She wanted us to be seen together in the halls. This was a public display.
Liora inclined her head, murmured something in Faerish, and left the way she’d come.
Maeronyx had already started walking in the opposite direction. Her stride was easy, almost idle, her boots soundless on the marble. I caught up. “I had not expected a winter escort.”
“Your hand trembles as if you were in Noctere.” A faint smile. "Don’t worry, I’ll keep you in the light, Eurydice. Highmark has so much of it.”
I clenched my hand. We turned a corner; fae we passed lowered their eyes—not to me.
“You have the best quality of a queen, Eurydice,” she said. “Brave, even when you’re afraid. That’s a rare trait among humans and fae.”
“You think because my hand trembles it means I’m afraid?”
“The toast in the solar—the fire lilies. Your idea?” She spoke as though she hadn’t heard me.
“Does it matter?”
“It was clever.”
“It was necessary.”
Her gaze almost met mine. “You have a cheeky way about you. That’s a young habit."
I half-smiled. She actually thought she could pierce me with jibes. “And a lowborn habit.” Better to name your attributes before anyone could furnish them as weapons.
We walked on. The corridor stretched long and quiet, candlelightcatching the beadwork on her sleeves. “I’m told you were a baker’s daughter.”
Nowthat…how could she know that? “A bread baker’s, yes.”
“My mother baked. Not bread—a black cake with caraway, served at funerals. I hated it as a girl. Now I crave it.” She glanced sidelong at me. “Funny how the things we grow up with stay in the mouth.”
Such an ordinary thing to say. Such a warm, small, human thing.
“Do you miss it?” she asked. “Your kingdom.”
Constantly.“I don’t have the luxury of looking back.”
"I imagine you do miss it. It’s a hard place. I’ve always thought the humans there were remarkable—what they’ve managed to build with so little. The walls alone.” She shook her head. “And still so much we don’t know about what came before them.”
I might have said something to that. I might have asked what she meant. But we’d arrived at my door, and Maeronyx stopped as though she’d counted the paces from the start.
“Your Grace is kind to walk me,” I said, because it was what a queen said.
“Kindness is a queen’s way of saying she hasn’t decided yet.” She smiled when she said it—a real one, brief and unexpected, that crinkled the corners of her eyes behind the mask. “Good night, Eurydice Waters.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Dorian
The cell was a cell,a square inside the earth—though unlike Sylvanwild’s dungeon, this one was made of stone. It offered a cot and a privy pot and not one window besides the viewing square on the door.
Highmark’s dungeon was so quiet, I almost wished I hadn’t released that one dumb fool. At least then I’d know I still existed in the world.
I paced the cell for a time, my blood still up. I could almost feel Gawain under my fingers; my thumbs could press his eyes so easily into his skull.
Ssen ssa, he’d said.Thyr.
Not her. You.