Weeks slid one into the next. With each one come and gone, Virelai grew more anxious. Thanks to the guards her father had assigned to tail her, she hadn’t been able to pay a visit to her house. Wisteria and Eryx could be dead by now for all she knew—or long gone. Wisteria, she knew, would never make it out of the city on her own, but Eryx was another story. If he was whole and hale, she didn’t doubt that he might slip past her father’s watching eyes.
Virelai gasped as the maid pulled her laces tight. Tonight she was to attend another dinner and dance thrown in her father’s honor. It seemed there was one every night, and her presence was required at all of them.
She was to be seen by all but heard by none.
Virelai frowned at her reflection. The sapphire silk of her dress made her hair appear redder than it was. She used to love her hair, but now it only reminded her of her father. There was no pretending she wasn’t related to him when she possessed all of his features. If only she’d gotten her mother’s dark hair or her sweet heart-shaped face. Anything to make her look less like the elf she’d come to despise.
“Do you require anything else, my lady?” the maid inquired, drawing Virelai out of her thoughts.
“No, that will be all.” With a flick of her hand, she dismissed the other elf. Virelai didn’t move from in front of the mirror until she heard the door open and close.
Then she sighed, allowing her mask to slip for a moment and her true face to appear. The moment was all too brief before she carefully arranged her features into a bored expression that gave none of her thoughts away.
“Tonight,” she whispered to her reflection. “Tonight, I will find something useful.”
With one last look, she swept from the room.
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Virelai recognized few of the faces around her as she lifted her wineglass to her lips and took a sip. There was one in particular she was interested in, however.
Councilman Harloth.
He was known to be one of her father’s biggest supporters. The most power hungry of the bunch, if she had to guess. He must be useful for something if her father had kept him around. Not all the councilmen had been so lucky.
Virelai studied the round-faced elf as he talked to another on his right, a female elf she didn’t recognize. The way he smiled and nodded, his dark eyes twinkling in the magic lamps, Virelai could almost be fooled into thinking of him as a kindly grandfather figure. Having talked to him before, she knew he was no such thing. He was shrewd and conniving, with a retinue of spies at his disposal. Harloth was no stranger to using blackmail to get what he wanted. If her father hadn’t made a bid for the throne, Harloth would have been next in line to do it.
As dinner wound down and the servants cleared plates and prepared for dancing, Harloth excused himself from his dinner companion.
Virelai watched him cross the room before she did the same, following his path.
No one stopped her as she stepped into the hall and spotted Harloth exiting onto a nearby balcony.
The night was balmy as she joined him in the dimly lit space. A breeze wafted off the ocean, bringing the scent of salt with it. Harloth was already puffing away on a pipe as he leaned on the railing. As she drew closer, she could smell the sweet stench of the smoke.
He didn’t notice her until she placed her hands on the railing next to him. If her appearance startled him, he didn’t let it show.
“Good evening, Virelai,” he greeted her after removing the pipe from his teeth. “Enjoying the dinner?”
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She lifted one shoulder and let it fall, keeping her eyes on the view. “I think the one two nights ago was better,” she said in a bored tone. “There were more guests at that one.”
“Yes, indeed.” Harloth puffed on his pipe, and Virelai held her breath to avoid breathing in the smoke.
“An occasion is rather dull without someone to gossip with, don’t you think?” she said, keeping the same measured tone.
“I can’t say I partake in gossip, my lady.”
“Mmm, yes. I suppose councilman are above such things.”
“It seems your gossip has failed you, my lady. For I am no longer a councilman. Your father has no need of a council to advise him when he makes such wise decisions on his own.”
“Of course. My mistake.”
Interesting, but not altogether surprising. She’d thought he might keep the council together as a place to gather information. It wasn’t like any of the members would have dared to disagree with his plans.
What was Gavaran hiding?
“I am thankful to be invited to the dinners at all, given my lowly position,” Harloth went on, “but perhaps it could change in the future.” He leaned closer to her in the dark, so that she got a whiff of the wine and fish he’d had for dinner.
Virelai did not at all care for the look he was giving her. She’d nearly forgotten about her father’s threat of marriage. Harloth was unmarried, but she couldn’t imagine her father handing her over to him. He was nearly twice her age.
Then again, her father would do anything to secure a good deal, including trading her away.
Virelai pasted a demure smile on her face. “I wish you the best with securing a new position. If you’ll excuse me, I must return inside before my father comes looking for me.”
Harloth understood the subtle warning and resumed his position on the rail. “Yes, yes. Do save a dance for me, my lady.”
Virelai would do no such thing.
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A few more weeks slipped by before Virelai got her chance to slip away. Despite what Harloth had implied, Gavaran had been silent on the topic of her impending marriage. His attention seemed to be focused elsewhere for now, and he’d even stopped monitoring her so closely. Virelai used her newfound freedom to pay a visit to her house.
To her surprise, the moment she stepped in the door, she heard voices. She froze on the threshold, listening.
It was only Wisteria and Eryx. Despite her absence, they’d stayed where she had left them. Good.
Virelai followed the noise and found them in the dining room, cards scattered on the table between them. Wisteria giggled as she took her turn at their game.
"I win," she crowed as she stared down at the cards.
This drew a smile from Eryx. "You’re getting better at . . ." He trailed off as he caught sight of Virelai standing in the doorway.
Wisteria looked up from the cards to notice Eryx was no longer paying attention to her and turned to see what he was looking at. The corners of her mouth tugged down when she saw it was Virelai.
"Happy to see you too," Virelai said, strolling into the room."Feeling better?" she asked Eryx.
"Yes, thanks to Wisteria here. I think I will live."
"You mean, thanks to me," she corrected him. "I'm the one who dragged you here and saved you from my father." Apparently, Eryx didn't remember any of their previous conversations, including the one where he’d told them about their missing queen.
Eryx dipped his head at her, acknowledging her words. "And I thank you for that—”
“Where have you been?” Wisteria interrupted. “We’ve been here for ages. I thought you decided to abandon us.”
“Not yet,” Virelai said, “but I still can.”
Wisteria scowled at her. “Do you know what it’s like to be locked up?”
“I have some idea, yes. Look, I’ve been busy. Information gathering takes time, and I can’t exactly slip away whenever I want.”
“Why not? You’re a princess. Order people around or something. You have no problem doing it when you’re here.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Virelai said through gritted teeth. She didn’t like admitting how little power or control she actually had.
“Has there been any word of Kaimana?” Eryx asked, cutting off whatever insult Wisteria was planning to hurl at her next.
Just see if she visited them again.
“No, not that I’ve been able to discover. Unfortunately, my father has disbanded the council and has been keeping his plans to himself. I’ve been trying to persuade a few elves to share what they know with me, but when they think word will get back to my father, they are reluctant to tell me anything.”
“How long has it been?” This question from Wisteria. The fight seemed to have gone out of her.
“We’re about to enter late summer,” Virelai said.
“Months,” Wisteria whispered, “and no word of Kai. That’s not good.”
Virelai silently agreed.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Eryx said. “They could be biding their time. His sister will be untrained. It wouldn’t make sense to launch an attack with pure power. She’ll need at least some control unless they want to put everyone in the city at risk. Keep trying,” he said to her. “I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.”
“I will,” Virelai said, “but you need to prepare yourselves in the event that we may be facing this battle alone.”