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“I realize this must be very strange to you,” Faye acknowledged.

“These are the games we were raised in, and none more so than the four of us. It helps to stay pragmatic about the math. After all, the Imonde family has a vault to rival even the Augustines. Bodhi’s a prince in his own right, and there’s a lot to be gained by legitimizing the alliance with Vaya.

Celia, well—Celia’s not really in the running, either, being merely a countess, and a countess of Sprill at that, even if the Vai are laden in tokens.

No royal in their right mind would stoop to marrying either of us. ”

“That’s implying Adrien’s got his head on straight in the first place,” Kat blurted, then immediately stiffened.

She could get away with those kind of cavalier remarks around the prince, and the fact that he allowed such talk in the first place had made her sloppy.

If there was anyone in his cohort less likely to tolerate jokes at the royals’ expense, it was Faye Laurent and her Codex of Manners.

“Forgive me, Your Grace. My infantry tongue got the better of me there.”

But Faye, to her surprise, was smiling. Between this and her self-deprecating laugh at breakfast, Kat was beginning to wonder if the duchess was coming down with something.

“Believe it or not, I understand that there are different standards for politeness among the infantry. It would be absurd of me to expect you to behave as one of us highborns. That expectation is something I put upon myself, even if it seems nonsensical sometimes. The only hand I have to play is to excel in all these silly rules. I don’t have the luxury of pretending they won’t impact me. ”

She paused, and in that pause, Kat felt a sudden, sharp awareness of an incoming blow.

“I might go as far as to say I envy your audacity where your battle partner is concerned.”

Faye hadn’t said it very loudly, but Kat glanced around anyway. They were far enough away from the decades posted outside the command tent, but the wagons provided ample cover for eavesdroppers.

“That’s…I don’t know what you…” Kat faltered, buttoning down a hysterical laugh.

“You don’t have to lie,” Faye said, giving Kat’s arm what she clearly meant to be a reassuring pat. “I couldn’t help but notice after the Lesser Lord’s attack. The two of you are always joined at the hip.”

“Because we’re battle partners. We’re the hinge of our decade,” Kat assured her hastily. Hosts, of all people—Faye and her rules were a recipe for disaster.

“Battle partners who weren’t at all involved in the fight to take down the second Lesser Lord and ended up just as disheveled as the soldiers who were?

” When Kat opened her mouth to try to protest, Faye cut her off with a gesture.

“I know you think I’m naive to the ways of infantry, but please do me the courtesy of not denying what I could plainly see with my own two eyes. ”

“It was dark that night,” Kat said flatly. “Who knows what you saw?”

“Could you please stop panicking and listen to what I’m trying to tell you? Your little secret is safe with me. I understand. ”

“Why?” Kat asked. “Even if you had evidence—which again, you don’t—doesn’t it go against your…codex, or whatever it’s called?”

Faye scoffed. “The Codex is for high society. They’re rules that govern the proper behavior of highborns, because people with that much wealth and power need to be properly managed.

It always struck me as unnecessarily restrictive, the binds your leadership puts on common infantry—and none more so than fraternization laws. ”

“You’ve never seen what happens when battle discipline falls apart,” Kat countered.

“Aren’t you supposed to be agreeing with me?”

Kat blinked incredulously down at the noblewoman. “I’m supposed to be a good soldier. And what you’re accusing me of—”

“—has no bearing on that, in my eyes.”

“Who are you and what have you done with Faye Laurent?”

At that, Faye laughed—once, bright and belly-deep, a laugh like she’d been holding it in for years, the same laugh that had pulled a smile from the prince at the breakfast table.

“Hosts, you’re just like the rest of them.

Six years and all they see is the girl who stumbled into High Training clutching a stack of books and praying that one of them would have the answers she needed. ”

“I see a seventy-five-token Aurean,” Kat countered. “I see the fifth-most-decorated Aurean in history. And someone who could ruin my career with one word to my centurion or my prince.”

Faye shook her head, still fighting a smile.

“I’m not going to do that. Of course I’m not going to do that—not when we can be useful to each other.

I see it as my obligation as your duchess.

We both have rules we have to abide by, and rules we have to work around.

And, if we play our cards right, rules that can be rewritten. ”

Kat bit back a frustrated huff. Of course highborns could rewrite things.

They were currently in the process of rewriting the map, etching a new line clear across Telrus’s countryside.

All she could do was rally her rank to meet the changes and hope they all survived.

“I’d like to believe that’s possible,” Kat said.

“But until then, I suppose I don’t have the luxury of pretending the rules won’t impact me either. ”

“Would that more of my friends shared our convictions,” Faye replied with a dry smile. “I can’t believe Daya and Celia are still making a spectacle of the courier issue this far into the project.”

Kat let some of her tension loosen. Both noblewomen had been a plague on the camp logistics for the entire length of the march, constantly stealing riders out from under each other to send messages to the legions they were supposed to be managing—to what end, Kat still didn’t understand.

“I’m not even sure which one of them started it. ”

“Oh, it had to have been Daya. She’s been a pigtail puller for as long as I’ve known her.

I’m fairly certain she keeps her hair cut so short just to stop anyone from doing it back, and I’d bet you two gold crowns she isn’t even sending the riders anywhere useful.

She’s probably just giving them orders to take their horses out for a turn in the countryside long enough to get under Celia’s skin. ”

Kat frowned. “It’s strange, though, that Celia needs the riders just as frequently. She’s never struck me as actively involved with the leadership.” It went against everything she’d come to understand about the two of them, even after weeks of close observation. In fact—

“They’re both being frivolous,” Faye said despairingly. “It’s a wonder the prince still takes them seri—Oh, what’s wrong?”

“Sorry, Your Grace,” Kat called over her shoulder, already hustling toward the command tent. “I just realized I have urgent business with His Highness.”