two. In theory their loyalties were separated—they pledged different oaths—but the distinction was trivial. “Listen, I don’t blame you. But at some point, you’re going to have to deal with them.” Judah couldn’t think of anyone more poorly suited to command a fighting force than Theron. He didn’t like crowds or loud noises and when he was frightened or nervous, he stuttered. “You know Gavin won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Oh, good. My brother is watching out for me. I’m so relieved.” Theron picked up the needle tool again and bent back over his device, but his movements had gone aimless. “Who was that courtier you left with last night?”
Judah blew out a disgusted huff of air. “If this is what happens when I leave a room five minutes before a complete stranger, I’ll be more careful next time.”
“Well, Gavin certainly spends enough time with them. And you two being as thick as you are—and, really, I mean that in all possible senses—it’s not unreasonable to think you’ll start, too.”
“I loathe the courtiers.”
“Gavin used to say the same.”
“He has to play nice.”
“Does he.” Theron’s tone was dry.
She experienced a moment of dislocation: in her head, Theron would be forever fourteen and gangly. But the Theron before her, with his wary expression and patchy unshaven beard, seemed much older than the twenty he was, even. “Don’t be oblique. You’re bad at it. If you have something to say, say it.”
“He has one courtier friend in particular. I don’t know her name.” With distaste he added, “She’s very pretty.”
“Better the courtiers than the staff.” This distinction had been the subject of many an argument between Gavin and Judah, particularly since she’d become friendly with Darid and learned more about staff life. Lady courtiers had family, position and power to protect them; the staff girls had nobody. She was relieved, if a bit surprised, to hear that any of what she’d said had sunk in.
But Theron’s disgust was clear. “He’s marrying Elly. He shouldn’t be spending time with other women.”
“Maybe not, but—Theron, nobody expects that. Not even Elly. Gavin is who he is. The courtiers are who they are. They’re horrible. He’s not. It’ll all work itself out eventually.” She resisted the urge to ruffle his hair. “Gavin can be a little oblivious sometimes, but he’s not a bad person. And he really will keep an eye out for you on the training field. You know that.”
“Give up. I’m not going down there unless he drags me.”
“He might.”
Theron only shrugged. “In the meantime, maybe you’ll let me get back to work.”
So that was what she did.
* * *
The previous spring, she’d walked past the House stables during weaning. The cavalry stables, on the other side of the House, were all shouting and drills and massive stomping warhorses; those, she avoided. But there were foals at the House stables. She’d been unobtrusively watching them for months: their first wobbly explorations of the paddock, their games of tag and chase, the way their mothers bent soft noses down to theirs. But that day, weaning day, was different. The foals she’d grown to recognize paced nervously, squealing and bolting and tossing their heads in distress. Every time one approached the gate, the stablemen drove it away with cries and waving arms. The mothers were nowhere in sight.
All Judah had known was that the foals were upset, that they wanted to leave the paddock and couldn’t. She’d glared at the stablemen perched on the split-rail fence, who shifted uncomfortably. A few of them did something with their hands, a sort of slashing motion. Much later, Darid told her that cityfolk used that sign to protect against the evil eye—not that they would admit to believing in it, but just to be on the safe side. He’d been the one who’d finally approached to ask what she wanted. She hadn’t known he was Darid then; he was just the head stableman, as blond-haired and blue-eyed as everyone else, dressed in dull staff brown, with massive arms that spoke of a lifetime of labor. Unsmiling but reasonably friendly, he’d explained about weaning and why it had to be done. The foals would calm down, he said, and suggested she come back in a few days to see for herself.
Judah had been idle then, and lonely. Gavin was training and Theron was hiding and Elly had just begun to be sucked into the vortex of protocol that would prepare her for life as Lady of the City. Everybody had something