The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, #1)(122)

The guards at the palace gates recognized her without her having to explain what she was doing there. They waved her in. In the courtyard, a retinue of workers and guards were dismantling the fountain. One of the guards smiled at her. Tythus, Phalue’s sparring partner.

“It’s good to see you back here,” he said. He left his work at the fountain.

She glanced at the stone being broken apart and hauled away. “The fountain?”

His expression sobered. “Opened its eyes again. Phalue asked me to take it apart and remove it. She’s not superstitious but, well . . .” He shrugged, as though that explained it. “What brings you back?”

“She wants my advice,” Ranami said, flashing the crumpled missive. “Nothing more.” The people would whisper about the fountain again, but its destruction would hopefully put rumors to rest. Still, Ranami wasn’t quite sure what to make of it herself.

Tythus fell into step beside her. “I doubt that. She talks a lot when she spars. Lets off steam in more than one way, I suppose.”

Ranami felt a trickle of curiosity. “She talks about me?”

Tythus laughed. “Constantly.” He fell silent for a moment as they strode into the palace. “I don’t agree with her all the time, and until recently I wouldn’t have even said she was a friend. But Phalue tries very hard to do the right thing.”

Rain dripped from her hood onto her collarbone. She threw back the hood of her cloak and shook her hair loose. “I know.”

“You know the way from here?”

“Is she in the governor’s suites?”

“Yes.”

Ranami strode past Tythus and made her way to the stairs. She’d give whatever advice Phalue wanted, and she wouldn’t cry. These things so often ran their course, didn’t they? People grew apart, decided they were no longer meant for one another. It had happened for Phalue’s mother and father. It had happened for Ranami’s mother and father, long before she’d even been born. And Phalue had always moved from one woman to the next until Ranami. Perhaps she’d go back to that. Perhaps she missed it. As the governor, she’d have her pick. There would be women lined up to court her. The thought made Ranami more miserable than she’d thought possible.

She supposed, in the end, they’d had a good run together. They’d toppled a corrupt governor, and that was more than most could say.

She knocked at Phalue’s door with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

Phalue’s voice emanated from within. “Enter.”

Ranami drew herself up, took in a deep breath and turned the doorknob. She’d give her opinion with all the impartiality she could muster. She owed Phalue that much at least. But when she opened the door, she had to blink several times to adjust to the dim light.

Lanterns had been placed on the floor, their flames low and inviting, casting everything in gold. Bowls had been placed at intervals, filled with water, white lilies floating atop their surfaces. Phalue sat by the window, the soft light from a cloud-covered sun limning her outline. She had a stack of books on the bench beside her, piled in a tower that reached her chest. She wore her leather armor, the set that Ranami so often admired her in.

It couldn’t have been comfortable.

Phalue set her palm on the stack of books, her expression solemn. “I read them. All of them. I would have called for you sooner, but it took me some time.”

Hope blossomed in Ranami’s chest, unfolding gently as a flower in a wet season rain. “I never expected you to.”

“But you asked me to. That should have been enough. I always thought you asked too much of me, but I’m beginning to understand: you never asked enough.”

Ranami tried to gather herself. The flowers, the lanterns – they could be for someone else. Phalue had summoned her here for advice, not a reconciliation. She would have said she wanted to reconcile in her missive, wouldn’t she? But the tears had already gathered in her eyes. She wiped them away with the flat of her hand, embarrassed. “I’m not sure what to say.”

Phalue rose and strode between the lanterns to Ranami. Each step made Ranami’s heart leap. Hesitantly, Phalue lifted a hand and touched Ranami’s cheek. “I wasn’t sure if you would come if I asked you for more.” Her breath gusted warm across Ranami’s cheek. “It’s hard to remake one’s view of the world, to admit to complacency. I thought remaking myself for you was hard enough, but doing that was something I wanted. I didn’t want to realize how much I’ve hurt the people around me, and that’s what confronting my beliefs meant. We all tell ourselves stories of who we are, and in my mind, I was always the hero. But I wasn’t. Not in all the ways I should have been. Can you forgive me?”

Ranami laughed through her tears. “Can you forgive me? I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

Phalue brought her other hand up, cupped Ranami’s cheeks. Ranami felt her pulse pounding at her neck, the way it had the first time they’d ever kissed. She’d known then that things would come between them, but she couldn’t have stopped if she’d tried. She closed her eyes, her chest aching. She heard the creak of Phalue’s armor as she bent, a sweetness rising in her throat to burst like honey on her tongue. When her lips brushed against Ranami’s, it was like the sealing of a letter – a promise that could not be unwritten. She wrapped her arms around Phalue’s broad shoulders, tangled her fingers in her hair. She sank into Phalue’s embrace, her legs weak beneath her. This was home.