Page 9 of All I Want For Christmas
As the staff pack up their equipment, word passes through the crowd of nobles and the soldiers standing guard around us. More staff light lanterns to guide our passage. With a few of the imperial soldiers taking the lead, our procession heads along the broad path cut into the rocky hillside.
The route is wide enough for three to walk comfortably abreast. Bianca keeps pace with us, still peering up at the sky. “They do know how to honor a godlen here. Although with such gorgeous landscapes, perhaps Ardone considers the whole country a notch in her belt.”
Marc makes a chiding sound. “Dariu has plenty of natural splendor of its own.”
“Hmm, in many places, to be sure, but I can’t say the estate of my birth or of my marriage would provoke much awe.” Bianca gives me a light nudge. “Why do you think I spend so much time at court?”
I can’t help smiling at her teasing tone. “Ardone leaves her blessings in more modest ways as well, you know.” I point to a patch of thin, pale leaves dotted with pink bell-like flowers, turned yellowish by the lanternlight. “A tea from those blooms encourages blood flow, which brightens the complexion… among other more vital concerns.”
“Ah, excellent—a medic empress and a beauty advisor.” The vicerine winks at me and points out a shrub we’re just passing. “Does that one have any special qualities?”
“It’ll give you the runs if you eat any part of it.”
Bianca snorts and turns the conversation into a sort of game, indicating various plants we pass and seeing what I have to say about them. Some of the Rionian vegetation I don’t know from my studies, but I recognize enough to keep her entertained.
Marc listens along watchfully, interjecting an occasional comment but seeming most happy to listen to me share my knowledge, which feels like a victory in itself. It’s good for him to remember there’s at least one area in which I’m more of an expert than he is.
The path slants downward to circumnavigate a particularly craggy portion of the hill’s crest, which juts above us in a shallow arc. The lanternlight stretches our shadows long across the looming rocky surface.
A slightly cooler wind sweeps beneath the arc, and I inhale deeply with a loosening of my lungs. Bianca tips her face toward the outcropping as if amused by watching our elongated silhouettes.
A faint cracking sound reaches my ears. That’s all I have time to register before Bianca yelps and shoves me to the side.
I collide with Marc just as a chunk of rock as big as my head plummets from the crest—right where my head was just an instant ago. It slams into Bianca’s shoulder.
She stumbles farther into me, another, thinner yelp seeping from her lips. Blood springs from the wound gouged into her upper arm.
My legs stiffen in the midst of a sudden chaos of hollering voices and swinging lanterns. My guards look me over while Marc’s hands rest protectively on my waist. The other soldiers churn through our small crowd, scanning the curving outcropping for any further signs of danger.
My heart thumps on, loud enough to echo through my skull. If Bianca hadn’t pushed me out of the way, that rock could easilyhave killed me. Even my guards didn’t recognize the threat in time.
She saved my life. And she risked her own to do it.Shecould have died.
A tiny regret unfurls inside me that she didn’t yank me in the other direction, and maybe Marc would have followed and met his own doom. That wouldn’t have fixed my problems anyway—actually, it might have compounded them, given that then I’d be left to my own devices against his more brutal twin.
A flare of scarlet yanks my thoughts back to the present. More blood is streaming down Bianca’s arm to dapple her bright purple dress.
I grab her and press my hand against the gaping wound, doing my best to staunch the bleeding. My pulse hammers faster. I don’t have any bandages—there isn’t even dried seaweed here.
My voice sounds strained when I raise it. “Is there a medic nearby? Vicerine Bianca needs attention.” Far more than I do, thanks to her.
Bianca sways slightly in my grasp, blinking at me. Her own remark comes out a little dazed. “I promise I didn’t do that for the attention.”
The statement is so absurd I sputter a guffaw. “It was rather mad. You’ve ruined your gown.”
Another absurd statement, but it gets a laugh out of Bianca, even as more of the color fades from her smooth brown cheeks. “Better to lose a gown than our empress. Should I have some of those pretty flowers you showed us or would that make more blood flow out?”
A couple of the soldiers have hustled over. One wraps a cloth bandage around Bianca’s wound while the other hovers her hands over the spot. “I have a minor healing gift. It won’t stemthe bleeding for long, but it’ll help you get to the proper medics in time.”
As they rush Bianca toward the palace ahead of the rest of us, my hand now stained with her blood falls to my side. Marc catches it before I can smear crimson across my own gown.
My husband looks down at my red-streaked palm and then the rock lying in our path. His gaze turns outright chilly as it sweeps over the nobles around us. “What a strange coincidence that such a horrible accident happened just as we were walking by. If rock falls are so common along this path, surely you should have warned us, Queen Anahi?”
The queen steps forward, her eyes wide enough that I think she was equally startled by the near-catastrophe. “I assure you they’re not common at all. You have my immense apologies. If I’d had any reason to fear for you or your wife’s safety?—”
Marc’s head jerks away from her as if he’s disinterested in hearing any more of her reassurance. He scans our companions again in the hazy lanternlight before glancing at one of his guards. “You didn’t mention any unexpected magic.”
The man at his side shakes his head. “Nothing nearby. But if someone targeted the rock itself, I might not have sensed it at that distance.”
