Meanwhile, he felt the prickly gazes of nearby partygoers converging on him. They couldn’t have felt happy seeing Ras get so friendly with the eye-catchingly beautiful legate.
“You sure are popular with the men, Kanalayka,” Ras said. “Everyone’s looking at you tonight, and even a young nobleman from Agarte and a councilman from Darrol made passes at you, didn’t they?”
Ras offered a sympathetic smile, but for some reason Kanalayka tipped her head.
“What do you mean, Ras? You’re far more popular with the men than me. Why, just a few minutes ago, you were surrounded by them.”
“That’s not nearly the same thing,” said Ras with a grimace. “Besides, men only come up to me to recruit me or to test their mettle.”
“What I wouldn’t give for a man to test his mettle against me instead of fawning over my clothes or jewelry,” said Kanalayka, sighing. She really did seem ready to go at a moment’s notice, and Ras couldn’t help feeling that the next words out of her mouth would be a challenge. Come to think of it, she had been surprisingly eager to duel Valdemar at the marquis’s manor, too.
“That’s a shame,” replied Ras. “Did none of them catch your interest?”
“None. If only any of them were brave and strong enough to shatter my sword bare-handed…”
“How would they have a chance to prove that?” said Ras, shaking his head in astonishment.
It was at that moment that an unassuming maid called out to the two of them.
“Sir Talion, Lady Kanalayka.”
The voice sounded familiar, and they both turned to see who it was. When they did, their eyes widened in shock. Her hair and eye color were different, but it was someone the pair knew very well. She was dressed in the royal palace maid uniform, and her unflattering hairstyle, when paired with her slouched posture, served to conceal the extraordinarily graceful shape of her features.
“Is that you, Elmira?” asked Kanalayka.
“It is,” the maid replied. “I apologize for making contact with you like this, but I am currently on duty.”
No doubt Elmira’s duties involved scouring the party for information while simultaneously standing guard for Princess Fiarca.
“I don’t mind,” said Ras. “That outfit suits you.”
“Does it, now? If only that compliment had come from someone more respectable, I might be flattered.”
Ras frowned, then lowered his voice to a whisper.
“Has something happened?” he asked. If it was important enough to temporarily abandon her duties, then Ras couldn’t imagine she’d simply come to chat.
“Lord Grey has been wounded.”
“Val? You’re joking.”
Ras couldn’t believe his ears. Valdemar had been under orders to investigate the assassination plot surrounding Princess Tishna. That wasn’t to say it was completely without risks, but a man of Valdemar’s caliber would surely be aware of how to avoid them. This could only mean that the situation had evolved beyond even his meticulous predictions.
“He and Sir Divak are both in serious condition, and the army’s top healers are tending to them as we speak,” explained Elmira. “The doctor says they will both survive, but they have lost a lot of blood and are in no condition to act.”
“I didn’t think there was anyone in this country skilled enough to inflict that kind of injury on Lord Grey,” muttered Kanalayka. It was obvious that she had grown substantial respect for the man during their duel.
“It appears they were attacked by a Registanian aura knight while attending a party at the house of Duchess Knauss.”
“Did you say Registanian?” Kanalayka’s eyes flared in surprise. “What’s a man from Registan doing in the house of a Charlgian duchess?”
The empire of Registan was the sworn enemy of the Shrumland Alliance. If it was found that a noblewoman from one of the alliance’s member states was sheltering a foreign agent, the results would not be pretty—especially during such a critical event as the alliance summit.
“Wait,” said Ras, interrupting the legate. “Did you say Duchess Knauss? Isn’t she…?”
Ras was not familiar with the names of each and every member of other nations’ noble class. However, this was one name he knew. It was one he couldn’t afford to forget.
“Anita Knaussia Charlgiana,” said a voice. “The former second royal princess of Charlgia…and my sister.”
“Your Highness?!”
It was Princess Tishna, wearing a silver dress, who completed Ras’s thought. Standing next to her, of course, was Fiarca, dressed as Prince Auriol. The reason the whole party did not stop and stare at this strange turn of events was that Fiarca had applied auramancy to avert people’s attention. It was a subtler trick than simply turning invisible; so subtle that Fiarca’s guards had not even noticed she was gone. Cloaked by her technique, Ras and the others moved outside to an unpopulated balcony. The party continued on, and most likely, none of the attendees would notice Fiarca’s absence.
“I can’t say I’ve heard of this Lord Grey,” said Tishna, eyeing Elmira suspiciously. “But am I to assume he was tasked with investigating my enemies here in Charlgia? Does that mean that Duchess Knauss is among them?”
Anita had been a member of the royal family, until around two years back when she was caught in an embezzlement scheme. As a result, she was stripped of her royal title and made a duchess. She lost her right to succession and was effectively living in exile.
Tishna, for once, had taken no part in exposing Anita’s crimes. This, when paired with her distance from the royal family, meant she was initially excluded from the list of suspects.
However, taking the woman’s personality into account, it was easy to see how she might bear a grudge against her sister. Tishna’s mother was a mere consort, and Lumede a mere vassal state of Charlgia. Anita had always looked down on her sister, and yet now that girl was poised to be married to the crown prince of a powerful neighbor. Meanwhile, as a disgraced noble, Anita’s own prospects were dim.
“It does sound that way,” said Elmira. “It is highly likely that she is plotting something alongside Marquis Peterka and…”
“I see. That is good.”
Tishna breathed an honest sigh of relief. As a satisfied smile spread across her face, Ras turned to her in confusion.
“How is that good?”
“It is far better to know who one’s enemy is than to struggle blindly in the dark,” Tishna replied, seemingly without a whit of care. Fiarca raised an eyebrow warily.
“Are you going to take revenge?” she asked.
“I would never,” replied Tishna with an unconvincing smile. “More to the point, I cannot. I’m afraid that I am out of time.”
“What do you mean, out of time?”
Fiarca suddenly adopted a fearsome glare. Tishna, meanwhile, simply walked out onto the balcony, and beneath the light of the moon, bowed deeply before all present.
“Before that, though,” she said, “could I ask but a few moments of your time? I would like to tell you everything I know.”
“Of course,” said Fiarca, in the soft yet serious tones of her brother. “What kind of man wouldn’t listen to what his fiancée has to say?”
It was an utterance so banal that Ras could have sworn it had come from the man’s own lips. And yet, when Tishna heard it, she tittered.
“Thank you, Princess Fiarca Jeva Argenteia. There is something I would like to give you, if you’d be so gracious as to accept.”
Ras and his companions all stared at her coquettish grin with expressions of pure shock. It was there that the night’s calm came to a sudden and definite end.