Spy's Honor

“I’m a shroud mage.”

Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Are you an assassin? Do you intend harm to me or anyone in the palace?”

“No and no.” The gunman? he inquired of Sashi.

Just standing here.

Rhianne released his hand, and the truth spell dissipated. “I want you to understand why I did what I did. I saved you not because I’m a traitor to my country but because I know you are no villain. You only wish to help Mosar, and nobody with a modicum of sense would blame you for that. If I hadn’t lied to the Legaciatti, they would have tortured you to death. You don’t deserve that. But I won’t betray my people any more than I already have. I can’t let you remain here.”

“Princess—,” Janto began.

She held up a hand. “You must leave. You have three days in which to do so. After that, I will raise the alarm that a shroud mage is active in the Imperial Palace. The place will be salted with invisibility wards, and you will be caught. The other spy you’re looking for. What’s his name?”

Janto regarded her warily.

“I’m trying to help. If we caught your spy, I can find out for you. I don’t see any harm in giving his family peace.”

“It wouldn’t be right for me to give you his name,” said Janto. “But we lost track of him a month ago, if that helps.”

“I’ll find out what I can and leave a message for you under this bridge within the next twenty-four hours.”

“Princess, there’s one more thing.”

“I can’t help you win your war,” said Rhianne. “I’m sorry about it. I think the war is a terrible mistake, but that decision isn’t mine to make.”

“It’s something else,” said Janto. “The reason I got caught was I stumbled on the slave overseer assaulting a woman. I fought him off, and he turned me in to the Legaciatti the next day. But he assaults the slave women regularly. I had been planning to find a way to stop him. If you force me to leave, I cannot do it.”

Rhianne’s brow wrinkled with concern. “You’re certain? If I spoke to the slave women, would they corroborate that story?”

“I believe they would,” said Janto. “If they trusted you enough to talk to you. Or if you used your magic on them.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Rhianne. “Who’s the overseer?”

“A Mosari man named Micah.”

“All right. You don’t need to worry about this problem anymore. I’ll take care of it.”

Silence stretched between them. Janto didn’t want to leave, knowing he might never see her again, but he could think of no more excuses to extend the conversation. She’d told him to leave the country, and she had every right to do so. It also saddened him that she’d brought a gunman to this meeting and kept the man hidden. He was a threat to her country, so he understood why she’d banished him, but he would sooner die than do harm to Rhianne. He wished she knew that. He didn’t want to reveal Sashi, but maybe she would confess to the gunman’s presence if he prompted her. “No bodyguard with you tonight?”

“Don’t need one,” she said cheerfully. “You’ve got a gun pointed at you right now, just in case.”

“Really?” That was his princess, all honesty. “Who’s holding the gun?”

“Somebody else. Don’t do anything stupid, because he never misses.”

“Please believe me when I say that I would never hurt you. Not in any circumstance. I’ll miss you, Rhianne.”

“It’s Rhianne now, is it?” She smiled. “Thank you for the language lessons, even if you were just spying on me the whole time.”

“At least one good thing has come of this war,” said Janto. “I didn’t believe there were any kind and decent Kjallans in the world, but in meeting you, I’ve discovered otherwise. You’re as lovely on the inside as you are on the outside, and I hope your fiance appreciates what a prize he has.”

She looked away.

Janto winced. Normally he got a better response when he complimented a woman. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No,” she whispered, staring at a spot near his foot.

He pondered her for a moment, perplexed. “I’m sorry if—”

“Don’t say anything,” she said. “Just don’t.” She reached for him.

Gunman? Janto asked Sashi in alarm.

Swearing to himself in Kjallan, answered Sashi. But he hasn’t cocked the gun.

Janto took Rhianne into his arms, something he’d longed to do almost since the day he’d met her. Her hair slipped through his hands like silk as the scent of orange blossoms washed over him. There was a hitch in Rhianne’s breathing. She was upset, and who could blame her? She was to marry the horrid Augustan. She’d spent two days with him, and he gathered the man had made a poor impression. Rhianne, despite being a Kjallan imperial, was no villain in this drama, but another victim, like himself and all the other Mosari. He rubbed her back, wishing he could do more for her than offer this scant comfort. But if he couldn’t save his own people, how could he save her?

Her body felt electric against his, charged, like the pregnant air during the Mosari storm season. And his inevitable physical response reminded him of how long it had been since he’d touched a woman. He tilted her chin upward and wiped away the wetness beneath her eyes. “Someday, when no one’s pointing a gun at me, I’m going to kiss you.”

She looked up, her eyes bright. “Kiss an imperial princess of Kjall?”

“Princess or not,” he said, “you are a woman in need of kissing.”

Rhianne licked her lower lip. “But you’re leaving. We won’t see each other again.”

Janto smiled. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

He let her go, stepped back, and disappeared under his invisibility shroud.

* * *

“Are you crazy?” Lucien fell in beside Rhianne on the footpath, slipping the pistol into a pocket of his syrtos. “If Florian finds out about this—”

“You’re not going to tell him, and I’m not,” said Rhianne. “Besides, it’s over. I told him I won’t be seeing him anymore.” Someday, when no one’s pointing a gun at me, I’m going to kiss you. What did he mean by that? Was he really going to pop out of nowhere at some point and kiss her? He was a shroud mage. He said he was leaving, but he could be following her right now.

She rather hoped he did pop out of nowhere and kiss her, sometime when Lucien wasn’t around. It was exciting to think about.

“Who is that man?” said Lucien. “What is he? I couldn’t hear half of what you were saying.”

“That’s for the best. Trust me. No harm is being done here.” She hoped not. She hadn’t meant to commit treason—not exactly. But Lucien had shown her that what her country was doing was wrong. It was wrong for them to attack Mosar, and it would be wrong for them to torture and kill Janto simply for trying to stop them. If her people would simply imprison him, perhaps disable his magic and send him home at the end of the war, then she could have exposed him as a spy with her conscience intact. Not that she would have taken any pleasure in seeing him jailed, given how much she liked him. But send him to his death? How could she do such a thing and not despise herself for the rest of her life?

“Oh, sure, nothing to worry about.” Lucien rolled his eyes. “That’s why you needed me to hold a gun on this fellow for half an hour.”

“It was just a precaution. You don’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s over.” Except for a few details she needed to take care of. And maybe a kiss.