"How did you even know where I was?" I asked as Cisco stepped into the atrium. The butler took his cloak to reveal daggers strapped to his chest and thigh. "You know Baruuk's rule: no weapons in the palace."
Cisco patted his chest and seemed to only then remember he was still wearing them. "Ever the rule follower," he said, and handed his daggers to the butler.
"Your attendants are making themselves comfortable in the guards' barracks?"
"Straight to business, I see," Cisco said, stepping closer than was entirely comfortable, but I did not yield. He was on my turf, in my kingdom. I would not allow him to fluster me, no matter how hard he tried. "As for how I knew where you were, Baruuk told my father about the skirmish with Sharlot at Quantum Fortress. I assumed you were there." He grinned again — something he did far too often. "Looks like I was correct."
I couldn't betray that Baruuk was suspicious of him, so I remained silent on the matter. "I'll show you to your room," I said, and spun on my heel as I led him deeper into the palace.
"You seem on edge," Cisco commented as we walked up the staircase to the second floor, dropping some of the pretense from earliler. I immediately tensed. Cisco could read me like a book.
"I have somewhere else I'd rather be," I said as I opened the door to his bedroom and walked inside.
"You love a good challenge," Cisco said, a glimmer in his eye. "It must be killing you to be here while Sharlot has her way with your soldiers." I remained silent, cursing Cisco for carving a spot for himself in my life.
I had let my guard down over the years, if I'd ever had it up with him to begin with. We had known each other since we were five and seven. Fourteen years of staying up past our bedtime sneaking sweets from the kitchens, racing horses and wandering the palace grounds.
The only time I was allowed to play was when Cisco visited. His visits were bright spots along the timeline of my life. I anxiously awaited his visits as a child. Even as an adult, I felt the familiar thrill of getting to let myself be just a girl who loved her horse, getting dared into performing more and more elaborate flips into the lake, climbing trees and building forts in the woods.
But I couldn't afford to think like that this time. Surely Cisco would also be on edge if the situation were dire. He seemed to be his usual carefree self.
"I do enjoy a hard-won victory. Don't you?"
Cisco tossed his luggage on his bed and rifled through his things. "Oh, of course," he said, distracted by whatever he was searching for among his luggage. "Is your bedroom still next door?"
I sat at the foot of his bed, arms crossed as he smirked down at me. "Someone's got to keep an eye on you."
"And you're the only one who can tolerate me?"
"Barely," I muttered as he freed whatever he was looking for from the clutches of his saddle bag.
"Aha!" he exclaimed as he held a familiar piece of stationary in front of his face. "I got that impression when you wrote three pages to me last month about the tricks you taught Buzzard." He handed me the letter in question as he removed the rest of his belongings from his bag. "I brought the evidence this time, because you always try to deny it."
"Deny what?" I countered.
"That you love that horse more than you love most people."
"Is it a crime to love your horse?"
Cisco leaned in and scrunched his nose. "In your book it's a crime to be anything other than a fearsome warrior, and your love for that menace is absolutely adorable."
"I do not have an adorable bone in my body!" I said, shooting to my feet.
Cisco took the letter from my hand and held it out of my reach, as if I would deign to jump to reach it. "'Buzzard dominated at this year's annual festival. He was by far the fastest horse to compete, and he was on his best behavior, too. Normally they take points away for reckless behavior.'"
"It was payback for the five pages of vapid court gossip you sent!"
Cisco stuffed my letter back in his bag and leaned in so close I could smell the pine soap he used. "You practically beg to know who is backstabbing whom, who has fallen from my father's good graces, who my cousin's latest conquest is…"
"You're imagining things. I've never even met your cousins." Darius always squirreled them away when Baruuk and I visited — he didn't want all of his heirs in one place — but Cisco's cousins were as close as sisters to him. "Why would I care?"
Cisco leaned in closer. "Can I tell you a secret?" he whispered.
"Do I want to know?" I refused to take a step back as he leaned in so his breath rustled my hair.
"Zanth just got married," he said, straightening and beaming as he looked down at me. "She kept him a secret from all of us, and only informed us of his existence after she'd revealed that they had eloped."
I gasped — I couldn't help myself — and Cisco smirked. "See, I knew you couldn't resist the gossip! I am happy for them. I have only met him once, but I do believe he is as worthy of her as anyone could be."
Cisco sat at the foot of his bed, leaning back on his hands, and looked wistfully up at the ceiling.
"What's that look in your eyes?" I asked, sitting beside him on the edge of the bed.
"A love match is something I can only dream of. The best I can hope for is to grow to tolerate whoever I marry." Cisco shrugged, and it sounded like something was caught in his throat. There was a gleam in his eyes as he turned to look at me. "I'm jealous."
Something about the look in his eyes unsettled me. The last time I'd seen him this emotional, something truly awful had happened.
"Surely you can charm anyone into falling for you," I said.
Cisco laughed bitterly. "Not anyone." When he sobered, he looked at me with a burning intensity I was accustomed to seeing on him, but which suddenly seemed to take on new meaning. "Case in point: my charms haven't worked on you."
A pit opened up in my stomach, the ground dropping from beneath me, leaving a cavernous depth I fell deep into. His brown eyes were… alluring. And to see them look so beautifully sad always undid me.
Something flickered across Cisco's face. Like the glow from a lit hearth, emotion fluttered across his face — an emotion I was not certain I wanted to identify. He tipped his face toward mine, and I was suddenly able to identify that emotion — it was hope. "Have they?"
I was still falling into the depths of that pit in my stomach, and I feared I'd never hit the bottom. Death would be a preferable way to lose myself, rather than to lose myself to Cisco. Baruuk just got done telling me not to trust Cisco — he would kill me if he knew what I was feeling at that moment.
I leapt off the bed and raced to the door. "Last one to the stables has to play chess with Baruuk tonight!" I paused only long enough to see that lovesick look on his face shattered.
"Hey!" He said as he fumbled toward the door. "That doesn't answer my question!"
I raced through the palace as if the outcome of this race determined the outcome of my life — as if life and death hung in the balance. Where that conversation was headed felt just as dangerous.
My legs burned from the sudden burst of exertion, and my brow dampened in the late summer heat. I waited a full thirty seconds by the stables as Cisco caught up. He doubled over once he reached the stables.
"You are really out of shape for a warrior," I said, arms crossed.
Cisco looked up, his dark curls falling into his face. "I am twice your size and you are unnaturally fast."
He was a sight to behold with his tight curls uncoiled, his deep brown eyes alight, and a sheen of sweat on his brow. His charming facade was almost perfectly assembled at all times. It was nice to see I could undo him as well.
"I did miss you," he said, flicking his hair out of his eyes as he stood upright, a wide grin on his face. This was no longer charmingly fake Cisco — this was my lifelong friend.
"We battled Sharlot together four months ago."
"You've been keeping track?"
I rolled my eyes and dragged Buzzard's saddle out of the tack closet. "Our morning runs turned into races then, too."
Cisco brought his horse's saddle out of the closet as well. "Challenge me to something I'm good at next time. I hate playing chess with Baruuk. Father always makes me throw the game."
"You've been letting Baruuk win this whole time?" I gasped. I mused to myself that I had only beat him a few times in my entire life.
Cisco shrugged. "Not 'this whole time,' but probably since age thirteen maybe?" He led Thunder, a piebald mare, out of her stall. A piebald mare was an odd choice of horse for a crown prince, since appearances were everything for both of us, but she was a powerful creature. It was one thing I admired about Cisco — he cared more about efficiency than appearances.
"Why did you throw all those games?"
Cisco shrugged. "My father insisted I lose most games I knew how to win. 'Your mind is your greatest weapon,' he always said. 'Don't let them see the full breadth of its power.' Now, those are words I live by."
I stopped tightening the straps on Buzzard's saddle to give Cisco my full attention. I had to gauge how true his next words were with all my senses. "Why are you telling me this now?"
Cisco swung his leg over Thunder's back. "I'm not in the mood to keep secrets." He shrugged as he looked down at me. "I mean, I'm a crown prince. There are plenty of secrets I must keep." Cisco picked up the reins. "Maybe it's because you could torture all of this information out of me anyways…"
I narrowed my eyes at Cisco as I mounted Buzzard. "You're not wrong," I said, and we left the confines of the palace walls and crossed the field toward the western woods. Our horses knew exactly where we were going. We didn't even need to guide them.
Cisco was pretending everything was as it should be. But I knew him better than anyone. He was hiding something, even if he said he wasn't. Baruuk said not to trust him. I was starting to wonder if he was right.