Page 112

“No, no…stay,” she said to the council, who had started to leave. “I’ll escort him out.”

She didn’t wait for their response. She strode straight for Alder, and the two of them walked abreast in silence, pushing through the doors, past the guards, and out of the hall, and it wasn’t till they were out of the guards’ hearing that Alder murmured, “I was trying to make this easy.”

“Then you shouldn’t have kissed me like that.”

“Need I remind you that you asked me to?”

Seph was about to scold him, but the ardent look on his face froze the retort on her tongue.

“They’re going to whisper about us now, darling,” he drawled.

“Is that why you acted like we hardly know each other back there?”

His pace slowed to a stop. “Is that what this is about?”

Seph stopped too. They stood at the edge of a bridge, with a waterfall cascading beside them, and it was on this waterfall that Seph kept her attention fixed while fine droplets of spray dusted her brow and cheeks. She couldn’t help but think of Rys. “I…might never see you again, and I could not let that be goodbye.”

“Ah.” Alder stepped to the rail and leaned sideways against it so that he could face her. He looked…Seph couldn’t quite tell. His expression was shielded, and then he said, “I didn’t think it wise to show partiality to the Court of Light’s new queen at the very inception of her rule.”

“Well, considering my grandfather disguised himself as his brother to steal his throne, I think it’s safe to assume that I’m a little hazy where courtly expectations are concerned.”

Alder laughed. The sound was low and rich and planted itself right in Seph’s heart, and then he pulled a folded piece of paper from inside of his jacket. “Anyway, I wasn’t planning to leave you with nothing.” He held out the paper.

Seph took it and realized quickly that it was a small stack of folded papers.

“Open it.”

Seph opened the creases to find that Alder had, in fact, given her five sheets of paper, all filled with charactersandtheir translations. “Alder…” She flipped through the pages, aghast, scouring them as she did. “Are these…all from the coat?”

“They are. And if you snap your fingers, they’ll arrange themselves into the way they slide over the coat.”

She snapped, as instructed. Sure enough, the characters rearranged themselves into the very same pattern as they appeared on the coat.

“This is…you are magnificent!”

“I know.”

“This must have taken you all night!”

“Strangely enough, I wasn’t tired, so I thought I might as well make the most of it by helping you read ourdamnable symbols.”

She met his gaze over the papers, and he pulled something else out of his jacket. A single sheet of folded paper, but this one had been sealed with green wax. He held it out to her, but when she reached for it, he raised it just a little. “This is…for later.”

Where no one else can read over your shoulder,he might have said.

He lowered the paper, and Seph took it carefully, cherishing the weight of it.

“Two weeks?” she said.

“Assuming we don’t intercept any trouble.”

“And you’re certain you can trust this uncle?”

“Far more than I ever trusted Basrain. My uncle is also the sort who seems to know things that the rest of us aren’t privy to, which honestly was annoying in my former years. He may not be able to help me directly, but he’ll know who can. It’s a start, at very least.”

“How do you know he won’t kill you on sight?”

His mouth quirked into a grin. “He would never do that to my mother.”