“So, who is Giuliette, really?” Varga asked over dinner. “I thought she was the daughter of some knight of your family house. That one of the higher-up families had taken her in after her father fell in the Battle of Vibreck.”
Samia savoured the steak and gravy that his servants had prepared for them, gulping it down with red wine. It was like being back at home again. Even with the Shadow Blades, she’d had to give up many of the comforts of her life as part of Octoton’s nobility and high society.
“I don’t know exactly who she is,” she answered. “All I know is, she’s not who she seems. She was planted there.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“For someone who’s given up everything in this endeavour, you don’t seem to know a lot.”
Samia sighed. “I heard her talking one night. She thought she was alone. I didn’t see who she was talking with, but I heard them. Whoever it was she was with, they were planted in House Cruz. They’d just stolen the sceptre.
“House Cruz and House Perez were too vain with their treasures. My uncle knew the dangers that would come if the tiara was lost, so he had it locked away in the magical safe high in the tower. It can only be opened by someone with the blood of House Reyes.”
“You think she can convince Flavio to open it?”
Samia nodded sullenly.
“So, what do we do?”
“I have a plan. When I’m done here, will you meet me in Octoton?” She took his hand, holding it gently.
“Of course.”
After dinner, they headed off to bed, Samia cuddling into him for comfort and warmth. He stroked her shoulder and hair and she drifted off.
