“I’ll try.” I couldn’t try. I imagined telling this man that I wasn’t actually the Emperor’s daughter, that I was a facsimile, that I was a thing he’d created. Not a construct, but a person grown in the strange waters below the palace. What a stupid thought. It was like the terrible temptation to stick one’s hand inside the mouth of a freshly caught shark. Such a confession would destroy me and everything I was trying to build.

Thrana settled, and Mephi cautiously approached, sniffing her cheek. She snapped at him, still riled.

I was aware, suddenly, that I was standing too close to him, that I could feel his breath tickling the hair at my forehead. He wasn’t wearing his jacket, and the tunic beneath was sleeveless, revealing lean but firmly muscled shoulders. I took a surreptitious step back, kneeling to stroke Thrana’s neck and calm her. She’d had a rougher upbringing than Mephi and was so much more volatile.

“I went into the city. It was a very boring trip,” he said, attempting a wry smile. “No gambling, no courtesans.”

I blushed to think of him with courtesans. Would he tangle his fingers in their unbound hair? Whisper jests into their ears? I brushed the thoughts aside. “Why did you think I’d had you followed?”

The smile faltered. “Because someone was following me, Eminence.”

I almost regretted this retreat into formality, but would I really rather us be shouting at one another? “Did Iloh set someone to it, then?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure. I only caught a glimpse, and nothing recognizable. But I’ve been followed before, and I know the feeling. Maybe—”

A soft knock sounded at my door. A servant peeked into the room, her gaze on the floor. “Eminence, dinner will be served shortly. It would honor us if you and your Captain of the Imperial Guard joined us in the dining hall.” She closed the door behind her.

“It could have been Iloh,” I said. “I’d believe it of him. He doesn’t even know me, but he clearly already dislikes me,” I said, rising to my feet. Thrana butted my thigh with her horns. “Keep an eye out.”

Another knock sounded at the door, and another servant brought in platters heaped with freshly caught fish and squid. “The governor hopes this suffices?”

At least in this Iloh hadn’t tried to insult me. I’d weather his other insults, but I’d rend him limb from limb if he thought to do poorly by Thrana. “Yes, thank you.”

Both our creatures pounced on the trays as soon as they were set down. They’d be occupied while we were gone.

“Into the den of bears, then?” Jovis said.

“Fetch your jacket and let’s make our way to the dining hall. You forget: I’ve lived in a den of my father’s constructs. Surely this can’t be worse.”