“Sister!” she called, her arms open. “How like you to arrive in such fine style.”
No one who wasn’t watching closely would have noticed the way the queen’s teeth were bared, the way her eyes slid to Mayu and then back to Ehri.
“Are we not glad to see our sister returned?” Makhi demanded of the crowd, and the people cheered in reply. “Are we not grateful for her safety and good health? Then let this be a day of feasts and celebration!” Makhi clapped her hands and the square was flooded with royal servants handing out currant cakes and little bags of golden coins.
Mayu studied the queen’s face, the brittle smile, the hands spread wide in a gesture of beneficence.
She wants to be loved, Mayu realized. Just as I did. She can’t understand why her sister is favored when she is smarter, stronger, more lovely. She will spend a lifetime trying to unravel this mystery, sure there’s some secret she can uncover, offering her subjects bribes of money and sweets to show her generosity. Queen Makhi had tried to murder Ehri, not once but twice, rather than live forever in her shadow. She might have a sister’s envy, but she did not have a sister’s love.
As soon as they entered the palace, they were surrounded by guards. Minister Yerwei, the queen’s doctor, came forward to greet them.
“Princess Ehri, are you well? We must have you examined and prescribe the proper tonics to restore your vitality after such a long trip.”
“I thank you, Minister Yerwei. But I am in good health. I have been well fed and looked after by our Ravkan friends.”
“Where are the rest of your Tavgharad guard?”
“I would give my answers to my sister,” Ehri said serenely.
“She will receive you in the audience chamber.”
Minister Zihun cleared her throat. “I’m afraid the chamber is under repair. May I suggest the Court of the Feathered Bower?”
“But I was just in the chamber—” Yerwei protested.
“There was a flood.”
“A flood?”
“A small flood by one of the fountains,” added Minister Nagh. “The workers are still inside.”
Mayu hid her relief. Maybe Nagh and Zihun had always planned to keep their promises to Ehri. Maybe they had been swayed by the sight of a city following her through the streets. It didn’t matter. They’d done their part. Ehri and Tamar needed to speak to the queen privately, not in front of her ministers and not in a place where she could look down on them cloaked in the power of a thousand years of Taban queens.
“I see,” murmured Minister Yerwei. There was nothing else for him to say.
* * *
The Court of the Feathered Bower was all soft white and gold, like the glow of clouds in the hour before dusk. It suited Ehri well, softening the angles of her face. Servants brought them glass ewers of wine and water, a plate of sliced red plums. But they scattered when the doors burst open and Makhi strode in, flanked by her Tavgharad.
“You dare summon me like some kind of serving girl?”
Ehri only smiled. She rose and bowed deeply. “Forgive me if I offended, sister. The audience chamber was flooded, and it seemed best we talk in private.”
“The time for that has passed,” snapped Makhi. “You should have come to me with your concerns. Instead you conspired with the barbarian king. You went to my ministers with absurd tales of assassina tions and poetry and secret laboratories. We will meet in the council chamber and you will recant your testimony and throw yourself on my mercy.”
“I cannot,” said Ehri. “Not even you, most celestial sister, can bid me lie.”
“You have no proof.”
“I am the proof,” said Mayu, ashamed of the way her voice trembled. “I who was asked to kill a king to save my brother.”
“You have no proof of that either. All I see is a girl looking healthy when all of her Tavgharad sisters are mysteriously dead.”
“We have your note,” said Ehri softly. “It was meant to burn with me, was it not? I didn’t quite believe it until this moment. But I can’t mistake that look on your face, Makhi. I remember it from when we were children, when Mother would catch you doing something you knew you shouldn’t.”
Makhi’s chin lifted. “What do you want?”
“Keep to the treaty you signed with Ravka and grant them monies from our treasury. Give up your dreams of war. And end the khergud program.”
“Without admitting that any of what you’ve said is true, I can agree to hold to the treaty, for now. Its terms are acceptable to us.”
“Then you will dismantle the laboratories.”
Makhi flicked a graceful hand through the air as if swatting a bug. “Nonsense. This khergud program you speak of is nothing but conspiracy theory and fanciful thinking.”
“I’ve seen the khergud myself,” said Tamar. “I didn’t imagine them.”
Makhi’s chin rose even higher. “I met your twin in Os Alta. He is as insolent and ill-mannered as you.”
“You will take us to the labs,” said Mayu. She was tired of all this back-and-forth. She wanted to see her brother.
“Do you really think to dictate terms to me in my own palace? You have gravely overestimated the influence of Ministers Zihun and Nagh.”
Ehri shook her head. “I did not think to rely on their influence.”
She had been standing in front of a golden table. Now she moved behind it and bent to smell the vase of vibrant coral roses she had placed upon it. Their petals looked like they’d been dipped in gold.
The queen’s face paled.
“They’re lovely, no? Bright as fire, but they have very little scent. Their beauty is all on the surface. I think I prefer wild roses myself. But these are very rare.”
“You took them from our grandmother’s garden.” Queen Makhi’s voice was barely a whisper.
“They were a gift. She likes a story well told.”
Now Mayu understood where the airship had landed that night, the scent of roses on the air. Tamar and Ehri had gone to Ehri’s grandmother for protection. Leyti Kir-Taban, Daughter of Heaven, was still considered a Taban queen. She had given her crown to her daughter when she was ready to leave off ruling and enjoy her old age. When her daughter had died, Leyti had given Makhi, her daughter’s chosen successor, her blessing. But Leyti could withdraw that blessing at any time. The roses—the flowers Mayu had so naively dismissed as mere sentiment—were bred in Leyti’s garden and nowhere else.
“Our grandmother should be careful in the garden,” said Makhi. “Accidents happen.”
“I know,” said Ehri. “That’s why we left an entire cadre of Grisha guards with her along with her own Tavgharad.”
“How solicitous.”
“I didn’t tell her everything,” said Ehri. “But I certainly could. You will take us to the labs, Makhi, or our grandmother will know why.”
“I’ll think on it,” said the queen, and without another word, she turned on her heel and departed.
“Do you think she took the bait?” Tamar asked when the queen and her guards were gone.
Ehri pulled one of the roses from its arrangement and replaced it in another spot, just so. “Yes. She can’t help herself.”