Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,82

direction.

Gemma Ripley, Gemma Ripley, Gemma Ripley . . .

I gritted my teeth, shoved the echoes away, and glanced around. Reiko and I were standing in the shadows, and no one else had heard her words. I studied the other woman, forcing myself to think. Reiko could have easily screamed out my true identity at the top of her lungs, but instead, she had quietly sidled up to me.

“What do you want?” I asked.

She shrugged. “The same thing you do—to find the tearstone the Mortans stole from your mine.”

More shock knifed through me, and I thought back to when Reiko had helped Leonidas rescue me in the mine. Everyone else had been wary of the prince, but she had seemed more thoughtful than anything else, as if she was carefully weighing everything that was happening and how it would impact future events. I had seen that same sort of calculation on Xenia’s face more than once, and I cursed myself for not realizing what Reiko was before now.

“You’re a spy.”

Reiko tipped her head, confirming my suspicion. “Just like you are.” She arched an eyebrow. “Although I wasn’t careless enough to get tossed into a chasm, rescued by a Morricone prince, and taken to Myrkvior. I’m surprised you haven’t been exposed and executed yet.”

Annoyance surged through me at her dry, mocking tone. “Perhaps I’m better at being a spy than you give me credit for.”

“Gemma Ripley? Also known as Glitzma? The most pampered of all the pampered princesses? Are you kidding me?” Reiko let out a merry little laugh, and her inner dragon joined in with its own silent chuckles.

I ignored their mirth and studied her even more carefully. The name Reiko tickled the back of my brain, and I mentally flipped through the pages and pages of family trees that my tutors had forced me to memorize as a child. “You’re Reiko Yamato, cousin to Ruri Yamato, the Ryusaman queen.”

Reiko and her inner dragon quit laughing, and surprise flickered across both their faces. “How do you know that?”

“I make a point of knowing all the royals and their families, down to the very last, most distant cousin.”

I also reviewed the information twice a year and memorized the names of the children who had been born and the royals who had died. During my ambassador travels, I often ran into distant royal cousins, many of whom were eager to share tidbits about their more important relatives twice removed.

“Why is Ryusama suddenly so interested in Andvarian tearstone?”

Reiko took a sip of her punch, then peered at me over the rim of her goblet. “I’ll answer your question if you answer mine.”

“Which is?”

“Why would a Ripley princess save a Morricone prince from certain death?”

More surprise shot through me. Reiko must have followed Conley out of the mine and been lurking around the clearing that day. She must have seen me help Leonidas, but instead of interfering, she had watched and waited and let things play out. Then, after Leonidas had flown me away from Blauberg, she had come to Myrkvior, most likely to watch and wait some more. Why would she go to all that trouble? Unless . . .

“Your queen is worried about the tearstone. Ruri Yamato thinks the Mortans are going to use it against her, against Ryusama.”

Reiko blinked in surprise again, as did her inner dragon. Apparently, neither of them thought very highly of me, and it seemed as though I was just Glitzma to them, the same way I was to so many other folks. People underestimated me at their own peril. Just because I was pampered didn’t mean that I was stupid. Far from it.

I followed my thought to its logical conclusion. “The only reason Queen Ruri would be worried about Andvarian tearstone was if she—or you, her spy—had heard rumblings that Milo Morricone was stockpiling it.”

My eyes narrowed. “What do you know about Milo?”

Reiko took another sip of her punch. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I snorted. We both knew she was lying. Then again, I could hardly point fingers, given all the lies I was currently juggling like a magier tossing balls of fire into the air before a gladiator bout. Still, perhaps Reiko being here was a good thing. If something terrible did happen to me, perhaps she would at least be kind enough to report it to my family. Andvari and Ryusama had never been particularly close allies, given Ryusama’s distance across the Blue Glass Sea, but the two kingdoms had become much