Extraits

“Dina, we’re going to host sixty-one space chickens.”

Caldenia swept into the room. Her Grace had elevated the idea of aging gracefully to an art. She wore a deep-green robe of shimmering silk. Her grey hair curled on top of her head in an elegant wave, studded with emeralds and dripping with platinum filigree. Her makeup was subtle and flawless, accentuating her cheek bones and brightening her skin. It did nothing to diminish the predatory light in her eyes.

“Why the sour faces?’ she asked.

“The Assembly meeting has been cancelled. We’re hosting a Drífan liege instead,” I told her.

“Which dryht?”

“Green Mountain.”

Caldenia shrugged. “I have no doubt you will rise to the challenge, my dear. Or were you thinking of declining?”

“Gertrude Hunt honors our Treaty Stay obligations,” I told her. “As you well know.”

“Excellent. Life gives us precious few opportunities to put our best foot forward, so when a chance to shine presents itself, one should always take it.” Caldenia grinned, baring inhumanely sharp teeth. “Besides, it’s been almost two weeks since anyone was brutally murdered. Things were getting a bit dull. We wouldn’t want to die of boredom, would we?”

Something banged below us in the kitchen, followed by a deep roar. “Fire!”

Gertrude Hunt must’ve been concerned enough to channel the sound to us.

Sean groaned. “He has to stop doing that.”

“I’ll go check on him.”

Sean was taller than me by a head. The robe covered him from his neck to his toes, but he’d left the hood down. He was very handsome, my Sean. He’d spent a long time trying to win a hopeless war. It left scars even his body with its accelerated regeneration couldn’t heal, and the shadows of its memories still flickered in his amber eyes. But when he was alone with me, like now, his eyes turned warm and inviting, his posture lost the coiled readiness, and he relaxed the way a man would in the safety of his own home.

I studied our reflection. Innkeeper robes came in a variety of styles, but these simple ones were our daily uniform. We looked like a couple. My parents had worn robes just like this, except my father preferred grey and blue.