After seeing what she was capable of, what she was willing to do, he wasn’t so sure he knew her at all.
All of these myriad thoughts were far from his mind now, however, as the assassin he’d expected ever since he arrived back at the capital finally crept into his room.
Raffe lay shirtless in his bed, eyes slit against the dark as he watched a figure moving through the shadows. He’d been dreaming before the assassin broke his light sleep. An odd one: a huge, white tree, the trunk swirled in gold and black.
The dregs of the dream still clung to the corners of his mind as he tracked the assassin through the room, peering through his lashes from nearly closed eyes. Raffe kept his breaths long and even, his limbs loose. When he slipped his hand under the pillow, where he kept a short dagger, he made it look like he was just shifting in his sleep.
The assassin wasn’t deterred by his movement. And they weren’t dressed for the job—black, yes, but it looked like they were wearing a gown? Surely that was just a trick of the light.
The shadowed figure crept closer. No shine of a blade, but there were other ways to kill someone. Raffe tightened his grip on the dagger hilt beneath his pillow. He’d find out who sent them before he killed them. At this point, he thought of mostly everyone as a potential enemy, but it’d be useful to know which ones weren’t cowards.
When the figure got close enough to see the slit of his eyes, Raffe closed them. A deep, grounding breath through his nose, recalling the few things he’d retained from his year training with his tor. Warm breath ghosted over his cheek as the figure bent close.
Raffe sat up with a snarl, slicing the dagger through the air to stop right at the base of their throat.
“Kings and shadows, Raffe!” A bell-like laugh. Familiar. “You’re quicker than I thought!”
His eyes narrowed, adjusting to the dim, to the coyly smiling figure at the end of his dagger. “Kayu?”
Okada Kayu, Third Daughter of the Niohni Emperor. Moonlight glinted off her teeth as she grinned, reaching up to pull back her hood. Long, pin-straight black hair cascaded down her shoulders, and Kayu gave it an impatient shake. “I’ll be honest, I’m impressed.” Exaggeratedly pushing away the edge of Raffe’s blade with a finger, she sidestepped to his table, scavenged up a match, and lit the half-melted taper. The flare of light shadowed her eyes as she turned to him with crossed arms. “When I got within inches and you were still asleep, I figured you’d be a goner.”
“So you were trying to kill me?”
“Of course not. I just wanted to know if I could.”
“That isn’t the comfort you think it is.”
“I wanted to try something I read about today. The Krahls of Elkyrath used to train their guards to walk almost silently by using this technique where they put all their weight on their heels. You see, you’d think it was the toe, like how we tiptoe when we want to be quiet, but that mostly just makes you prone to falling over—”
“You weren’t silent. I woke up.”
“Well, the Krahl of Elkyrath didn’t train me.”
Raffe ran a hand down his face. Ostensibly, Kayu was in Valleyda in order to use the library, making her the latest in a string of bookish women who’d made themselves thorns in his ass. Both Valedren twins, and now an Okada. He attracted a type into his orbit, apparently.
Kayu had arrived three days ago with no retinue and very little in the way of possessions. The letter she held, signed by Isla—and wasn’t that a swift punch to the sternum—said that the Niohni princess was welcome to come stay in Valleyda for as long as she liked, that the court would be thrilled to host her while she studied navigation.
It was very similar to the letter Raffe had received when he was fourteen and headed here to learn about trade routes.
Arriving at the beginning of fall meant Kayu couldn’t take up a true course of study with any Valleydan tutors until the season passed, since nearly everyone went to their own holdings to prepare for the rapidly approaching cold. But she didn’t seem to mind.
Across from him, Kayu licked the pad of her finger and passed it idly through the candle-flame. Despite her nonchalant manner, she held herself rigidly, like she was less comfortable being in a man’s room in the middle of the night than she wanted him to believe.
Raffe’s eyes narrowed against the flickering light. “Elkyrathan assassination tactics aren’t what I would think a student of navigation would spend time reading about.”
“I’m well-rounded.”