“No, I heard. That’s why I came. But I just… I couldn’t quite believe it.”
“You knew I’d inherit.”
“I know, but it’s one thing to hear about, another to actually see–” She shook her head. “And I’ve been in the Empire so long, I’d forgotten–”
“The Empire!” Queen Saida exclaimed. “What’s that like? Have they invaded the ice-islands yet?”
Marjani rolled her eyes. “Surely the Queen of Jokja would know if the Empire had made a move for the ice-islands.”
“I know they’ve been trying.” Saida tilted her head. “Are you sure you were in the Empire? Because you look like a pirate.”
“Well, I was doing that, too.”
Queen Saida burst into laughter, though she covered her mouth up like a lady. Which I guess she was.
Marjani gave her a smile, small and sad.
And then Queen Saida turned to me and Naji. He pulled the mask away from his face, rose up from his chair, and gave her this handsome bow. Then he hauled me up by the arm.
“Saida, I would like you to meet Ananna of the Nadir and… Naji.”
“Just Naji?” asked Saida.
“I am Jadorr’a.”
Queen Saida’s polite smile didn’t waver once. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said to Naji. She pressed her hand to her heart. Naji did the same and bowed again. Then she turned to me. “And you, Pirate Ananna.” I gave her a bow cause I liked that she treated me and Naji like we were visiting nobility. Wouldn’t expect that from somebody so beautiful.
“I’ll arrange for rooms in the guest quarters,” Queen Saida said. She looked at Marjani. “Would two suffice? One for each of your companions?”
The air was heavy with the scent of flowers. Marjani nodded slowly. Nobody said nothing about Marjani’s room.
“Wonderful. I’m afraid I have business to attend to… I wasn’t expecting you–”
“I’m sorry,” Marjani said.
“Don’t apologize. I’ll let the cooks know you’re here. You can join me for dinner.”
She dipped her head again and then turned on her heel, skirts swirling around her legs. When she left the room, a scent like spice and flower petals lingered in the air.
One of the guards stayed behind.
“I can see you to the atrium while your rooms are being prepared,” he said, in that stiff formal way soldiers get sometimes.
Marjani looked dazed. She didn’t answer him, just stared at the door where Saida had disappeared.
“That would be fine,” said Naji.
The guard glanced at him real quick and then averted his eyes.
The atrium turned out to be an enormous room filled with sunlight that overlooked the jungle. There was a guy there telling a story to some little kids, half of ’em looking like nobles and the other half looking like servants, and a table laid out with food, fresh fruit and sugared flowers and spicy herbed cheese, plus a sweet sugar-wine that reminded me a little of rum.
There were some guards, too, near the door, keeping their eye on everything. I was in half a mind to try and steal something just to see if I could.
Marjani collapsed on a pile of cushions near one of the windows. Sunlight sparkled across her face. She pressed her hand to her forehead and looked out at the jungle, green and undulating like the sea.
“You didn’t ask her about the starstones,” Naji said.
My stomach clenched up. I should tell him what Jeric had said. But not here, surrounded by stories and sunlight, even though I knew I’d have to tell him eventually: I didn’t want him to die, no matter how bad he hurt me.
“The starstones aren’t going anywhere,” Marjani said. “I’ll ask her tonight.”
Naji frowned, and for the first time since I met her, I felt a sudden flash of irritation at Marjani.
The storyteller finished up, and the kids all burst into applause and started begging for another one. I slumped down next to Marjani.
“I didn’t think I’d ever come back here,” she said out of nowhere. “It’s funny. This room – we used to listen to stories together right over there.” She jerked her head to the corner with the storyteller. “And she’d bring in musicians sometimes and teach me how to dance. I’d never learned at home, cause Father was so keen on me becoming a scholar.” She smiled again, and this time she looked wistful, which I guess was better than bitter. “I used to think about it sometimes, watching you dance on the deck of the Ayel’s Revenge.”
I blushed. “I don’t dance like a queen.”
“Neither did she.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes longer. Naji seemed real intent on the surface of his wine.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
My room was beautiful, with a soft canopied bed and windows that faced the jungle, and a huge porcelain washtub that the servants filled with cool, jasmine-scented water when they brought me into the room. First thing I did was take a bath. Sea baths will keep you clean enough, but nothing beats fresh water to slough all the salt off your skin.
The servants brought clothes, too, a thin cotton dress and a narrow gold belt that I cinched around my waist. I combed my hair out and sat on the window ledge and looked down at the wash of green roiling up against the city’s walls. Papa’d told me once that he knew a man who had crossed the Jokja jungle and came out the most powerful sorcerer either the Empire or the Free Countries had ever seen. I’d never decided if I believed him or not.
For a minute, I wondered what Papa was doing. Had the Hariris gone after him first, back when I was crossing the desert with Naji? That wasn’t usually the way of things, but you never knew with a clan so enamored of the land. Or had Papa and Mama even heard about what I did, to Tarrin, to his parents? Mama hadn’t used her magic to track me, at least not that I could tell, although I might have been too far away from them for it work. Or maybe they just didn’t care.
The wind blowing in through the windows changed. I noticed it as a prickle on my skin. The hairs raised up on my arms. A chill crept into the room.
I fumbled around on the bed, trying to find the knife I’d tossed there while I was taking my bath. The wind blew harder, and then a mist crept in – a northern mist, nothing I should have seen in Jokja.
I touched the charm around my neck.
“Ananna,” Echo said.
I whirled around, knife out, heart racing. She stood beside the window, and she was dressed like a Jokja lady. But she had the same mean starry eyes and the same cold voice and the same swirl of mist where her feet should have been.
“Get out of here,” I said.
“Still protecting him?” Echo drifted forward, bringing the cold damp in with her. “You’ve come up in the world since last we spoke.”
I readied my knife.
She floated over to my bed and sank into it.
“But your affection for the assassin appears to be waning.”
I glared at her, tensed my fingers against my knife.
She smiled hard and cold at me. “The offer still stands,” she said. “Take us to him, and we’ll grant you a thousand boons.”
“Why?” I said. “Why do you want him so bad? Just cause he bested your lord?”
She looked at me, calm and implacable. “That’s exactly why. My lord was humiliated by that particular defeat. We don’t like being defeated, particularly by humans.” She narrowed her eyes and wrinkled her nose in disgust. “And we don’t like being humiliated either.”
“Yeah? So you’re just gonna let Naji keep defeating you every time you show up?” I jabbed my hand at the door. I didn’t think this was about defeat at all. It was about wanting a place in our world, like Esjar had told me. “You just floated in here like there wasn’t a door or walls. Go find him yourself. Or make me do it, you want him that bad.”
“But I can’t touch you,” she said. “Because of that thing around your neck.” She tilted her head. “Even after all the hurt he’s caused you, you still wear it?”