Page 48

Chapter Thirty-Five

Aurelia

I wake with an uncomfortable heat still coursing through my limbs and a more pleasant warmth against my back.

As I stir on the bed, my lungs fill with the tart yet smoky scent of my first husband. Marc’s arm slides down to my waist, hugging me a little closer against him before his embrace relaxes.

Sprite leaps up to join me with a trill of a mew that sounds like a protest. Does she object to sharing the space?

I rub her head between her ears before rolling over to meet Marc’s gaze. Aches sharp enough to make me wince reverberate through my joints.

Marc takes in my reaction with a knitting of his brow. He strokes his other hand over my hair, his gaze intent. “How are you feeling?”

I test my mouth and find it dry but my throat only a little tender. “A little feverish and achy, but not as bad as before. Did I faint in the kitchen? How long have I been out? What’s happened?”

The corner of Marc’s mouth quirks upward at my flurry of questions. He leans in to kiss my forehead. A contentment I never expected to feel with this man unfurls over me like the softest of blankets, soothing the edges of my anxiety.

“The medics kept you asleep so you could heal better,” he says. “It’s the next morning. They’ve been distributing the concoction you made all around the palace. The last report I heard, it isn’t curing the pox completely, but it’s easing the effects enough to allow a smooth recovery.”

My heart leaps to the base of my throat. “Coraya?”

“She’s had two medics with her since yesterday, ensuring her fever never gets too high and that she stays hydrated. The potion helped her too.”

I sag into the mattress, a sharper thread of tension winding through my initial relief. “My cure wasn’t totally effective.”

“Maybe that’s the best effort anyone could have made. Your gift doesn’t always provide you with a recipe for instant healing, does it?”

“No, but I asked it for something that would make me totally well, and it felt as if I had the answer.” I pause. “Combining my gift with Farro’s might have weakened the composition of the potion. I’ve never tried anything like that before, and we were stretching the persinam awfully thin.”

“That possibility occurred to me too. But it’s better that everyone is partly well than only a few recovered and most still on death’s doorstep. You were amazing.”

The awe in his gaze brings a giddy flutter into my chest. “I serve my people every way I know how. ”

“And that’s why there could be no better empress.” Marc brushes another kiss to my temple. Then his expression tightens. “The cure didn’t get to everyone in time. Baron Daveno and Marchionissa Lucrene… They were already too sick. A few of the staff as well.”

Grief hits me in a wallop, drowning my initial relief. I blink at the tears that’ve sprung to my eyes.

Lucrene did her best to guide me, even trained alongside me despite her age. The others—I might not have known them well, but for any of them to have died because I failed…

My thoughts race to all the other people under my care. I push myself upright. “There’ll be more cases—the pox will keep spreading. To make more of the concoction?—”

“A few of the medics are already handling that. I watched everything you did carefully and gave them full instructions. They sent out a few of the unaffected staff yesterday in search of persinam bushes to bring into the greenhouse and encourage into bloom. It’s sounded like they expect to have a decent crop within another day or two, and then we may have a potion that’s a full cure after all. ”

I swallow thickly. “Then let’s hope there aren’t many more cases in the meantime. We’ll have to arrange funerals. I should look in on the members of court still recovering…”

My body sways, fatigue still weighing heavy on it, but a knock on the door stiffens my posture.

Marc is already moving, pushing off the bed and stealthily striding to his expected post by the threshold.

“What is it?” he calls through, swiping his fingers through his mussed curls to set them in better order and tugging his uniform straight.

Axius’s voice travels through. “Is the empress awake? There’s a… development I think she’d like to know about.”

My pulse thuds harder. I ease to the edge of the bed, girding myself against the aches that cling to my bones, and comb my fingers through my own hair. Sprite prowls over beside me and leans against my waist as if to help support me.

Marc glances over, taking in the gown I’m still wearing, and turns back to the door. “She is, but she needs more rest. Better you come in to talk to her than her getting up.”

I can’t argue with that approach for now.

The high commander enters with an air of caution, but his expression softens when he sees me. “You look much better today, Your Imperial Highness.”

I manage a smile. “I won’t worry about how badly I must have looked yesterday for that to be true. What’s the matter? Have more people taken ill?”

Bianca must be recovering by now, mustn’t she? It didn’t sound as if she had a particularly bad case.

Axius’s jaw twitches. I think he’d rather not tell me, but he isn’t one to lie to his empress.

“The pox has started to spread in the city. But the medics are prepared to brew more of your cure as soon as all the ingredients are ready. They have the matter in hand—and that isn’t what I came to talk to you about. Your sister has arrived.”

The last sentence is so unexpected that it takes several thumps of my heart before I can quite understand it. “Crown Princess Soreena? Here at the imperial palace?”

A slight smile curves Axius’s lips at my bewilderment. “It seems she felt it important to see you as soon as she could. She arrived just a couple of hours ago—I’ve kept her to an isolated room away from any possibility of illness. But she’d very much like to speak to you.”

My older sister has come all the way from Accasy—it never occurred to me that might happen. I open my mouth and close it again, grappling with my conflicting impulses.

“Have her come to my chambers,” I say finally. “But warn her that she’ll need to keep her distance as I could still be contagious. We can have a private meeting in here.”

I stress the word ‘private’ with a flick of my gaze toward Marc. As much as I’ve come to trust him, Soreena will think it incredibly odd for me to let a guard overhear our conversation. Whatever she’s traveled all this way to speak to me about, I doubt it’s casual chitchat.

Marc inclines his head slightly and steps out when Axius does.

While my mind whirls about why Soreena might have come, I pad carefully to the bathing room to quickly freshen up and wind my hair in a simple bun.

I don’t think my sister will care how I look, but anyone who catches sight of me before or after our meeting will expect me to meet certain standards of propriety.

I’m weak enough from my bout of camp pox that my legs start wobbling halfway through my trek back through my bedroom. I decide sitting at my vanity will be a little more dignified than perching on my bed, with the benefit of requiring fewer steps to reach.

I’ve only just settled onto my stool when another knock sounds. I keep my voice as steady as I can manage. “Come in.”

“Her Highness Princess Soreena,” one of my guards intones, and my sister slips into the room.

She stops just inside the doorway, turning toward me. It’s clear she hasn’t had much time to freshen up after her journey. Her pale hair is rumpled, her pretty face drawn with hints of her own fatigue. She’s wearing a riding dress, plain by royal standards and smudged with dirt on the sleeves.

Every instinct in my body clamors to throw myself at her and grab her in a hug. I hold back only with the thought of how awful it’d be if she made this journey only to fall ill .

“It’s good to see you,” I say, hoping she can tell how much I mean that. “I wasn’t expecting a visit.”

Soreena’s lips curve in a slanted smile, but her eyes stay shadowed with worry. “It didn’t seem wise to wait on official messages back and forth. I heard when I arrived that you’ve been ill. They said the worst is over—are you truly all right?”

I find a smile of my own in me. “Not perfectly, but I’m on the mend. It’s safest to keep some distance. And I’ll feel even better no longer having to speculate about what might have troubled you enough for you to come all this way.”

My sister lets out a very unladylike snort that puts me more at ease.

“What do you think? Word trickled out from the Darium forces stationed near Costel that your rule has been threatened. This tribune is still gathering her army intending to unseat you, isn’t she?

As soon as the snow cleared from one of the passes, I rode. ”

I blink at her. “Father approved?”

She shrugs. “I told Father I was going whether he approved or not. We needed to find out what we can do for you, and I can travel nearly as fast as any messenger if I take a mind to. I wasn’t sure how much you’d trust a regular messenger to convey a request for help.”

No wonder she looks weary. She’ll have been on the road on horseback for more than a week with barely a rest.

The urge to embrace her grips me again, alongside an ache that steals my breath for a moment. “I don’t know how much help you can give. We don’t know what moves Tribune Valerisse will make next, and with Accasy so distant—I didn’t want to put our people in danger for no real gain.”

Soreena’s smile grows. “We’re not so distant at the moment. Several of our military squadrons followed me through the pass and should be assembling right by the border with Goric. The hardest part of the march will be behind them by the time I return with your orders, Empress.”

As wonderful as it was just to see her, I’m not prepared for the rush of affection that sweeps through me with a sharper pang mixed in. “Soreena, that’s— You know I wouldn’t have asked you to attack Valerisse’s forces on your own. I’m outnumbered. It might be suicide.”

“You won’t be outnumbered if you have support from the rest of the empire. We’re just doing our part.”

At the thought of all the frustrated thoughts I had when I was last in Accasy, I could laugh and sob at the same time. I hated the way our family and our nobles kowtowed to Marclinus and shied away from any trace of defiance.

But we are a people who know how to survive, how to bide our time and strike when the moment is right. Kosmel must be as proud of my sister as he was of those first Accasians who won the freedom to form their own country.

“I’ve been trying to arrange such a strategy with the other royal families nearer at hand,” I admit. “It’ll benefit us all in the end, if we succeed. I can point to your loyal support as justification for handing rulership over the kingdom back to you and Father.”

I would have found some way to include my home country in that decree anyway, but having our soldiers fighting on their empress’s behalf will make it that much easier.

A hint of sorrow crosses Soreena’s face. “You’ve had to endure an awful lot on your own, Aurelia. I’ve hated every hour I had to spend up there not knowing what you were dealing with next, especially after we saw… Well, you’re free of that madman now. I had to offer whatever help we could.”

A lump fills my throat. “Still, to ride all the way here—you put yourself in so much danger?—”

“I have plenty of reasons to want to keep you on the throne for my own sake.” She touches her belly.

“We found out just a couple of months ago—you’re going to have a niece or a nephew by the end of the summer.

And hopefully others to follow, none of whom will ever have to be sent off to this palace to give the imperial family new leverage. ”

Which might very well happen if Valerisse or whoever she intends to set on the throne takes my place.

So many lives ride on my decisions in the coming days. There are so many more hopes I’m gambling with.

But it’s either gamble or give up. Valerisse and Sabrelle have left me no good choices.

I summon enough genuine joy to beam at Soreena. “Congratulations. I won’t let it come to that, no matter what I have to do.” I’m not sure how convincing either statement is, but it’s the best I can offer right now.

“I think you should stay here,” I go on.

“Away from anyone sick, until we have a definite cure for this pox that’s afflicted the palace.

It should only take a day or two, from what I’m told.

We don’t want you riding off only to fall ill and have no way of taking care of yourself.

That’ll give us time to work out a signal so you know when your soldiers need to press onward…

Maybe I’ll have news from the other outer territories so we can devise a cohesive strategy?—”

“Your Imperial Highness?” Axius’s voice carries from beyond my door.

My stance goes rigid. What’s so urgent that he’s interrupting my meeting with my sister?

“Yes? Come in.”

He enters with a deferential bow and a cautious glance toward Soreena. I wave my hand to dismiss any concerns he might have. “Whatever you need to say, she can hear it too.”

His mouth tightens. “We’ve just gotten a new message from our people among Valerisse’s forces. A significant portion of them, including Valerisse herself, have remained near Rodrige for the time being. The tribune appears intent on some goal our spies haven’t been able to decipher.”

A chill washes over my skin. “A significant portion of her forces have remained—what about the rest?”

Axius rests his hand on his sword hilt, his eyes flashing. “About half of her illegitimate army has set off in a march toward the Darium border.”