“Prisoner,” I said, seething. “Not passenger. And yes, I was, after he destroyed my village and captured my people.”

  “I see. And then, after you left his ship, you spent some length of time in Celestrus without telling anyone what had happened, or that you had been a passenger on this ship?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I was under the impression that I would be killed if I said anything. My rescuer—”

  “And then you came forward with the information that Nautilus was a traitor to the republic only after he had been successful in his attack against Celestrus. An attack that you survived.”

  My whole body felt cold. Chills ran down my back and prickled along my arms. Across the room, my mother scowled.

  He was spinning a web of falsehoods.

  “If you’re trying to say that I was working with Nautilus—”

  “Ah, but I have said no such thing, Aemiana. I am simply establishing the facts.”

  “Lady Graywater,” Tallyn said from beside me.

  The guard looked at him in annoyance. “What?”

  “She is Lady Graywater, and you shall address her as such,” Tallyn ground out.

  The guard smiled thinly. “Lady Graywater, did you or did you not recently take an unexplained trip to the surface?”

  “To see if my village was still there!” I threw up my hands in anger. “You’re twisting the facts and making them say what you want.” I stepped closer to him. “What are you trying to do?”

  The guard didn’t back up. Instead, he drew closer, matching my steps until his face was only inches from my own. He bent forward. His eyes slitted.

  “Lady Graywater, the republic of Itlantis is in a state of impending war. We must examine every possible source of threat.”

  “Am I a threat to the republic, then?” I practically snarled the words. “I thought I was a hero.”

  “People can be misguided in their appreciation,” he said. “But perhaps that was your intention all along.”

  “Enough,” my mother interrupted. “This has ceased to be a series of questions. It is an interrogation, and I’m sure that was not your intent.” Sarcasm and warning laced her voice. Her eyebrows lifted slightly, challenging him to disagree.

  My heart beat fast at her interruption. Was she defending me? She was a vision of terror, with her eyes flashing and her mouth twisted in a scowl.

  But Helus met her gaze without flinching. “My lady,” he began, taking a step toward her. “Are you even sure this girl is your daughter?”

  My mother’s mood switched from icy censure to fury in an instant.

  “Get out of this house,” she said, pointing at the door. “Or you will be thrown out.”

  Helus left with another sneer in my direction. His men followed, their boots clicking on the floor.

  I sank to my knees. I was shaking all over.

  My mother stood in the middle of the room, gazing after the soldiers as if she could still see them through the door. I shut my eyes and covered my face with my hands. “Oh, Tallyn.”

  He crouched beside me and touched my shoulder. “They have no evidence. No one with half a brain would believe this nonsense.”

  “Evidence or not, could I... could I be accused of treason like my father? Do you think they’ll try to have me arrested?”

  “Ignore these baseless accusations. Focus on keeping yourself safe.” He spoke in a whisper so that my mother would not overhear him. “Someone is trying to kill you. That is the more important issue.”

  “Do you think it’s because they believe I’m a spy for Nautilus?”

  Before he could answer, my mother called my name.

  “I haven’t finished speaking to you,” she said. She looked Tallyn over as he helped me to my feet. “You may go,” she said.

  He dropped a bow and retreated.

  We returned to the library. As soon as the door clicked shut behind me, my mother turned on me.

  “You see,” she said, with the barest hint of heat in her words. “Your reputation is in tatters. It could be the ruin of this family if we do not mend it.” She paused and examined my face. “It is not your fault,” she added, as if an afterthought. “I do not blame you. It is those fools who need a scapegoat during this unstable time. Nautilus roams the deep, and so they find someone else to pin their wrath upon, someone close enough to lay hands on. Well, not my daughter.”

  I opened my mouth to respond when Hexor stepped into the room and coughed. “My lady, your mother—”

  Before he had time to finish, Annah swept past him into the library. She stopped in the middle of the room and leaned on the cane she carried. Hexor backed out and shut the door.

  The air in the room seemed colder and thicker now, and my lungs felt like steel cages. It was harder to breathe. They both stood stiffly, my mother drawing herself up as if putting on invisible armor, my grandmother bristling with unseen defenses.

  “I’d heard you’d returned,” Annah said.

  “Your spies are good,” my mother replied coolly.

  Annah flicked her hand. “Spies. Pssh. One of your own servants came to fetch me. They said soldiers were trying to take our Aemiana away.”

  Our Aemiana. I wondered if either of them really thought of me that way.

  “So good of you to help,” my mother murmured. “Seeing as they have gone already. You’re here just in time to take issue with everything instead.”

  Annah sniffed. “Oh, stop that. I know you’re glad to see me.”

  “Don’t make inferences from what I don’t say,” my mother said. “You know nothing of the sort. You’re hoping to wring a confession from me.”

  Compared to this exchange, our earlier words had been downright friendly.

  Annah turned her face toward me. “Hello, Aemiana. I can hear you over there. You’re breathing rather loudly—have you two been fighting?”

  “The soldiers,” I began.

  “The soldiers are idiots. Don’t worry about them.” She turned back to my mother. “Has the girl told you about the events of the last several weeks?”

  “We were talking when you interrupted us.”

  Annah brushed off this barb. “And what has she told you?”

  “She says precious little, for all her outbursts,” my mother said. “I have not yet had the full account.”

  My face burned. I was standing right here, and they discussed me as if I were an infant sleeping in another room.

  “There is much to discuss,” Annah said.

  “My daughter and I can discuss it alone.”

  “Oh, I think you may want my input.”

  “If I want it, I will inform you.”

  Annah turned toward me. “Aemiana, a word?” She tipped her head toward the door. “Privately?”

  “Mother—” My mother said.

  “Oh, so you do acknowledge our relation,” Annah said. “How interesting.”

  My mother’s cheeks flushed with sudden anger. “I am not the one who abandoned the estate for a senatorship and changed my name from Graywater. I am not the one who denies our connection.”

  “Aemiana, today please,” Annah said, and swept from the room.

  I followed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE DOOR SNAPPED shut behind me, and Annah took my arm and steered me down the corridor. Our footsteps rang out on the floors and echoed against the walls. We paused beside a window overlooking the sea. Blue light bathed my grandmother’s face in flickering shadows. Her unseeing eyes seemed to focus on me.

  “What have you told her about the attempts on your life? What about the rumors, the accusations?”

  “Nothing yet,” I said. “Why this secrecy?”

  “You cannot hide them from her. The servants will talk. But let her believe the matter is settled. Do not tell her about Cress being kept in my custody, or Valus’s connection to this.”

  “You don’t trust her?”

  Annah made a noise that might have been a laugh. “It is complicated. Just do as I say.”

  “I won’t lie for you, especially not if you refuse to tell me why.”

  “Then simply say nothing. I will handle this.”

  My breath hissed between my teeth. Anger licked along my bones and simmered in my veins. “Why will you not tell me?”

  “There are many secrets in this household. Your mother keeps them from me, and I from her. I cannot make accusations. I lack the proof, and the conviction. But I do not...” She stopped, considering her words. “I do not know who is to blame for the death of your father.”

  “You think my mother—?”

  “I do not know what to believe. I have information that gives me concern, and knowledge that pains me, and I do not want to see you harmed. Misinformation is already spreading. Soldiers have already come to your door. Just... I do not trust her.”

  “You believe she was the one behind the attempts on my life?”

  Annah sighed. “No. Not at all. But I do not know what else she is responsible for in the web of lies that is the Graywater family history.”

  I turned to face the sea. My chest hurt and my heart throbbed. My voice cracked as I spoke. “I don’t believe this. My own mother.”

  “Keep your composure, Aemiana. We know nothing now.”

  “At least tell me why you believe it to be so.”

  “That is a long conversation, with many nuances, best had at another time.”

  Anger surged through me. “Then why bring it up at all, if you are not going to tell me anything else? All you’ve accomplished thus far is to frighten me and alienate me from my own mother.”

  “Because I need you to trust me.” Annah paused. “You are prone to emotional outbursts, as she said.”

  “No, I’m simply not made of stone like the rest of this family.”

  I meant for it to be an insult, but Annah smiled slightly.

  “Perhaps you are,” she said. “Beneath all that storm, there might be some stone yet. You have endured much, Aemiana.”

  I crossed my arms over my body, holding in more words. “So what should I do?”

  “Conduct yourself as usual. Be cautious. Let me handle this.”

  I wasn’t so sure I could do that.

  “Anyway,” she said. “I’m going to take my leave now. Give my regards to your mother.”

  ~ ~ ~

  After Annah departed, I returned to the library to find Tallyn and Merelus standing before my mother, who sat in her chair like a queen on a throne.

  “...And she has an exquisite aptitude for learning,” Merelus was saying. He paused as I entered, and Lady Graywater turned to gaze at me, her mouth in a straight line and her eyebrows pinched together.

  A shudder rippled down my spine.

  Had this woman sent my father to his death? Was she not to be trusted, as my grandmother claimed? Now she had two of the dearest people left in my life standing before her, and she was scowling in a way that frightened me.

  “What is this?” I demanded.

  My mother’s expression never changed. “I am determining if your tutors are appropriate for your needs. I have heard enough.” To Tallyn and Merelus, she said, “You may go.”

  After they’d departed, she looked at me. “I’m going to have to find new ones.”

  “New ones?” I repeated.

  “New tutors. Of my choosing. Your reputation is in shambles. I am going to quell this nonsense immediately, and I will be assembling new people to help me do so.”

  “Merelus is a friend,” I said. “As is Tallyn. They’ve been through a great deal with me. I trust them. I want to continue working with them.”

  “Be careful who you trust, Aemiana. They might end up biting your hand off.” She stood and paced to the window that overlooked the sea. “I am here now, and we will be seen together in public often. That should address at least some of this slander. You will begin attending social events. You will work with your new tutors, keep from creating any disturbances politically, and we will dispel this nonsense and get on with our lives.”

  Be careful who you trust. How ironic, coming from her. I bit my lip. “I trust Tallyn and Merelus with my life. Merelus was one of the people who pulled me from the water after Celestrus, and Tallyn—”

  “I will choose your new tutor tomorrow,” she said, ignoring me. “Right now, we should discuss the right time to host a party for you to begin mingling with potential suitors. We need to find you friends who can serve as allies.”

  “No,” I said. “I want to discuss the matter of tutors now. I want to continue meeting with Tallyn and Merelus.”

  “If you would like to maintain contact with these men,” she said, “then you can do so when you have no other prior engagements. Meanwhile, you will continue your studies with the tutors I choose for you. This is not negotiable, Aemiana. City guards came to the estate. There is a committee commissioned by the governor. These are serious charges being leveled at you, whether or not they are merely the result of stupidity, paranoia, and fear.”

  “I understand, but—”

  “And you have a duty to this family. You will make meaningful contributions to furthering our economic and political interests.”

  I shivered with frustration. We were absolutely strangers, and she was treating me like a fortuitous business acquisition. Well, two could play the game of money and obligation. “There was mention of an inheritance,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Before,” I said. “You mentioned an inheritance.”

  She considered me a moment. “As the elder Graywater child, you stand to acquire control of the estate when I die or when I voluntarily cede it to you, as my mother did with me. Until then, there is a stipend set aside for your use.”

  “And I have access to this money, to do what I wish with it?”

  She regarded me shrewdly. “You do.”

  You need to find friends who can serve as allies. I had friends. I had allies. However, they were scattered, missing, and possibly dead.

  I thought of everyone that I had lost. Kit. Nol. Mella. My father. Nol was with the Dron, and he had betrayed me for them. My father was dead.

  But there was still hope for the others, if I could find them.

  Tallyn was in Annah’s employ as well as the Graywater estate’s, so he was sure to find a way to stick around. But this would only make it easier. And I could continue to keep Merelus in my life. “Then I will hire my own tutors, the ones you just dismissed.”

  She frowned. I had thwarted her, but she wasn’t going to admit it. “If you wish. But you will still attend studies with the ones I choose as well.”

  “There are others, people from my past. I want to find them.”

  “Your past is your past. Focus on your future.”

  “If I find others who lived with me on the surface, could it not serve to further corroborate my story?”

  She tipped her head to one side. “That is possible.”

  “And it will keep me happy, and if I am happy, I am much more likely to do what you want.”

  The faintest smile touched her mouth. “Perhaps you have a bit of me in you after all.”

  A chime rang out, telling the time, and she held up a finger as I opened my mouth to speak again.

  “We will continue this conversation at dinner.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  “WE SEEM TO have a new cook,” my mother observed as she stared down at her plate, which had an unidentifiable lumpy ball sitting in a pool of orange liquid surrounded by what looked like fried entrails. “Is this another of your doings, Aemiana?”

  My stomach tied in a knot. Was she going to fire Tob too? How much of a stipend did I have? Enough to employ every person I wanted to keep in my life?

  “Yes,” I said. “A friend.”

  “Ah. You seem to have many friends in need of work.”

  “That’s what happens when you aren’t raised as an heiress,” I said.

  I meant for the words to sting, but she merely smiled sagely and arched an eyebrow in response.

  “What is this?” My sister lifted her fork and prodded the strange creation before her. “It looks...”

  “Delicious?” I suggested, although in truth the dish did not. Perhaps I could persuade them otherwise.

  “Horrifying,” she said. “Did a fish explode in the kitchen, and they caught it on a plate and brought it out?”

  “That is hardly appropriate conversation for the table,” my mother said.

  “Just taste it,” I said. “Tob is very talented.”

  My sister took a small bite. Her eyes widened. “You did not exaggerate his skill. This is delightful.”

  My mother tried hers, and made a sound of appreciation. “I am impressed,” she said. “I would like to know what this is.”

  “I wouldn’t ask,” I said. “It tends to ruin the enjoyment.”

  My mother, surprisingly, appeared amused at this comment. “Oh?”

  “He’s a shock cook,” I added.

  “Ah yes, that explains the rather strange presentation of the food.” She took another bite, then paused to savor it. “And you hired him yourself, you said? However did you manage that?”

  “You know what a shock cook is?”

  She smiled in a way that made me feel small and unsophisticated. “The shock cooks in Primus are the finest in Itlantis. It is difficult to find one for a personal chef. Well done.”

  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to feel pleased by her praise, but I did anyway. I tried to resist the feeling, but it bubbled up inside me and warmed me. I frowned.

  “We need to select a date,” my mother was saying. I reined in my displeasure and focused on her words.

  “A date?”

  “For the party.” She paused, and the barest hint of exasperation flitted through her eyes. “Please listen, Aemiana. For selecting a suitor.”

  “Since it doesn’t matter who I pick, can’t you just compile a list of eligible suitors and let me point at a name?”

  “No,” she said. “The process of courting is a dance. An intrigue. It’s an art and a power play in and of itself, and you are available and therefore an asset to this family. I intend to use the opportunity to its fullest potential.”

 

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