Shadow Weaver (Back on 抖阴社区 2020!)

Chapter 31

I glance down at the bundle of broken sticks. "My father believes a girl should know how to take care of herself."

"You are not tired after today's ride?"

"Of course, Your Royal Highness." It is the first time I have stood so close to the Duke. In the sunset, his face strikes me as young. It is a strong face, with alert blue eyes that remind me of my father. He glances across the camp, and I see what he sees. Commander Fror is distracting the Prince with a map.

"Walk with me a little," the Duke says. I curtsey and move into step beside him.

"Tomorrow we will stop in the town of Lindy and take rooms. You will be able to wash and change your clothes. Though I have not heard you complain. I've never met a woman so impartial to her own appearance."

I smile as though he compliments me though it could as easily be an insult. The Duke stops and checks behind. My empty stomach twists a notch tighter.

"This is an awkward question, Lady Mirra, so I will be direct. How certain are you of Prince Jakut's feelings?"

Oh, he detests me, no doubt about it. "I'm not—" I falter and bow my head in embarrassment. "I'm not experienced in matters of the heart, Your Royal Highness."

"My wife says he has already asked your father for your hand." I swallow hard and nod. Did Elise tell her husband this before or after she knew it as a lie? "And yet if my brother is still alive, such a match will be forbidden." Like Jakut, he hopes that the King is an Etean prisoner and not dead.

"You married Elise," I say quietly.

"I was not next in line to the throne. And my own father had departed this life or he would not have permitted it."

"You are wondering about the Princess of Rudeash?"

"The Prince has spoken to you about her?" I shake my head. "What happened with the Princess is a question that needs clarification, but I will be blunt with you, my concern lies elsewhere."

"Go on," I say.

"Has Jakut spoken to you of Lady Calmi?"

"I did not know of her until your wife told me she had been in the Prince's favour before he left for the north."

The Duke scratches the gray speckled stubble of his beard. The sun slips off the edge of the world, abandoning us to twilight. Soldiers gather around blazing fires. The clatter of spoons on bowls and conversation fills the valley.

If he has something to tell me, he'd better hurry up about it.

"King Alixter was particularly opposed to the Prince's relationship with Lady Calmi because she was Lord Strik's granddaughter."

"Granddaughter..."

"You have turned pale."

"I am fine." My hand flutters to my bare neck in an old habit of checking for my lodestone. My north. My guarantee when I was in Blackfoot Forest of finding the way home.

"It is no secret in the Red City and many of the provinces that Lord Strik and the King Alixter are, or were, not on good terms. But as you saw for yourself today, Lord Strik commands a great deal of farming land. The Red City is in part dependent on his produce and he has much influence over the nobles of the provinces. Lord Strik will have known that Lady Calmi and the Prince were on special terms. It was said she held great influence over him, influence Lord Strik will wish to uphold. Had he learned today of the Prince's affection for you, your life would be in danger."

Once we arrive at the Ruby Court, I already have enough to worry about. I must help Jakut hide the state of his shredded memories from a warrior Queen and a lady he wished to marry. I must discover who lay behind the attack on his escort without revealing my outlawed talent. I do not need a tyrannical lord, whose dark-mind is like gazing into an abyss, to worry about as well!