Queensmen

Chapter 93

A/N: So... While I've abandoned this chapter for a while now, I've written at least 6k words of content, not for this book and just for fun. And I just want to apologize. Hence this paragraph... Thanks for reading!

~Exchange~

Keziah dipped a soft, white cloth into the bucket and used it to carefully wipe the soot off Oris' fingers. "Don't look so horrified, Mistress. They will only think you are feigning innocence."

Oris schooled her expression. "I'm not..." But she was. Pretending to be more shocked than she was. Wasn't this exactly what she had sought to protect Eve from?

Her voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "This has happened before?"

"It is unrealistic to transport one hundred and fifty women halfway across the state," Keziah answered, in an uncharacteristically roundabout way.

Oris didn't know if she was afraid of being overheard or something else, but before she could ask, Andrea laid her hands over her shoulders. "Are your hands feeling better?"

"Yes. Much better." It hadn't been that serious in the first place. And the worst of the small burns had been as a result of her running back into the tent halfway into her escape.

"His Majesty arrives."

Like marionettes spun about their strings, the women turned in the crier's direction, eyes fixed on Hermes as he rode back into camp on a steed with a light brown coat the same shade of his tight curls.

He looked particularly charming when he wasn't wearing white all the time like an Initiative and now she couldn't help but wonder what he had worn to storm her castle.

Hermes dismounted and surveyed the damage with an apathetic gaze, bands of leather wrapped around him in what could have passed for armor if you tilted your head, squinted... and it was the thick of the night. And Oris, so used to imagining where and how she'd slip her dagger through his normally impeccable defense, shook her head in disapproval.

If I had my knife right now, she thought, but didn't allow any more wishful thinking. All the smoke made her eyes sting but she was not blind enough not to see the men that surrounded Hermes in a loose perimeter, prepared to act at a moment's notice.

She clenched her hands and focused on the coolness of the water that lapped her fingers. She felt filthy, but at least she had finally accomplished something, shown that she wasn't that hard to kill and given anyone interested an opening for them to fawn over her.

She had been doing a great job of pretending that Hermes didn't exist, until Magnus got off his horse to whisper something into the Emperor's ear. Now his attention shifted, pulling every eye in the Oris' direction.

Mayree pulled the tarp off her and helped her to her feet as he approached her.

He hooked a finger under her chin and examined her singed veil. "Good," he said, "you didn't ruin that pretty face of yours."

She forced her eyes to focus on a spot right behind him, afraid that if their gazes met she might burst out laughing at his act. "Thanks to Your Majesty's grace," she murmured.

When he still didn't let her go, she added, "But others were not as lucky as I was."

Seemingly satisfied, he took a step back and addressed the other women. "Of course, I will have what happened here investigated. Be assured that the one responsible will be held accountable for the losses incurred today."

Lady Dianne seemed to shrink at that but Lady Ria only smirked and continued fanning herself.

"Those of you who lost your tents will lodge with your neighbors. You," he turned to Oris, "come with me."