assess Anure. “Your Imperial Majesty,” the red wizard said, bowing deeply. “Her Highness, the queen of Calanthe, did indeed perish of blood loss from the injuries You ordered done to Her. But the Abiding Ring remained blooming and fresh. The ways of magic are mysterious. We had preserved Her corpse in the hope of resurrecting Her. If She has indeed been brought back to life, this is cause for celebration, indeed.”
Anure wasn’t mollified. “This is akin to treachery! Explain yourselves to Me.”
The black wizard opened his mouth, but the red wizard held up a hand to silence him. “Perhaps Your Imperial Majesty will accept some information as an apology. This Slave King is someone you know.”
Anure swung his attention to me, all temper vanished, that penetrating intellect focusing. “I knew it. Who is he?”
“Conrí,” the wizard said with some satisfaction. “Former crown prince of former Oriel, son of your old friend King Tuur.”
Shit. This wasn’t good. But I held my head high, hiding all reaction.
Anure smiled as if he’d won a great prize. “Is that so? I have someone you might like to meet, Slave King. Summon Lady Rhéiane.”
“Your Imperial Majesty,” the red wizard replied with a like smile. “I already have.”
“Good.” Anure steepled his fingers together. “Now that all the stakes are on the table, we can discuss the terms of our bargain.”
* * *
In the early morning, I left Ibolya to her tense waiting and—somewhat disoriented from spending so much time in someone else’s head—I returned to my rooms, walking with Zariah and discussing my wardrobe for the day. I needed to look impressive, just in case. My other ladies were waiting for us, so I sent Zariah off to sleep, demurring at their suggestions that I rest also. Though I’d been awake all night, I knew that sleeping at all would only make me groggy, taking my edge off.
I was going to need that edge by the end of the day, I suspected. Everything had gone well so far—and I could only hope it had gone that well for Sondra and Agatha, too—but the trickiest parts had yet to be executed.
My natural hair didn’t do regal well. It better suited looking like a dryad emerged from a forest pool, as Con had noted. But I also wanted my nature, fully embraced, on display for all to witness. I had my ladies leave my hair down, Orvyki pulling some of it back from my face to be pinned under the crown, then coaxing the increasingly long fall of it into rolling waves.
Otherwise, to create a regal impression, I went with jewels. Nahua found a collar of diamonds, fastening it around my throat and adding successive strings of pearls and diamonds, covering my bare breasts and draping to the top of my pubis. Calla added epaulets of more diamonds and pearls affixed to my shoulders. Suspended from those, strings of jewels brushed my arms where the patterns of barks, leaves, stems, and flowers roamed over my skin with growing abandon.
A girdle of sapphires and emeralds draped low over my hips, the larger jewels hanging in thicker panels that thinned to dangling strands of glittering gems that swirled around my thighs. Zariah had returned, refreshed and in a new gown, declaring herself unable to sleep. I suspected she simply wouldn’t take rest if I wouldn’t. The heels she found for me were jewelry in themselves—made of strands of silver chains studded with diamonds.
By the time they finished, I wore a good portion of Calanthe’s treasury—and was more weighed down by it than I had been by some of my old gowns.
I’d canceled court for the day, so I’d be free to do what was needed, and I returned to the map tower along with my ladies. It took two of them to carry Con’s rock hammer for me, Nahua and Orvyki nearly staggering under its weight, but they protested so fiercely when I suggested a guard could carry it for me that I acceded.
Once we reached the map room, I had them set the rock hammer gently in the center of the map, where I’d once lain spread open, naked to my soul, and vulnerable to Con. It had been a beginning of sorts for us, and I would use that connection, since I no longer had the marriage bond.
“You may go,” I told my ladies once I was satisfied with the hammer’s placement. “I have no more need of you for the time being.”
Several of them exchanged glances, then