Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 10, Part A

"I'm not mad. I heard you. I know I did. You're real. Please, I tried. I tried to give it back. I tried. They're all dead. Why are you so silent? Why does the sky still burn?"

-- Eximius Habilitas,
forgeholder aedilis 10th rank,
from his transcribed confession
to the Adurere Royal Massacre

*~*~*~*

Never in all her life had Edera been given such a scornful look by an Electi. "What, Sidus?" she snapped as the starholder looked her over from head to toe with a scowl when she presented herself for breakfast at the onyx palace. A sleepless night tossing and turning in a guest room more extravagant than anything in Provinvia Sicarii left her feeling drained.

The boy shook his head with a snort. "You know exactly what, Edera." His voice sounded hoarse; had he been crying? Yelling?

Next to Sidus, the other Electi on duty, a woman twice the younger starholder's age, shifted in discomfort, long gaze fixed on the window opposite the tricliniaria door. No one wanted to be caught between the Princeps worldholder's feuding lover and new wife.

Wife. Edera gulped, butterflies fluttering in her belly. She was a wife now. She was a Princeps's wife by law even if it was all part of an elaborate ruse to keep her children safe.

Children. She was not just a wife now, but an expecting mother. "Eternal Radiance," she breathed, her hand finding its way to her stomach as it so often did these past couple days since she'd first sensed the twins' new lives stirring within her.

Sidus's stony glare softened to resignation. He sighed and pressed the tricliniaria dining hall door open. "Go ahead," he grumbled, coughing and then clearing his throat. "He's waiting for you."

Edera nodded, nerves getting the better of her as she strode within the chamber. Her hands trembled, patting fretfully at her too-large paenula and tunica with a mind of their own. An attendant had brought her the fine clivia white satin clothing that morning, sniffing in disdain as she'd taken away Edera's own simpler provincial garments without so much as a by-your-leave. A tailor would be by later in the morning to measure her for more personalized outfits fit for palace life.

Drawing a deep breath, she glanced around the hall as the voices within fell silent, finding Domi's brown eyes. It felt very strange to press her hand over her laurel and bow her head in respect, waiting for the boy to acknowledge her. Waiting for her husband to acknowledge her.

Thankfully, Domi didn't make her wait long. She could well imagine how bizarre royal etiquette felt to the Pullati-reared Princeps. "May the Eyes pass over you, love," he said, tense voice carrying through the hall as an attendant wheeled out a breakfast cart.

"And you also, B-Basilicus," she said, her heart thudding in her chest and sickness roiling in her belly.

Love. Ever since she'd been a little girl, she'd dreamt of one day being called that by a husband. Preferably a pirate husband or nomadic Praetor husband, not a Princeps husband who had every right to hate her.

"Please sit down, love," Domi said, nodding at the chair next to him. The blackwood table he and the others sat gathered around was enormous, fit for a state feast of fifty people. The five people seated in the center chairs looked ridiculous. But at least they weren't reclining on the dining couches scattered about the room.

More uncomfortable than ever before in her life, she slipped into the chair as an attendant pulled it out for her. It was hard to make herself look at Domi as she spoke the scripted words they had planned. "Thank you, love."

Across the table, Arbita and Valens exchanged glances. Her aunt fixed Edera with a narrow-eyed glare that Edera suspected was not entirely feigned. "I have notified your parents that you are here."