Casket of Souls

let me win.”
    “Just as they do at shooting?”
    “Alec told you that, did he?”
    “Yes. And I assure you, I play to win.”
    She grinned. “Then you’re both honest men. I like that.”
    “If I may, Highness, you seem like a very direct young woman, yourself.”
    “Do I?” She seemed pleased. “Mother says I’m too blunt.”
    “Just another word for being honest. The queen herself is very—honest.”
    Elani laughed as she placed her first stone. “Yes, she is, but I think that’s part of what makes her such a splendid warrior and queen, don’t you?”
    “I do indeed, Highness.”
    They began to play in earnest, with Seregil giving advicenow and then. In spite of his help, however, he won three games in a row.
    “I see your reputation is well deserved,” Elani laughed. “You have the Lightbearer’s luck, as they say. But you would, wouldn’t you, being ’faie?”
    “We’re not all lucky, Highness, and my luck only runs in certain ways, none of them very useful.”
    “But I hear that you back privateer ships. That’s very useful. May I ask you something?”
    “Of course, Highness. Anything.”
    “We’re said to be distant kin. Why aren’t you at court?”
    Grinning, Seregil flipped a bakshi stone in the air and caught it. “Because I’m not very respectable, Highness.”
    “But you were at court for a time?”
    “When I was very young.”
    “I’ve heard that you were friends with Aunt Phoria and Uncle Korathan.”
    “I was. I think I can say that I’m still on good terms with your uncle.”
    “And Aunt Klia. That’s why I wondered—But you’ve already said. So why aren’t you on good terms with the queen?”
    How to answer that? “Well, as I said, I’ve become a bit of a wastrel over the years.”
    “You don’t seem like a wastrel at all. And Lord Alec certainly doesn’t,” she said, then blushed.
    “I’m afraid I’m rather a bad influence on Alec. And I suspect your mother and aunts would agree.”
    “That’s not what Aunt Klia says. She says the alliance with Aurënen would never have been struck if not for you. And that you and Lord Alec helped save her life when she was poisoned.”
    “She honors us. We only helped.”
    The princess surprised him with an unexpectedly shrewd look. “If she trusts you, then you both are worthy of trust. I won’t forget that when I’m queen.”
    Reltheus wandered over just then, carrying a three-legged stool. “You two are looking very serious over a game,” he said, sitting down beside the table.
    “Lord Seregil is teaching me strategy,” she told him. “But you were right about his luck.”
    Reltheus chuckled. “Seregil, you better mind your manners or you’re likely to end up in the Tower again.”
    “I’d forgotten that,” said the princess. “But Grandmother did let you out.”
    “I’d rather not take my chances there again,” Seregil replied with a wink.
    “I won’t send you there, at least not for beating me at the stones. Reltheus, will you give me a game so I can try out my new skills?”
    Seregil rose and bowed. “May you have Illior’s luck, Highness.”
    He was aware of jealous eyes on him as he searched out Alec, who was dozing under a birch tree. Seregil sat down with his back against the white trunk and settled himself as if for a nap, then kept watch under his eyelashes.
    Presently Elani stood up from the bakshi table, laughing over something Reltheus had said, and joined her ladies to nap in the shade. Reltheus sat where he was, looking pensive, until Tolin and Stenmir joined him and the three strolled off into the forest.
    Seregil waited until they were out of sight, then stood and stretched, and ambled off in the opposite direction. As soon as he was in the cover of the trees, however, he quickly skirted the clearing and soon caught sight of Reltheus’s red coat. The three nobles were standing on the path, heads together, deep in conversation. Seregil had worn his brown coat for just such a chance. Keeping low, he stole silently closer to a hiding spot behind a fallen tree.
    “How could you be so careless?” Tolin hissed.
    Reltheus gave him a dark look. “It was intercepted from the courier before it ever reached me. There was little I could do about that.”
    “What are we going to do? Are you certain the duke has it?”
    “Yes.” Reltheus started off along the path again, deeper into the woods, and Seregil followed, staying just close enough to hear what was said.
    “We must