“Your Highness, Guard Captain Gillett wants to talk about final preparations for tonight.” She sounded as if she’d been a butler all her life.
Luca tossed the covers off and inched her legs off the bed. She must have slept on them wrong. Not that she knew of a right way to sleep on them after almost twenty years.
“Give me a moment.” Luca went behind her dressing screen and traded her nightgown for the shirt she’d worn the day before. Sitting on her dressing stool, she tried to pull on the trousers she had discarded, too, but they tangled and twisted around her knees. She swore. The painted birds on the screen mocked her with their open beaks. The ball had flustered her. Touraine had flustered her. She took a deep breath. Yanked again, achieving an excruciating inch. She turned a near whimper into a grunt.
“Princess?” It was Gillett at the door now, concerned.
And Touraine silent. Luca could imagine the contempt. But Luca Ancier was the sky-falling princess. No one would sit in contempt of her from afar.
“Touraine?”
“Yes, Highness.”
“Come here.” The chill of her court voice frosted Luca’s words.
There was no hesitation before obedient footsteps.
Behind the screen with Luca, Touraine bowed slightly, not looking at the princess’s scarred, naked legs and the mess of trousers around her calves.
“Look at me,” she said with soft menace.
Touraine raised her eyes. Luca expected the usual blank obedience. Instead, Touraine’s dark eyes were steady, poring over her, seeing everything, unflinching. There may even have been anger in the cant of her eyebrows—but there was no pity.
“May I help you?” she asked, soft enough for Luca’s ears alone.
Luca’s heart stuttered like a flame in a storm. She swallowed and nodded.
The soldier’s hands surprised her. They weren’t gentle, not truly. They were efficient, however, without being rough. They didn’t hesitate with disgust or uncertainty as Touraine slid the trousers up Luca’s legs. She helped Luca stand, placed her arms around her neck.
“Put your weight on me.”
Luca did. She clung to the woman’s neck like a drowning sailor. The woman smelled heavily of sweat, and her collar was damp. She must have come from her exercises. Her breath was warm against Luca’s ear.
In one final, deft movement, Touraine pulled Luca’s trousers over her hips. Then she knelt until Luca was seated on her stool again.
“Will that be all?”
Luca nodded. She didn’t trust her voice.
Touraine nodded and left. The door closed.
“Luca?” Gil said.
She limped back to her bed and picked up her cane. “I’m fine. A rough sleep is all.”
He looked suspiciously at the door Touraine had shut rather harder than necessary.
“We’ve done none of that,” she said, reading his look. Her face burned.
He grunted, frowning.
“Of course, it’s an option,” Luca said in a low voice. “She’s attractive, for a Qazāli.” Touraine was attractive, period. More handsome than any of her previous lovers, men or women. That wasn’t something Balladaire’s queen regnant came out and admitted. “However, as an ambassador in my employ, it’s hardly professional.”
Gil snorted. “Really? I recall a seamstress, a coachman, a chambermaid—”
“Fine! All right. That’s not the reason, but for the stars’ sake, it’s none of your business, Gil. I’m too busy trying to quell a rebellion started by her people.”
“A rebellion started by her people to protest the fact that we came and invaded in the first place. Your Highness.”
Luca blinked, stunned. He bowed his head slightly but kept his eyes locked to hers.
“Do not mistake me, Luca. I’m loyal to you and the crown. As loyal to you as to your father.” The old man ran his thumb absently along his own grief ring for the king. He spoke gruffly, but there was a wry tilt of an eyebrow as he said, “Maybe we should change the way we relate to them.” A hint of mischief in the faint smile as he glanced back toward the door. “Just pick a less prickly one.”
She met his mischief with the truth she hadn’t told General Cantic when she negotiated for the soldier’s life. “I really do want her to succeed with negotiations first. Spying is a last resort. We’re more likely to learn the truth about the healing magic as allies than as assholes.” That’s where her approach differed from everyone else’s.
He took a deep breath and regarded her silently. Finally, he said, “Finding the magic won’t bring them back.”