Page 75 of The Mercy of Dawn

“Right.” Mikael looked at Cyril. “And you said…?”

“Warm. Sun.”

He nodded slowly, and the temptation to forcibly remove the surprised look from Mikael’s face was difficult to ignore.

If the prince thought she was all brawn and no brains because of that afternoon, he was sorely mistaken. Cyril didn’t have the brute force of Ren or the others, or the masterful mind of someone like Tobias, but Dion had done well to ensure her upbringing had a measure of balance. She spent just as much time with books as she did with weapons.

“Honestly, Cyril, I’m impressed,” Runa said. “Not many people can read the old language well, and even fewer can speak it with any sort of fluency. Just that you are even attempting to learn it is a feat you should be proud of.”

Cyril smiled sheepishly.

It had been out of necessity that she learned at least a base amount of it for their investigations. It likely wouldn’t have been something she ever attempted on her own. But Runa dished out compliments and praise unlike anyone she’d ever met before.

Were mothers just…like this?

“Doesn’t Astor speak it fluently?” Mikael asked, and Cyril was certain that was the only time she’d ever heard him speak his brother’s name.

She’d almost forgotten about the crown prince with the time he’d been away with his wallflower of a wife.

“Ah, sort of.” Runa grimaced—not well, then. Mikael huffed a laugh into his glass of wine. “He can manage. He learned enough to make Reyna comfortable since it’s her mother tongue and what she prefers to speak when given the chance.”

And just like that, the queen addressed Cyril’s curiosities about why the crown princess had such an unusual accent. She just hadn’t considered that Reyna could still be from Reykr.

“I had no idea that’s what she spoke,” Cyril said. “It would have been great to have her around when Tobias and I were translating this decrepit scroll on elemental cleansing. It took us hours to get through it, and—”

“You translated an old text?” Mikael sounded tucked somewhere right between shocked and impressed, but his mother swatted at him.

“Never mind him, did you say elemental cleansing?”

“I, uh… Yes, and yes.” Cyril blinked at them both. “I thought it might have something to do with the patterns of the runes left behind at each of the murders”—and she still thought it did, despite everything—“but, well, it looks like I was wrong about it.”

She could’ve sworn the prince snorted, but Cyril was more focused on making sure Dion wasn’t listening from where he smoked and drank with Lars at the far end of the room.

“What was your theory?” Runa asked.

Gods, Cyril didn't feel like humoring another person with the story of her failure. She’d keep it brief for the queen.

“A few years ago, we had a vigilante in Epheos, our port in Helia, who went around and killed half a dozen criminals. With the whole notion of the elements and using them to cleanse like the scroll said the old culture here used to practice, I thought something similar could be happening. But I went through all the victim files with Dion and, well…”

“Was it Dion that said you were wrong?”

“In more words than that, but yes.” She sighed. “There isn’t a single reason anyone would want to…cleanse any of those poor people. So I was mistaken.”

“I see. Well, perhaps tomorrow afternoon, if the commander will grant you an early leave”—Runa tossed a pointed glance at her son—“you can finally join me for that walk in the gardens. I’d love to hear more about what you’ve been learning.”

Mikael sipped his wine and shrugged.

“Cyril is free to come or go whenever she wants.” There was just a hint of bitterness in the sidelong glance he cast on her. Cyril reveled in it. “She earned that.”

“She certainly did.” Runa grinned and looked back at her. “You’ll join me?”

“I’d like that.” Cyril nodded.

It sounded lovely, and she had carried a kernel of guilt about Runa’s first failed attempt to take her to the gardens. She admired them from her room every day and had plenty of opportunities to visit them, but it never felt right to go on her own.

The queen gave her a nod of acknowledgment and rose from her chair.

“I think it’s time for me to turn in. I’ll leave the two of them to enjoy themselves,” she said, tipping her head toward Lars and Dion.