'Your Highness honours us,' said Isla. Her mentor's relief was palpable. For the first time, Kithrel met her face. No, she corrected. Maharaj Kiet.

Speaker of ancient tongues, master of daemons, brandisher of the void. How could I not have even suspected?

Rajini Amarin smiled, and there was no question wherefrom her son acquired his allure. If she were a killer, she hid it well.

They saw her again that evening, stepping into her royal carriage. 'Do take leisure in the creatures my son has for me acquired,' she said before Samrin slid her door shut. Captain of her personal guard, according to Master Chendra. The dark man scowled at the girls but said nothing. 'I pray you think not cruelly of me. Left in these woods, they only are prey to Judhistir and his seasonal hunts. My dearest husband longs to taste the flesh of all things exquisite; I only to nurture their beauty. I'm certain such flowers as yourselves must understand.'

It had taken her men all afternoon to prepare her acquisition for travel. A line of wagons now tailed the rajini's carriage, most containing sprouts and blooming sprigs. Few bore caged beasts, the largest being a silver-tusked hog. Others were more pleasant to behold: a cage of colourful birds; a black cat curled in a ball; a fan-backed civet; a potted shrub that – upon closer inspection – carried glass-skin caterpillars on every leaf ... 'Where does she even put them all?'

'Come to our estates and you shall see.'

They turned. Kithrel – Kiet – stood amongst the rear guard, a large mount ready beside him.

He caught Isla mid-bow. 'Please, none of that. We will never leave if everyone keeps falling over themselves.'

'Of course, maharaj,' said Isla, stepping away from him and Phrae's murderous glare. 'Our apologies. We didn't mean to cause delay.'

'Not at all.' Kiet seemed puzzled. 'How do you find my mother's collection?'

Miserable. 'They are most beautiful.'

'Beautiful,' he repeated once it became clear no one else would speak. 'Surely you did not ride to the Water Palace?'

'No, maharaj,' said Master Chendra to the rescue. 'Our wagon awaits with the van. If we may request your leave, I should take my girls before we cause you further delay.'

He nodded them away, Isla feeling his sombre gaze upon her neck.

Only once they climbed onto their wagon did Phrae let out a loud gasp. 'I can't believe we talked to Maharaj Kiet! Second in line to the throne!'

'He talked at us, more like,' said Isla.

Phrae ignored her, turning to a giggling Tran. 'Did you hear? He invited us to his estate!'

'He was only making small talk.'

'Oh, you're such a wet blanket, Lilja!'

'Lilja's right.' Master Chendra hissed his lanterns to light and strapped them to his seat. 'For once. He's a maharaj. He was raised to be courteous. Don't let it get in your heads.'

'The whole point of being a dhayang is to find a suitable match!'

'You said it – suitable!' Master Chendra unleashed his frustration upon the horses.

The trees rolled past as they moved; a blur in the dark. More lanterns hissed alive along the caravan.

'Rajini Chei was baseborn,' reminded Phrae. 'And unblooded, at that. The Maha Rama still married her.'

Baseborn? Isla knew the reclusive consort bore no theurgy and no more children, but her being of base birth was new to her. Perhaps that's why she shuts herself from the rest of the palace inhabitants. She's neither one of the royalborn, nor one of the common.

'Rajini Chei is a cunning strategist,' said Master Chendra. 'Had she been born a man, I don't doubt she would've made General of the Maha Garda. In their youth, she foiled a plot against the Maha Rama's life ...'

A strategist.

'... so unless you can match the rajini's assets, I wouldn't count on matching her luck.'

If he's right, then she could easily have orchestrated this grand scheme against me. Isla shivered against the wind and pulled a blanket from the back of the wagon. But for what? To win back her husband's favour by disposing of all who undermine his rule?

It was too trivial a motive. Surely there were less complicated ways of reclaiming a man's affection.

A wolf howled in accord. 'They're much closer than this morning.'

'And so many of them,' added Tran.

'It's blooming season,' said Master Chendra from his box. 'That's mating time for most woodland beasts.'

Isla thought she saw yellow eyes, off in the darkness beyond their flank riders. The horses grew uneasy, as did few of their guards. Their pace gradually slowed over the next mile, coming to an abrupt stop when their foreriders reigned in their horses.

'What is it?' Tran leaned over the edge of their wagon, as though proxomity could clear the surrounding darkness.

A flank rider waved her back, his lantern swinging from its stick. The swaying light revealed three snarling beasts, scenting the horses, approaching from the edge of the trees.

'Ogbu's Eye upon us.' Master Chendra tightened the grip on his horses. 'Lilja, get my crossbow. Left seat compartment.'

She found the weapon, fumbling as she collected its bolts.

'Keep it,' said Master Chendra. 'I've enough trouble keeping these horses steady.'

'But I don't –'

'You need to cock the bow. Foot in the stirrup. Pull with both hands. Hook it over the nut.'

By the time she had its mechanism figured, another pair of wolves had approached right of the wagon. More snarled somewhere behind. Several guards had their arrows nocked.

'Wait.' The voice could only belong to the rajini. 'Do not harm them.'

Rajini Amarin had left the safety of her carriage, and much to the guards' alarm, headed towards the trees. Kiet leapt off his mount to stop her. 'Mother –'

'I will speak to them.'

Isla heard no more of their argument from her place, but the rajini brushed her son aside and greeted the pack where the path met the trees. More guards lifted their weapons, training their bows on the wolf that emerged from its group.

'She's insane,' whispered Phrae. 'She can't do anything. There's no talking to animals!'

Pepper reared its head from Isla's pocket, as though to disagree. But Phrae was right in one thing. The rajini could not control these beasts.

They could make nothing of the exchange. Only the rajini, fixed upon the patriarch. It might have been the lantern lights, but it seemed her eyes blinked into a golden yellow.

The patriarch snarled, baring his fangs. The rajini lowered her head. Kiet drew a fraction of his sword, face taut as the scarred canid sniffed his mother.

'Archers!' Samrin called. The rest of the pack growled in response.

'Stand down!' hissed the rajini, but it was too late.

A nervous guard let loose his arrow, striking a lesser wolf. The rest was a blur of fangs and steel. Kiet pulled his mother aside, covering her from the beast's rage with his own arm. Six more arrows joined his sword into the patriarch's flesh.

Tran yelped, wrenching Isla's attention away. She let loose a bolt, striking a wolf in mid-leap, a nearby rider finishing the job for her. Phrae lifted her arm towards the woods, the air around her fingers thrumming with her budding theurgy. Isla quickly pulled her down. 'You'll burn the whole place!'

'Ride! Go!'

Master Chendra whipped his horses at Samrin's command, the caravan moving too fast for Isla to take aim. Her mentor flung an assailant aside with a gust of wind that near toppled their flank rider off his saddle.

'Ride them down!'

The forest echoed with the creatures' yelps. Tran sobbed into Isla's shoulder.

'I knew we should've left before sundown.' No one contradicted their tutor this time.

They left the pack howling in their wake, only a few straggling wolves remained snapping at their heels. Isla looked back at the last of them; large, grey beasts matted in blood. Kiet rode by his mother's coach, his own robe torn and red, sword still unsheathed.

That's what he'd do to protect his mother from an angry beast. What would he do against an inept spy?

Isla joined the rest of the girls under the cover of their blanket.

Haana's bondmate would be the least of my problems.

❖