“Kass, can you seriously not walk straight?” I hissed, trying my best to keep the amusement off my face.

  “I can’t walk at all, thank you very much,” replied my dwarf lamia, arching a brow up at me while crossing her arms over her chest.

  The gesture made her already ample chest swell further, and I had to fight the urge to lick my lips.

  After our afternoon interlude, Kassandra had used her knowledge of noble establishments to find the bell-pull that would summon an attendant for more wash water before we got dressed to meet the other girls for tea with Rieka’s mother, the queen.

  I had been surprised to discover that Lorelai wasn’t the one who came when the bell was rung, but Kassandra explained it to me later. Apparently, while Lorelai maintained these rooms near Rieka’s while our princess wasn’t in residence, she would be attending exclusively to Rieka whenever possible. Hence why another maid had been assigned to look after Kassandra, along with one each for the other girls.

  My serpentine lover had handled the woman at the door with deft ease, allowing her in to place the basin of steaming water on a marble plinth that was specifically for it in a corner of the room before ushering her out.

  Since my dwarf lamia was as ravenous in the bedroom as ever, we’d taken longer than we probably should have. So we had to rush to wipe down and dress once more for the afternoon tea with Queen Gemma. Since it was easier for me to wipe down, I went first then helped Kassandra ensure there was no incriminating evidence on her scales before helping her dress.

  The young noblewoman before me was wearing a bronze silk off-the-shoulder style top. This left a lot of her pale skin and its accompanying spatter of freckles exposed. Over top of the bronze silk, she had on a dark, wine-red under-bust corset with silver fixings that gleamed brightly. More black silk laced the corset in place, helping support her chest while the strapless bra that I’d brought over from earth assisted as much as it could without being exposed. To finish the whole thing off, Kassandra had on a matching bronze-colored skirt with silver designs in the hems that hung low enough to conceal her womanhood but not far enough that she risked slithering over it.

  “You know what I meant,” I said, having to drag my attention off the pale curves of her breasts once more.

  “And you know that you aren’t going to be able to stare once we are with the queen,” Kassandra teased, swaying in place to make her assets bounce while smothering a giggle of her own. “And despite my best efforts, you are still able to walk straight.”

  “Supernatural endurance,” I answered with a grin. “Seriously, though, are you going to be able to wa—er, slither in a straight line? You’ve been swaying drunkenly while we got ready.”

  “Yes, I’ll be fine,” Kassandra said with a soft smile. “You are always gentle enough that you never hurt me, but insistent enough that I’ll never forget the feel of your body on mine.”

  Kassandra bit her bottom lip and gave a full-body shudder before squaring her shoulders and pushing herself upward on her tail so she stood a touch higher so she could comfortably link her arm with mine despite her far-smaller stature.

  The size difference between the two of us had never really bothered me—and to be fair the size difference between me and Jane hadn’t either—but it had provided some serious challenges to our relationship in the form of considerations for everyday things. Normally, Kassandra would have to reach up to grab my hand, and she had to cling to my arm to help maintain her balance while she slithered at this greater height, but it allowed her to maintain appearances better. Something she’d told me about earlier being important, since the servants and guards always talked in the palace.

  I’d changed into a set of close fitting brown linen pants, styled after Rieka’s preferred riding pants but not clinging quite so tightly to me as she liked hers. For a top, I’d gone with a simple shirt of a cream-colored linen the girls had bought me that matched the same shade as was in Shayla’s wings. To ensure that all my bonded were represented in my appearance, I shifted my eyes to a brown shade and slitted their pupils—something that Kassandra had been so enamoured with that she’d dragged me back to bed for some oral attention—then given myself claws and forearm scales like Valda’s. Jane had been a little harder, but I’d settled on a long tuft-tipped tail like she had. I’d always loved how that mobile appendage acted as a flagpole for Jane’s emotions, and it was a learning experience already in keeping it out of the way.

  Without another word, Kassandra guided me out into the hall with a smile to find Jane and Shayla waiting for us. No sooner had we stepped out than Rieka’s door opened and my princess strode out with Lorelai following behind her, fussing quietly about her hair.

  Shayla wore another of her long dresses, the gauzy material clinging to her luscious curves like it was oil poured over her body, simple yet elegant in a russet red that matched her markings. I saw her antennae stiffen when she saw us and her soft smile told me she recognized what I’d done with my clothes and shifts.

  Jane had, for once, switched into an actual dress rather than the shirt, vest, skirt combination that the excitable mouse woman normally wore. Her outfit was a reserved garment of cream linen embroidered with a repeating pattern along the hems and bodice, and secured with a thin rope belt.

  My princess wore a beautiful gown of blue silk the color of the summer sky. The hems and bodice were edged in yellow and orange, giving her the appearance of a sky giving way to the sunset, with the platinum blonde fall of her hair like a cloud drifting through.

  “Lorelai, it’s fine,” Rieka insisted, frowning faintly but not pulling away from her maid. “You braided it perfectly the first three times, and this time is no different.”

  “Oh, but your poor hair, my lady,” complained the maid, continuing despite the chastisement. “I keep finding damage every time I run my fingers through it. Split ends, dry patches, and worse!”

  “I, quite literally, just came from a war-zone, Lorelai,” Rieka huffed in annoyance, though I spotted the edge of a smile working its way through her demeanor. “If my hair came out of that looking pristine, then I wasn’t doing my job!”

  “Exactly my thoughts,” Valda said, emerging from further down the hallway and striding toward us.

  Unlike my other girls, Valda had her sword on her hip. She wore a close-fitting pearl-white silk shirt that buttoned to her neck and hung close enough to her body that it wouldn’t get in the way if she had to fight, and I could see the faint imprint of the sports-bra I’d given her underneath it.

  The girls had insisted I ‘share the wealth’ with their friend after Valda and I had officially bonded in a guardian contract. It was a simple enough purchase.

  The shirt tucked into a wide leather belt that supported Valda’s sword and cinched black velvet pants into place. Polished boots of a matching pitch-black leather clacked quietly on the floor while she walked while Valda checked and secured the decorative gloves she wore over her hands that held her leather claw-caps into place. I knew that these gloves had open palms and with a twist and flick of her wrist, the lizard-folk woman could remove them to expose the razor-sharp claws she had, but the delicate stitching made the protective garments decorative as well as functional.

  “Exactly what I was trying to tell her,” Rieka said with a roll of her eyes before glancing thoughtfully toward Valda’s sword.

  My princess didn’t say anything right away, and glanced toward the other girls quickly before coming to a decision.

  “Lorelai, go retrieve my spell rod for me and bring it here,” Rieka said firmly.

  The maid nodded once, quickly finishing the braid she’d been fussing over and securing it with a silver clip before hurrying back into Rieka’s room.

  Jane and Shayla shot Rieka a questioning look and Rieka explained.

  “We were called here to make a report to Mother about the front and what we did. I appreciate you all dressing up for it, but we are also warriors and should go armed.”

  “But we have Liam’s—” Jane started to say before cutting herself off with a hand over her mouth.

  “That should stay secret,” Kassandra agreed, nodding and smiling comfortingly to Jane. “Rieka’s right, we should all go armed. We aren’t just guests, but warriors charged with protecting the land. If Queen Gemma isn’t comfortable with us armed, then Liam can hold onto them for us.”

  “Sure,” I agreed with a shrug. I had space in my Dimensional Pocket at the moment and I knew their spell rods wouldn’t fill that up.

  Within a few minutes, all four of them had their spell rods and holster-belts added to their outfits. It muted the elegance of their appearance, but also gave them a distinctly dangerous air that demanded my girls be taken seriously rather than treated like airheaded young women.

  “Gorgeous and deadly, I love it,” I complimented, earning me smiles and murmured thanks from all five of them, even Valda who only cracked a faint smile but still gave an indication of approval.

  “Lorelai, please lead us to where my mother is taking her tea?” Rieka asked, turning to her maid.

  Lorelai dropped a neat curtsy before turning to guide us along the familiar corridors. Rieka slipped to the side opposite Kassandra and took my other arm, offering me a soft smile that I returned.

  Now that we were inside and I wasn’t as distracted after Kassandra’s ministrations, I was starting to recognize more of the interior of the castle.

  Ever since I’d realized how little I was making use of my improved intelligence scores, I’d started doing simple things to change that. Those were everything from mental games, calculation exercises, or memory tricks.

  Like memorizing building layouts.

  I’d traveled through Gemma’s castle only a handful of times, mostly being after I’d improved my mental abilities. It’d only taken one conscious attempt to start drawing together the half-remembered hallways into a cohesive map and I continued to build that solid memory outward every time I’d come back.

  Gemma would summon me to take a report, I’d observe through open doors and windows to situate myself in the overall castle and then connect it to my other memories.

  Now, with Lorelai guiding us into the deeper recesses of the castle where the royal family did its business and relaxed, I was filling in a lot of the corridors that connected meeting and strategy rooms with the courtyards, personal rooms, and more. My mental map was by no means exhaustive, but it was growing by the second and I was confident I’d be able to find my way through most of the castle with little trouble.

  While we walked, Rieka quickly coached Shayla and Jane on what to expect of a semi-formal tea like this.

  Valda reiterated her promise to sit with the two and help them through it, softening the ‘help’ she was giving by admitting that it would also stand her in good stead and help her refresh her memory because her family was less formal even on their ‘fancy days’ as she called them.

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  In less than five minutes, Lorelai was guiding us into a small room with plentiful couches and chairs with low, ornate tables and benches nearby. Shelves around the edge of the room held a mixture of books, art, and trophies, while light washed in from a row of floor-to-ceiling windows that had their thick velvet drapes pulled back.

  Sitting in the middle of it all on a loveseat beside her husband, was Queen Gemma. The only other people in the room were a teenaged boy with Rieka’s platinum blonde hair done in a loose horsetail that I guessed was her brother, her older sister Griselda sitting beside the teenager, and a stern older man with bear features in a neat gray tunic with a white undershirt and pants who was tending to a cart to one side of the room containing a teapot and dishes.

  Lorelai didn’t speak, simply stepping aside and gesturing for Rieka to proceed.

  “Thank you, Lorelai,” Rieka murmured. “Go and relax.”

  I caught the look on Lorelai’s face as she straightened, a faint frown and the mulish set to her shoulders told me that Rieka’s maid would do no such thing.

  It’s good that she’s so focused on looking after Rieka, I thought with a small smile, not pausing as I guided my two noblewomen forward.

  During the carriage ride in and over the last few days, I’d overheard the girls coaching Shayla and Jane on manners and etiquette. I’d also taken the time months ago to start looking over it to help protect Gemma by playing up my ‘otherworldly protector’ role. So I knew what I was doing when I guided the two nobles at the head of our group to where Gemma was waiting, saucer in one hand and cup in the other.

  “Good afternoon to you, Mother, Father. I am grateful for your understanding, earlier,” Rieka said, beginning to drop into a respectful curtsy.

  “Nonsense,” Gemma said with a wave of her hand that banished the formality from the moment. “Your sister was acting like an idiot and I appreciate that Liam did not punish her too heavily.”

  “That let you handle the punishment, right?” interjected the teenage boy, grinning at his mother cheekily.

  “Just so, Thomas,” Gemma said, giving the young boy I now knew was her only son a small smile.

  “She’s just lucky it was at an informal reception,” grumbled Griselda, Rieka’s sister sitting stiffly with a teacup cradled in her hands that she glared into. “I remember watching Liam bring down that polar worm during the tournament…”

  “It threatened those under my protection,” I said reassuringly. “There was no way that Princess Margaret would do that, so she was safe from me in regards to such a reaction.”

  “That is appreciated,” Jonas Coldeye said with a sigh before turning to gesture to the older gentleman along the edge of the room. “Gerald, this is the rest of our group for tea. Please serve them.”

  The man—a butler I guessed from his formal motions—bowed toward Jonas and began wheeling the cart over to the space we were in.

  Remembering the formal etiquette that I’d been studying off and on, I helped first Rieka, and then Kassandra to seats, earning me a soft smile from each of my women, before I moved to guide the other three women to seats of their own, ensuring that Jane and Shayla were flanking Valda to get support from the stern lizard-folk woman.

  I caught indulgent smiles from Rieka’s parents while I did this, while Griselda watched me with an unreadable expression and Thomas studied me with curious eyes the same bright, ice-blue as his sisters.

  “Join us, Liam,” Gemma insisted when I moved to step back and stand behind the chairs, so I picked a chair between Shayla and Kassandra and settled into it.

  Gerald had started serving with Rieka, working his way down the line of women to ensure they each had what they needed as I seated them and provided a small plate with tiny, bite-sized fruit scones and soft tea cookies to nibble on.

  I had to fight the urge to chuckle at how carefully Jane was holding her tea cup, like the delicate china might explode if she moved it too quickly through the air.

  Thankfully, the awkward silence did not persist for very long. It was obvious that Gemma wanted to cover some subjects before a new distraction arose.

  “I want to thank you all again for coming to speak with me after your time on the front. Lady Valda, the Ironclaw Clan continues to act as the strong allies that the Coldeye queendom has known for centuries, and while your mother already knows of my appreciation, I wanted to laud you for stepping up to assist during this tense time and share some of your hard-won knowledge with my daughter.”

  “Princess Rieka is someone I consider a close friend,” Valda answered without hesitation, taking a careful sip from her teacup before continuing. “I would be remiss if I did not offer her all the support that I could.”

  “Just like your mother and I,” Gemma said, a slight smile gracing her face before she continued. “I did wish to get a complete report of your time on the front, as well as that rather dangerous raid you made behind the battle lines. I’ve been getting reports from multiple sources of odd weapons that were being used, but as you have had first-hand knowledge of the fighting, I trust your accounts more than the sanitized versions that were brought to me by messengers.”

  “Of course, Mother,” Rieka replied. But before my princess could begin relating her story, the queen held up a hand to stop her.

  “Before we move on to that, though, I want to apprise you of a matter that also includes your allies,” Gemma said, her smile falling away to be replaced with a stern frown. “A matter involving that frost worm that Griselda mentioned.”

  Rieka stiffened suddenly, nearly dropping her tea but my princess got herself under control before actually spilling on herself.

  “I thought that issue was already resolved,” Rieka said, her tone icy but controlled.

  “It was,” Gemma replied, her tone neutral despite the restrained fury in her daughter’s voice. “Calm yourself, Rieka. I’m not overturning any punishments. I just thought that you and your companions would like to know what officially became of Josephine Icefang.”

  “And what else is on the table,” chuckled Thomas, the young man’s wide grin mischievous. “Like I’d let anyone threaten my sister and her friends.”

  Gemma shot her son a quelling look, but the young man was busy selecting a scone marked with what looked like raspberry jam to bite into and missed his mother’s look.

  “As Thomas said,” Gemma continued when her son continued to ignore her glare. “We have more information that could prove important, and I wanted to make sure you were kept abreast of the situation.”

  “Why wait until now to tell us?” Rieka asked, her tone clipped enough that I could tell her anger was barely restrained.

  “Because we only just found out while you were helping the Ironclaw’s,” Thomas answered, covering his mouth with one hand as he was still chewing the pastry he’d selected.

  That seemed to quell Rieka, and my princess took a long sip of her tea to give herself time to master her emotions.

  Gemma watched her daughter carefully, nodding approvingly when she saw that Rieka had mastered herself.

  I glanced over to check on Shayla and Jane, who had been on the periphery of Josephine’s harassment, but I was surprised to see the frown on Valda’s face. Something told me that the lizard-folk woman was not a fan of Josephine either.

  More reasons to like her then, I thought, keeping the smile off my face while I listened.

  “As you know,” Gemma said, selecting a pale yellow cookie from her plate and nibbling at it. “Josephine was arrested by your sister,” Gemma gestured to Griselda with her tea cup, “in the wake of the tournament for not restraining her summoned companion, Gyrallia the polar worm, at the conclusion of the duel. This resulted in Liam having to kill the creature when it continued the fight after being declared defeated and threatening yourself and three of your four companions.”

  Rieka gave a short, sharp nod of understanding at her mother’s words. Gemma took another bite of her cookie before she continued, her tone neutral as she spoke.

  “Josephine was placed under house arrest on the Icefang estates and expelled from Juneau for her conduct. Unfortunately, that was all that I could do to her for what her mother insisted was a schoolyard mistake. Thankfully, her mother, the Duchess Icefang, was not happy with her daughter’s foolishness and had the ability—and desire—to punish her daughter further.”

  “Only because she was caught in such a public fashion,” Thomas murmured, his blue eyes dancing with the kind of amused mischief that I was only used to seeing in Kassandra or Jameson’s eyes when they started stirring shit up.

  Gemma shot her son another quelling look, but nodded in agreement before she continued.

  “The Duchess Icefang confirmed my house-arrest order, exiling her daughter to her country estate. She has been removed from the line of inheritance and stripped of her titles relating to the Icefangs. She is simply the lady of the manor in that remote estate.”

  “That’s a death sentence in all but execution,” Kassandra murmured, her eyes going wide behind her silver spectacles. “It might have been more merciful simply to kill her… there’s no way back from that politically.”

  “Precisely my thoughts,” Gemma said, not minding that Kassandra had spoken up. “It felt excessive for a single mistake, which is why I had Thomas begin digging.”

  There must have been something in my expression that indicated my confusion, because Jonas spoke up with a proud smile directed at his son.

  “Thomas may look young and innocent, but there sits a future merchant-prince. Thomas is sharp, and people have underestimated his intelligence ever since he was twelve and turned his allowance into a series of investments that many lower nobles couldn’t match even with the income of their lands.”

  “It is entirely Lady Silverscale’s fault,” Thomas replied with a cheeky grin at Kassandra, who rolled her eyes but smiled at the young man. “She helped me with my arithmetic homework a few times and by putting the numbers into the idea of earnings, sales, and money work, my mind just clicked. And she also taught me the value of being underestimated for appearing as something I’m not: vulnerable.”

  “You took a few afternoons of tutoring and turned it into a business empire,” Kassandra countered with a faux-pout. “I would be upset with you for stealing my ideas, but you took them in an entirely different direction, so my markets are still safe from you!”

  Thomas grinned at Kassandra, open admiration for my dwarf lamia in his eyes. I had a brief surge of worry for a moment at the respect and affection in the young man’s eyes, but glancing at my dwarf lamia, I just saw the amusement of a foster-sister.

  Silly, I thought to myself. Kassandra is devoted to you, even if Rieka’s younger brother actually is smitten with her and not just playing at something he is not like he mentioned earlier.

  “To the point, though,” Thomas said, his tone sobering as he turned back to Rieka. “My contacts have brought me some concerning information about the Icefangs.”

  That statement drained all the levity out of the moment like air from a punctured balloon, and Rieka’s smile at her brother’s attitude turned into a concerned frown.

  Gemma took back over from her son with the ease of long practice, and explained further.

  “While the connections are not something that has been fully confirmed, there are clues leading me to believe that Josephine might have been connected to certain other events you’ve dealt with in the last half-year, daughter.”

  My mind immediately jumped to first the group of bandits that had been planning to kidnap my princess, as well as the second group that had attacked the queen and Rieka while the two had been traveling. I’d been able to intervene both times, but neither situation had been easy to handle.

  Rieka was stonefaced as she considered her mother’s words. My princess turned her glare down into her tea, her brow knitting cutely as she thought for several long moments.

  “I assume that, since you are being coy, the connections are very tenuous?” Rieka asked, her voice tightly controlled as she spoke. Her wolf ears, normally very expressive and animated, lay flat against her skull.

  Gemma nodded once, the gesture making her wolfish ears bounce faintly. It highlighted the tense difference between mother and daughter, and I was about to speak to try and reassure my princess when she glanced between her mother, father, sister, and brother, before her eyes landed on me and her ears popped upright like they were spring-loaded.

  “Then I will await more information. Thomas’ network of informants through his businesses are extensive, and I’m sure that if there is a connection to the Icefangs, or even just Josephine herself, they will find it.”

  “Yes,” Thomas confirmed in a tone far more grave than I would have expected for a teenager. “I had hoped to have confirmation in time for your birthday—a bit of an impromptu gift—but it has been remarkably difficult to run down leads. We need concrete proof, given that the accusation of treason is no small thing.”

  Treason.

  The word rang through my head like thunder. It made sense, though. Not only had Rieka been threatened, but her mother had been fighting for her life during that bandit ambush. Sure, they might have been trying to capture or kidnap them, but the battle had been fierce and it would have been easy enough to kill one or both of the noblewomen. If it was somehow connected to Josephine, either by her orders or actually hiring those people, then it could bring down the entire Icefang family.

  Gemma was watching her daughter still, and a faint smile showed on her lips at Rieka’s declaration that she would trust in her family to handle this.

  “I just wanted to let you know,” Gemma said at last, flicking her hand in the air to call over the butler and refill her tea. “There is no more we can do to punish Josephine, but she has been stripped of everything that mattered, save her life and name. And if your brother finds the evidence needed to confirm her connection, then those will fall too. Until then, be wary but do not let on that the investigation continues.”

  A grim silence fell over them, only broken by the quiet rushing noise of the tea being poured into Gemma’s cup.

  Once she had her tea refreshed, Gemma spoke again and her voice was surprisingly light this time. At least it was surprising until she finished the sentence.

  “To more joyful news, my daughter. Preparations are ongoing for a gala that you and your friends will be sure to enjoy. You’ve been able to dodge the last two birthdays by dint of schoolwork, so we will have to make up for that with this year’s celebration.”

  Rieka’s perked up ears wilted to either side and a look of confusion crossed her face before fading into anger while Gemma and Jonas laughed, while her siblings just grinned at Rieka’s look of annoyance.

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