Thea had come to the banquet formally dressed from the beginning. Yet she could not bring herself to go beside Gene. Thea too knew that today’s banquet was for choosing Gene’s new wife. If she stood beside him, everyone would surely look at her with pitying eyes. She could not find the courage to endure those gazes.
Yet she could not leave. Nimea had told her that even at that banquet, Thea must be the mistress. Some women might even choose their husband’s new wife for him, but Thea neither wanted to do that nor was prepared to. But if she ran away, it would mean abandoning even that rightful claim. Even without Nimea’s words, she thought she must not do that. That day, for the first time in her life, Thea stood struggling to remain where she wished to flee. Perhaps it was because she thought this was the last time. It was a new experience. It was more bearable than she had expected. Perhaps there had never been any need to keep running away.
But merely seeing Gene talking with a woman, only talking, broke Thea’s self-control. When she came to herself, she was already outside. Leaning on the terrace railing, the small amount of drink she had taken came pouring back out. As she coughed, someone behind her patted her back.
“It’s all right. You can bring it all up.”
Realizing who it was, tears spilled from her eyes. Thea retched a few more times and looked back.
“I’m sorry.”
“Well, why? Anyone’s stomach can turn at a banquet.”
When she caught her breath, she saw beneath the railing. White flowers were covered in yellow liquid. It was a pitiful sight. Before she knew it, Pallasos had come beside her and was looking down with her.
“They’ve been dyed yellow. You drank saffron juice.”
“I only drank a very little…”
“Who told you to drink a little? You should have had all you wanted. It all belongs to you, Lady Thea.”
Thea tried to force a smile, but only her lips trembled. Pallasos tilted his head and looked at Thea. They were the same age. But to look at them, Thea seemed two or three years younger.
“Whatever happens, it’s all your house, after all. All those women are lining up because they want to be your attendants. Why not choose twenty at once while you’re at it? Have them mop the floors and pull the weeds…”
Thea’s expression was neither a smile nor tears, so strange it was almost ridiculous. In the end, Pallasos stopped smiling and scratched the back of his head.
“That doesn’t comfort you at all, does it? I know that too.”
Tears fell from Thea’s eyes again. Pallasos shrugged and spoke.
“Our Lady Thea, such a crybaby.”
“Lady Thea” was an affectionate name Pallasos had given her, and only he used it. Suddenly she thought that over the past ten years, Pallasos had called her name more often than Gene. At the same time, Gene’s voice saying “Thea” came alive again at her ear. Merely his voice made her chest hurt. Thea bit her lip hard, then burst out.
“I’m only a burden to him. The royal consort and His Majesty will both think so. I don’t know how a child like me became his partner. It’s so ridiculous. How ill-matched a pair we are. There is not a single flaw in him, but someone so lacking as I…”
Pallasos waved a hand to stop her words and took both her shoulders.
“You aren’t the only burden on my brother, Lady Thea. I am too. But he doesn’t care. He says it makes no difference to him. He truly doesn’t care. That sort of thing, really! You know too little about what sort of person my brother is. You have no idea how close he is to exploding, how sick he is of his own situation, or how revolted he is by being surrounded by women in there. I’ll ask again. With things like that, can you be his partner?”
Thea looked up at Pallasos. She wiped away the tears gathered in her eyes, but more flowed.
“I don’t know. I don’t know what he thinks, or what he likes and dislikes. I-I’m afraid of him. Merely hearing his voice makes me feel as though my heart will burst. I would rather run away. I just don’t want to know what is happening in there. Anywhere would do, north or south, somewhere I can’t hear anything…”
“I’ve never seen you speak so much, my lady.”
Then Pallasos drew Thea close and embraced her. Startled, Thea stiffened. Though they were the same age and had spent ten years exchanging jokes, their bodies had never touched so closely. A faint scent rose from the arms of her husband’s younger brother. Still holding her, Pallasos whispered.
“The place you must flee is not the position of prince’s consort or that banquet hall, but the hell within your heart. Shall I help you do it? I’m good at that. Would you like to cross over here?”
Thea trembled, unable to speak. But the moment Pallasos cupped her cheek and moved to find her lips, she pushed him away with a strength she had never imagined she had. When they drew apart, Pallasos was smiling. Thea trembled too badly to speak properly.
“I-I really, I, this, something like this…”
“So our lady wasn’t quite such a delicate flower. That’s a relief, and a little disappointing too.”
For the first time, she was afraid of Pallasos, who could speak so lightly of such things. When she gathered her wits and thought back over what had just happened, she found it difficult even to stand straight under his gaze. These were the only words she managed.
“How am I to take this…?”
“What do you mean, how? Just forget it. Or sometimes, when my brother makes you angry, recall it as revenge. There will be plenty of occasions like that. Unlike me, my brother knows nothing of women’s hearts. What is this? Why are you trembling over something so small, when you know full well there is no chance he will spend tonight alone?”
Thea said nothing more. She only clenched and opened her already tightly clenched hands. A red color spread over her white hands like a net.
“Don’t misunderstand. I like my brother very much. We are very different, but I certainly like him. And of course, I like Lady Thea too.”
Pallasos quickly drew Thea’s face toward him and kissed her forehead. Thea merely reeled like a toy. Stepping back a few paces, Pallasos smiled.
“But grow strong, Lady Thea. Grow strong and bear my brother’s child. As you are, you will never become his woman. Poor little Lady Thea. My brother is a man like a hawk, like a lion. With this much weakness, you could not endure a hawk’s talons or a lion’s teeth.”
Sitting on the bed, the words Belkun had spoken a month earlier kept circling in Gene’s head. For some reason, he found them absurd. At the same time, he was impatient. Suddenly irritated, Gene stripped off his upper garment and flung it aside. Just then, Dalsad, returning with a silver basin, looked amused.
“You’re more hasty than I expected.”
“I merely dislike silk clothes.”
“Ah, really? Then do you intend to do nothing at all tonight?”
“No. I intend to hear a story.”
“Really? So I am a young lady summoned here to tell stories. Perhaps, if I fail to tell an interesting one, you will cut off my head tomorrow morning.”
“I have no such authority. I am not the sovereign. Now, begin by telling me what that liquor was. No, was it poison rather than liquor?”
The only reason Gene had chosen Dalsad, refusing all the young ladies of renowned families the king and Erektina had selected, was that he wanted to hear her story. That was what he believed, though he was not certain it was entirely true. In any case, tonight he could not avoid sharing a bed with someone. Refusing a gift the king himself had prepared was an insult to the king. A prince, of all people, could not do such a thing.
Yet at the same time, he did not wish to dance like a puppet to Erektina’s plan to bring in a new consort that way. Dalsad, from a poor frontier family, was not the sort of new consort Erektina expected, and he could not say that had played no part in his choice.
Dalsad set down the basin, sat at Gene’s feet, and took hold of them. It was the first step of a night spent serving a noble person. The water in the basin smelled of orange blossoms.
“It was indeed liquor. I lied when I said I had made it myself, but I don’t know how to make it either. Ah, probably no one in Epherium does. I merely know how to use it. Its name is ‘The God’s Foremost Flower.’ Oh, of course, that is when translated into our language. Originally, it is called ‘Perte Eumbarenta.’”
The sound of the words was familiar. When Gene frowned, Dalsad nodded.
“You understood at once. Yes, that’s right. It is the language of the Jandana.”
“Then you mean it’s Jandana liquor? Why did you have such a thing, and why did you give it to me?”
“I will explain how I came to possess it a little later. That liquor is very precious even among the Jandana…”
“Never mind that. Does everyone sleep for three days after drinking it?”
Looking up at Gene, Dalsad chuckled.
“You really would cut off my head if I were hiding something. No, they don’t. Usually, they do not wake for about a day, and sometimes they cannot even fall asleep at all, and sometimes they never wake again.”
“Wait. But it isn’t poison?”
Dalsad laughed aloud again.
“For some, it does amount to poison. In reality, though, it is merely ceremonial liquor, and a very precious liquor used only in the great ritual the Jandana hold once every few years.”
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