It was strange. Standing in place, not doing anything, not exerting herself in any way, made the mid-afternoon heat worse than wandering around the village with Maneshka had. Felitïa knew it was because there had been more things to distract her from the heat then, but it still felt weird. At least the lotion was helping her sunburn, but she worried her sweat would wash it away. There was so much sweat, and it seemed as though she could feel every single drop of it sliding down her face, neck, arms, legs, everywhere.

Cerus was sweating, too, but he still managed to look calm and unaffected. She could sense his impatience though. Or was that her own impatience? Yes, it was her own impatience, not his. She hated when she couldn’t tell the difference between her own emotions and other people’s. It had a way of happening when she was agitated. Like now.

Or maybe she was just denying to herself that she was capable of agitation and similar feelings. Agitation, irritation, impatience—they messed with concentration. She needed to figure out a way to deal with that.

The two Ninifin warriors standing guard at the door to the Ninifin apartments didn’t seem anywhere near as affected by the heat. Of course, they were wearing a lot less than either she or Cerus was, so it was perhaps not so surprising.

A young Ninifin girl came out the door and curtsied before Cerus and Felitïa. She held out a folded piece of paper, which Cerus took with a soft word that Felitïa was fairly certain was the Ninifin word for thank you. According to Cerus, he had picked up bits and pieces of Ninifin over the years, but never enough to be fluent, and now he was attempting to improve his Ninifin as much as he could.

The girl waited while Cerus read the paper. When he was done, he said, “Give her Holiness our thanks for her wise words and actions regarding our sister, and tell her that we hope she will be willing to meet with us soon. It is imperative that we ease over any diplomatic tensions as soon as possible.”

The girl curtsied again and without a word, returned inside the apartments.

“I take it we haven’t been granted an audience,” Felitïa said.

Cerus passed her the letter, but proceeded to tell her the contents without her needing to read it. “She has apologised for her guards’ behaviour with Sinitïa and says that they will be appropriately punished, whatever she means by that. She has also agreed that we should meet, but says it must be at a later time. To be fair, it’s the most positive response I’ve gotten so far. The situation with Sinitïa, as unpleasant as it must have been for her, has given us an advantage.”

“What do we do now?” Felitïa asked.

“We wait. I’ll make another request in a day or two if we haven’t heard by then.”

“The meeting with the Volgs may have started by then. Once that starts, we’ll never get in.”

Cerus shrugged. “That’s the risk we take. Welcome to the world of diplomacy. These things take time. Sometimes, a lot of time.”

“All I really want is to see Nin-Akna, not the Queen.”

“I know, but you were right to make the complaint to the Queen, not just for Arnor’s sake, but also because it gives you an official reason to speak to one of her bodyguards. Without that reason, you would be far less likely to get near her.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Be patient.”

Felitïa sighed. After seventy-five days at sea and five days of ineffective studying, she was discovering that she didn’t have much patience left. Nothing was working out. No meeting Kindanog. No meeting Nin-Akna. They weren’t finding any information of value in the library. She had one option left. She needed to get into the Volg apartments and find the information from the source.

Cerus motioned to the two Arnorin soldiers standing behind them, and turned to leave. Felitïa was about to follow when the door to the Ninifin apartments opened again, and a young woman came out. The twin tattoos ran from her face down her body, over skin hardened by the sun. She was unarmed, but was dressed similarly to the other female Ninifin warriors Felitïa had seen, except that her jerkin was dyed a dark red.

Felitïa touched Cerus’s arm to hold him back. “She’s here.”

Cerus paused and looked back. “Nin-Akna?”

Nin-Akna bowed before Felitïa and Cerus. “I am glad that you have not left yet. May I be permitted to speak?”

“Please do,” Felitïa said, jumping in before Cerus.

Nin-Akna raised her head. “I wanted...I wanted to apologise personally for the behaviour of...of me and my guards.” She stumbled over her words and it was not just an imperfect command of the language. Her nervousness and fear flowed in waves from her. She was so young, barely more than a girl. “We acted rashly, and I regret if we frightened your sister. Her Holiness has ordered that I administer punishment to those of us responsible, especially Ses-Inhuan, who was the one who suggested holding the young princess for ransom. In order to...to make the most of it, I...” She took a deep breath. “I wondered if you might have any preferences on what the punishment should be.”

Felitïa looked to Cerus, who, after a brief pause, said, “An apology will be sufficient. But not to us. To our sister, Sinitïa. In person.”

Felitïa felt the relief wash over Nin-Akna, and the Ninifin’s stance relaxed. “Of course. It will be done. Name the time and place.”

“The sooner, the better,” Felitïa said. “I could take you to her now.” This would be an ideal opportunity to talk to her.

But Cerus held up his hand. “However, I would ask one more thing.”

“Of course,” Nin-Akna said, looking a little wary. “What would you like?”

Cerus smiled. “Simply put in a good word for me with your queen. I wish to do whatever I can to smooth over relations between our two countries before it leads to hostilities. She and I need to meet.”

Nin-Akna relaxed again. “Of course, I would be happy to.”

“Excellent,” Cerus said. “Well then, I’ll leave you in my sister Felitïa’s excellent hands. She can take you to our sister Sinitïa.” He bowed his head to her.

Nin-Akna bowed in return, then looked to Felitïa. “Should I summon the others from last night?”

Felitïa shook her head. “Just you should be enough. All of you at once might frighten Sinitïa.”

“As you wish. If you’ll give me a couple minutes, I need to inform the Queen of what I am doing. She might not permit me to come right away, but I will come as soon as I can.”

Felitïa nodded. “Of course. I’ll wait here until I hear from you.”

“If I can’t come immediately, I will send word right away.” Nin-Akna hurried back into the Ninifin apartments.

“I should check on what Father and your mother are doing,” Cerus said. “Will you be all right?”

“Yes, something is finally going the way I want it to.”

Cerus motioned to one of the Arnorin guards, and then the other. “You, stay with Princess Felitïa. You, come with me.”

“I don’t need a guard,” Felitïa said.

Cerus opened his mouth as if to protest, but stopped. “No, I suppose you don’t. Very well.” He motioned to both guards to follow him and headed off.

Despite the blistering heat, Felitïa was starting to feel better. The sweat dripping down her face didn’t seem so noticeable now. After a few minutes, the door opened again and Nin-Akna stepped out.

“Her Holiness has granted me leave to accompany you,” the Ninifin said.

Felitïa smiled. “Good. My sister is in the library in the Nabrinja. Shall we?”

As they walked, Nin-Akna said, “Your guards are gone. Forgive me if I speak out of hand, but do Arnorin royals normally go unprotected? Your sister also had no guards.”

“No,” Felitïa said. “Most of my family wouldn’t go anywhere without a retinue of guards. I’m the odd one out there. And Sinitïa has no experience of being out of the palace. She’s copying me, I suspect. For good or ill.”

“But you are unarmed,” Nin-Akna said.

“So are you.”

“Yes, but I am here in humility seeking forgiveness. It would not be proper for me to be armed in your presence or in your sister’s. There are so many other armed people here. Don’t you fear attack?”

“The Sanalog Emperor has promised security.”

“And you trust him?”

Felitïa shrugged. “I’ve never met him, but I’ve seen no reason not to trust him. Like you said, there are a lot of armed people here from all over the world. It’s in everyone’s best interest for security to be maintained. If hostilities broke out, it would be mayhem. Don’t you trust him?”

Nin-Akna’s face clenched. “He let Volgs here and I don’t trust them.”

“Well, on that, we’re alike,” Felitïa said.

They walked in silence for a minute or two. As they neared the entrance to the Nabrinja, Felitïa said, “Tell me about yourself, Nin-Akna.”

The Ninifin tensed again. “There is not much to tell.”

“You’re one of the Queen’s personal bodyguards. That’s pretty prestigious. I’d call that worth telling.”

“Perhaps,” Nin-Akna said.

Felitïa could feel nervousness coming from the Ninifin again. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

“No, it...it’s all right,” Nin-Akna said. “I am head of Queen Nin-Xoco’s personal bodyguard. It is a very prestigious position, yes.”

“Forgive me for saying,” Felitïa said, “but you’re very young for such a position. You must be very skilled.”

A pulse of fear passed from Nin-Akna, though visually, she was clearly trying to hide her nerves. “Yes, I...I am. Skilled. Very skilled. Forgive me, your Highness. Talking about myself like this...embarrasses me.”

“I apologise then,” Felitïa said. “We can talk about something else.”

Nin-Akna nodded and her stance relaxed a little, but Felitïa could still sense the nerves emanating from her. What was she so nervous about?

The cool interior of the Nabrinja came as a relief to Felitïa. As they passed through the entrance hall, past the throngs of people milling and moving about, Felitïa tried to ease Nin-Akna’s nerves by talking about the Nabrinja and when she thought the meeting might start—casual talk to get the girl to relax. None of it worked. She supposed it was understandable. Nin-Akna must be feeling very out of place at the moment. Skilled she might be, but she also seemed very inexperienced.

When they entered the library, Meleng was standing at one of the catalogue screens. Quilla sat at the nearest table staring blank-eyed at a manuscript in front of her, while across from her, Sinitïa had her head down on the table. They all looked over to Felitïa and Nin-Akna.

Sinitïa gasped and sat bolt upright. “It’s her!”

“It’s all right, Sinitïa,” Felitïa said. “Nin-Akna is just here to talk. She wants to apologise.”

“She does?” Sinitïa said.

“Yes, I...” Nin-Akna started, but Felitïa could feel confusion coming from her. She looked at Felitïa. “Why are you speaking Ninifin now? You know Ninifin?”

“No, it’s the library,” Felitïa said. “There’s a spell that translates what you hear into your native language.” Felitïa was getting so used to the translation now that she was starting to forget it was there.

“So if I speak Ninifin...” When Nin-Akna started again, Felitïa could see that her mouth was moving out of sequence with the words that seemed to come out of it. “Can you understand me?”

Felitïa nodded.

“I see,” Nin-Akna said. “It is convenient, I suppose.” She turned to Sinitïa and breathed deeply. “Your Highness, Princess Sinitïa, I would like to apologise on behalf of myself and the others under my command for our treatment of you. It was inappropriate, and we should not have scared you.”

Nin-Akna’s voice was completely different now. The base sound at its root was unchanged—it was possible to tell that it was still her voice—but the intonation had changed, all hints of a non-native accent were gone, and the words proceeded one after the other with less indication of hesitation, although Felitïa could still sense nervousness from her. That was interesting, Felitïa thought. It seemed that the spell also removed most occurrences of um and ah. This was the first time Felitïa had heard the effects on a non-native Arnorgue speaker whom she had also heard outside the library.

“It was also highly inappropriate for us to suggest taking you hostage,” Nin-Akna continued. “Please accept my sincerest apology. It will not happen again.”

Sinitïa smiled. “That’s okay. You were actually kind of nice. Sort of. It was the others with you who were mean. You should tell them off.”

“I will, your Highness.”

“Okay then,” Sinitïa said. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for accepting my apology, your Highness. I will take my leave of you now.” Nin-Akna bowed to Sinitïa, then walked over to Meleng. “You may not be a slave, but your rulers apparently do not consider you worthy of an apology.”

Felitïa grimaced.

Meleng looked up from the catalogue. “That’s kind of normal.”

Felitïa felt an urge to turn away in embarrassment. How could she have left him out? Was she becoming like her family?

“However,” Nin-Akna continued, “I believe you deserve an apology too, so I am offering you one. We were over-zealous, and I am sorry.”

“Thank you,” Meleng said. “That’s nice of you.”

“I hope we have a chance to see each other again under more pleasant circumstances.”

“That would be nice,” Meleng said.

“You’re welcome to stay a little longer now,” Felitïa said. “You don’t have to rush off.”

“I have duties to return to, your Highness,” the Ninifin replied. “My Queen would not want me to remain here now that I have executed what I came here to do.”

“Of course,” Felitïa said. “I’ll walk back with you if you like.”

Nin-Akna shook her head. “Please do not trouble yourself. I will be fine.”

“Then perhaps we can speak again later.”

Nin-Akna sighed. “I do not believe my Queen would approve of my socialising with you, so I must respectfully decline. I thank you for your offer, however.”

Felitïa nodded. “I understand.” It looked like she was going to have to find another way to spend time with this young woman.

Nin-Akna bowed again and left the room.

“Well, you got to speak to her, at least,” Meleng said, coming over from the catalogue.

“Did you learn anything?” Quilla asked.

“Only that she’s nervous about speaking about herself,” Felitïa said. “But maybe she’s nervous speaking to non-Ninifins. She’s young and I get the impression she’s never left Ninifin before.”

“I didn’t think anybody ever left Ninifin, to be honest,” Quilla said.

“Exactly,” Felitïa said. “Oh well. I’m just going to have to trust that another opportunity to speak to her comes up. I’d better go fill Cerus in. Is Maneshka here?”

“She’s down in the stacks,” Meleng said. “We may have found a collection of Volg documents. She’s trying to locate them now while I try to figure out if there are any other related collections.”

“Will she be back soon?”

Meleng shrugged. “Depends how long it takes her to locate them. It might be a while though.”

“Oh well,” Felitïa said. “I’ll see her when I get back then.”

“Would you like me to ask her about Kindanog?” Meleng asked. “I could if you want.”

Felitïa shook her head. “No. I’d rather do that myself, if you don’t mind. I want to fill her in on my telepathy and my weird line-up of people vision. I shouldn’t be very long either.”

“As you wish,” Meleng said, and Felitïa hurried from the library again.