I hesitated. Did I want to trust another of the ice people? Lethe had proven to be useless in that department, and the last thing I needed was another person who would be happy to take advantage of my friendship, and to cast me asunder in the event that I became a liability.
“Maybe I could help you,” I said tentatively. Call it my curse to be compelled to extend a helping hand, no matter how many times I found myself later bitten.
Merulina shook her head and busied herself with sweeping. “I doubt it,” she muttered. “No one can help me. No one can help either one of us.” Her eyes, still cold, turned up toward me as she centered a cluster of tinkling porcelain shards at her feet. “What are you going to do? End the war? Unite our peoples?”
I grimaced. “No, I’m probably not going to end the war and unite your peoples—though if I felt that I could, I would certainly try. No. I mean that I could help you, maybe, in the short term. I could keep lookout while you visit with Altair.”
Merulina’s eyes narrowed. “You might get caught,” she said.
“I know that.”
“There’s nothing in it for you.”
“Yes. That’s true.”
Merulina sighed, and her shoulders sagged. “Why would you do anything to help me? You don’t even know me. In fact—for the gods’ sake—if you turned me in to Dorid right now for all that I have said, you’d probably find your station in the servant quarters increased.”
“Obviously,” I agreed. “But again, I’m human.” I smiled and felt my own heart warm with the words. “And I guess we can’t help but believe in the triumph of love.” Even my foolish mom and dad, and all the mistakes they made. I suddenly wanted to see them, and to see Theon. But helping Merulina see Altair would have to suffice. “And besides,” I went on, “any friend of the Aena dynasty is a friend of mine.” I extended my hand and allowed her to see the simple golden band which adorned one finger. Upon close inspection, it bore the crest of Aena: a fireball.
Merulina inspected the piece of jewelry, and her eyes flew to mine.
“Are you…?”
I nodded, almost certain of the question.
“The wife of Theon Aena?” Merulina finished in a whisper so low it was almost inaudible.
I nodded again, and a deep red blush rushed to the servant girl’s cheeks. “Oh, gods, I had no idea!” she cried, bowing her head. “Forgive me for how brisk I’ve been—I didn’t realize…” Brisk was a gentle word for it. “I didn’t realize I was speaking with—with—”
“The future queen?” I suggested, strangely invigorated by the words. I didn’t think I had ever said them aloud before.
“My lover’s sister-in-law!” Merulina corrected me, smothering her face into the palms of her hands and shaking her head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think—I didn’t know—”
I smiled at the girl. It wasn’t her fault. I understood that the ice dragons were a little more, ahem, guarded than the fire dragons. This was a quality which the fire dragons lacked. But she had every right to feel that way. If she was in love with a fire dragon—and not just any fire dragon, but Theon’s brother—then she was surrounded by enemies here.
“It doesn’t matter,” I assured her. “Let’s finish this up, find some bandages for my hand, and go down into the dungeons for a little while. I’ll be your lookout. I really don’t mind; I know how much it would’ve meant to me if anyone had been there to help me when I was trapped in this palace, pretending to be something I wasn’t.”
Merulina cocked her head at me. “When you were trapped in the palace, pretending to be something you weren’t? You mean… right now?”
We collected the porcelain piles into our dust pans and walked. “No,” I answered. “Before I married Theon, I was kidnapped by Lethe and kept in the palace. We almost got married.” I sighed and shook my head. “It’s a long story.”
Theon
Parnassia returned to her people after I had returned to mine. I slumbered beneath the morning sun, as our sojourn had kept me up most of the night. My mind then turned repeatedly to Penelope.
“We take what we’ve been given, and we forge what our heart needs in order to survive,” she told me, again and again in my dreams.
“But—” I felt myself thrash and twist at the idea that it was not the will of the gods which determined where every grain of sand fell. There had to be some other way. Some way to be happy, and to follow the path that had been laid out for me my entire life. “But what if we can change it?”