“The Thames,” he said. “We row on it, those of us who do not play cricket. “
He thought she might ask what exactly cricket was, but she only nodded slowly.
“Across the river is Windsor Castle, one of the English queen’s homes,” he added.
She looked south for a moment at the ramparts that dominated the skyline. He had the distinct feeling that she was only half listening to him.
“Is there something on your mind?” he asked.
She glanced at him again, reluctant admiration in her eyes. He rarely cared what others thought of him. But with this girl who observed him carefully and unobtrusively, who was as perceptive as she was capable . . .
“We spoke of my guardian earlier, did we not?”
Her decision to confide in him pleased him—and turned him oddly anxious. “We did, at the hotel.”
She dropped the willow leaf into the river; it swirled in a small eddy. “For the past several years I have been frustrated with him. He had been a scholar of great promise. But then he made one terrible mistake after another and became a nobody in the middle of nowhere.
“I learned today that, fourteen years ago, to keep me safe, he gave up certain crucial memories of his past to a memory keeper. Since then he has lived without knowing the events that brought him to where he was.”
Titus could scarcely imagine how the man had managed for so many years. It was the current medical consensus that memory escrow was eminently unsuitable for the long term. After a few years the mind started to hunt for the missing memories. They became an obsession.
“That was probably the reason he turned to merixida,” she went on. “Now that I think about it, all those choices that cost him his career and even his respectability—he must have been trying, however subconsciously, to force the memory keeper to intervene.”
She picked up a pebble from the ground and tossed it with a flick of her wrist. The pebble skipped four times on the surface of the river before disappearing beneath the currents. She watched the river a moment longer, then squared her shoulders and stood taller, as if she had come to an important decision.
“My case is different, of course. I’m in full possession of my memories. But like him, I’m in the dark. And I don’t want to be.”
“Am I keeping you in the dark?”
She bit her lower lip. “Please don’t mistake me. I am enormously grateful for everything you’ve done. Were I a better person, I’d let myself be guided by gratitude and only gratitude. But I have to ask, why? Why have you placed yourself at such risk? Why do you defy the Inquisitor? Why are you involved at all?”
She was embarrassed to be asking these questions—her foot scuffed the soft ground of the bank, as fidgety as he had ever seen her. But all the same, her voice was wary.
The exchange he would ask for had always seemed fair and simple to him. He kept the elemental mage safe; and in return, the elemental mage lent him the great powers he needed. But would
Perhaps he needed to use her guardian as a bargaining chip: she could not infiltrate the Inquisitory on her own. Neither could he, but she did not know that.
He, however, did know. He was a liar by necessity, but could he lie to her, knowing that he was very possibly asking for her life in return?
That he did not answer immediately discomfited her. She ran her hand through her hair, only to pull her fingers back in surprise, as if she had forgotten that most of her hair had been shorn and destroyed.
She shook her head slightly, her eyes wistful. He stared at her, this girl who would never again be safe anywhere.
No, he would not lie, not to her. Going forward, it would be the two of them against the world, an alliance that would define what remained of his days on this earth.
And be his only chance for something true and meaningful.
For a minute Iolanthe thought the prince would not tell her anything at all. Then he made a double impassable circle around them.
One did not make a double impassable circle unless one absolutely did not want to be overheard. The breeze coming off the river suddenly felt raw.
The prince gazed across the water at a narrow strip of an island. His profile was familiar—it graced every coin of the realm—yet she couldn’t look away. Handsome boys she’d met before. He was more than handsome; he was striking. And there was a nobility to his bearing that had little to do with his bloodline and everything to do with the sense of purpose he radiated.
“I am going to bring down the Bane.”
His quiet words brushed over her and departed on a chill wind. She shivered and waited for him to tell her that it was a joke—since he did have a sense of humor.
He met her eyes squarely, his gaze unwavering.
This was mad. He might as well bring down the Labyrinthine Mountains—it would be easier. The Bane was invincible. Untouchable.
“Why?” Her voice was hoarse.
“Because that is what I am meant to do.”
Despite her incredulity—or perhaps because of it—she found his conviction awe-inspiring.
“How—how do you know that is what you are meant to do?”
“My mother told me so.”
When people talked about Princess Ariadne, it was usually to speculate on the mysterious liaison that had produced the prince. No one could recall another instance in the whole history of the House of Elberon when a ruling prince’s paternity remained unknown.
“Was your mother a seer?”
“She was.” What was the emotion underlying his reply? Anger, resignation, sadness—or a mix of all three? “At her wish, it was never revealed to the public.”
True seers were few and far between. “What did she prophesy that has come true?”
Without bending down he had a pebble in hand. He weighed it. “Twenty-five years ago, she and my grandfather received a delegation of Atlantean youth. There was a girl of seventeen who was not a delegate, but a mere assistant. My mother pointed out the girl to my grandfather and said that one day the girl would be the most powerful person in the Domain.”
“The Inquisitor?”
He tossed the pebble. It skipped far. “The Inquisitor.”
That was scarily impressive. “What else?”
“She knew the exact date of Baroness Sorren’s funeral, years before the baroness even took up the charge against Atlantis.”
This unnerved Iolanthe. No wonder Princess Ariadne hadn’t wanted it known that she was a seer, if funeral dates were the sort of things she foresaw.
The prince skipped another pebble. “She also said that it was on my balcony that I would first learn of your existence. And so it was.”
A flicker of hope ignited in Iolanthe’s heart. “And she said that you would bring down the Bane?”
He did not answer immediately.
“Did she or did she not?”
“She said that I must be the one to try, to set things into motion.”
“That’s not a guarantee of success, is it?”
“No. But we will never accomplish anything worthwhile in life if we require the guarantee of success at the onset.”
His audacity took her breath away. Compared to him, she had lived on the smallest scale, concerned only with the well-being of herself and Master Haywood. While he, who could have led a life of unimaginable luxury and privilege, was willing to give it all up for the sake of the greater good.
“What is my part in your plan?”
“I need you,” he said simply. “Only with a great elemental mage by my side will I have a prayer of a chance.”
When she’d been a child, enthralled by her reading of
