What is Hidden (10 page)

“Probably because Mistress Vera didn’t exactly take a liking to me,” I said glumly. That was just what I needed. I didn’t know what was worse: knowing I should have been more prepared and wasn’t, or wondering if there was more I was supposed to know and didn’t.

“Mistress Vera is rather . . . singular with those she takes a liking to,” she said delicately.

I dropped it, feeling sorry for the girl who couldn’t have been much older than me, though it was clear she’d been in the palace a long time. “Just assume I don’t know anything when it comes to things like this, all right? Most of the time, you’ll probably be correct.”

She smiled. “I’ll help you when I can.”

Carese led the way to the cellar, a surprisingly large room below the kitchens, and showed me how to draw
from the barrels. “Not that you’ll ever need to do this part,” she pointed out. “This is for select kitchen staff . . . too much of a problem with missing bottles in the past. But still, it might be good to know.” She shrugged and together we filled two large jugs to take to the council room.

“We need to be in place before anyone else arrives,” she instructed, balancing the jug on her hip and handing me a silver tray with empty glasses on it to carry. I tried to copy the way she used her hips to balance. I wobbled a little but didn’t drop anything. “And we need to blend into the curtains. Keep your head and eyes down at all times. Only refill glasses during recesses or if addressed directly.”

“Why do we need to be in there the whole time?”

“Some of the ambassadors like to take advantage of our hospitality,” she said wryly, “and will ask for frequent refills. But we don’t want to interfere, so it’s best to just stay out of sight until summoned. And it takes too much time to forever be coming and going. You’ll see. Recesses are frequent.”

I followed her up a narrow staircase that she told me was only for servants; guests came through the main ballroom and the hall with paintings of past rulers. “To remind them of who they are indebted to for their current position,” Carese said.

The council room itself was not so intimidating but not entirely welcoming either. Lush curtains hung around the entire room, to muffle the sound, according to Carese.

“Or to hide guards,” I ventured a guess.

She looked unamused. “Perhaps.” I was quickly learning that she liked to keep things simple and factual, and not waste time on gossip or fantasies.

A horseshoe-shaped table sat in the middle of the
room, the open end facing the door, and the top in front of a raised dais similar to the one from the dining hall. I assumed the prince would sit there, while the king would sit at a particularly plush chair that was also slightly raised above the others.

“You’ll stand on this side, here,” Carese directed, placing me where she wanted me to stand. “I’ll take the other side, where most of the ambassadors should sit. You shouldn’t have much to do but stand there. Now, help me fill the cups.”

We worked quickly and silently, and before long the voices of the council members announced their imminent arrival.

“Quickly now!” Carese whispered. “Stand there. Don’t meet anyone’s eyes. Don’t make any noise. You’ll be fine.”

I obeyed, wiping my sweaty palms on my skirt once more while I could still move freely.

The members trickled in more slowly than I would expect for an emergency meeting, talking among themselves. Their masks were a mix of all the main colors, though all were pale—high-ranking, as to be expected. There were more purple of the nobles than I expected, but the fishermen blues, artisan greens, and intellectual reds were also well represented.

After my first glance, though, I looked down at my skirt hem, afraid to repeat my mistake from the night before. Instead, I relied on my ears to teach me.

The members seemed to be predominantly men; I could pick out only two female voices. The others conversed freely about people I didn’t know and matters I didn’t understand.

A hush fell over the group, and the scraping of chairs
being pushed back sounded as the members rose for the king and prince to enter, or so I assumed.

There was a general rustle as everyone situated themselves, and then one of the women spoke. Instantly, I recognized her as the Speaker, the same regal woman from the Square.

“The situation is thus,” she began with no prelude. “A red tide has washed up on our western shores.”

I heard a general murmur before she spoke again. Red tides were rare, but not unheard of; algae congealed in the water and poisoned the sea life. Dead fish washed up on shore, and any shellfish collected would paralyze or kill anyone who ingested it. The tide usually washed back out to sea within a few weeks or even days, but it could also last months. “As you know, the red tide presents several problems, and there’s no telling how long it will last,” the Speaker continued.

“What is the king asking of us?” a deep baritone asked.

“The king asks for assistance for the fishermen in that area.” I nearly dropped my jug at the sound of an authoritative male voice instead of the Speaker’s and couldn’t resist raising my eyes to see the king stand and address the council himself. Expecting some sort of reaction from the members, I scanned the room but found no one in as much shock as I was. A few shifted in their seats, but this was clearly not the first time the king had spoken to them.

He continued, and I dropped my eyes to the floor, listening to his voice. It was smooth and solid, even as he laid out the problems before the council. “The fishermen cannot sell the contaminated shellfish, and if the tide lasts for very long, the men cannot feed their families.”

A raspy voice added, “They also have no income for other goods. And they will need to clear the washed-up fish from the shore and dispose of them somehow.”

“Yes,” the king agreed. “Our immediate concern is the wash-up. We don’t want any work animals eating it and falling ill.”

“Lord Luca, your villa is on that side of the island, correct? Is there any particular assistance you require or might suggest?”

I couldn’t help it—my head shot straight up again. I knew that voice.

As the man I presumed to be Lord Luca listed what needed to be done, I stared at the young man who had posed the question.

Aiden.
What on earth was he doing here?

There was no mistake. He was dressed more formally than I was used to seeing, but his mask was the same purple one I knew almost as well as my own green. I couldn’t help but meet his eyes, determined to confirm my suspicion, and the spark of recognition was all I needed. He sat on the opposite side of the room, closer to the top of the horseshoe than I would expect, and he looked comfortable there.
Comfortable
, and not ten feet from the prince and king! It was not an unusual thing for him to be here.

My mind was spinning. Clearly Aiden was from a much more important family than I had assumed. I knew he was noble, but not
this
noble. Did he always attend these meetings, or was he filling in for his father? Who was his father? I should know something like that. I should know so much more about him than I did.

He didn’t look at me again, or at least as far as I could
tell. Carese caught me and frowned, reminding me I was supposed to keep my head down.

The council broke for recess often, usually whenever there were signs of an argument brewing, but of course I couldn’t talk to Aiden during those times. I held my tongue and acted the perfect serving girl, my impatience building inside. During the first recess, I couldn’t help but ask Carese about the king’s speaking as we prepared small bowls of nuts in the hallway from a cart another servant brought up from the kitchens.

“It’s not the first time,” she confirmed. “And he doesn’t speak often. But he has been using the Speaker less and less. It makes the members uncomfortable. The first time he spoke he sent the servants out, probably so we wouldn’t know how the members reacted.” She made a face. “There are rumors that some of the members nearly called for a new king right there and then.”

“Just because the current one spoke?”

She shrugged. “People hold tight to tradition. Especially the nobility.”

“Even if tradition no longer makes sense?”

“A lot of the things the nobility do don’t make sense.”

With Aiden in mind, I couldn’t argue with that.

Finally, hours later, the Speaker announced the conclusion of the meeting, and I chanced one last peek only to see Aiden slip from the room almost immediately.

Oh, he and I were going to have a long chat the next time I caught him.

I
wasn’t needed for any lunch
services; apparently the palace kept lunch a small affair. Too many things going on during the day, I supposed. Either way, I was grateful for the reprieve. I wanted time to sort things out in my head and to somehow hunt Aiden down and demand some answers.

I went straight to my room, realizing I wouldn’t be able to find Aiden and had to wait for him to come to me.

First, I needed to visit the bathing rooms, to tend both to my hair and my Mark. Cleaning the Mark was now a familiar routine. It didn’t hurt as much; it mostly just itched horribly and felt hot to the touch, which made me nervous. A clear liquid seeped into the strip of cotton I was using as a bandage, and while I didn’t know if that was good or not, the fact that it was clear was somewhat reassuring.

I had been keeping my face as clean as I could, almost obsessively, and I applied the balm I’d salvaged from my house morning, noon, and night. It seemed to help. It was soothing to the heat of my skin at least.

With that taken care of, I left my mask off to let the wound breathe and crawled onto my bedroll. I rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling while I thought piecing together what I knew of my friend.

He was from a noble, high-ranking family. He’d have to be, to be part of the council. He also had a seemingly free rein in the palace, coming and going as he pleased.

He had a certain amount of power, mostly in the way of favors. How quickly he could get me moved to the Masking Room would be a good indicator of how much power.

My thoughts returned to Aiden’s uncanny ability to find missing people and things. He had to have people under his command; it was the only solution I could think of. If he had men to command, they could easily provide him with information he sought, and he was easily charismatic enough to earn the loyalty of anyone in his service.

He was hiding something from me. It felt like some kind of obligation or duty that he was trying to escape. He was always so carefree and eager around me, but whenever I asked him personal questions, he grew quiet and reluctant to share even the tiniest morsel of information.

I sighed, frustrated with this mystery.

A soft knock at my door interrupted my meditation, and I hurried to put my mask back on before answering it.

Not too surprisingly, Aiden greeted me, looking properly like a boy caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.

“Hello, Evie,” he said glumly. “I thought you might be wanting to ask me a few questions. Or, you know, slap me.”

I rolled my eyes. “Get in here.”

He stepped inside but didn’t join me on the bed as he
had before. Instead, he paced in front of me, opening and closing his mouth as he tried to say something, only to change his mind before any sound came out.

“You look like a fish, Aiden. Just talk to me. Who are you, really?”

“No more mystery?”

“No more mystery.” My voice was firm.

He sighed. “You know that I will follow after my father when the time comes. He’s a member of the council and sends me to speak when he . . . can’t.” He spoke haltingly, watching my eyes for a reaction. “You’ve probably guessed by now that my family is, um, near the top of the social ladder.”

“Go on,” I said dryly.

“I don’t know what you want to hear from me,” he confessed.

“I just want to hear
about
you. We talk all the time, but you never actually say anything!” I stood up and started pacing restlessly. I spun to face him. “I just want to know who you are.”

His shoulders slumped and he scuffed at the ground, no longer meeting my eyes. “It’s complicated.”

“I don’t see what’s complicated about it. Tell me about your family. Something from your childhood. Whatever you want, so long as it’s
you
. I don’t even know if you’ve been betrothed to some foreign princess or something!”

His gaze snapped back up to mine. “I’m not betrothed. I don’t have a secret wife or anything that I’m running away from. Did you really think I could do something like that?”

“I didn’t think you could be a member of the king’s council, either, and look what happened there.”

“I deserved that.” He sighed again. “Look, I’ll try to be more forthcoming with information in the future.”

“You’ll actually answer questions when I ask them with something other than another question?”

“Let’s not get too carried away,” he said, smiling wryly. “Must you take all my charm away in one swoop?”