Page 59 of Stranger's Choice
Mitana grabbed her flute and was back out the door in a flash, though she slowed her steps as soon as she passed into the hall.
Auraelie nodded at Lhashiki. “I should be on my way, too, before the prince wonders what is keeping me.”
“One moment. Mitana bumped you as she came in, didn’t she? What did you see?”
From the corner of her eye, Auraelie noticed most of the Will present turn to face her. They all waited to hear what she had spied in Mitana’s future.
She shrugged. “She needn’t have worried so much about the flute. She won’t be using it tonight.”
Lhashiki frowned. “That’s all?”
It wasn’t. But Auraelie would not tell Lhashiki the most important vision she had seen. It was only a brief glimpse nearly lost among the flashes of gray. But she had seen Mitana dressed in something other than the Will’s black. Auraelie wasn’t the only one with freedom as a possible future, and she would no more risk Mitana’s chance than her own.
“I saw plenty more, but it was all the usual. Nothing worth describing.” Auraelie glanced over at the people silently watching her exchange with Lhashiki. She couldn’t quite judge the expressions of the two other women in the room, but she had the feeling they were both relieved and disappointed with her pronouncement. And yet, it wasn’t the same mixture of relief and disappointment as Lhashiki sported.
Auraelie tried to figure out the difference, but she simply couldn’t puzzle it out. She wished Sebin were there. No doubt he’d understand all the undercurrents she missed.
“I really must be going now.” Auraelie said, opening the door and stepping into the hall. “Have a good evening, Lhashiki.”
Sebin retired tohis room in a pensive mood. He needed a strategy. If he didn’t give Tjalik a plan soon, the man might fall back to his plans of a bloody coup with no system in place to take over after the civil war ended. If he didn’t give Heolin a plan, the sprite might not bother convincing the magical races that stepping into human politics was worthwhile.
The courtiers so far had given him little to work with. He had a few threads to pluck, but if they did not lead to anything, he wasn’t sure what else he might try.
Auraelie slipped into his room. She paused just inside the doorway, scrutinizing him. “What’s wrong?”
She walked around the table and sat down next to him, her side pressed against his, her head on his shoulder. Sebin wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He had learned in the past couple of weeks that she enjoyed as much contact as possible. She cuddled any chance she got, as if she sought to make up for a lifetime’s isolation all with him. He didn’t mind.
He enjoyed holding her close as they spoke in the evenings, wrapping her in his body as they slept, kissing her whenever the urge struck. In private. He still acted as though her ban on touching applied in public. At first, he hadn’t wanted to call attention to any change in their behaviors, but as the days passed, he realized that he had to maintain the act for both their sakes. He didn’t know what the consequences might be if the Emperor realized Auraelie meant more to Sebin than a bed warmer. He did not want to find out what the Emperor might do with such leverage. Especially not now, when he was on the verge of organizing the rebellion meant to free her.
“I didn’t have much luck tonight,” Sebin said. He rearranged their bodies so that she sat between his legs, her back pressed to his chest.
“You seemed to be doing well with Pianti before I left.”
Sebin wrapped his arms tighter around Auraelie’s waist and kissed her neck. “Pianti’s flirting is an act. A distraction to make sure people don’t look at her too closely. I think she’s realized that I have no intention of following up on any flirting, and that is why she is so extreme with me.”
He would have reassured Auraelie before now if he had realized she was jealous of the other woman. Though, now that he thought about it, she tended to leave to eat her own supper early on the evenings he spoke with Pianti.
Auraelie didn’t look at him. “She attends every Star Room party the Emperor hosts. Her flirting is not an act.”
“I suspect she has a particular interest in those parties, and her flirting is a cover to make sure no one realizes. I don’t know enough about the parties to say for sure, but is it possible there is somebody she can only be with in that environment?”
Sebin had caught glimpses of Pianti’s distaste for both the Moon and Star Room over the weeks. Never anything solid, but combined with the way she flirted—outrageously with those who’d never follow up on it, playing one against another with those that would—he suspected most of her court persona was an act. It was a good one, though, and he did not have a solid sense of the true woman behind the mask.
“Qilar.” Auraelie twisted to look at Sebin, her own eyes wide. “She always ends up with Qilar at those parties. I’ve seen it in her future over the years, but I’ve also seen her with him outside of those parties.”
“The Emperor’s bodyguard?” Sebin had never caught a glimpse of any attachment or attraction between Pianti and the bodyguard.
“Yes.”
Five hells. Qilar was one of the Emperor’s Will. Like Auraelie. Maybe he had more in common with Pianti than he had suspected. He’d better get all the information he could from Auraelie before he approached the other woman and tested his theory. “I know the answer, but I’m going to ask in case I am wrong. Does Qilar choose to attend those parties?”
“No. The Star Room parties are the only time the Emperor makes him available to others. He can take his own lovers other nights, but he and Lhashiki are much of the reason why an invitation to the Star Room is so coveted.”
“Has he had many lovers?”
“I know of no lovers at all based solely on gossip, and I’ve only seen him with Pianti or in the Star Room in my visions.” A crease wrinkled Auraelie’s brow. “Actually, even in the Star Room, I think he is almost always with Pianti.”
“She might be exactly who we need, then.” Sebin pressed his lips to Auraelie’s in a brief kiss. “I’m going to have to flirt with her some more. It is the only way our conversation will go unremarked.”
