Chapter Fourteen
“MY LADY?”
Emily jerked awake, feeling as though she hadn’t slept at all. The dinner had gone into the wee small hours, with drinking, dancing and endless toasts to the people of the world. She barely remembered walking back to the house, with a vague promise that someone would be sent to give her a tour of the city. She’d muttered something to Lady Barb and Prince Hedrick and gone straight to bed, unsure why they’d bothered to stay up to wait for her. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t take care of herself.
She sat upright. “Silent?”
“Yes, My Lady.” Silent stood by the bed, holding a mug of something hot. “Lady Barb asked me to wake you.”
“Thanks,” Emily said, sourly. The room was cold, even though it was summer. There was no fire in the grate. She muttered a spell to warm the air as she took the mug and sipped it gingerly. The taste was decidedly odd. “What is this?”
“Bark Tea, My Lady,” Silent informed her. “I was unable to source proper Kava.”
“Disaster.” Emily had to smile, although it wasn’t funny. Kava was commonplace in magical settlements, but rare elsewhere. “We might have to teleport to Dragon’s Den to buy more.”
“As Your Ladyship pleases,” Silent said. She dropped a curtsey. “With your permission, I’ll see to breakfast downstairs.”
Emily dismissed the maid with a nod and drank the rest of her tea. It tasted like nothing she’d ever had before, although there was a faint hint of the herbal brews she’d been taught to prepare during survival training. Sergeant Harkin had been very clear on the importance of learning to live off the land, although he’d also cautioned the class about the dangers. Eating the wrong thing could be extremely dangerous, particularly in a high-magic zone. The living might envy the dead.
She stood and stumbled into the bathroom. There was no shower. Someone - Silent, probably - had filled the bathtub with water. Emily used a bucket to fill the washbasin, then heated the water with magic and splashed it on her face. It wasn’t much, not compared to a proper bath, but she didn’t have much time to wash. She walked back into the bedroom, found a clean set of clothes and dressed quickly. They’d have to bring in more dresses, too, she decided, if they couldn’t be washed in the city. She felt a twinge of guilt. Silent was going to be very busy.
The air was colder as she made her way down the stairs and into the dining room. Prince Hedrick was sitting at the table, munching his way through a bacon sandwich. He looked hungover, although Emily had been fairly sure there’d been no alcohol in the house. He might have packed a bottle or two dozen into his bag. It had certainly been big enough. She felt her eyes narrow in disapproval as Silent appeared with a plate of bacon, eggs and fried bread. The smell made her stomach churn. Her body clock was completely out of whack.
Prince Hedrick eyed her darkly. “What did they say about her?”
“The Queen?” Emily decided it would be better not to repeat some of the nastier allegations made against Queen Francoise. She was fairly sure there was no truth in them. Accusations of adultery and incest were common, when someone wanted to smear an aristocratic woman and take her down a peg or two. “They said she’s a prisoner, for the moment.”
“Bah.” Prince Hedrick eyed the remains of his sandwich mournfully. “But she’s alive?”
“So they said,” Emily told him. She hadn’t seen Queen Francoise personally. She’d have to demand that, before she took the rebel terms to the royalists. There would be terms, she was sure. She’d have been ordered out of the city if the rebels truly wanted to fight to the last. “I’ll try and check up on her before anything else happens.”
Prince Hedrick looked thoroughly unimpressed as he summoned Silent and demanded more food. Emily scowled, reminding herself to check on his behavior while she was away. The prince wasn’t the type of person to be happy doing nothing, even if he wasn’t trapped in a gloomy old house. She was quite certain the doors and windows were still being watched. If Hedrick put his nose outside the door, the rebels would grab him and cut off his head before she could object. And the hell of it was that she didn’t really want to object.
Lady Barb stepped into the room, looking surprisingly fresh for someone who couldn’t have had any more sleep than Emily. “Good morning,” she said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Well enough,” Emily lied. “How about yourself?”
“As good as could be expected,” Lady Barb said. “There were five separate attempts to break through our wards last night. I tried to trace the magic back, but lost the thread somewhere in the haze.”
Emily frowned. “And it could have been anyone.”
“The rebels,” Prince Hedrick said. “They’re not bargaining in good faith.”
“Perhaps,” Emily said. “There are other suspects.”
“But none who know where we are,” Hedrick pointed out. “Why would anyone bother to probe our defenses if they thought there was nothing to defend?”
“The mere fact that someone bothered to set up defenses proves they thought there was something worth defending,” Lady Barb countered. “And I rather suspect, by now, that everyone knows where we are.”
Emily nodded in agreement. Jorlem City - she reminded herself to think of it as Freedom City - was big, almost impossible to secure. If it was anything like Alexis, there would be secret tunnels under the walls... if, of course, the guards couldn’t be bribed to let people and letters pass through the gatehouse. Hell, the spies in the city - and she was morbidly certain there were spies - could simply use chat parchments. Crown Prince Dater was probably well informed on events within the city. Emily would be astonished if he wasn’t.
She looked up as she heard someone knocking at the door, then glanced at the
