Tiara- Part One Read online

  Credits

  I continue to be grateful to two groups of people. First, my beta readers, without whom, the quality of my books would be significantly lower. Thank you, Brisa, Charlie, Lindsay, Lori, Martha, and Stephanie.

  And I am equally grateful to you, my loyal readers. You make it possible for me to continue to immerse myself in these worlds I build. Thank you for your continued support.

  Ressaline Tiara

  I stroked Valsine’s arm. “You look good in red resin, Va.”

  “Get your own, Darfelsa,” Renalla said, laughing at me as I snatched my hand back.

  “I would,” I replied. “Except Allium and Olivia are making me wait the full six months. But Ahlianna is coming for a visit, so that means six months will come and go while I’m in Barrish.” I gestured. “When did this happen?”

  “Last night,” Renalla said. “Someone was trash talking.”

  “I could trash talk,” I said. “I could be a complete brat. Would it get me a practice challenge to put me in my place?”

  “No, because if it did, Allium would send me home.”

  “She would not.”

  “Have you ever seen her bluff?”

  “No.” I sighed. “How long is this for?” I gestured to Va.

  “Three days. She asked for a week, as if she could win.”

  “You know, she starts trash talking when she feels red is a good color on her. You know that, don’t you? When she really wants to win, she barely says a word.”

  “Darfelsa,” Va said. “I thought you were my favorite cousin. You told on me.”

  “It’s my jealous side coming out.” I turned back to Renalla. “I really can’t touch her?”

  “Get your own,” she repeated.

  “Fine, fine,” I muttered. “At this rate, I’ll be 19 before I even have a chance, and that’s if Father doesn’t recall me and tell me I’m marrying some horrid boy.”

  “It sucks to be a princess,” Renalla replied. She didn’t sound like she had any sympathy for me, not one tiny bit. So, I stuck my tongue out at her and bent my head back to the report I was working on. There was a pause, but then Renalla said, “Va, give Darfelsa a shoulder rub, but only if she continues to do her work.”

  “Yes, Renalla,” Va replied. She stepped behind me and began working on my shoulders, which felt really, really good.

  I moaned my pleasure, but Renalla didn’t bluff, either, so I continued to work, as best I could, but I said, “Thank you, Renalla. Oh, Va, that feels really nice.”

  “I’m glad, Darfelsa,” she replied.

  * * * *

  It was twenty minutes later that another red-clad woman appeared at the corner of my vision. Va and Renalla had disappeared, but I thought they had come back. I turned, anyway. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Good morning, Na-na.”

  The Ressaline princess, currently someone’s pleasure slave, smiled. “Good morning, Darfelsa. Allium asked me to find you. Will you come with me?”

  “Certainly.” I set my work aside and followed Gionna – Na-na – to Allium’s office. Once there, she crossed the room and knelt before the Flarvorian ambassador to Ressaline, laying her head in Allium’s lap. I wasn’t that surprised.

  “You red-summoned me?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You sent Na-na for me.”

  “Oh.” She flashed a ghost of a smile, but it faded. “Sit.” I took the seat then waited. “I understand you’re frustrated with me.”

  I said nothing at first, but I looked away. I didn’t care to have had my words repeated to her. Live and learn. I should have remembered everyone’s loyalty was to Allium, not me, and shouldn’t have been surprised. But I was, and it hurt.

  “All right,” Allium said. “I think we have two issues to address.”

  “As far as I know, Ambassador, we don't have any issues to address. I’m scheduled to return home in just under two weeks. Was there business you would like me to carry with me?”

  “Just the dispatches, and I’ll use whichever courier is traveling with you. Why are you so sullen?”

  “I’m not sullen,” I said. “Will there be anything else, Ambassador?” I said it as professionally as I could muster.

  She looked at me. I looked at my hands. “You’re mad about something,” she finally declared. “I’d like to know what it is.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Do you want me to lie to you, Princess?” she asked. “Maybe I should lie to your sister, too. Or maybe if you want me to be honest with you, you need to be honest with me.”

  I looked up at her. “Clearly, whatever you think I’m upset about, I don’t want to talk to you about it.”

  “That is a better answer than lying to me.”

  “Fine. Whatever I’m upset about, I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Unfortunately, we all live too closely to let anything fester. You’ve been… moody, I think might be the word, for a few weeks, and I’ve overheard a few things you’ve said. But you haven’t been this moody.”

  “You’ve overheard?”

  Understanding dawned on her. “Ah. The second issue: you thought someone came to me. I know everything that goes on in this house, Darfelsa. Have you forgotten?”

  “So, you eavesdrop?”

  “It’s hardly eavesdropping.”

  “You’re just like Mother,” I said. “You give me some responsibilities, but if it’s important, you let someone else do it. When it comes to my own decisions, you treat me like I’m 12. I turned an adult last winter, or last winter two years ago by the standards here.”

  “Well,” she said. “So, we have multiple issues to discuss after all. I’m not sure where to begin.”

  “Well, we’re not discussing them while you have a slave’s head in your lap. Will there be anything else, Ambassador?”

  “You stay right where you are,” she said. “Na-na, darling, go to our bedroom. Climb into bed and take a nap.” The two kissed as Na-na stood, but then we both watched her leave.

  Then Allium sighed. I wasn’t sure if it was with me or from watching Gionna’s ass. I know I liked watching it, especially when it was dressed in red. “Darfelsa, when is the last time I claimed to be perfect?”

  “I don’t understand the question.”

  “How recently did I make that claim? I’m sure it was recently.”

  “This isn’t funny.”

  “How recently?”

  “Just say what you really mean.”

  “I have about a dozen things to say. I’m not perfect is the start. I’m doing the best I know how fits in here somewhere. While it may not seem like it, I am not significantly more confident in my role here than I was when I took this office. But I want you to use a little empathy. I have a staff. They all want opportunities. I spread those opportunities around. You are the only member of the staff who is routinely invited to social events, unless we’re all invited. But not once have any of them complained that you receive special treatment.”

  I hung my head and suddenly felt like the 12 I’d accused her of considering me.

  “Frankly, the opportunities are limited,” she continued. “We really don’t need an embassy here. For my own reasons, I haven’t said that to your father, and I know for a fact Olivia would be quite unhappy if I did.”

  “And I know for a fact Father thinks you’re understaffed. Do you know what I was working on? Busy work. A report no one is going to read. I know Father isn’t, because he had no idea I wrote the last one and didn’t know a thing that was in it. Well, not the last one, but the most recent one prior to my last visit home.”

  “Well, you’re wrong. I read the reports you’ve written, every single one, and while I’ve known most of what’s in them
, I haven’t known all of it. I also know that Olivia reads them, and she appreciates receiving copies, because they give her perspective she doesn’t have. Gionna has read some. Some have been sent to Queen Lisdee. I don’t know if she reads them or not. And your father has commented to me on several of the reports you’ve written. He may not have put much importance into one or two you wrote, but they aren’t always for him. Sometimes they’re for your sister, or your mother, or just for me. Two I’ve sent to the Flarvorian Ministry of Transportation, which I told you.”

  “I’m writing a report on the flooding this spring, and the likely effect it will have on certain crops. Who cares?”

  “Your father specifically asked for that report!” she said firmly. “Oh, I bet he doesn’t read it. He’s going to hand it to someone else, and that person will use it for planning purposes.”

  “Planning what?”

  “How do I know?” she replied. “Probably not building a bridge, or I might have a better answer. But your father asked for it, possibly because whoever is going to read it does know why he wants it.”

  “You said yourself we don’t need an embassy here.”

  “You’re right. And I don’t think we do.”

  “If we weren’t here, writing these reports, who would?”

  “I imagine nobody. But that doesn’t mean it’s busy work. It doesn’t mean someone doesn't value the information you’re presenting to them. Furthermore, when Princess Darfelsa shows up at a farm, accepts a tour, and then asks how the flooding affected their crops, it’s good diplomacy. It shows that the royal family of Flarvor cares about the farmers of Ressaline. But maybe we’re lying, and you don’t care.”

  I dropped my gaze. “I didn’t say that. I’m being an idiot.”

  “A little bit,” she agreed. “On the other hand, you’re also pointing out a failure in my leadership.”

  “You didn’t do anything wrong. I thought that’s what this was about.”

  “If you felt your work was unimportant, then it was my failure to explain why that’s not true. I didn’t realize it wasn’t obvious, but if you didn’t know your father asked for some of these reports, that isn’t your fault.”

  “I’m sorry. May I go?”

  “No. Darfelsa, I am giving you your share of opportunity.”

  “Gionna told me once that convincing Ahlianna and me to visit was a chance to prove to her mother she deserved more opportunities. Maybe my reports are important, but they aren’t that important, are they? The rest of what you said – you’re teaching me to be Mother. Show up. Be pretty. Smile. Dance well.”

  “So, you’re upset that I lean on you to help? You’re better at all that than I am, and I’ve been counting on you. And you’ve resented it?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Then what did you say?”

  “Give me something real to do, and why can’t I have a practice challenge?”

  “Because I think you’ll admit that waiting at least four months was pretty important. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that you didn’t do absolutely anything anyone told you, if she surprised you with it.”

  “That was until a few weeks ago.”

  “And in two weeks you’re going home, and I’m not sending you home while you’re recovering from your first challenge.”

  “Second.”

  “No. First. It’s a failure of their terms. First Enslavement and First Challenge are not the same thing. You didn’t have a challenge. You were taken.”

  “All right. I’m sorry. Fine. First challenge. What’s the big deal?”

  “The recovery period isn’t as long as from your First, but that’s only because the duration isn’t as long. It will be your first experience wearing resin, and that is exceedingly intense. Darfelsa, I want you here for a good six months from when you have your first challenge, as does Olivia. We don't want you go home when you’re just starting to realize you have a hundred questions and no one to ask.”

  “Why couldn’t you have said this before?”

  “That’s a fair complaint,” she replied. “We told you before your First that you would most likely need at least four and quite possibly six months before it was wise to have practice challenges.”

  “Four turned into six turned into eight or nine.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “But we’re agreed that at four months, you were still awfully susceptible to firmly-worded orders. Are you arguing you should have had practice challenges then?”

  “No. But that ended.”

  “Clearly. And so, you could schedule your first practice challenge.”

  “I could do it right now.”

  “Except for what I just said.”

  “It’s not fair!”

  “Are you blaming me that Ahlianna wants to visit? Maybe you wish Gionna hadn’t come. I thought you missed her.”

  I stared at her then dropped my head. She was right, and I’d been a bitch. But I was still angry, or at least upset, and not remotely willing to act like an adult about it yet. But then Allium said, somewhat gently, “What else, Darfelsa?”

  “Nothing,” I muttered.

  “Uh, huh,” she replied. “What else?”

  It took a minute, but I looked up at her. “I don’t think Gretchena likes me anymore.”

  “Okay. I find that unlikely. Why do you feel that way?”

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “Last week,” Allium replied. “And the two of you looked quite cozy. I’m fairly sure you’ve been spending time since.”

  “Spending time, yes. Spending time doing anything, no.”

  “Ah,” Allium said. “What has she said?”

  “She said we can’t, not until…”

  “Not until Olivia and I declare you ready for practice challenges.”

  “I don’t know what the two have to do with each other!” I declared. “I think it’s an excuse. I don’t know why she doesn’t want to…” I trailed off. “Is it because…”

  “Because Olivia invited her into her office and told her you are very, very important to the future of two countries, and it was absolutely imperative that you have a chance to fully recover from your First?”

  “She did not!”

  “Do you know that for a fact?” Allium asked calmly.

  “No,” I said, and I could tell I was returning to my bratty attitude.

  “Because seeing as how I was there…” Allium continued.

  I thought for a moment then straightened, shaking out my hair. “I’m recovered, but she still won’t do more than hold hands. She won’t even let me…”

  “Did you invite her to Barrish with you?”

  “Yes, but she declined.” I dropped my head again. “She doesn’t want me.”

  “Well, I find that unlikely,” Allium said. “As I’ve seen the way she looks at you.” She paused. “I’m sorry about something, Darfelsa.”

  “Did you tell her she couldn’t go to Barrish with me?”

  “No. I’m sorry I’m not very good at this. I see the world as engineering problems to solve. People are not bridges. I’m not sure I’ll ever change.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”

  “I’m saying if I were better at this, you wouldn’t be so upset. I’m also saying I’m quite uncomfortable, but there’s no one else here you should have this conversation with, so I’m going to do my best. I’m sorry if I’m not very good.”

  I looked up again. “Allium, I don’t know what to do.”

  “Ah. Well, that part is easy.”

  “Sure. Easy.”

  “Ask her on a date.”

  “What good will that do?”

  “And. Um.” It was her turn to look down. She picked at her nails for a minute. Without looking up, she said, almost below hearing, “Warn her you intend to seduce her.”

  “Right. Like I haven’t tried.”

  “And maybe it could come out that you and I talked.”

  My eyes wide
ned. “And maybe let her believe I have your approval?”

  “I didn’t say that,” she said hastily.

  “Because I’m fairly sure I don’t need your approval over my social life, Ambassador!” I said hotly.

  She looked up. “I agree,” she said. And then she smiled. “But perhaps Gretchena worries differently. Perhaps Gretchena worries about the international implications of vexing me. But perhaps it would be a very, very bad idea to bring that up with her.”

  “Do you know that for a fact?”

  “No, Darfelsa. I don’t. Do you want an alternative theory? You won’t like it.”

  “Just tell me.”

  “She may be hopelessly in love but knows you’ll eventually have to return to Barrish and may be protecting herself.”

  “Oh.”

  “However, you’re both young, and while that’s something she probably has considered, I find it far more likely she’d be less forward-looking than that while making decisions. I also find it to be an unlikely attitude from a woman of Ressaline. That’s a Flarvorian attitude.”

  “Oh,” I said again.

  “Consider this: what do you have to lose?”

  “A friend.”

  “True. If things continue as they are, what do you think is going to happen, anyway?”

  “I don’t know.” We looked at each other for a minute before I asked, “Was that serious advice?”

  “In spite of my own reluctance to interfere in your love life, Darfelsa, yes, it was.”

  “I’m going to tell her I told you my plans, and you told me, ‘Good luck’.”

  “Good luck,” she replied.

  “Thank you. Was there anything else?”

  “Only if you want to talk about busy work some more.”

  “No. I’m sorry I’ve been…”

  “Moody?”

  “Yeah. Moody.”

  “Forgiven. Life is hard sometimes, and the two people you would have preferred to talk to about all of this haven’t been available.”

  “What two people?”

  “You couldn’t really talk to Gretchena, and Ahlianna isn’t here.”

  “Thank you for filling in as my big sister.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I rose from my chair and had my hand on the door when she said, “Darfelsa?” I turned. She was smiling. “I’m sorry about the timing, but I think after this conversation, I would have been ready to declare you were ready.”