She looked at him.
He looked back without particular expression, his eyes staring directly into hers.
She was quiet for a moment.
She felt something move in her chest, something she did not have a name for; a flutter, a shift.
It was small and surprising.
”Zyran Azra,” she repeated, her voice low, almost to herself.
A pause.
The shape of it in her mouth was unfamiliar.
“Of Azgareth.”
”Yes.”
She held it for another moment, and then she nodded, and when she spoke again something in her voice had shifted.
Almost nothing, but it was light and softer.
”Then…
Zyran.
I do not imagine the Crown Prince to visit a candidate’s chambers.” she said “You should go, The palace will start talking.” She almost smiled.
“They already are. I heard them on the way back from the hall. They’re saying you stayed the night.”
”I did stay the night,” he said.
”They’re saying other things too.”
”What other things were they saying?.”
She looked at him.
“It could cause problems for the selection. If people think…”
He moved.
She had not expected him to move.
He crossed the room with a few quiet steps closing the distance between them.
He was close enough that she could smell him.
She became aware of his scent.
He carried the scent of cinnamon and cedar spice, rich and warm.
Her thoughts scattered and she was very aware of her own breathing.
”I…” She stopped.
Began again.
“The palace will… they will think…”
He reached up.
His fingers moved to her hair, to the small side in her hair where a loose pin had slipped and a strand had come free in a way she hadn’t noticed.
He removed the pin.
Set it right.
Then he stepped back.
She could feel her heart skipping beats. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
”Goodnight, Elyndra,” he said.
And with that he left.
She stood exactly where she was for a long moment after the door closed.
She was aware of her own face feeling warm, her heart pounding so loud in her ear, and the way her thoughts had scattered and were only beginning to return now.
She pressed her fingers slowly to her cheek and stared at the door.
She hated how unsteady he made her feel.
She hated it.
—
Far across the palace grounds, the night was dark and moonless.
Three figures stood hidden inside the darkness.
One was on her knees.
The kneeling figure was shaking.
”I administered it exactly as instructed,” she said, her voice thin with fear.
“I swear. I put it in the tea myself. I watched her drink it. I swear…”
”And yet she walked into that hall this morning,” said one of the standing figures.
Her voice was cold.
“She walked into that hall this morning and she smiled and she is alive and that is because of what was or was not done properly, and you were the one who oversaw it.”
”I don’t know how…
the physicians, they must have…”
”You failed!.”
”Please, I didn’t…
I swear I did everything…”
”Enough!.”
”Get out!.
Now!”
The kneeling figure scrambled to her feet and disappeared into the dark.
Silence.
Then the first figure turned to the second.
”I trusted you with this.” Her voice had lost its coldness and found something worse.
“I trusted you and she is still breathing and walking around that hall like nothing happened.”
”Lythia…”
”Don’t.” Lythia cuts in.
“Don’t. You told me it was handled. You told me the dosage was enough. You told me…”
”It should have been…”
”MORIAH!.” Lythia yelled.
“She is still alive. Whatever you told me, whatever you planned, it didn’t work. And now she knows someone in this palace wants her dead.” The fury had gone quiet, which was somehow worse than the shouting.
“Fix it. Or I will do it myself and you will have no part in what comes after.”
The dark settled back around them.
Somewhere above, a lantern swayed in the night wind. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Neither of them said anything else.
—
Elyndra dressed carefully that morning.
She chose the deep rose outer robe with the cream underlayer, the one with the embroidered collar that sat high and elegant against her throat.
Her hair she arranged herself, they were pinned high with pearl-tipped pins, two loose strands falling over her face.
She stood before the bronze mirror and looked at herself for a long moment.
She opened the chamber door.
Lyel Tatton stood at the entrance to her courtyard, arms loose at his sides, dark clothes.
He had been there since before she woke.
She walked past him toward the covered corridor.
He followed her immediately without being told.
—
The morning had barely risen.
The sky above the open courtyard passages was the pale blue of early day.
The air was sharp and cold, the stone underfoot still cold from the night before.
The palace around them was not yet fully awake, servants moved slowly.
Elyndra walked with her chin level and her hands easy at her sides, and she smiled at the servants as they passed, the smile was warm and genuine.
They reached Moriah’s courtyard.
Her courtyard was bright with morning light, the lanterns still burning low from the night before, a maidservant sweeping the path near the entrance.
She stopped when she saw Elyndra and bowed.
”Please let Princess Moriah know that Princess Elyndra is here to see her,” she said pleasantly.
The maid hurried inside.
Elyndra stood in the courtyard and waited, her hands folded in front of her, her expression open and warm, the morning slightly beginning to brighten.
Lyel stood three paces behind her and said nothing.
—
Moriah heard the name and felt chills run down her spine.
She was at her dressing table when her maidservant delivered the announcement, still in the process of having her hair finished, she watched herself in the mirror as the name landed, her hands tightened slightly against the fabric of her robe.
She was shaking uncontrollably.
She made herself loosen them as she tries to clear her mind.
’She doesn’t know.’ The thought was steady, reasonable.
‘She can’t know.
If she knew, she wouldn’t come here herself.
She’d go to the Queen.
She’d go to the Crown Prince.’
’She doesn’t know.’
She eases her mind then looked at her own reflection and arranged her face carefully.
”Let her in,” she said finally.