She knelt and pressed a chaste kiss against Lady Tea’s foot. “We miss you every day. Wherever you two wander, I hope you are at peace, as we are.”

“Likh?” Lord Khalad idled in the garden, King Kance by his side. “Are you keeping His Highness from Inessa and Fox? They’ve been searching for him.”

“Acting regent for Prince Jakova,” I corrected him. My distant cousin would make a better ruler for Drycht. My time with the asha made me realize I had neither the patience nor the aptitude for politics. “And I arrived here of my own volition but found Lady Likh ahead of me.”

“I wanted to pay my respects,” the beautiful girl said.

Shadows crossed both brothers’ faces. “But of course,” King Kance assented, smiling sadly at the statues.

“Of course,” Lord Fox repeated, arriving behind them. There were no more heartsglass left, but emotions were easy to read on his face nowadays: wistfulness, sadness, pride, love. “Inessa is going to kill me if we delay the ceremony any longer, and I would like the wedding over and done with before I lose more of my sanity.”

Lord Khalad laughed and linked arms with Lady Likh. “The princess’ll kill you if she hears you now.”

The friends moved away, heading toward Ladies Shadi and Zoya, who were about to enter the castle with Councilor Ludvig and Lord Rahim waiting for them by the entrance. General Pahlavi stayed. There was a faint cut on his chin, barely noticeable.

“Shaving,” he said, a wry smile. “I’m still remembering how to heal properly, like a normal man.” He looked up again at his sister. “Do you know,” he asked, “where the term ‘seven hells’ come from?”

“Not quite,” I confessed.

“There are no legends about seven hells. Not even an epigraph or a footnote. No one seems to know its origins, though we use it often enough as a curse. And yet Lord Garindor tells me it was a common expletive even among Vernasha’s contemporaries. I’d like to think that there are more stories than we can ever know in our own lifetimes. Perhaps there really are seven hells. Or perhaps there are seven heavens. Perhaps they’re in one of them.”

I nodded silently, not trusting myself to speak.