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Lady Hilda turned the corner down the hall, Katya almost groaned. The courtiers gave way like sand before the tide at Lady Hilda’s green-eyed glance. Their pinched expressions said they didn’t want to yield, but something in Lady Hilda’s sensuous walk spoke of danger as well as sex.
    “Lady Hilda.”
    “Good afternoon, Highness.” She curtsied low enough to display a great deal of cleavage. After a quick glance, Katya told her eyes to behave. “I’ve come to reserve my dance.”
    “Reserve your dance?”
    “This evening at the Courtiers Ball. I assumed that was what you were doing.” She cast a glance at the men and women who’d given them a bit of space. “Arranging dances.”
    “I’ve never bothered to make reservations before.”
    “Well, allow me to introduce you to the concept. It’s sure to be the new trend. Dance the evening away with me, and I’ll promise you a wonderful time.”
    In the past, it would have been tempting, but Starbride’s self-mocking sense of humor kept surfacing in Katya’s mind. Besides that, Lady Hilda’s shamelessness made her edgy. It might have turned her on years ago, but now she could see that Lady Hilda’s entire posture spoke of need, lust mixed with desire for power. Katya put on a crooked grin and cursed the fact that she had a part to play.
    She took Lady Hilda’s quite close hand and raised it to her lips. “I never make promises, and so I never expect them to be kept. All I can say is if I see you there, I see you there.”
    Lady Hilda chuckled, a low, smoky sound in the back of her throat. “Oh, you’ll see me. And I always keep my promises.” She backed away, gave another one of those eye-towing curtsies, and then slinked back the way she’d come, leaving Katya’s other admirers to crash back together in her wake. They didn’t dare laugh behind Lady Hilda’s back, not yet, not until they knew how Katya felt. She didn’t give them any indication, as usual. She put her bored face on and wandered, letting all the talk wash over her and waiting for anything interesting to surface.
    A small gathering of people congregated in the middle of one hallway. They talked excitedly, and not for her, though she caused the babble to swell for a moment. Her hangers-on were only too happy to inform her that the king was soon to be passing that way. He usually went from the function of the moment through the secret passageways to his apartment, but Katya knew an appearance now and again in the hallways helped spread goodwill amongst the nobles and courtiers.
    Katya mingled with the knot of people and surveyed the crowd, hoping to pick out any grumbling about the Umbriels. She fixed on one man who didn’t chatter but watched the hallway with a hard look, an intense anticipation that turned Katya’s stomach to ice.
    She passed behind the rest of the waiting crowd and glanced at him now and again, keeping her bored face on tight. She put off any who tried to speak to her with a wave. Down the hall, her father turned the corner. Cassock-clad pyradistés, Crowe included, surrounded him. Da spoke with various nobles as he strolled. He received their bows with a nod and clapped Earl Lamont on the shoulder, laughing loudly at something the old man said.
    Katya’s glance darted to the cold-eyed courtier. A pyramid glimmered in his fist. The sides were uneven and cloudy, not well made, but well enough to perform one task. The courtier grasped it and stared at Katya’s father without blinking.
    Anger brewed in Katya’s chest, and she almost dropped her mask. This man dared to attack her father in his own hall? Her pyramid necklace flared as her anger grew, and down the hall, Crowe’s head lifted. His eyes found Katya’s, and she nodded toward the pyramid-wielding courtier. Crowe’s right hand dropped to the split in his cassock, and Katya knew he was pulling a pyramid from his trouser pocket. He pushed toward her through the chattering crowd that pressed her