Speak and the spoken appear, as the Creshens said. Strange, he usually came to get her from Riverbank Chambers. But it was just as well—she could certainly use a surprise. Leaving the unfinished letter on her desk, Yenni went to change into her riding clothes.

She found Weysh just where he said he would be, absorbed in a book. Normally he would glance up when he smelled her coming, but now he didn’t even notice her until she called to him, poor thing.

“Weh-sheh.”

He looked up, smiling, then stood and bowed to her.

Kalele meyen, he said. In Yirba. Good evening, my princess—or at least that’s what he’d tried to say. Mother Shu, he could be adorable when he wasn’t being exasperating. She put a hand to his cheek, and he leaned down so she could kiss him.

“Where did you learn that?” she asked.

“Partially from this,” he said. He held a book in one large hand. “You’ve been learning so much about Cresh, I figured it’s time I start learning about your culture. Did I say it right?”

“Not really.”

“Byen, Yenni, can’t you let me have this?”

She laughed. “Well, you said you wanted to learn my culture.”

Weysh took her hand. “Come, I want to borrow this book. It’s an encyclopedia of kingdoms on the Moonrise Isles, pretty much the only book I could find with anything useful.”

Once he’d checked out the book and stuffed it into his hip-satchel, they strolled aimlessly from the library, neither concerned where they were going as long as they were together.

“Now, lovely, tell me where I went wrong.”

“Well, you pushed the words together, to form two words, when really it should be four or five.”

“Four or five?”

“Yes. You said, kalele meyen, but it should be kale’le mm’e’yen.”

“Kale-le meyen, like this?”

“Almost, but you need to draw out the mmm—this is how you say my in our language.”

“How?”

“Like this. Mmm.”

“I’m so sorry, sweet, I need one more demonstration.”

“Mmm—” She stopped when she realized what he was doing and slapped his arm. “Weh-sheh!”

He chuckled. “I do like how you make that sound, lovely.”

“Why must I be constantly subjected to your perversions?”

Weysh took her hand and kissed her palm. “Yenni,” he murmured, rubbing his thumb over the area he had kissed. When he flicked his eyes up to her they twinkled with mischief. “This is nothing.”

Her cheeks burned. Weysh affected her like no other man had, and every day it became harder and harder to picture a life with Prince Natahi, or any prince for that matter. But how could she make a life with Weysh, especially given today’s revelations? They had so much to discuss, and it was time to stop running.

“Weh-sheh, we have much to talk about. My parents—”

“Oh!”