his heart. “Annoy you? Perish the thought. I don’t think of you at all most days.”
“Who will you be scrying during the announcement?” Estrel looked out over the crowd. “Monsieur René du Ruse?”
“René.” Laurence nodded, suddenly serious. “His Majesty is about to start. I have to go.”
He pressed his hand to his mirror and the magic faded. Estrel turned hers over, so the reflective side was pressed to her skirt.
“Yours is a lot clearer than mine,” I said.
Estrel laughed. “Laurence and I have been practicing this for years. You’ll get better.”
“And I could talk to you no matter where you were,” I said. “Right?”
“Yes.” Estrel smiled. “But I think you will be stuck with me for some time.”
As if that were a bad thing.
Behind me, Marian cleared her throat. Estrel and I turned to face the rest of the room. A chime rang out.
Chevalier Waleran du Ferrant was certainly handsome like most nobles tried to be, and he spoke like he was the king. He was white-headed and gravelly voiced. I let my eyes unfocus so I could listen.
“My court, my friends, I come to you as the voice of the Premier Noonday Artist of the Realm, His Most Bright Majesty, Henry XII, by the grace of our Lord Sun and his Mistress Moon, King of Demeine. This week, in the ninth month of our three hundred and forty-second year Past Midnight, we have finally taken back the land stolen from us by Kalthorne. Segance, once a home for our countrymen, was brutalized and wasted under Kalthorne’s rule, but our people have been returned to us. I come to you tonight, though, with even more heartening news—the portents of Lord Sun and Mistress Moon have instructed us that now is the time to rid this world of this great Thorne in our side once and for all.”
Estrel let out a growling exhale and stiffened.
There were no such portents.
“Our Demeine shall never suffer siege again but rise with the sun every morning and with the moon every night. Demeine will prevail. This treachery will never threaten us again.” Chevalier du Ferrant threw his hands up as if in celebration or passionate prayer, and there was a soft cheer from the crowd gathered. “His Majesty, who served us so diligently and strongly in the war against Vertgana that his powerful grasp of the noonday arts wore him down completely, led the charge against Kalthorne in Segance, his vitality restored by the grace of our Lord Sun.”
It was good that Isabelle wasn’t here. If someone said that after killing Macé or Jean, I’d have killed them. I was certain she would’ve too.
“There is no progress without sacrifice, just as there is no power without sacrifice,” he said, hands fisted at his sides. “We will bring Demeine to a level of power the world has never seen. Are you with me?”
People cheered and clapped, and I brought my hands together once. Estrel didn’t even do that.
Power had a cost, but our folks were the ones who always had to pay it.
He held up the glass of black wine to us and those near a server held up their own glasses.
“Demeine!” he said. “Grace, honor, legacy!”
The room repeated the phrases, glasses high, and drank.
It went quickly after that, the evening devolving into a party. Marian hugged me when Estrel said we should leave. A real hug.
“I’ll keep an eye on Emilie,” I whispered, not sure what to do.
She patted my cheek but couldn’t form the words.
Estrel escorted me out of the room, and her hands curled around my shoulders. “In the morning, we need to talk about what to do when you are found out and go back to being Annette Boucher. If we get things right, I think you may get away with this.”
“I’ll do everything right,” I said. “I promise.”
“I believe you.” Estrel led me back to my room and stopped at the door. “But if you make a mistake, you’re still my apprentice and it will be all right.”
I nodded. We’d find out if it would be all right in a few hours.
* * *
The next morning at dawn, Estrel shook me awake. “We have to leave. They’re scouring the city for Laurel.”
“What?” I sat up and turned an ear to the window. Shouts and screams echoed down the streets. “What happened?”
I knew what had happened. The posters were up, Laurel had spread the news of what His Majesty had done, and people were angry.