Magali gave herself a blank-faced look over in the mirror as she pulled her hair back. A little too pale beneath her freckles, perhaps, but her expression was steady, almost bored. Good.
No one would know she was furious.
"Your Highness, the meeting begins in five minutes," Vain called through the door.
"Yes, thank you." She heard his footsteps moved away, and returned her gaze to the mirror. Three months ago she would barely have recognized this face. Blank, resolute. Where were the nervous half-glances and trembling lips? Transformed into stone. It was a process that had started when she finally dared to ask for combat lessons, and then begun in earnest when Morane began talking to her.
And where will it end? She asked herself.
On the throne. It would end when she was queen.
"Princess?"
That was Abram, his voice softer than usual. As the White Knight, he would have already heard the news that had sent her into a rage just a few hours before. No doubt he was rather shaken. She went to the door and let him in.
"There you are." He looked concerned.
"Where else would I be? There's a council meeting to prepare for." She straightened her cloak, letting the deep green folds fall neatly over her shoulders.
She had begun to dress closer to how her father's advisors did, in royal green and styles that were, if not simpler, then more austere. If she wasn't mistaken, her new choices of rich fabrics with far less frivolous decoration were beginning to be copied by the rest of the castle. It was only a small show of influence, but she thought Caer would have been delighted by it.
Her fingers twitched as she thought of Caer, but she resisted the urge to clench her fists in her skirts, to reveal how anxious she was. She had gotten better at self-control. Just not good enough to fool Abram.
He eyed the slight tremor in her hands. "I came to see if you wanted to talk about anything before the meeting."
To see if she wanted to talk? Or to get something off his chest? "Everything I have to say will be said in front of the advisors."
"Really? Everything? Like how Blaisze is a two-faced piece-of-crap bastard with snotty fashion choices?"
She gave herself a moment to react internally, to wonder how he knew she's said that. Then she gave her skirt an indifferent brush, as if there was any dust there to brush away, to avoid his eyes. "I could have Vain released from the guard for eavesdropping on me and reporting to you."
He smiled thinly. "Yes, I believe you could. If you have nothing to say to me, then, I will meet you in the hall." He left.
She pursed her lips at her reflection, then muttered, "He is a two-faced piece-of-crap bastard with snotty fashion choices. I stand by that."
Vain chuckled in the doorway, but she knew he wouldn't be laughing if he knew who it was he had heard her insulting. A lot of people in the castle would be very shaken once the news spread. "Are we going, then?" He asked.
"In one moment." She took the black enameled comb from the vanity and fixed it into her hair twist. "Vain?"
"Yes, Your Highness?"
"I will have you released if you eavesdrop again."
He went pale. "I—"
"From now on if Abram asks you something about me that I did not tell you openly and clearly myself, you will lie. I will have my privacy. If it is inevitable that you must accidentally overstep sometimes, you will at least do me the courtesy of not bringing half the castle with you." She felt her voice trailing off slightly at the end, and berated herself for it. She was the princess; she could certainly order her guards not to inform on her like common criminals. Vain's first loyalty was to her, not Abram (and now, certainly, no longer to Joshua). However hurt he or Abram might be at this, neither had the right to complain.
"Yes, Your Highness. It was a mistake. It won't happen again."
She touched the cloak pin at her right shoulder, the gold impressed with a ring of stars modeled after the Guardian Sign. "It's time to go."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Most of the king's advisors were already seated down the long table of the meeting hall when she and Abram arrived. He went to the king's left side, she to his right.
No one said a word as she sat down in the Sage's seat.
Tobias was conspicuously absent. Normally, being attached to the king's side at every opportunity made him one of the earliest to arrive. But tonight he was, to put in in mildest terms, in disgrace. She had no doubt he was lingering over his desk, coming up with every excuse to not have to come up and face them, which was why she'd taken her own special precautions tonight.
As they waited for the last stragglers to show up, Magali assessed the situation as best she could without Caer's helpful hints. Only the most trusted advisors were present, none of the extraneous nobility that sometimes scraped in if they were in good favor.
Lord Delmeneth, head of the Inigrit, sat diagonal from her. Next to him, as his assistant, sat Lord Laycreek, who caught her eye and nodded a greeting. That was interesting— Delmeneth usually chose an Inigrit lord of higher standing to accompany him to meetings. Laycreek didn't have the usual fortune or position that Delmeneth favored in his henchman... but his family did have a legacy with the Inigrit to rival Delmeneth's own. When it came down to it, Laycreek would be as ruthless in defending the Inigrit as his daughter was. Perhaps, if Delmeneth had chosen loyalty and cunning over glitter and pomp tonight, he was expecting a fight.
Caer had mentioned a few months ago that Delmeneth had lost favor with the king privately. Magali had noticed the new coldness in the meeting room, but she wouldn't have guessed it was because of those older rumors that Delmeneth had attempted to poison the Cycla leader, Lady Verivain, eighteen years ago— at least not until Caer assured her there was a connection.
"But my father never cared about that before. To be honest, we both know he values the lives of the Cycle much less than the Inigrit," she'd pointed out. "He wouldn't care much even if Delmeneth had been successful and Verivain died."
"I'm sure of this information. Ever since the Thief ran off, the king's been dropping hints that he now blames Delmeneth for that old incident."
"What, are those two thing connected?" She didn't see how a poisoning incident as old as Morane was would have caused her to run away.
Caer had shrugged helplessly, and they went on to discuss other things. That had been just days before he also left and didn't return.
Better not to think about that. All the royal spies were engaged in finding Caer. There was nothing else she could do.
The heavy doors swept open with more noise than was polite, and Tobias stepped in with aggravation steaming off him. Vain and another guardsman were flanking him.
"My lord Sage, what's the matter?" Abram greeted him as the other advisors exchanged glances.
Tobias seethed, taking a moment before he was able to answer. "These so-called guards practically dragged me from my office, claiming they were sent to escort me here."
An echo of shocked murmurs followed his announcement.
"So-called? Are you suggesting that these are not actually guards?" A new voice inquired, rising over the advisors. Several heads turned toward the Huntress in surprise. Nolene was more known for being purposefully absent than speaking up during meetings, and Magali suspected most people there preferred it that way. Dark Guardians were uncomfortable presences— she'd felt that well enough herself those few times Morane had accompanied her.
"I hope that's not what he's suggesting," Magali said in the awkward moment of silence that followed. "I sent them."
"Excuse me?" Tobias glared at her, noticing for the first time that she was in his seat. "You—" He gritted his teeth, likely over some choice words he couldn't share with a royal princess.
Magali gave him a fake, pleasant smile. Tobias hadn't dared outright object when she began attending meetings, but he had shown the most barely-disguised contempt for all her ideas, and she found she was no longer as ambivalent toward him as she once had been.
King Aeric made a sharp, disapproving sound. "It doesn't matter how you got here. Sit down."
"Your Majesty, the discourtesy—"
"Is irrelevant to me. Sit down."
The king's word was final: not in whether Tobias could go on complaining, but in the tone of the meeting. Tobias would find no friendly faces here. His expression showed his furtiveness as he took a less desirable seat.
A small revenge, but it made her happy. She needed that, after today's news.
"As some of you have heard and others have not," the king began, never one to delay with pleasantries, or skip over the fact that some of them were favored with early information than others. "Joshua Blaisze, formerly the Auxiliary Captain, has been implicated in breaking several rebels out of a border fort. Yes, despite having been hanged several days ago."
She could practically hear jawbones clicking as mouths dropped open. In the corner of her eye, however, she saw that Abram had gone still as a boulder, a sure sign that he was keeping a tight check on something much more violent than shock.
"Apparently, the man hanged on charges of treason under the name of the captain was in fact that Englian spy we dealt with around the same time as the captain's..." He dragged a hand down his face. "The captain's incident."
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Your Majesty, but are we to understand that the captain arranged this switch so he could escape his death? Has he secretly been in league with the rebels?" Lord Laycreek's voice was crisp but grim. Probably worried that Luca's closeness to a man who was now a traitor would damage his already fragile family position.
"The answer to the first is a definite yes, though it is more complicated than that. To the second, we still do not have enough information to say." He didn't snap at Laycreek for the impertinent questions, a fact Magali knew would not go unnoticed by the others. Daring to interrupt the king without angering him was practically showing off your favor in the court. Irina really had done much for their reputation, to get away with that.
"You see," the king continued, "in the wake of this mess, we have to consider Tobias's failings."
The Sage seemed to shrivel in his seat, even as he attempted to straighten up. "My liege knows that I—"
"Don't interrupt me. Tobias failed to have the right man killed, and evidence from guards who were present during parts of the situation indicates that this was purposeful. Joshua suggested faking his death as a way to let him end his contract as captain without making it public knowledge that he left because he wanted to, not because he had to, as well as to draw attention away from the arguably more embarrassing situation with the Englian spy in the guard."
Several advisors looked more impressed than worried. Magali had to admit, even as the admission was bitter, that it was a subtle, intricate plan, perfectly calibrated to the one man who could make it happen: Tobias, who could not have born it if people knew the position of Auxiliary Captain was not so desirable no one could ever leave it by choice. It might have seemed ridiculous that Tobias would rather help fake a death, but Joshua had known his target all too well: the Auxiliary Guard was Tobias's child, and he would do anything to protect its reputation.
"I would like some clarification," Lady Verivain called down from the end of the room. The Cycla's inferior position in the court placed her in the least desirable seat at the table, straight across from the king, setting them up like rival pieces on a chessboard. But her loud, clear voice made up for it. "Exactly what did Blaisze gain by faking his death?"
A good question. It was unfortunate that one of the king's only rivals within the court had more cunning than many of his allies. She made a note to remember that.
Aeric, of course, preferred not to admit to that in front of the other advisors. He gestured to Abram as though the question was not worth answering himself.
"We believe," Abram said, his voice brittle, "That Blaisze saw some kind of benefit of the confusion the fake death would cause. Not to mention, had the ruse lasted longer he would have gotten rid of any of us trying to track him down and convince him to return to his position, or any nobles trying to find him and recruit him for their own uses. Essentially, he wanted to disappear."
Verivain raised an eyebrow. "And why does a successful, honorable, respected, worthy—"
"Get on with it," Aeric snapped.
"Please don't interrupt, Your Majesty. Why does a young man who is all of these things want to disappear?"
Abram glanced at the king, as though to be sure he really meant for them all to know this. "From looking into Blaisze's files— you may recall he was one of the recruits from Tobias's criminal reform program— it appears that Joshua was a more serious offender than Tobias's mandate for the program allowed. The program was supposed to reform thieves, brawlers, perhaps people who killed in self-defense. Not assassins."
"Assassins?" Magali didn't know who blurted that out, but everyone began talking at once immediately after. She pursed her lips, absentmindedly fingering the Guardian Sign-inscribed pin. Yes, it was a great shock, but she wished people would be more angry than incredulous. As angry as she had been. Morane had run away, Caer was missing in action, Nemia barely spoke to her, and now she found out that Joshua, one person she'd been set on recruiting to her side, had been a two-faced traitor all along. Her only substantial ally was Irina— a great asset, but one with an agenda of her own.
Well, Irina and Abram. She knew Abram stood by her, even when she went cold with anger and shut him out. She sighed out loud. That wasn't even smart politically, let alone proper repayment for all his kindness towards her all her life. She would talk to him later, she resolved, and apologize. And also invite Nemia somewhere, sometime soon... it was imperative to get the Assassin one her side. There had to be a better way than dragging Nemia along on walks and to dinners she clearly suffered through only because Irina was there.
If only Morane were there to laugh at this meeting. She would have had a field day with this Joshua stuff. If only she knew how the captain she'd hated had turned out.