for all of this,” I said. “Your mother loves Lia.”

Regan shrugged. “She refuses to discuss the matter with any of us, including the king. Even Walther couldn’t pry anything loose, and he is always able to coax things from her.”

Bryn said she mostly stayed in her chamber, even for meals, and he only saw her walking the halls when she was on her way to see the Royal Scholar.

“But the Scholar hates Lia,” I said.

Regan nodded in agreement. The animosity between Lia and the Scholar wasn’t a secret. “We assume she’s seeking comfort and counseling in the Holy Text. He is the expert on such things.”

Comfort. Possibly. But I could hear the doubt in Regan’s voice.