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RYN

Ryn awoke to Matthias gently shaking her shoulder. “Ryn,” he said. “I was calling for you outside, but you didn’t answer.”

Ryn lifted her head from her pillow. She scanned the room with tired eyes until she spotted Heva snoring on the couch in the living space.

Matthias held up a card of thick, glossy paper. “The organizers were here. I wouldn’t let them in without your permission though, so they left this.” He passed it to her.

Ryn rubbed her eyes and took the card. When she unfolded it, gold letters glimmered across the page in the Weylin alphabet. She flipped it over. There was nothing on the back. “What is this?”

Matthias scratched his head. “Well, the organizers wanted to explain the rules to you themselves, so I kept calling, but… Anyway, I think I got the basics out of them on my own. It’s for your first match.”

“Match? Like a duel?”

“Atheoreticalduel. It’s a contest,” he explained.

Ryn climbed to her knees. “You mean there are actuallytrialsin the Heartstealer trials? I thought that was just a flashy name.”

“Let me read it for you.” Mattias took the card and cleared his throat. “Trial Card: A Battle of the Senses. Sound, Touch, Smell, or Taste.” He tossed the card aside. “You need to pick one of the five senses, except for sight. So, no paintings or anything. And you need to present a skill to the King to try and capture his interest. I suggest you play the harp. Sound is a lovely choice.” Matthias smiled. “It’s the day after tomorrow, so you’d have plenty of time to practice.”

Ryn huffed in disbelief. Xerxes wanted all the maidens to try and impress him? That didn’t sound like him at all.

Although… she wasn’t sure she knew what he wanted anymore.

“He’s going to be blindfolded,” Matthias went on. “That’s why you can’t choose sight. You have to appeal to one of the other senses.”

Ryn dropped the note to her lap. “Blindfolded?”

Blindfolded…

The room tilted as that settled in. Kai’s letter said the King would be blindfolded on the night B’rei Mira spies would assassinate him.

“Why do you look so pale?” Matthias asked. “Are you all right, Ryn? Do you want me to get you a cup of water?”

Ryn glanced up at her friend. Her oldest friend in these palace walls. He hadn’t put the pieces together yet, she realized. It hadn’t crossed his mind that whatever trial this was, it was happening on the same night the B’rei Mira soldiers were coming. And as Ryn saw the soft flush of Matthias’s cheeks, and the kind look in his eyes that made her wonder if he’d ever had to raise a sword against someone, she decided it was better that way.

“Matthias,” Ryn said, folding the card and setting it aside. “I think you should stay back from this contest. I have something for you to deliver to the Priesthood anyway, so you can go that night since I’ll be…safe…around hundreds of people.”

Matthias shrugged. “Sure. What is it?”

Ryn’s face changed; she hadn’t thought that far. “I’ll… let you know.”

Her lie was too obvious. Matthias studied her for a moment, then he grinned. “Why don’t you want me to be there, Ryn? Are you going to flirt shamelessly with the King? Are you worried I’ll be repulsed?”

A hot blush hit her face. “Absolutely not!” She grabbed her pillow and threw it at him.

Matthias snorted a laugh and waved her off. “You should bathe, Ryn,” he advised as he headed to the door. “You smell like rotting food.”

Ryn glanced down at her dress from yesterday, stained with grape juice and shiny splotches of oil. She lifted her skirt and sniffed it.

Divinities, she did need a bath.

She slid off the bed, snuck past snoring Heva, and followed Matthias outside, gently closing the door behind her.

“You’re going to the baths alone?” Matthias asked. “What about Heva?”

“She’s exhausted. You should have seen what we did yesterday. And it was twice as bad for Heva because she spent the whole day yelling on top of everything.” Ryn smirked as she remembered. “I’ll slip to the baths and return before she wakes.”

“I’ll accompany you,” Matthias decided.