Chapter 17
“Princess Patrisha, what on earth is that dress?”
Eva pushed her way past the royal guards.
Since Patricia had marched out, the Imperial Guard had come to the west tower three times. Each time they had insisted on getting Crown Prince Patrick’s signature on various papers.
In Eva’s judgment, the empress meant to expose the “shadow princess” Patricia to the whole empire and was clearly plotting something. She could not let Patricia be dragged off to the Guards like this.
She could not guess the emperor’s intent, but first she had to get the princess and Patrick together.
“You’re showing bare skin everywhere—good heavens!”
“Lady Eva, we must escort Her Highness the Princess to the Guard at once.”
Normally unflappable, Eva fussed as she lifted the hem of Patricia’s dress.
“Sir! Can’t you see? Her Highness isn’t sneaking into the palace. She may be asked to face His Majesty, and besides—!”
She gave Patricia a gentle push inside the bronze door.
“It will be a formal presentation of Her Highness to the nobility and the world. Sir, we’ll be right down after she changes her dress and hair.”
The guards hesitated before Eva’s sharp, firm words; there was no room to argue. Eva followed Patricia up the stairs.
‘I spoke sharply, but I think there was a quaver in Eva’s voice.’
Climbing the stairs, Patricia looked back at Eva.
Eva, who had been clenching her teeth as she followed, gazed up at Patricia and suddenly tears she’d been holding back streamed down.
Patricia stepped down one stair and embraced her. As a child she had fit snugly in Eva’s arms; now, taller, Eva fit into hers.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. I missed you.”
“Thank goodness. I was worried when I heard you’d been taken prisoner.”
“And Patrick?”
“His Highness is in the garden.”
Patricia ran up the stairs and into the garden. Patrick sat neatly in a rattan chair beneath the darkening window. He must have nodded off while reading; a book lay in his hand, eyes closed.
Warm air drifted in through the open window, yet Patrick was wrapped in a blanket.
“Patrick.”
“…Risha.”
“Ah!”
Patricia’s throat tightened; she couldn’t speak. Patrick’s faintly smiling face was greenish; his lips were blue, his eyes sunken black.
Patrick tried to rise from the sofa but lay back again, extending thin hands to clasp Patricia’s and look her over.
“You made it safely.”
Why were Patrick’s bones so thin?
Mother had said it was because, in the womb, I took all the nourishment for myself.
‘If I’d had even a faint consciousness when I was just a tiny black dot of a cell, I wouldn’t have taken his sustenance. I never meant to.’
“Why are you… Patrick, you’re in such bad shape.”
“Patrisha, the empress must have schemed. She learned you went in my stead and came to confirm it. Say that I suddenly fell seriously ill that day and you went for me—just this once, and never again. Understand?”
“Okay, I will.”
“Also, now that your status as princess is revealed, claim your right to protection as a direct imperial, and answer no awkward questions. Name Count Fidel Valentin of the Valentin family as your spokesman.”
“Fidel Valentin—Mother’s family from the Kingdom of Torun.”
“Mm. The problem is the march order. They’ve asked repeatedly whether the command was issued to me. They want to pin it on you.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. I received the emperor’s marching orders myself.”
“Patrisha, do you have the order with you? Let me see. You should have consulted me.”
“Ah—that’s with the emperor of Karsik.”
“Was Father’s own signature and seal on the order?”
“Of course. I checked it myself, and Emperor Harzen of Karsik confirmed it too.”
“Harcen… how is he—still robust? He must be disappointed that we broke the peace treaty.”
“He was very angry.”
“Though you were taken prisoner, he treated you with courtesy, didn’t he? Did you perhaps tell him we’re twins?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Your Highness, pardon the interruption, but the princess must change her dress. If you’ll remain in the drawing room, she’ll be right back; you can continue talking while I do her hair.”
“All right, Eva.”
Eva, just as Patrick had foreseen, had already laid out a gown and ornaments for the moment Patricia would stand before the emperor and the court.
It was the pale-sky-blue satin dress the late Empress Aldisha had worn at her first imperial banquet after being named crown princess.
A deep neckline and sleeves trimmed with fine cream lace, the skirt unpuffed by a pannier so it fell in calm, graceful lines—perfect to bring out Patricia’s serene features.
Recalling the late empress in Patricia’s figure, Eva silently prayed that Aldisha would guard the princess from the empress’s clutches.
‘Lady Aldisha, please protect His Highness Patrick and Princess Patricia.’
When Patricia entered the salon in the gown, Eden and Patrick glanced up in passing—and then reacted at once.
“Wow, Patrisha… I’ve forgotten what I was saying.”
“Patrick, this is hardly the time.”
“How unreal, being this beautiful in a crisis.”
Eden flushed, and Patrick voiced his admiration without filter.
“But from what Eden says, you escaped not from a camp but a castle?”
“Pana Castle—impressive. Patrick, listen: the way I got out was brilliant. Eden and Bri, right place, right time—”
Bang, bang, bang—
Boots on the stairs: some twenty Imperial Guards filed into the garden. The captain stepped into the salon, raising a document bearing the royal seal.
“By order of His Majesty the Emperor: Princess Patricia Kalyan Evas is arrested for treason in defiance of imperial command.”
The guards surrounded Patricia in one swift motion, binding her arms and torso with rope.
“Captain. I won’t run—don’t tie me.”
The soldier hesitated at her calm words, looked to the captain, then continued binding.
“Eva, put my gloves on.”
Eva slipped the satin gloves onto her hands.
“I’ll be back, Eva.”
***
“Harzen!”
Princess Alessia hurried down the stairs toward Harzen as he stepped from the horse car, arms wide.
Not watching her feet, the long hem of her dress tangling dangerously, Harzen bounded up three steps at a time and swept her up.
“Kyaa! Harzen, I’m a lady now—put me down.”
“Alessia, have you shrunk?”
“The war—is it over? War is the most reckless thing in human history.”
“You little crow.”
“Did the Tane Empire really invade? How long since the peace treaty? I checked the records—Tane’s Emperor Kazan is notorious as a warmonger. In the past thirty years on the Arkan continent he’s started seventeen wars and taken eleven kingdoms. His atrocities—”
“Enough! Speech over.”
“But Harzen, do you have some lady hidden away in Pana Castle?”
“Ah, pesky little crow, there’s nothing you won’t ask.”
At the top of the steps Harzen set Alessia down and drew her head close, kissing the crown of her hair.
Her black locks, warmed by the flood of sunshine, carried a sweet, girlish scent.
The empress dowager’s youngest, born late in life, was Alessia, fifteen years old. There was a nine-year gap between her and the next oldest, Karolina, so she was very much the baby of the family.
Nicknamed “the walking encyclopedia” and “genius princess,” she devoured every kind of book she could find.
She was especially obsessed with dictionaries. Her goal was to cram every bit of knowledge in the world into her little head.
The problem was that while she possessed expert-level knowledge, she had no practical experience, so she simply rattled off facts without context.
In front of Harzen, she was no more than a silly child. She spoke with a lisp, threw tantrums disguised as affection, and constantly made unreasonable demands in the name of being cute.
In short, no one in the Karsik palace could handle her in an argument, and no one even tried.
The butler and head maid avoided her or answered everything with safe, pigeon-like replies of “yes, yes, yes.”
“Your Majesty. We’re relieved at your safe return.”
Isabella, Karolina—the two elder princesses greeted him in unison with a proper bow.
Aren’t these crows hot?
Harzen felt a strong urge to sweep away their shiny, curtain-like black hair that was parted in the same straight line and fell all the way to their waists.
What if they had heat rash on the nape of their necks, or grew shade-loving plants there? Compared to them, Patricia’s golden hair shimmered between his fingers like light, then vanished. Haa…
This is killing me. I’ve got to bring her here quickly.
The touch of Patricia’s hair, her delicate shoulders—and those maddening lips. The heat of that memory surged up Harzen’s spine.
“Where’s Mother?”
“She’s waiting.”
Harzen headed to the empress dowager’s audience chamber.
The emperor and the empress dowager exchanged formal greetings and sat facing each other on the sofa. The two elder princesses sat tightly together beside the empress dowager, like black curtains. Alessia clung to Harzen’s side.
“Your Majesty, we’re very curious why lady’s dresses and accessories were sent to Pana Castle.”
At Isabella’s question, the empress dowager nodded as well.
“For the lady you’re going to marry?”
“Wha—wha—what? Marriage?”
The four women all gasped in unison, then shut their mouths tight.
“Brother… by any chance, are you referring to Lady Yulia Reak?”
Second Princess Karolina, who had sworn eternal friendship with Yulia Reak, opened her lace fan with a snap and asked, though she already knew the answer.
“Patricia Kalyan Evas. Princess of Tane.”
Harzen looked to the empress dowager as he spoke.
“Mother, I’ve decided on a political marriage with the princess of Tane.”
“Brother—no, Your Majesty… but as far as I know, the Tane Empire has only princes.”
“She’s the twin of Crown Prince Patrick.”
“What’s a twin?”
“Isabella, a twin is when two babies are conceived in the same womb and born on the same day.”
“But why would anyone have two at once?”
“That’s not something you choose—it’s like a destined outcome. According to the texts I’ve read, when a single seed from a woman and a single seed from a man meet during fertilization, they sometimes split into two, forming two embryos. Regardless of gender, there can be two, or even three—”
“Enough already, Alessia. Your explanation just makes it worse. Your Majesty, how did you meet this unknown woman?”
Karolina, flustered, fanned herself irritably and smacked her palm with the fan.
“As the leader of Tane. She was my prisoner.”
“Oh, my goodness. Leader? Are you saying the princess started a war? What do you mean? Harzen, how could a princess be a commander—no, start a war—”
“Brother, please explain in more detail.”
Harzen’s brow furrowed sharply as the three crows cawed noisily around him.
