Her—theoretically. But that would tell them too much. ‘It’s in a kind of trust.’
‘Rio made it sound as if it were his.’
Of course he did. ‘Then he was mistaken.’ She took a sip of her drink.
Raoul flicked a pip from a slice of lemon at Lula. ‘And you call me nosey! Leave the poor girl alone and dance with me. I have some new moves to show you.’
Lula groaned. ‘I don’t think I’m ready for this.’
‘The world is never ready for me. Coming, sweetie?’
‘OK, if you insist.’ Lula jumped up and took his hand.
‘I’ll be back to ask all you pretty ladies to dance with me so don’t run away!’ called Raoul.
Magda rolled her eyes. ‘Such a shame he plays for the other side. For all Lula’s teasing, that boy can dance.’
She was right. Raoul and Lula made the best couple on the floor. Meri was surprised to see Leah was out there too, dancing with a guy Meri thought she recognized as a footman from the palace. She caught Leah’s eye and her maid grinned, giving her a little wave of her fingers where they rested on her partner’s shoulder.
‘Someone you know?’ asked Magda.
Meri was spared having to answer as a boy came over and asked Magda to dance. That left Meri feeling a wallflower on their table. Rather than sit pathetically on her own, she decided to visit the food stalls. Shrugging out of her jacket, she laid it on the bench to reserve it for her party. She wasn’t sure if that worked but others had done the same so it looked like the thing to do.
‘Everything all right, miss?’ asked Bernard. He had reluctantly disobeyed his orders from the council to drive her directly home after classes and insisted on keeping watch over her from a discreet distance. He did not find himself in an easy position, fidgeting as if he was standing on a nest of red ants.
‘Yes, thank you, Bernard. Everything OK?’
‘I’ve had a text telling me to bring you back. The council don’t want you out at night.’
‘And what did you reply?’
‘That I took my orders from you, not them.’
‘Thanks, Bernard.’
‘Just, do me a favour, ma’am: don’t go out of my sight? I’d lose my job if anything happened to you.’
She wasn’t intending to make life difficult for him even if the watch over her was annoying. ‘I was just going to try some of the food on the street stalls.’
‘Very good, ma’am.’
She wandered from stall to stall, feeling lonely even though she was in the middle of the crowd. Maybe that was why she felt particularly sad? Last time she’d wandered a market she’d been with Kel. It was good to be out but she still wasn’t able to be normal, was she? Who else here had a council of ministers barking about curfews and a bodyguard hovering?
Enough of the pity party, Meri. She tried a sample of a prawn kebab and bought a whole one, standing by the counter to eat it off the bamboo stick. It was delicious, tasting of ginger, coconut, lime and chilli. An ice-cream would make a good chaser to that. As she turned to seek out another stall, someone touched her arm.
‘Meri? What are you doing here?’ It was Rio. He didn’t sound like he normally did. Maybe he was acting like a decent human being because he had Clarice with him?
‘Hi, Cousin Rio. I’m enjoying myself. You?’
‘You know you shouldn’t be out on your own.’
‘I’m not on my own. I have Bernard—say hi to Bernard!’ She waved at the bodyguard. ‘And I came with friends from college. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your partner?’ A muscle ticked in Rio’s jaw. OK then. ‘Hi, I’m Meri, or Meredith to Rio but he’s forgotten that. And you’re Clarice? He’s told me so much about you.’ Like nothing.
Clarice was unaware of the undercurrents to this conversation so took the introduction at face value. ‘Nice to meet you, Meri. I love your dress—those beads at the back are so lovely. You’ll have to tell me where you got it from.’
‘Thanks. A friend picked it out for me.’
‘You know something? I had no idea how grown up you were! Rio made you sound like an infant when he mentioned his little cousin.’
‘Yeah, he’s funny like that, full of odd stories about me, none of which are true. So, how long have you two been an item then?’
Rio took Meri’s arm, this time with a more familiar roughness. ‘Let’s dance, little cousin. Clarice, you don’t mind do you? It looks like Meri won’t get to dance unless I ask her.’
‘No problem, Rio. I’ll meet you back at our table.’ Clarice moved five paces and was intercepted by a boy who had been waiting for his chance to invite her to take a spin with him.
‘Uh-oh, Rio. If you stick with your supposed fiancée, then your real girlfriend is going to get away,’ chided Meri.
Rio said nothing, just marched her through the crowds and onto the dance floor.
‘How does that work, by the way? Did you tell her you were proposing to another girl while you were dating her? That seems…let me think. What’s the word I’m looking for? Dishonest.’
He grabbed Meri in a punishing hold and started swaying in time to the music. He was usually a smooth mover; right now he looked as natural as a robot. ‘Will you just shut up!’
Meri laughed. ‘Why? This isn’t my fault, Rio. I’m not the one stringing along multiple girls.’
‘That’s not what I’m doing.’
‘Isn’t it?’
‘I have feelings for Clarice.’
‘And none for me, yet it is me who you want to marry. How do you square that particular circle?’
‘I don’t want to marry you.’
‘But you will anyway if the council asks it of you. Gosh, I’m so flattered.’ Meri wanted to kick him in the shins but he was moving too fast, spinning her around the dance floor as if making her dizzy would somehow solve this embarrassment he had caused. ‘Why is it me that gets punished?’
‘I’m not punishing you.’
‘Tell that to my bruised wrist.’
His grip eased. ‘You, of all people, should understand that feelings don’t always keep in step with duty.’
‘Then tell the council that you like Clarice and let me off the hook. At the moment, they think I’m the bad guy refusing to do my duty producing little pure-blooded babies with you.’
He flinched. ‘It’s the future.’
‘Not mine.’
‘We don’t have a choice, you and I.’
‘There’s always a choice.’
He steered her to the far side of the dance floor, stopping in a dark patch under some trees that were just coming into leaf. The air smelt of honey and scent of food being cooked over open fires not far away. ‘You still don’t get it, do you? You’re swimming against the tide.’
‘I’m a good swimmer.’
‘No one is that good. The Crown is bigger than you. We have centuries of history to preserve and it is worth our sacrifices…. No!’ He made a sudden lunge for Meri and knocked her sideways just as someone else sliced a blade through the beads at the back of the dress, sending them flying like pellets of hail. A fiery pain followed as the knife tip raked across her skin. She hit the ground hard while people around her screamed. She was too stunned to make a sound. ‘Stop him!’ shouted Rio, haring off into the darkness after the attacker.
When her thoughts caught up with her fall, she realized she might still be in danger. The people trying to help her to her feet were all strangers. There might be more than one assassin.
‘Bernard!’ she shouted, trying to push away the helping hands.
‘I’m here, miss.’ He muscled his way through the crowd. She immediately felt so much happier with him at her side. ‘Don’t worry, folks, it’s just a scratch. Yes, yes, I’ll take her to a doctor,’ he assured the onlookers.
‘Oh my gosh, Meri!’ exclaimed Lula, dragging Raoul with her. ‘What happened?’
Someone had just tried to stab her in the back. Meri shook so hard she couldn’t form the
words of explanation.
‘It was a mugging—he had a knife,’ said Leah, hurrying forward. ‘I saw what happened.’
Lula spotted the injury between Meri’s shoulder blades. ‘You’ve been cut. It’s bleeding badly. Raoul, take off your shirt.’
‘Not my best shirt,’ groaned Raoul but he obliged.
Lula used it to dab at the wound while Bernard called for an ambulance. Leah hovered, uncertain if she should acknowledge that she knew Meri.
‘Where are your things, er, lady?’ asked Leah, crouching down beside her.
‘Raoul, can you get Meri’s bag and jacket?’ said Lula.
‘Just a jacket. I gave my bag to Bernard earlier.’ Meri stared blankly at her nails. They were encrusted with mud from where she hit the ground under the trees and the front of the red dress stained.
‘How did you get into trouble so quickly? I thought I saw you with your cousin in the middle of the dance floor?’ asked Lula when Meri hissed as she touched a particularly painful spot.
‘Yes, we were dancing,’ Meri said through gritted teeth.
‘You were arguing.’
‘We were multitasking.’
‘If you can crack jokes then you can’t be hurt too badly. Where is he now?’
‘He shoved me out of the way and chased off after my attacker.’
The ambulance arrived, blue lights competing with the flashing stage lighting. Bernard took over from Lula, thanking her for her assistance but firmly showing that her part was over. He helped Meri inside. The paramedic advised her to lie flat on her stomach so she could take a look at the wound. Leah slipped in with her at the last moment.
‘Don’t worry, Bernard. This won’t mean your job,’ Meri promised, feeling lightheaded, a mixture of shock, pain and blood loss.
He just shook his head. ‘I’ll follow you to Casualty, miss.’
The door closed on the happy sounds of the fiesta. Meri hid her face against the mattress. The party was definitely over.
After a few hours of checks, the doctors didn't think Meri required admitting to a ward at the hospital but could be discharged. Her wound was cleaned and stitched, instructions given how to care for the injury, and then she could be released in the small hours of the morning. Leah had stayed with her throughout and, thanks to the magic that was all her own, had managed to source a change of clothes for Meri. Gone was the bloodstained red dress; in its place was a loose shirt and trackies. The shirt was a good idea as her injury hurt most when she raised her arms or put any strain on her back.
Waiting for the paperwork to be completed in the false name Leah had given for her, and the bill to be paid so there was no follow up to chase her back home, Meri had plenty of time to contemplate what the attack on her meant. How was a girl supposed to feel after surviving an assassination attempt? She hadn’t seen her assailant but there had been no telltale flare of a Perilous in an aggressive mood, nothing to warn her that she was about to face a deadly enemy. Unless Rio had caught him, she would have to assume that her instinct was right and it had been one of her enemies on the Tean side who had turned on her. Francis had warned her that she had lost much of the support she had been given as the heir. It seemed that once they got to know her, they really didn’t like her.
Meri tried to sip some water but was trembling so hard she spilt most of it. Narrowly missing death does that to a person, she thought bleakly. She would give the world right now to have Kel hug her and tell her that it was going to be OK. But it wasn’t, was it? She had made a huge, possibly fatal, mistake coming here.
Darker thoughts bubbled up. Had Rio manoeuvred her so that she had her exposed back to the darkness. He had picked the one spot on the square where Bernard had not been able to see the threat before it struck. Yet Rio had also saved her by pushing her clear. Was that part of the plan? Set himself up as the hero of the day, confirm her unpopularity and vulnerability? It was a Byzantine plot if that was the case—and he had seemed genuinely surprised to find her at the fiesta.
She just didn’t know.
The curtain to her cubicle fluttered and the man himself entered. Meri told herself not to flinch.
‘Did you catch him, Rio?’
‘No. He jumped on the back of a moped and got away.’ He sounded genuinely peeved.
‘He had an accomplice?’
‘Yes.’
‘Any guesses who hates me enough to knife me?’
He shook his head.
‘And you probably wouldn’t tell me even if you did know.’ Stress was making her say more than she normally would.
‘That’s not fair. My reflexes saved you.’
‘Thanks for that. I suppose it would’ve looked highly suspicious if the heir had died with the next-in-line standing within arm’s reach.’
‘You don’t sound very grateful.’
She began to laugh but it hurt. ‘Rio, why should I be? You’re the source of the poisonous rumours that means I’m hated by people I don’t know and never met. You may not have meant to, but you set me up for this.’
‘That’s what you really think? That it’s my fault?’
She shrugged—again a mistake.
‘If you want to find someone to blame, you should look in the mirror.’
‘Oh, just go, Rio. I’m tired and I’m hurt. I can’t be dealing with this argument now. Is Leah outside?’
‘Yes.’
‘Send her in, please. I’m getting out of here even if they’ve not finished the paperwork.’
Back at the palace she waved off the reception committee of Derwent and Tegel waiting to haul her over the coals for daring to go out for an evening. To her mind, that wasn’t the issue that should worry them. The real problem was that someone wanted her dead.
17
Getting into the hotel hadn’t been as easy as Sadie had promised. She was right that the hospitality robot was a walkover—one zap from a handheld remote and it went into shutdown for five minutes while Kel and Nixie passed through the small foyer. The problem came in the lifts and was completely human in nature. Miss Hardcastle rushed in from the street and joined them in the car just as the doors closed.
Flipping up his hoodie, Kel quickly turned his back. ‘My old teacher,’ he whispered in Nixie’s ear.
‘Sadie, you should’ve told me that you were going out,’ said Miss Hardcastle, frowning at her least favourite pupil.
‘I just went to the corner shop,’ said Sadie, ‘for some lozenges.’ She gave a not very convincing cough.
Miss Hardcastle took a step away, a little closer to Kel. ‘If your cold gets worse, you might want to consider staying in tomorrow.’
Kel could feel the teacher’s attention moving to his back. She was probably trying to work out if he was one of her party.
‘Kiss me,’ Nixie mouthed.
He hesitated.
Nixie spoke up loudly in Danish, grabbed him by the sides of his head and pulled him down for a kiss.
‘I would say “get a room” but they probably already have.’ Was that Miss Hardcastle making a joke? ‘Ah, my floor. You have my number if you feel worse in the night, Sadie.’
‘Yes, miss.’
As soon as the door closed on them, Kel broke away.
‘Awkward. Sorry,’ he told Nixie.
She smiled sheepishly and shook her head. ‘My idea, remember?’
In Sadie’s little bathroom, Kel stood under the jet of hot water. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a real shower. It had to be months ago, on board the yacht, other baths having been taken in rivers and the occasional strip-down wash in a sink. He hadn’t been anywhere with a mirror and good lighting during that time either so he hadn’t checked out the markings on his chest. He wiped the condensation off the surface with his forearm. The marks were still there. If he wasn’t worried that they were the result of internal burns, he would actually quite like them. The marks had stopped with two perfect spirals back to back. Anyone glancing at them would assume he’d had a styliz
ed butterfly tattooed on his chest.
Perhaps he should not be anxious about internal injuries? He’d had them months now with no ill effects. If he could only persuade Meri not to freak out when she saw them, then they might be OK. Best not to show them to anyone else though.
Kel pulled a clean T-shirt over his head and went out into the small room with its queen-sized bed. There was just enough room for him to spread out between the foot of that and the wardrobe and Sadie had already made up a bedding roll for him out of the quilt and some of the scatter cushions.
Nixie and Sadie were sitting either side at the head of the bed. Sadie had lent her laptop to the Danish girl so she could catch up with her brothers. Nixie was speaking rapidly to one of them now in video call mode. Sadie was still playing about with Kel’s iPhone XC. She appeared to consider the model a personal challenge to see if she could bring it up to scratch.
‘Enjoyed the shower?’ she asked, without looking up.
‘I can’t tell you how great it feels to be really clean.’ He kept his voice down so they didn’t disturb Nixie. ‘What are you up to?’
‘I was fixing things so you can make a call without being traced.’
‘Who am I going to call, Sadie? My circle of friends is rather small right now.’
‘I was thinking…Theo.’ She grinned at the box that opened on the screen. ‘Hi, Theo, is the green clover lit on your end? Yeah? Then that means it is OK to talk.’ She passed the handset to Kel. ‘What can I say? The software was developed by an Irish guy. If a leprechaun jumps out, it means it has detected an attempt to trace and you have ten seconds to end the call, so watch the screen.’
Kel deferred comment on the dubious humour of comp-punks and took the phone from her. Theo’s face filled the rectangle, looking very much the same with his narrow face, long fair hair, ear piercings and earnest blue eyes. ‘Hey, Theo.’
‘Kel, are you safe?’
‘Yeah. But being homeless sucks.’
‘We should get you back here.’
‘It’s difficult, with Ade and the rest of them watching me.’
‘Yeah, I know now quite how fanatical they are. Have you heard from Meri?’