Draka was only half paying attention to what he was signing as Valmond moved parchments in front of him. Nancy sanitation works. Alcre keep wall repairs. Priories in need of approvals for whatnot. There were garrisons wanting recruits. Roads and canals maintenance. Tradesmen wanting new contracts. Disputes between landowners. And the titles.

  Those, Draka set to the side. Three lists of Houses, each with headings that separated them. One list was titled, ‘Assumed loyal.’ Another was titled, ‘Neutral.’ The last, ‘Be cautious.’ What vexed him the most was that he had less titles than names by half.

  He rubbed his eyes once he was down to the titles alone, finally able to take a breath after hours of staring at the pages. The candles on the candelabra in front of him were being replaced by Esme and Leo, Hugo’s fourteen-year-old second to youngest brother, one at a time. The wax was dripping from the iron branches like white icicles.

  Both of them were doing their best to wedge the new candles into the holders without leaning too far over the table and stain their new outfits. Esme was in a simple dark green gown, much like Alice’s, with a petticoat of her own, and a squared bodice. Leo was dressed like Valmond; brown tailed coat and matching trousers that were too big for him around the waist but had legs that were too short, and a baggy white cotton shirt beneath. Draka knew that by the end of the week, he would have his own wardrobe, tailored to fit him perfectly and not Valmond’s spares.

  Behind them, the benches of the long tables of the hall were being unfastened from the floor and removed along with one of the tables that had to be fully taken apart in sections. One table would be left behind, dissected into portions to be scattered with room in the center for—much to Draka’s chagrin—receptions and dancing. Valmond warned him before he attempted to stop her that it would be futile. He had no idea that it would be like making a lion take communion and very nearly have the same result. Instead of being mauled, he let her have her way with a nod of approval from her husband.

  He was surprised not to see Alice among them, directing them as they went, but he knew she would be there once the arranging began. It was Aurie who stepped through the door, still dressed in that lavender dress that brought a short-lived grin to his exhausted face. His eyes were heavy with the want to sleep, heavy from reading and signing, and yet, at the sight of her making her way toward them through the sea of men turning wrenches and carrying sections of the tables around her, he felt it momentarily lifted.

  “How goes it?” She asked as she came up on the platform with a lift of the front of her petticoat just enough that he could see the tips of her boots with each step. “I see Pierre and Father Hagen retired.” She looked to where Nina had slumped in a corner, once again in that yellow dress, silently sleeping. Draka caught a glimpse of disdain aimed at his spymaster. “Seems she is devoted.”

  Valmond was undeterred. He pressed his round-rimmed glasses up his long nose and reached for the parchments of titles. Draka leaned back in his chair. He really didn’t want to begin those with how tired he was. Valmond rested his hand on them, his eyes following Aurie as she took her seat beside Draka.

  “We’re down to the distribution of titles and council appointments,” he said, leaning so he could see Aurie around Draka. “I’m surprised the Lady had not retired. Are your accommodations not satisfactory?”

  “They’re…” Aurie drew Draka’s gaze as she mulled over what to say, “fine once there’s a cover for the window. How are you doing, Draka?”

  Draka was resting the back of his head on the top of his chairback. He nodded at her. He could see from her expression that she didn’t believe him. Leo and Esme were finished with the abra and had carried a tray with a steaming kettle and cups that they began setting in front of them.

  “Leo?” Aurie beamed, looking him over. “You look smart, if not for the need of a belt and shorter legs.”

  Valmond cleared his throat. “Well, I have never complained of my wife’s choices in meals. And Leo is quite tall for his age.”

  Aurie smiled as her pale eyes drifted to Draka’s and shot to Leo the moment they met his.

  “Thank you, Aunty—I mean—my Lady,” Leo grinned sheepishly. He stepped aside for Esme to pour tea into the cup.

  “I’m glad your father agreed,” Aurie said warmly to Esme.

  “Me too, my Lady.”

  “Leo is the King’s Cupbearer, officially, and will be training to take my place as Steward one day,” Valmond said proudly before adding with weight in his voice, “If he proves himself worthy of the position. And, Esme…”

  “Is my new Lady in Waiting,” Aurie tilted her head with warmth and pride.

  Draka couldn’t turn away from looking at her. Even when she was so obviously fatigued, Aurie held him with every breath, every movement. He had to look elsewhere before she noticed. He decided to stare at the vaulted wooden ceiling instead. There was a bird’s nest. No birds. Just a nest. He’ll watch that while listening instead.

  “Actually,” Valmond corrected her as Esme and Leo were making their ways off the platform. “Alice is your Lady in Waiting. Esme is being trained and will be considered yours while she shadows Alice for a time. Then, once ready, she will become Maud’s Lady in Waiting.”

  “Oh,” Aurie sounded somewhat disappointed. Or maybe surprised.

  Draka wanted to look again. He’d end up staring at her. He needed to keep watching the nest. He caught the end of a tail feather. There was, in fact, birds in it.

  “She’ll be tending Maud as well while she trains,” Valmond sounded like he was reassuring her. “Just as Leo would be for the King’s male heir, if he had one.”

  “Wouldn’t that be Adrian?”

  Draka thought about that, too. It would be an heir and a spare, he grinned. Opportunities are leaping at him from all directions. Elevate Aurie to her Great-Grandfather’s namesake, adopt Maud, adopt Adrian, abdicate…then her name came forward and Draka rolled his eyes at himself. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

  “Prince Adrian will inherit Anatolia and the Holy Lands upon his Mother’s death,” Valmond said. “The only way he would become Draka’s heir is if Draka divorces…” no one is willing to say her name when I'm around, “and marries Queen Isabella, which, from what I understand, may very well be the reason she is on her way here.”

  A snort and Nina blinked awake with a sleepy, “Huh?”

  “Of course she is,” Aurie grumbled.

  Draka had to look. She was shaking her head. When he turned to Nina, she too was looking irritated as she leaned back into the corner of the wall to continue her nap. Aurie shot him a glare.

  “Is there any woman you haven’t made want to marry you?”

  Draka pointed at her with a questioning shrug. That only earned him a fiercer glare. It wasn’t as difficult to return to the nest this time. It was a little blue head with an orange beak that peeked over the side of it, looking down at him, almost as if it was jeering at him.

  He never understood why Isa had gotten so fixated on him. He never meant to take hold of her heart like he did. If he had known that was what he was doing, he would have distanced himself from her long before then, but he was young and didn’t understand what their walks together, all that time they spent meandering here and there, had meant. What buying that ring in the market had symbolized. His regret was how much pain and suffering he knew he had caused her. When Philip married her in his stead, saving her from public embarrassment, he hoped that it had soothed her heart, perhaps changed it, pulled it from him. Now, he knew that throughout all these years, his friend had been married to a woman who loved another, and that was far worse. But then, he knew that Philip truly loved her, regardless.

  What a mess he has made of things.

  “You know,” Aurie tapped Draka’s shoulder with a facetious grin, “You should get that divorce signed right away and just marry her. That way, all is fixed and you can go have your fun.” And she stood with a scrape of the chair.

  Draka reached for the quill as quickly as he could.

  “Don’t bother,” Aurie shook her head. She pointed, “That one would likely kill for one night with you and a queen is marching an army halfway across the world…”

  “Really just the continent, the world is much big…” Valmond started to correct her.

  “I don’t care,” Aurie cut him off. “She’s coming here for one reason and we all know it.” Her finger jabbed at Draka. “Him. And he’s literally married to the first woman—EVER! I’m going to grab another blanket and try to get some sleep before I go mad.”

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  Draka was thankful for Valmond more than ever. He finished and held up the parchment for Aurie. He had written. Valmond quickly read it out loud for him, “She misunderstood our friendship, I misunderstood her culture. I’m not in love with them.” He underlined, ‘them.’ He felt it important to underline, ‘them.’ Very important.

  Aurie hesitated, her face softening. Then, the glare returned with a flat, “I don’t care anymore. Figure out what you want to do, Draka. My daughter’s life is in your hands. Don’t misunderstand that.”

  She didn’t say another word as she left and Draka didn’t look away. Once she was through the door of the hall, Draka let out a long sigh and bounced his forehead on the table.

  “She’s not wrong,” Nina said through a yawn. “But, I know better.”

  “You should learn your proper place,” Valmond didn’t say it as a chastisement, nor with the tone of warning, but more in the way of fatherly advise.

  Nina pulled herself into the chair nearest her. “I know my place, Valmond,” she leaned over the table and tapped Draka’s arm to make him roll to look at her. “You’re an idiot if you don’t see it. You need to keep up, only this time, I’m keeping up with all the other stuff.”

  Draka shrugged at her. With what, this time? You? I already know you want me. You’re out of your mind. I’d never keep up with you.

  “Please, Nina,” Valmond pled to her. “Now is not the time…”

  “Let’s set the stage,” Nina ignored him, still reaching around him to press her finger on the table in front of Draka’s face. “You have all these women around you, all with reasons for your affection.”

  “You want power,” Valmond narrowed his eyes.

  “I want kindness and power,” Nina shrugged at him. “And I’d like to be loved, too. He doesn’t love me.”

  That made Draka’s brows smush together as he lifted his head to fold his arms under it. Now, he was listening to her.

  “Queen Isabella…I don’t know what she wants, but you don’t love her the way she wants, do you?”

  Draka shook his head.

  “But you need her affection in another way. I’ll play the game to get her to see what I see every day. She’ll leave you be, trust me.” There was a look of caution from Valmond that Nina was ignoring. She leaned toward Draka and whispered, “I know you’re in love with Aurie.”

  Draka’s eyes widened.

  Valmond slapped the table, “You’ve gone too far, Nina. Now, I have warned you over and over again. You are able to be seated at this council so long as you are proper and follow etiquette. But if you do not…”

  Draka slid the parchment he had just finished writing, ‘She’s still mourning.’

  Valmond was taken aback with an eased, “Well.”

  “How much are you willing to wager that those mourning colors will be hard to find the moment Queen Isabella is within sight of this fortress?” Nina winked at him.

  Then, she stood and brought a parchment over and sat in Aurie’s chair. She set it in front of him and pointed to a name on the ‘Caution’ list, “I want to marry him. He has land between here and Metz, enough to make him a Count, but barely a village. There’s a nunnery there, a small one. And he’s wealthy.”

  Draka eyed it. He ran his finger under the list heading with a crooked brow.

  “He has a good point,” Valmond narrowed at her. “Why would a spymaster want one of those we suspect would…”

  Even though she was already blinking at him in gaping confusion, Draka turned to him with much the same expression. Did he really not see the value in that kind of match for her? He decided to hear her reasons, though, since it wasn’t necessarily in his best interests to have her leave with Celestial worshipers possibly at their gates.

  “Normally, it’s the King I have to say this too—keep up!” Nina shook her head at him. She wrote, instead of saying, ‘With a simple forgery, I can be considered a recognized Strasse relative, since everything in Palais Rohan has been lost. Give me an inflated dowry and pass me off as a gesture of good faith—it will be an investment in your favor, I promise—and he’ll quickly send me to stay here as a spy on you. I’ll publicly be a trusted member of house staff by Paladinate, making me very valuable to them. I’ll feed them what benefits us while he feeds me what he thinks I need to know. He’s having an affair with a Metz Marquess. He needs a wife to protect himself from prying eyes. And, I suspect he’s a Celeste.’

  Valmond was about to say something when she held a finger up to her lips and sat herself on the table with a slide of the candelabra. She made certain that their writings were blocked. She tapped the parchment for him to write.

  ‘What if he knows you’re a spy?’ Valmond tapped the quill when he finished. Draka nodded at that and crossed his arms.

  Nina shrugged. ‘He’ll marry me for the money, consummate to be sure that the marriage is legitimate, and have me murdered by the end of the first month.’

  Both of the men furrowed their brows at that.

  ‘I’ll make sure he has a good Christian funeral, I promise,’ Nina grinned like a child would when asking for another helping of dessert. ‘And then I’d use his wealth to build a network that would operate out of his home without compromise. It would make things far easier that way, to be honest. Though, I would be fighting blind in comparison. Celestes are a paranoid lot.’

  Draka looked to Valmond, who nodded with a face full of approval. “It is sound,” Valmond whispered. “We’d have to establish her nobility soon and forge her father's signature legitimizing her, though. As in, immediately.”

  Draka furrowed his brow. 'Is that true? You are one of Christophe von Strasse's illegitimate children?'

  Nina scoffed haugtily and wrote beneath, 'Not his. Baron Louis von Strasse, Christophe’s father-in-law. My mother was one of his house staff. Alice was her replacement way back when.'

  "I knew her mother," Valmond nodded. "And I might be able to get his signature at least close to..."

  “Valmond,” Nina rolled her eyes at him. “The documents of our family tree were lost, remember? My title was usurped, but my King is arranging our marriage as a token of good will and peace in the realm as our wedding gift.”

  ‘You’re a frightening woman,’ Draka wrote.

  “Oddly enough,” Nina shook her head, “I’m actually afraid of the one you’re in love with.” And she slid off to the hall side of the table. “I’ll help Valmond get the documents together. He needs to be invited to a celebration. My recommendation is to postpone the treatise until after the Abbey is retaken. And maybe have it here. But you need to invite the nobility—all of them—to a celebration before Christmas. Michaelmas would be the best time. You need to be the one to host it, not someone else. Here. They need to see who their king is.”

  “They’ll see a simpleton,” Valmond shook his head. “It is too soon.”

  Nina chuckled, shaking her head, though her eyes never looked away from Draka, “That’s not what they’ll see. That’s what Alice thinks they’ll see.” Nina leaned over the table, “I’ll tell you what they’re going to see, my King. They’re going to see the Queen of the Holy Lands and her heir seated at your table as permanent allies. They’re going to see a standing Paladinate army. They’re going to see the royal family surrounded by a village willing to fight to their last breath to defend their homes. And they’re going to see a King that could care less about how his power is perceived, which will do far more than projecting your prestige with displays of your riches.”

  Draka mostly agreed with her. Mostly. He was now living in a fortress, certainly. Well placed, sure. Completely made of wood, though, and within bow range on all but a few angles. Not very formidable, to be honest. Paladinate standing army could be imposing. And not caring about how his power is perceived makes him sound like he’s a fool. He’s beginning to doubt she knows how court works…

  “Your power isn’t the kind they understand,” Nina must have sensed his doubt. “That’s why Christophe thought he could take you. The world saw you overpower him with brute force in a matter of hours with little more than a day of preparation. Everyone knows you have that power. When they come here, they’ll see that you have another power which they’ve never had…love. And they’ll want it, because they’ll see it is worth more than their gold. That’s what I mean.”

  “But love doesn’t gain you allies,” Valmond huffed at her. “Or safety. It tends to create jealousy.”

  “Not when you’re the center of the world,” Nina shrugged at him. “Love is the King’s currency. Favor. The Celestes want Maud for something. Whatever it is, we need to know. Your favor will be how they get close to you. We need to give them an opportunity to present themselves.”

  “Let the snakes into our house, so to speak,” Valmond sounded as unhappy with the idea as Draka did.

  “In a way,” Nina nodded. “Also, to marry me off.” She leaned toward Draka with a scrunched nose, “And, I really want to know if the King can dance.”

  Draka raised a glare.

  “Not with me,” Nina shook her head as she jumped down from the platform. She playfully twirled in her yellow dress, dancing and weaving toward the door at the end of the hall as she said, “Not with me—a tug of war between two, possibly three—but not with me, my poor king.”

  “I didn’t send the correspondence that the treatise be in Nancy yet. Should I change it to be here instead?”

  Draka only nodded, still staring after Nina with a frown.