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Chapter 8

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Loren nodded to her guard as she approached her rooms, a Lt. Doril Roderick, who seemed nice enough and gave Mikk and Jarrid some time off. Once inside, she closed the door, leaning against it momentarily. She’d just come from a very long meeting with the Queen, the formal interview process that Marella had conducted as though it was real. Her First Lady, Carmella had been there. Loren wasn’t sure until the end of the meeting if she knew the truth. Throughout all the questions and discussions, Loren had to take care to respond as if Carmella didn’t know anything.

After it was all over, the Queen informed her that she’d done well, that Carmella did know, and then they spent another hour critiquing everything Loren said, how she said it, how she reacted, how she sat, how she held her head, everything. Apparently, she talked too much with her hands. There was also a lengthy discussion on how she would and wouldn’t behave in Dynan’s presence, which led Loren to believe that, somehow, Marella knew about all the kissing in Shalis’ room. That, in turn, meant the Queen had enlisted Marc Talryn to spy on them.

She understood, of course, the reasons for the scrutiny and the demands; they all wanted to make sure she wouldn’t make some terrible mistake in front of the wrong person, namely anyone who didn’t know who she was. It was a long, draining experience.

Slowly, she pushed herself from the door and walked to her rooms, passing the open sitting room on her way. She wasn’t staying with her adopted family in their guest rooms, though they were just down the hall from her. She was staying in the apartments of one of Marella’s other Ladies at Court, Lady Katreen, a sweet, likable girl with a perfect complexion and blonde hair that had an unreal kind of sheen, who’d been assigned to provide the Queen with yet another assessment. Katreen knew nothing at all about Loren, but was someone who Marella trusted wouldn’t talk out of turn if she noticed anything unusual about her. It was all very nerve-wracking.

After all that, Loren felt like crawling into a corner and never coming out again, but she had to get ready for that afternoon’s festivities, which she was surprised to learn she would be a part of. She wondered at the wisdom of her being present with Dynan so close when Alexia and Creal arrived, allowing the opportunity for mistakes to be made.

A shadow cut across the light, startling her. She found Katreen in the doorway. “How are you?” she asked. “You’ve been gone such a long time, I was starting to worry they’d never let you out.”

“That’s the way it felt to me too,” Loren said, sitting at her dressing table.

“It’s almost over,” Katreen told her. “The entire interview process you have to go through to become a Lady at Court. After tonight, the Queen will make up her mind, but from what I can gather, she likes you a lot.”

“That’s reassuring. I like her too, and honestly, I didn’t think I would,” Loren said. “I don’t know why I thought that. It’s always seemed to me that Kings and Queens aren’t approachable people and yet they are. But why do you say after tonight?”

“The reception for Queen Alexia and King Creal is tonight, well, this afternoon, and Queen Marella likes to see how her Ladies manage under stress. With all of them in the same room, and especially with Prince Dynan there, it’ll be stressful for certain.”

“Really? Will it be that bad?” She wanted to ask why Dynan’s presence would make it harder, but worried talking about him might give away too much.

“Not bad exactly. You know that Prince Dynan has to have Their Majesties help to get back home.”

“I’d heard that, yes.”

“There’s going to be a lot of tension between them because, well, I don’t know that they like him that much. I shouldn’t say anything bad about them, but I like Prince Dynan. He’s very kind, and well, when you meet him you’ll find out what else.”

“I met him yesterday,” Loren said, wondering if Katreen already knew that and was just trying to see how it had gone.

“You did? Where? What did you think?”

“Queen Marella asked me to sit with Princess Shalis. Her doctor thought reading to her might help her, so I was there when Prince Dynan and his First Commander came by to visit.”

“And?” Katreen asked, coming over to sit in a nearby chair. “Isn’t he gorgeous?” she said avidly.

Loren laughed, but inwardly recognized that here was that same fascination Sheed had warned her about. “Yes and he was very nice. I didn’t talk to him long.”

“The other girls, the other Ladies here will be so jealous when they find out you met him, and you’ve only been here a day,” Katreen said. “I’ve been here two years and never met him. Of course, he hasn’t been here at all during that time. It was right when Prince Dain died that I came here. Queen Marella was so upset, and well, it was a sad, horrible time. He seemed all right, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Loren said, feeling her level of discomfort rise, though she supposed she shouldn’t find it so different from all the girls in Quilar who talked about Dynan almost from the moment he set foot in town. Here on Trea, the other Ladies at Court, she’d learned, were all out for one thing, a marriage contract to the most desirable and eligible man they could find. Those fakes and frauds Dynan told her about before. To them, Dynan was certainly eligible and a Prince, which increased the desirability factor by a lot, and they all thought he was very handsome as well. While she meant what she said about the situation with Bronwyn – that felt different to her somehow – she thought she had about reached her level of tolerance toward all these women lusting after her husband. Of course, she couldn’t allow those feelings to control her thinking or more importantly, her expression. “He seemed fine to me. Do you think Their Majesties will help him?” she asked to change the subject off Dynan’s good looks.

“So much depends on these meetings they’re having. They’re both going to want something. Well, I think I have an idea of what Queen Alexia might want, but she can’t come right out and ask for it. No one knows what Creal will ask for.”

“What about Queen Alexia?” Loren asked, hoping she sounded only curious instead of worried.

“Many of us think she’s come here to get a marriage agreement for her daughter,” Katreen said. “I don’t know how she thinks she can get such an agreement. A marriage like that between Systems is almost unheard of.”

“Almost?” Loren asked, feeling her throat drying.

“It just isn’t done. The last time was several hundred years ago, and turned out disastrously, of course. The marriage of Tubisha of Trea to Ingram of Rynald, for instance. They both ended up dead.”

“Yes, of course,” Loren said, making a mental note to look up who those two people were. “But what makes you think Alexia will ask for that?”

“Not long ago, her daughter, Princess Danetha was supposed to have married. The ceremony was planned and the date announced, but quite suddenly and publicly, it was called off. That’s also unheard of. With Queen Alexia coming here to meet with Prince Dynan to offer him assistance ... well, it just seems likely that she’s going to want him to marry her daughter.”

“But she can’t ask him,” Loren said, reminding herself to breathe.

“No, not directly. She’d have to know something about him, something, well, inappropriate, something damaging in order to force him into agreeing, but I can’t imagine that there’s anything like that about Prince Dynan. He’s never gotten into that kind of trouble, well, except that one time with that ... that woman, before his father died. Those were only rumors anyway and it was so long ago that it couldn’t be useful to Queen Alexia ... Are you all right?”

Loren nodded, forcing a smile. “Yes. I think it must be the difference in time between here and Capra. And it’s cold here.”

“You’re not used to that at all,” Katreen said easily, giving no indication that she doubted Loren’s explanation. “I’m sure it’ll all work out for Prince Dynan though. He knows about Queen Alexia, and so does King Drake. I don’t see how they could refuse to help him with what he has to offer.”

“And what is that?”

“Peace,” Katreen said, and stood. “We need to get ready for this afternoon. I’ll send in Millie.”

“Thank you, Katreen.”

“Oh you’re welcome. You let me know if you need any help. If you have any questions about what Queen Marella might like to know about you next. I’ve been through it before, so I know what it’s like.”

“I’ll do that. Thank you again.”

Loren sat in the silence that followed, unmoving for a time while fear ran a circle around her thoughts and tied them in a knot. She remembered Ralion telling her of the control Alexia wanted over Dynan. It seemed different now, personal in a way it hadn’t been before. Alexia didn’t just want control, she wanted the whole of his life. The peril of discovery lay on Loren’s heart like a weight. Her hand slipped to her abdomen, a protective gesture, and a ward against all the things that could go against them. She wondered, not for the first time, if everything they planned would work, if there was even a breath of a chance to hope for it. For the life of the child she carried, she knew she would fight for that wished-for existence and fight anyone who thought to deny her.

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