“Your Highness,” says Lady Elaine, taking in the situation with a frown as she steps into the clearing. “I see you had a surfeit of trysts planned for this evening.”
Her words wipe the smile from Oak’s face. He was supposed to meet her, and he didn’t pay attention to the zenith of the moon. Didn’t pay attention to anything but Wren. Didn’t care about conspirators or schemes or even his family’s lies.
After years of bending his whole self to be a lure for the worst of Elfhame, he simplyforgotto be that person.
“Moonrise, sunrise, dawn, dusk, zeniths,” he says as flippantly as he can manage. If anything can make this moment worse, it would be his acting as though he feelscaught. “Regrettably, I can be imprecise about imprecise times. My apologies. I hope you didn’t wait long.”
Wren looks between Lady Elaine and Oak, no doubt coming to her own conclusions.
“You’re the girl from the Court of Teeth,” Lady Elaine says, the gossamer of her wings apparent in the moonlight.
“I am the queen of what was once the Court of Teeth.” Wren’s expression is stony, and despite her dress gaping open in the back and the leaves tangled in her hair, she looks quite fearsome. “Betrothed to the Prince of Elfhame. And you are?”
Lady Elaine looks as astonished as if she bit into a pear and found it full of ants. She walks to Oak and puts her arm around his. “I am Elaine.LadyElaine, a courtier from the Court of Moss in the west and an old friend of the prince’s. Isn’t that right?”
“Despite my being a trial to her,” agrees Oak, avoiding giving any real confirmation.
Wren offers up a chilly smile. “I will go back to the feast, I think. Might you do up the back of my dress?”
Lady Elaine gives her a scathing look.
“Of course.” Oak has to hide his smile at that as he walks behind Wren and does up the laces of her gown.
As she makes ready to go, she looks back at Lady Elaine. “I hope he will give you half the delight he’s given me.”
Oak has to swallow a laugh.
As Wren leaves, Lady Elaine turns to Oak, hands on her hips. “Prince,” she says, sterner than any instructor in the palace school.
He is so tired of being treated as though he is a fool, as though he is in need of—what did Randalin say about Wren—alittle guidance. Maybe he is a fool, but he is a fool of a different sort.
“There was little I could do,” he protests with a shrug, choosing his words carefully. “She is my betrothed, after all. It’s not the easiest thing to get rid of someone.”
Lady Elaine’s mouth relaxes a little, although she’s not going to let him out of this that easily. “You expect me to believe you wanted to be rid of her?”
Well, it would beconvenientif she thought that. “I mean her no insult,” Oak says, deliberately misunderstanding. “But you were going to introduce me to your friends—and, well, I haven’t seen you in a long while.”
“Perhaps it’s time you explained this betrothal,” she says.
“Not here.” It’s too strange to stand in the place he was with Wren and attempt to deceive Lady Elaine about her. “Where was it you were going to take me?”
“We were to meet at the edge of the Crooked Forest,” she tells him, walking with him as he makes his way down one of the paths. “But they will be long gone. This is dangerous, Oak. They are putting themselves at great risk for your benefit.”
He notes that she didn’t sayfor your sake, although he’s sure that’s how she wants him to take her words. “Wren is powerful,” Oak says, hating himself. “And would be useful.”
“That point has been made to me before,” Lady Elaine says bitterly, and to his surprise. “That you were clever to make this alliance, and having the storm hag with her puts us all in a better position.”
For a moment, he is tempted to explain that Bogdana is never going to be on the side of anyone with his bloodline, but what would be the point? Let her believe anything that will have her accepting Wren and taking him to the rest of the conspirators.
“She will make you unhappy,” Lady Elaine tells him.
“Not all alliances are happy ones,” he says, and takes one of her hands in his.
“But you,” she says, putting her hand to his cheek. “You, who have little experience of sacrifice. Who have always seemed filled with such joy. How will you bear it when that joy is dimmed?”
He laughs outright at her words and then has to think fast to cover up the reason. “See? I can yet be merry. And I shall be merry still, even if wed.”
“Perhaps this plan asks too much of all of us,” Lady Elaine says, and he understands.Her plan, to be by his side, at the very least a sort of ruling consort, would be in shambles were he to marry Wren. If she cannot have that role, then she doesn’t want to risk her neck.
