A Crown of Wildflowers
"If they come at us, it won't be our side that disappears. It'll be theirs."
Jin said it with a grave face.
"When we get back, I'm doubling my training."
"Deal."
"What?"
"No—I mean, good."
Nina grinned.
Whether she had been right, or the other side had simply lacked the nerve, no attack came through the following day. Nina and Jin turned the camp inside out for every valuable left behind, and Nina, declaring that Adrian would like it, rolled up a sleek leopard pelt and packed it away.
"Shame to leave a tent like this..."
Jin ran a hand over the thick canvas and sighed.
"We can come back for it later. It's our land now, anyway."
"Oh. Right—it is."
Jin broke into a bright smile and swung up onto his black unicorn. Both their mounts were heaped with baggage, yet weight like that did not so much as stir a black unicorn.
They raised a banner marked with a black falcon over the Ila Plain and turned back to Black Shield Castle. In the meantime, word of the victory spread across the whole plain. House Rava tried to hush it, but no one could fail to see that House Rubuaene had won. Even so, not a soul believed the claim that a single captain had defeated the entire force.
The nobility fixed its attention on House Rubuaene, restored to the great plain. The Count of Rava was no less furious, and he pressed the ducal house to repay its debt at once. Adrian answered in an elegant hand.
Might this not wait until next year's exchange?
In plainer words: You'll still want a chance to recover your honor, won't you?
Whatever quarrel raged inside the count's house, the letter that came back held only this.
Next year will be the last.
A year bought, at least.
Adrian sank deep into his chair. The leopard skin thrown over it was soft and sleek.
Nina and her company came home to a fervent welcome.
"You did well, Nina."
"This is the Young Master's share."
When she held out the pelt, a laugh broke from Adrian before he could help it. He felt as if he had turned into some ancient tribe, home from a successful hunt and dividing the spoils.
Spoils.
Yes. The first spoils.
At last, House Rubuaene had begun to look like itself again.
The joy did not last. Administrative authority had been signed away for eight years, and the work came crashing in until there was no room left to think. Aside from snatching a nap here and there, Adrian spent every hour bent over documents.
Louis was just beginning to worry over His Grace's health when Nina caught Adrian's hand as he reached for the next sheaf.
"Nina? When did you get here?"
He turned in surprise, and she smiled.
"If you didn't even notice I'd come in, it's serious."
Adrian rubbed the spot between his brows.
"I was concentrating."
"And what was it you said to me before? That there was no need to rush—wasn't that you? You're the one who needs rest, Young Master. Three days of nothing but work, without a pause. Take a little time with me today."
She had everything ready, she said, and took his arm, so he had no choice but to let himself be drawn after her. She climbed to the top of the castle and opened the watchtower door. On the narrow height sat a picnic basket woven of wisteria.
"Now, now. Sit, Young Master."
She patted the blanket she had spread, and Adrian sat. From the basket Nina drew simple food and tea, and last of all two crowns of wildflowers. She set one upon her own head and settled the other on his.
A wildflower crown, of all things. Adrian burst out laughing.
"We can't go out, so let's at least have the feeling of it."
At that he gave a short, fond laugh. She had made the crowns well. Hadn't she said she learned from her older brother as a child? Whenever they went outside, Nina would weave a flower crown or a flower bracelet and set it on him, and he had always received those crowns with something like reverence, as if he were a king at his coronation.
Smiling, she called Frost and chilled the tea until a skin of ice began to form. Adrian took the cold cup she offered and looked at her beneath a crown full of yellow flowers. Nina pointed at the sky.
"A pure blue sky, a cool wind, a brilliant sun. Surely a person needs a little leisure?"
He lifted his gaze. The sky was astonishingly blue, and cumulus clouds bloomed as if to show how high it rose. Leaning against the cold wall of the watchtower, Adrian let the heat drain from his thoughts.
"Nina La Del."
"Yes? Would you like a biscuit? I even got my hands on some jam."
"Allow me to spread it for you."
She asked with the butter knife in hand, and Adrian said,
"You were right."
Sun, water, air. And you. Everything he needed in order to live as a person was here.
"See? A little leisure is necessary, isn't it? Not that I have any right to say so, after I had to wring a holiday out of you."
Nina passed him a biscuit heaped with butter and jam. It was not that wheat was hard to find in the duchy. It was only hard to find in the castle. Extreme austerity was what had starved the ducal table.
Not that everyone else had been rich enough to eat white bread, either.
When the biscuits and tea were gone, Nina rose and perched on the rim of the watchtower. She brushed both hands in the empty air to shake off the crumbs and took the wind as it came. Her twin braids lifted softly. She wore an easy outfit—a hip-length tunic embroidered along the collar, trousers beneath, and a belt at her waist. Lightly, she patted her knee.
"Now, now. Come lean on me, and let yourself be spoiled."
"So you can order me around however you like?"
Adrian answered with a laugh, and Nina said it without a shred of shame.
"Exactly that."
She beckoned him over. But Adrian did not move. Nina sighed and got to her feet.
"Nothing for it. I'm only doing this because you really are my Young Master."
She came to his side and sat on the ledge.
"Go on. Lean."
At the shine in her eyes, Adrian turned and set his back against her legs. When he tipped his head up, Nina grinned and reached out, shading his eyes with her hand.
Time passed without hurry. On the watchtower there was no sound but the flag snapping in the wind, and a weightless feeling, as if they hung above the sky, wrapped him through. Nina's voice was low and soft. What she spoke of was light enough to let slip in one ear and out the other—and yet it glittered, like mica in a spill of sand. There was no need to listen on edge, and no need to think it through. The tension cinched around his whole body came loose. Nerves drawn tight as a bowstring went slack.
He reached up and drew down the hand that was shading him. Her arm came with the pull, and Nina's body leaned forward until they faced each other close enough to see the pattern of each other's irises.
"Nina."
"Yes."
"Nina."
"Yes."
"Nina."
"Yes."
Nina laughed as she answered, ready to say it a hundred times, a thousand, and Adrian closed his eyes. It was hard to look straight at a smiling face. When his eyes shut, she straightened.
She knew perfectly well that this was his way of being spoiled. Stroking his hair, she lifted her face toward the Purple Forest beyond. A watchtower that held only the two of them felt like the end of the world.
"Come up often, Young Master."
She murmured it.
"I will."
The answer came back small and short, and she smiled.