The Promised Queen (Forgotten Empires #3)- Jeffe Kennedy Page 0,41

handed her over to Percy with a saucy wink. “Your Highness.” Agatha curtsied. Wrapped in a shawl as usual, Agatha nevertheless looked dressed up, too. She wore flowers in her hair, and the shawl gleamed like peacock feathers.

“I haven’t thanked you yet, Lady Agatha,” Lia said, “for your enormous service to Me.”

Agatha looked anywhere but at us. “A small favor compared with all Your Highness has done for me and mine.”

“I think we both know it was no small favor,” Lia replied gently, but she let it go, glancing at me again.

I weighed what to say. “After Lia and I return from the temple, we’ll meet to thrash out a plan, but to give yourselves time to think: I’m going back for what was left behind.”

Percy fanned himself, his expression deadly serious, and Brenda put a supporting hand on Agatha’s back. Sondra and Kara looked unsurprised but grim.

“For all of them,” Lia clarified with an arched brow.

The group contemplated that. Brenda snagged a short glass of amber liquid from a passing serving girl—also wearing nothing more than some fluttering blossoms—and drank it in one gulp. “Do we have any idea how many people that might be?” she asked, turning the empty glass with blunt fingers, glancing obliquely at Agatha.

“I don’t, not exactly,” Agatha said in a clear, thin voice, drawing her peacock feathers around her as she spoke, though the tropical night remained warm, even stifling in these gardens sheltered from the coastal breezes and lit with so many fires. “I don’t know if anyone but he knows how many there are. People die,” she added bleakly. “And he moves them around frequently, keeping them divided.”

Hmm. I’d been picturing royal prisoners all gathered in one big cell, but I could see how that kind of thing wouldn’t work long-term. And Anure would have to be sure they didn’t conspire. Even beaten and broken people begin talking to one another after a while, devising impossible plans to escape from terrible captivity. I should know. “Agatha,” I said slowly, hoping I wouldn’t spook her too much, “would you give us information on your contact there, so we can find out more?”

“Yes,” she said, eyes darting to the shadows as if someone might leap out at her. “First let me see what I can find out.”

“I’ll help. We’ll put our pretty heads together,” Percy declared, drawing Agatha between him and Brenda. “It will be fun!”

Agatha gave him such a sour look that Brenda laughed. “Your Highness, Conrí—we have a table in the grape arbor. Would you care to join us for supper?”

“Alas,” Lia replied immediately, “I have meetings. But Sondra and Ibolya can join you.”

Sondra looked startled. “I couldn’t.”

Kara handed her the cocktail, looking relieved to be rid of it. “You could,” he said darkly. “In fact, you really should.”

She looked to me with a hint of panic. “Conrí and Her Highness need me.”

“We don’t,” I replied immediately, and Lia squeezed my arm, a tremor of laughter running through her, though her composed expression showed nothing. “Go play with the other kids,” I told Sondra, grinning when she gave me a betrayed scowl.

“I’ll attend Conrí and Her Highness,” Ibolya said with quiet assurance.

“No need,” Lia declared airily. “You may be dismissed for the evening, Lady Ibolya.”

“Your Highness, I—”

“Have been on duty all on your own, nonstop for days,” Lia finished gently, but with the firmness of command. “Do as you wish, but you will not be needed by Me until morning.”

Ibolya looked like she dearly wanted to argue, but she curtsied, inclining her head.

“Come on, Ibolya,” Sondra said. “We’ve been dismissed by the grown-ups apparently. Why not get drunk with us? I bet you could stand a good drunk.”

“I,” Agatha put in pointedly, “will not be getting drunk.”

“Nor I,” Kara agreed in his gravelly voice.

“More for us!” Percy declared gaily, swishing over to take Ibolya’s arm. “The inimitable Lady Sondra is so clever. You must drink with us, Lady Ibolya, and tell us all of Her Highness’s secrets. Is the rumor true about that one little mole of Hers?”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly…” Ibolya protested as Percy led her briskly away.

“So, what was your purpose in sending them all away?” I asked as Lia surveyed the festivities.

She slid me a glance. “You seem to be under the impression that I have a reason for everything.”

“Because you always do,” I countered, “which is why I helped.”

“Thank you for that.” She chose her direction and started that way. I followed along, taking in the sights with