A bed where another woman waited, her small form covered in sheer robes, her long curling hair unbound. One of Vela’s consorts.
Yvenne frowned in confusion. “What is this?”
“A decoy,” Maddek said softly, setting her feet to the floor. “Your brother expects to find me distracted between your thighs. If we give the appearance that I am fucking—”
Yvenne’s breath hissed out in fury. “You will not lie in a bed with another woman.” Not even in pretense or for the purpose of killing her brother. She yanked at the point of his beard so he could not mistake her warning, and when his dark gaze dropped to hers she told him fiercely, “If ever you touch another, I will boil the meat from your cockbone with asilor poison before slitting your throat. You will not.”
“I will not,” he agreed with a sudden grin. “Toric is nearest in size and appearance to me.”
As the woman was similar in size and appearance to Yvenne. “That he is,” she relented, releasing his beard and ignoring the snorts of laughter from the Parsatheans in the bedchamber with them. And now she understood the reason for the doused lamps. With curtains drawn, the shadowed figures on the bed would appear exactly as Bazir expected. “So we conceal ourselves in the dark and kill my brother when he appears?”
“That is what I will do,” he said, and gestured behind her. “But you leave now for the bargeship.”
She looked to see Banek holding her cloak and Ardyl with her satchel in hand. With a catch in her throat, she turned back to Maddek. “It should be my arrow. You were forbidden to kill him.”
“The council can have no argument with my killing him if he attacks our bedchamber.” As if to block what argument Yvenne might have, he took hold of her shoulders and made her face him squarely. “I underestimated Bazir once. I will not again. And I will not risk you.”
“Underestimating him is not the reason you send me away now. You made this decision before the dinner.” Or the warriors would not have already been prepared to take her.
“I did,” he said. “Yet the reason is the same: I will not risk you. We assume Bazir only has the Rugusian guard with him. But although two hundred soldiers cannot come through the gates, perhaps two can. And two more. We cannot know how many we will face.”
“So I will stay and help! Not reduce your numbers by sending Banek and Ardyl away to a boat.”
“Yvenne.” The big hands that cupped her cheeks were gentle, but his voice and his expression were solid, immovable granite. “You told me to be a warrior who made use of a queen. So I did. Now you must be the queen who makes use of her warrior and the protection he offers.”
With a stubborn lift of her chin, she said, “A warrior-queen needs no protection.”
“You are not a warrior-queen yet,” he said gruffly. “And you are not prepared for this battlefield.”
Chest heaving with every response she wanted to make but could not push past the knot of emotion lodged in her throat, Yvenne stared up at him. No relenting she saw in his dark gaze. If anything, his resolve seemed to harden with every passing moment, as if he continuously steeled himself against her desperate need to remain.
She knew he spoke truth. And sense. Yet . . . “I wish to stay. I wish to kill him with my arrow.”
“You are a warrior wishing for what you will not have.” His callused thumbs swept her cheekbones in a soft caress. “I will bring to you his head, instead.”
Throat tight, she nodded into his hands. “This time his poisoned blade will not only be his tongue.”
“I will be wary.”
“But he still has his tongue. Do not allow him to use it. Or believe anything he has to say.”
“I will be wary of that, too.”
She could ask for no more. Yet still dread filled her. Dread and hurt and helplessness, which was the worst of all. But this was not only a night of battles. And she still had much to look forward to.
“You will keep your promises to me?” Her voice sounded more uncertain than she wished, full of longing for what she could not have. “The three promises you made for this night?”
Renewed heat flared through his eyes. “I will.”
Then there was that, at least. He would see to her pleasure in bed. He was still an ally. Yvenne had hoped for more when she had persuaded him to marriage with his claws at her throat, but that was also wishing for what she would not have.
She would be content.
CHAPTER 27
MADDEK
From a darkened corner of the bedchamber, Maddek had a clear view of the open balcony and the sea beyond. The full moon hung low in the southwestern sky when, from beside him, Kelir asked quietly, “Do you think your bride was mistaken?”
“No.” Many hours they had waited. But Bazir would come. Had Yvenne not already persuaded Maddek, then the sly tongue’s face as they’d left the prince’s quarters would have convinced him. Her brother meant to steal her back and to kill Maddek—and this would be his best opportunity to do it. “Do you think her possessed by a demon?”
The other warrior’s muffled snort of laughter served as response. And it was the only response the accusation deserved . . . yet Maddek could not let it be the only response given.
“If you ever hear rumor that she is—even if spoken in jest—put an end to it. Calling her demon is how her family means to discredit her and prevent her from creating new alliances.”
Kelir’s nod shifted subtle shadows behind his head. With moonlight shining into the bedchamber through the balcony, they were not as well hidden as before. Still concealed by darkness, but every movement would betray them. “I will tell the others, too.”
Maddek grunted quiet approval.
His friend said nothing more for a moment. Then he dryly observed, “Keen vision she has.”
At that understatement, a silent laugh worked through Maddek. For indeed she did. Not her foremothers’ gift of sight beyond what was seen, but clearly seeing everything within sight.
“Had you no idea?” Kelir asked.
Maddek shook his head. “Nor does Yvenne, I suspect. She assumes everyone has vision such as hers.”
For she had always been in her tower, surrounded by walls—no reason would she have to believe her sight better than anyone else’s. And in many ways, she had only begun to learn to see. So even what was clear within her sight, she did not always understand what she looked at.
“Her eyes can be put to good use upon the sea. We will know if any other ships are friend or foe. And upon the Burning Plains, we will know who rides in the distance. Is her vision so keen even in the dark?”