In The Name of Love
47: Friendship

Kai sits near the fireplace in his room, staring into the flames with a book open on his lap, all but forgotten. Although it is late Fantor, the air coming through his window is chilly tonight, and fire seems an apt companion for the text he’s borrowed from the Royal Library: A History of Magick and Witchcraft in Lokva. Certainly many a cybrinn has been burned alive for “practicing magick,” as followers of Chuezohm and the author of the book put it. But despite his interest in the words on the page, he cannot focus on them; his thoughts are back in the courtyard where he and Fifi met for another sunset lesson earlier this evening.

She’s right. Of course she’s right. Running away together would be crazy, he tells himself, remembering how she’d admitted that she’d be basically useless in the wilderness. And my skills aren’t enough to compensate. I’ve only tried cooking a handful of times, and more often to make medicines than to eat. Growing food and making shelter are easier, with Cybarein, and Sigurd will probably help us some, but even so… He shakes his head, wondering how he didn’t see the flaws in his plan before saying something to Fifi about it. She’d been sweet about it, of course, telling him that the idea is more than welcome and very romantic as well as impractical, but her sweetness gives him only slight comfort. Princess Wilhelmina’s wedding gets closer with each passing day, and Kai has heard rumors that King Ansgar is planning to have Fifi’s Quest for Favor soon afterward, near Oggerheim. She didn’t mention that. I wonder if he’s told her, if she knows, Kai muses as the flames dance on the hearth before him. Whether she does or not, we’re running out of time.

The door of Kai’s room slams behind him, jolting him out of his thoughts. His book hits the floor as he jumps from his chair and turns around.

Ingemar stands in his room by the door, his posture perfect, looking as though he had nothing and yet everything to do with the loud noise. His piercing gaze is fixed on Kai.

“Can I help you?” Kai asks, doing his best to keep his tone measured and civil. I thought I locked that door. How did you get in here? he adds silently. Although Ingemar is his friend, Kai is unsettled by this unexpected visit.

Ingemar crosses the room with noiseless steps to join Kai by the fireplace.

“Tonight I am Solveig,” she says, her voice low, amber eyes looking at the fire instead of him. “Sit. I’m sorry I startled you.”

“I guess I deserve it, for walking in on you weeks ago.”

“Perhaps.” The corners of Solveig’s lips turn up, as though she’s amused in some way by the idea. She sits in the other chair by the fire. Kai retrieves his book and sets it on the mantle, out of the way, before resuming his seat.

“May I ask…why you’re Solveig tonight?”

“It’s a night for secrets.”

Kai arches an eyebrow, searching Solveig’s face for clues. What is she playing at? She still stares into the fireplace, wearing the same slight smirk.

“Beg pardon?” Kai prompts. He has no interest in playing mind games.

Solveig meets his gaze for a moment, and Kai’s blood turns to ice at the knowing, accusatory look he replaces in her eyes. “I was right about why you couldn’t go riding with Karl and me a few days ago. It was because you had plans with someone else.”

Solveig’s words make Kai’s muscles tense as tight as lute strings. Thoughts racing, he decides the fireplace is easier to look at than Solveig’s self-satisfied smirk and fake stubble.

“Princess Josefina,” Solveig adds after an agonizing pause with no sounds between them except the crackling of the fire. “Or Fifi, as I’m sure she’s told you to call her, since she hates her given name and title.”

Silence might as well be an admission of guilt. You have to say something. “What makes you think that Princess Josefina would have anything to do with me, outside of her sister’s Quest for Favor?”

“I saw you this evening, in the courtyard.”

Doing what?! Did she see our hands touch, or how we brought the dead rosebush back to life? Kai panics without movement or sound. His heart races as though it might burst, and sweat gathers at his joints. He knows he should say something, anything to try to deny it, but the power of speech eludes him.

“She wouldn’t have been walking with you and talking if it was the first time you’d met in a courtyard like that,” Solveig continues. “Can’t say I’m surprised, though. She’s always liked to be outside, usually drawing, and I think you spend more time in courtyards than anywhere else. It was only a matter of time before you ran into each other, and you have a bit in common.”

“A bit,” Kai mumbles, still terrified of what else Solveig might have seen or noticed.

“I think it’s good. For both of you. So long as the king doesn’t replace out. She’s never been able to have friends outside of the royal household, and I can’t imagine she’s taking the idea of Minna leaving well.”

“Um…She’s not.” Kai decides honesty might serve him better than evasion at this point, although he still thinks the less he admits, the better. “Were you close with her, when you were in her household?”

“Not exactly, but closer with her than with Minna. I’ve been debating whether I should compete in her Quest for Favor for that reason, honestly. Fifi has a better chance of seeing through my portrayal of Ingemar than Minna, even though I’ll be more practiced by then. An artist’s eye misses nothing.”

Kai nods. “Maybe you’d be better off, since you seem so concerned about her, to rejoin her household. As Solveig.”

“I can’t do that now. Too much is at stake. My brother’s health is unchanged, and my father still drowns his woes in drink. And, as Ingemar, I have a promising courtship with the daughter of a Marquis. My family’s fate is in my hands.” Solveig glances sideways at Kai. “As your family’s fate is in your hands. Does your father know you’ve made friends with a princess?”

“I’ve told him nothing. I’ve told no one anything, except you, since you—”

“Good. The king would be less than pleased, to say the least, if he knew that Fifi was spending time in courtyards with any man.”

“You won’t tell him?”

“Of course not. So long as you keep my secret.”

“I intend to carry it to my grave.”

“Then you have nothing to fear from me.” Solveig smiles, and this time it’s genuine. “You’re a good friend. Fifi needs someone like you. It’s too bad King Ansgar hates your family. I think you’d have a genuine chance in her Quest for Favor otherwise.”

Kai smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Thanks.” If you only knew. Maybe there’s no harm in telling Solveig, now that she knows part of the truth, but something stills his tongue. “You’re a good friend, too. Do you mind…if I ask, about this Marquis’s daughter?”

“You remember Lord Ragnar of Marduth from Minna’s Quest for Favor?”

“Aye, the dark-haired one who looks angry all the time?”

“He has a sister, a couple years younger than him. Beautiful and charming and highly eligible. I’m not her only suitor, but we’ve had tea together more than once, and taken a couple of walks in the courtyard with the statues of the kings. Evidently it’s her favorite, though I’ve never liked that one much.”

A hint of where not to go with Fifi. I’d be a fool to ignore it. “It’s not my favorite, either. Would you marry her yourself, if it came to that?”

“I’d stand in for my brother at the altar, but I’d tell him what I arranged for him, and it would be him in the bedroom for the consummation. Convincing though my ruse may be, I cannot cause a woman to conceive.”

Kai shakes his head, wondering at the relationship between Solveig and Ingemar. How much has she told her ailing brother of her plans? Has he agreed to this?

“Don’t worry. He knows his duty, and that he cannot hope to fulfill it alone, in his condition,” Solveig assures Kai. “But that’s neither here nor there. I’ve intruded on your solitude for too long.”

“I appreciate the warning that I have not been as discreet as I ought to be. Thank you.”

“Of course. I always do what I can to help my friends. Good night.” Solveig rises from her chair and slips out of Kai’s room, silent as a ghost. No wonder I didn’t notice Ingemar in the courtyard, if she walks like that all the time, Kai notes. We’ll have to be much more careful in the future, and maybe replace somewhere else to meet.

The sickening knot in the pit of his stomach makes him question whether caution will be enough to evade King Ansgar’s wrath.