She waited until she was at the peak of the stairs before lifting Pepper off her shoulder. 'Find Sir Edric. The Grand Palace guest wing. I need to speak to him.' She placed it gently on the banister. 'Mind that cursed owl.'

The salamander curled under the wood and scampered away, out of sight. Isla was making her own way down the stairs when a voice called from the landing above.

'What did the rajini want with you?' Kiet took the stairs until he was level with her.

'She's offered me a place in her service.' Not that it's any business of yours. Still, he was a maharaj, and Isla did not need to anger any more royals than she had to.

'You're shaking.' He took her trembling hand. That was far too presumptuous, and Isla snatched it away. 'What did you tell her?'

'That I would think upon it.'

He paused. 'I would recommend against engaging with anyone of the royal house unless absolutely necessary.'

'Including yourself? Oh Maharaj Kiet, second in line to the throne of Surikhand?'

'We have much to speak of.' He smiled, letting her jibe slide without comment.

'If you wish to expose me, Your Highness, you can do so without prior discussion.' It doesn't matter now, anyway. I'm done for.

'I do wish to expose you, but not in the way you think.'

Isla let a sound of disgust and walked away, Kiet quickly pursuing.

'That would be the sailor in me. It's been a challenge to rid of him entirely, now that I am home.'

'I get rather tired of your excuses.'

'You're right.' Voices carried from the second floor. It would be unwise to be caught in the prince's presence, and so Isla stopped to hear him out. 'I apologise. That was indecorous. It shan't happen again.'

She had to get rid of him before they were seen. 'What do you wish to speak of?'

'Not here. I shall arrange for my house liveries to be sent to your chambers. Come to my mother's estates tomorrow morning at ten-bells.'

'I was recommended not to engage with any royalborns.'

'Ah, but this one holds your entire future in his hands.' He left. Isla thought no more of it. There would be time, later, to worry about Kiet.

     
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The sun was just about setting when she re-emerged into the courtyard, now empty but for a few dhayang cleaning the green – and Phrae, waiting under the colonnade.

As if I don't have enough problems right now.

Isla deliberated on finding a different route, but Phrae had already caught her eye and hurried to walk beside her. 'That took you long enough.'

'I didn't ask you to wait,' said Isla, in no mood for her digs.

Phrae snorted. 'I wasn't waiting for you.'

'Who, then?'

'That epprakin. She hasn't come out yet, unless she saw me waiting and took another exit like the craven she is.'

The one who entered the adjacent room. She had not seen her leave, come to think of it.

'She was also summoned, though I'm not sure by which rajini,' continued Phrae.

'What do you want with her?'

'A second match, of course. We'll see how well she plays when her opponent knows her game.'

'Best of luck with that.' Isla quickened her pace, hoping Phrae would catch the hint, but the girl was unrelenting.

'I'm not done with you.' She grabbed Isla's arm, forcing her to a stop. 'Let me guess. The rajini offered you a position.'

Phrae's fingers dug deep into Isla's skin. She shrugged it off and matched Phrae's glare. 'I haven't accepted anything. Now, I'm quite busy, so –'

'Does she know about your pet lizard?'

'Pep – is – not – a lizard.'

'Does she know you're lying about your theurgy?'

I knew this would come, sooner or later. Of course everything has to come crashing down all at once. 'What do you want?'

Phrae gave a hint of a smile Isla wanted to smite off her face. 'Just a small favour.' She hurried Isla across the courtyard and into a row of brick arches tunnelling through the academy building. It was a long walk, and the wind whistled loud enough to mask their conversation. 'You've found yourself a willing patron, but not all of us are so lucky. We all want to get out of here, Lilja.'

'We haven't even spent a year here. We've got two before they send us off.' Even then, the Water Palace is a far more promising prospect than a loveless marriage.

'I have no interest in staying for a year, let alone two.' The last of Phrae's sentence echoed through the tunnel. 'The longer we remain unwed, the lesser our value. Surely even you should know this. Who wants to wed a Water Palace girl? They call them the academy castoffs for a reason. Second-rate rejects ...'

Haana was a Water Palace girl. Perhaps too wild – too untamed for the regular gentleman – but certainly not incompetent. Let's see Phrae call her second-rate.

'... only old, desperate men in search of a young lover,' continued Phrae. 'That's who. They'd take anything available.'

'Our potential suitors here did not look to be so different.' Isla sniffed, recalling the men watching from the balconies. Dressed in large robes and hiding their age-spotted faces behind equally large beards.

'They disgust you? They're nothing compared to the senile pigs you'll see hunting girls at the Water Palace. My aunt was a Water Palace girl. The shame of her family. You should see her husband.'

A strong gale ripped above them, rattling the hanging lanterns. Their yellow light flickered over the cobbled ground as they shook. The wind only grew so wild late in the evening; and sure enough, the peal of seven-bells soon rung far in the distance. 'Enough of this talk. Tell me what you want.'

'We're getting there.'

The tunnel opened into the academy gardens, now settling into darkness. Phrae led them straight towards the edge of the fields where a trail of carriages waited by the tree line.

'I've found someone,' Phrae said suddenly. 'A young someone. Who happens to be the son of a minor lord, and looking for a bride.'

Isla saw the direction she was going. 'I've told you, Phrae. I can't coerce emotions that aren't already there. That includes love, or attraction, or whatever it is you're expecting I do for you.'

'As if I needed anything other than my charms.' Phrae stopped close to one of the carriages, towards which a young man was making his way. 'There's a tavern just outside the north-eastern gate. The one with the sign of a suckling pig hanging over its awning. I need you to make him stop there.'

The coachman jumped off his carriage to open the door for his master. Light from within spilled onto the young lord's face. 'That is Tran's –'

'Never mind Tran.'

Isla watched her closely. 'Tran has only the next turn of the month to find a suitor. You have two years.'

'I doubt any of us will find a suitor as young and handsome as he, no matter how many years we spend here.'

'You're being unnecessarily cruel.'

'And you're running out of time.' The young lord was saying his farewells to a group of older men. 'If he falls for my charms, he doesn't deserve our friend.'

'You don't even know what a friend is.' Isla turned away from her, as though she had a choice. Any reservations the queen consort had regarding Isla's duplicity would be blown right out the water if she was discovered lying about her theurgy.

'Well?'

'Shut up!' snapped Isla. But Tran's so happy ...

'You're the one who offered to give me an upper hand where you could.' Phrae folded her arms. 'First night we arrived at the asraam. Remember?'

Of course I bloody well remember, you selfish brat! What was there to do? Isla pushed Tran's face out of mind along with her shame.

The wind whipped at her skin. She focused on the cold as she stole into the young lord's mind. He was hidden behind hard walls, and Isla did not have much time before he would leave ...

'Is it done?' demanded Phrae.

Isla stretched herself over the young lord's walls, careful not to brush against its presence. 'I need you to distract him.'

Phrae took off after a pause. Isla paid no heed to where she could have gone. She had found a weakness in the young lord's mind-shield. A fray in his canvas. It was exhausting work, sustaining defences for hours on end as he surely must have done. It was not unusual for bricks to come loose.

A cry tore through the evening, along with a spark of something red and flickering in Isla's periphery. The young lord's shield wavered. Isla shot through the miniscule gap, working quickly through his roots.

It was second nature to her, now, planting seeds into her host's mind. Knitting them into his own thoughts as though his own. Seamlessly, as the weaves of a tapestry.

'You better tell me I didn't burn that girl's robes for nothing.' Phrae had returned beside her, a little short of breath.

The young lord entered his carriage and was soon off. His mind gradually faded until it disappeared entirely; sand slipping from Isla's grasp. 'It's done. I gave him a bit of thirst, and the thought of rice wine and suckling pig to dwell upon.'

'I'd better be off, then. I'll bring you back something nice for your trouble.'

Isla did not know how Phrae planned on sneaking out of the palatial ring, but did not care enough to ask. 'I want nothing from you.' She turned on her heels and headed in the general direction of the main palace.

She could not bear to picture the look on Tran's face, if her young lord fell for Phrae's charms. And who wouldn't, with a face like that? Like it or not, she's intelligent, too. Not to mention cunning, that treacherous little bitch.

Her nails bit into her palms. Isla unclenched her fists. Who was she fooling? Blackmailed or no, she had played a part in Phrae's betrayal.

Phrae was becoming too much of a liability, and she had enough of those. She needed all her wits to stay one step ahead of the rajini. What's the woman waiting for, anyway? What's she brewing in that scheming little head of hers?

A shadow passed from above. She looked up, half expecting to find Huu circling her like prey, but it was only Whitebill. Isla quickened her pace to follow the erne.

Perhaps she's waiting for my second blooding results to come, whatever the reason. Or perhaps she isn't sure yet of my true identity ...

But why not kill her, anyway? She was only a dhayang.

A second-rank dhayang, she reminded herself. One of only two in the academy, the rajini herself had said. Perhaps her theurgy protected her in more ways than she realised.

Her head split with all the possibilities. She needed more than luck and her theurgy to fend off a rajini. Now she had Phrae to worry about on top of it all ... the girl was becoming such a liability, and a huge distraction.

A distraction. Of course.

That was exactly what she needed.
      

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