The King's Gift, the Queen's Wrath
"Wow."
Cassion and I had set a sofa out in the front courtyard of the 3rd Prince's Palace, and together we watched the palace mid-transformation. As furniture and furnishings came streaming through the gates in an endless line, an awed gasp escaped me before I could stop it.
"His Majesty really spared no expense."
"What's gotten into him all of a sudden?"
Cassion murmured as the workers bustled back and forth between the palace and the wagons. I could well imagine why Karman was suddenly making such a show of looking after Cassion — he didn't want to be taken to task by Gadrian.
Gadrian would be coming and going from the 3rd Prince's Palace often from now on, after all. Perhaps he feared that Gadrian, having seen how Cassion had been left to rot, would toss aside the teacher's role and walk away; or perhaps he worried the wizard might spread word of just how cold Petrora's royal house could be — how heartless its king. Whatever the reason, Karman taking an interest in Cassion, even offering direct support, was a meaningful thing.
Julia is going to absolutely lose it when she hears about this. Just imagining it lifted my spirits. I snickered, then hid my smile when I caught Cassion glancing my way.
"You don't like it?"
Karman's change of heart might not be welcome from where Cassion stood.
"It's not that I dislike it. It's just strange."
Thankfully, he didn't seem to dislike it after all.
"Strange or not, you'll have to get used to it. You've a great deal more coming to you than this."
It might look like a grand gesture in Cassion's eyes, but to mine, even mountains of gold would have been too little. Do they have any idea how much pain Cassion has endured all this time!
The crayfish takes the crab's side — and I take Cassion's! I would see him repaid tenfold everything he had been denied, and see tenfold repayment taken from everyone who had scorned him. After all, that was one way to make Julia and Dayson suffer.
"Diana, you just made a really nasty face."
Apparently my thoughts of Julia and Dayson had written themselves plainly across my face. Cassion pointed it out, wagging a finger at me. I caught it, pressed it back down, and turned my gaze to the comings and goings below.
"Looks like people are moving in, too."
The ones hauling crates and furniture didn't look like mere hired porters. The uniforms they wore were the issue given to the crown's official valets and maids.
"So I'm told."
"You were given an explanation?"
Cassion nodded and pointed out one of the men — elderly, from the look of him.
"Apparently that man is in charge."
Which made him the head valet.
"What did they say his name was?"
"Liam, I think."
Liam. Liam. Such a familiar name...
Ah! Now I remembered.
Liam Nevel. He was the valet who had attended Karman since the king's boyhood — and he had once been poisoned while taste-testing the royal food.
The poison left him lame in one leg, and he could no longer serve at Karman's side. Karman had insisted it didn't matter, but Julia had cast him out all the same, claiming a limping servant would stain the king's image. Left on standby, and — as I remembered it — eventually driven from the royal palace altogether. Yet here he was, arriving as head valet of Cassion's household.
So this is where he belongs. As long as Liam accepts Cassion as his master, it's a fine thing. Liam is an exemplary valet.
I drew my gaze back from the old man.
"Would it be possible for me to get a copy of the staff roster?"
"What roster? The people working in my palace?"
"Yes."
"Then wouldn't asking that man do?"
Cassion pointed at Liam.
"Don't ask, Your Highness. Command him."
"And if I command him, will he actually do as I say?"
Cassion had never ordered a soul about in his life. He knew perfectly well that he was a prince, and arrogance came to him by nature, but commanding others was something he had never grown accustomed to.
Natural enough, when he's never had the chance. But he'll need to learn, so teach him I shall.
"He will listen. And if he won't, then I'll teach him to."
How? his eyes asked. I told him to call Liam over first — lessons in making a servant obey could wait until a situation truly demanded one.
Reluctance plain on his face, Cassion called for Liam. The old valet came at a limping gait. His steps were certainly slow enough to try one's patience — but not so slow that a master couldn't wait.
"You called for me, Your Highness."
The white-haired old gentleman bowed at the waist. When Cassion unconsciously began to nod in return, I clamped a hand on his collar. A superior receives the bow; he does not return it. When I conveyed as much with my eyes, Cassion wrinkled his brow, then turned to Liam and spoke.
"I need a list of the people who'll be serving in my palace."
"I shall have it ready at once."
When Liam answered as though he had prepared it well in advance, Cassion's shoulders shot up. He hadn't expected to be obeyed so readily.
"Is there anything else you require of me, Your Highness?"
"No."
"Then should you need anything at all, send for me at any hour, Your Highness. And you must also select the valet who will attend you at close hand, Your Highness."
Cassion looked to me, silently begging for help.
Tell him you'll decide later. I whispered it to Cassion, and he repeated it word for word. Liam bowed with deep courtesy once more and withdrew.
"Hah."
Worn out by a single order, Cassion flopped back against the sofa.
"See? Didn't I tell you? He does what you command."
"That's never happened before."
Of course it hadn't — until now, everyone had treated him as the discarded prince of the palace, and most of the staff had been Julia's people at that. But his standing had changed, and so his servants had no choice but to defer to him.
And if I'm right...
Liam was a gift from Karman to Cassion. A loyal retainer who would shield his master even at the cost of his own life. For Cassion, who had never had a single ally in this palace, what gift could possibly be worth more?
And since Liam served the king himself, the others' respect would follow naturally. With the head valet deferring to Cassion, the valets and maids beneath him would hardly dare mistreat their new master. Even Julia's planted people won't be able to torment him openly.
That was one less thing to worry about, leaving Cassion alone at the 3rd Prince's Palace.
"Your Highness, I'll take this roster with me. And Your Highness — about Flac..."
"You're taking Flac with you?"
Cassion shot upright, eyes gone wide. His voice brimmed with alarm and hurt.
"No, of course not."
Apparently he'd grown deeply attached to Flac in the short time they'd had together. His attachment is supposed to be mine. I was quietly delighted that Cassion had found someone to care for — and, at the same time, a little sulky about it. Was this how it felt to watch the puppy you'd been raising go trotting happily after someone else?
"Flac is staying. He's just not on this list, so..."
"I'll speak to Liam."
In that brief span, Cassion had already grasped what kind of power Liam held and how to put it to use. Ordinarily I would have insisted on a thorough background investigation first, but knowing Liam's past as I did, I raised no objection.
"By the way, Diana. Weren't you all worked up about something? You said you had good news. What was it?"
Oh, right!
The palace's unexpected commotion had chased it clean out of my head.
"Your Highness, Wizard Gadrian has agreed to become your teacher! And me — His Majesty has acknowledged me!"
The blank look on Cassion's face slowly began to thaw. The corners of his mouth stretched wide; his eyes curved into happy crescents. He beamed — radiant as a flower bursting its bud beneath the spring rain. The same Cassion who had watched, utterly unmoved, while the gloomy 3rd Prince's Palace was gutted and rebuilt now glowed with happiness at my words.
After that, neither of us said anything more. We simply looked at each other and smiled.
That night, lying in bed, I found myself replaying Cassion's smile. It had been so bright it felt as though a lamp had flared suddenly to life, and it stayed with me all through the night — right up until I opened my eyes the next morning.
"What... did you just say, Anderson?"
Julia crumpled the papers in her hand. They concerned how best to breach the hole that had opened in her finances.
"It appears His Majesty has sent all manner of furniture and furnishings, along with valets and maids, to Prince Cassion's palace."
Anderson delivered the report evenly, meeting Julia's frost-rimmed glare head-on. The maids watching the exchange trembled where they stood.
"Then explain. Properly. How did this come about?"
Anderson laid out everything he had learned: the wizard Gadrian's audience with Karman, Kahl's inspection of Cassion's palace soon after, and now today's spectacle. His account was reasonably thorough, yet it resolved none of Julia's real doubts.
"Fine. Let's say Kahl looked over Cassion's palace and kicked up a fuss. Fine. Let's say that's why His Majesty has begun minding Cassion. But Gadrian? Out of nowhere?"
It made no sense for Karman — a man who had known Cassion was being neglected and had looked the other way — to seize on this moment, of all moments, to show fatherly interest. Had paternal love come gushing up after their last meeting? Viewed in the kindest possible light, that much could be waved away.
The problem was Gadrian. The strongest wizard in the world. A dark, formless premonition whispered that Gadrian, Karman, and Cassion were somehow bound together.
"As His Majesty received Gadrian alone, whatever passed between them is beyond my knowledge."
Crash! Julia swept the teacup clean off the table, and it shattered noisily against the floor.
"And that is what you call intelligence? You mean to tell me there is not one wretched rat inside His Majesty's palace?"
How much gold had been stockpiled just to keep a single rat alive! Now that Phoenix Bank was gone and she found herself guarding every last coin, she could finally see what an obscene sum it had been. Money too precious to squander on one rat — poured out for nothing, without a single usable piece of information to show for it.
"I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty. Given time, I will see proper people planted in his palace."
"And you believe that possible in my present circumstances?"
Anderson could not answer with confidence. Julia's finances were in ruins. The secret funds buried in Phoenix Bank had become ownerless money, dissolving into thin air, and with the finance minister now under investigation she had been forced to repay even the sums she had siphoned off in secret.
Julia exhaled a sigh thick with irritation.
"I'll deal with the blocked money lines myself. Your task is to find me someone on His Majesty's side worth winning over."
One person surfaced in Julia's mind. She ground her teeth. She would sooner never have had to extend her hand to that woman — but when hardship struck, that woman was always the first to come to mind. It couldn't be helped.
Mother...
Julia clenched her fist hard, then released it, and fixed her gaze on Anderson.
"Move. Now."
"Understood. And as for Prince Cassion's side..."
"I'll look into that myself."
Julia surged up from her seat.
"Bring me a new dress — this instant!"
she barked at her maids. She had to send word to that woman, and there was somewhere she needed to be without a moment's delay; her heart pounded with impatience. The maids bustled about her, and in no time her toilette was complete. Hair streaming behind her, Julia swept down the corridor and climbed into the carriage kept on permanent standby before the palace.
"Depart for His Majesty's palace."
The carriage drew up before Karman's residence in record time — partly because the queen's palace stood close to the king's, and partly because Julia had forbidden the driver to slow his pace.
"Where is His Majesty?"
While the valets, blindsided by the queen's visit, scrambled about in confusion, Kahl came forward.
"His Majesty is in his office."
Julia did not so much as acknowledge the answer; she made straight for Karman's office.
"Your Majesty, allow me at least to announce your presence to His Majesty first—"
Kahl moved to hold her back. Julia brushed his protest aside and pushed the door open with her own hand.
Karman lifted his head to identify his uninvited guest. Julia glided toward him, a resplendent smile on her face.
"Your Majesty, I have kept a dutiful distance these past weeks, haven't I? I've come because I wished to share an intimate cup of tea with my husband — it has been far too long."
At her honeyed voice, Karman smiled in kind and set down his pen.