Author's Note

Alright! Hiatus over. It is now story time once again. Chapter one of book three! Thank you all for being patient, and I hope you enjoy the continuation of the romance, drama, and intrigue.

Two weeks until the next chapter. At least until I get a decent buffer back up.

Book 3, 1: Rising Dawn

Rosewater woke to Petal with a foreleg thrown over her neck, the smaller mare’s nose tucked into the space between her ear and the pillow, the long, slow breaths having shifted being the thing that finally woke her.

Morning’s first light was still a dream in the window, though the sky she could see through the curtains and past the glass and wood braces of the window was lighter than full night. Even more telling was the silence that held still over the villa save the burr and bluster against her ear.

She flicked it away and curled her head and neck further, but knew already she wouldn’t be able to find sleep again. Her dreams, of wonder and disaster in alternating bouts of joy and terror hadn’t been so terrible that they had kept her from sleeping, but neither had they given her the rest she truly needed after the whiplashing of last night.

Stars. Last night. It felt like half a dream itself. Dancing with Collar, kissing him in front of everypony, and then confirming their courtship in front of everypony.

Her hoof strayed to her horn briefly, the weight of the golden ring that had so briefly settled there somehow a phantom that only touching the base of her horn dispelled. Married. She was wedded to Collar. She was even more in love with him than she had when they’d been dating.

It was all real.

And so had been the seriousness of the escort home. Sunrise, Platinum, Cloudy, and Coat all joining together to form an escort around the nearly empty wagons of casks and bottles rattling and rumbling through a city still well-lit and well-patrolled by Dammeguard that shadowed them from street to street until another patrol group found them and left the first’s territory.

Before they’d left her, all three of the Dammeguard mares had made a note in their books, and Petal had made one in hers, formalizing the passing of custody from them to her.

Even asleep, she had to be accounted for, and so Petal had joined her in bed, and she would have to stay with Rosewater until they were able to get Prism, White Rose, Zephirine, Bliss, and Roselyn to have their own logbooks and be instructed in the protocol for their use, something they would need to do over the course of a week save the first two. Petal had her own life and couldn’t rope herself to Rosewater for days at a time.

Something to plan for as soon as the office is opened.

She yawned and tried to force the thoughts in her mind to still for a time and enjoy the slow lightening of the sky into dawn.

It took some time of fending off thoughts before she was able to settle in and enjoy the sight of low-hanging clouds gaining first a crown of gold as they scuttled towards the sea, fleeing the cooler air flowing in from the east. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction to call up the fog on land, but if she were to shift position and wake up Petal…

The cold was still too far distant from freezing to make frost settle on the window, but more than cold enough to appreciate the warmth of a pony at her back and a warm, thick set of blankets over the both of them.

So she lay still as she could as Petal’s breath shifted and she chased Rosewater sleepily across the bed to hold her close and bury her cold nose in the warm spot between neck and pillow and leth the warmth of the blanket suffuse her.

The natural flow of morning resumed when hooves tap-tapped past her door, paused, and then a gentle rapping at the frame made her acknowledge that it was time to wake up.

“Yes?” Rosewater called as quietly as was possible to reach the door. Not quietly enough to keep Petal from groaning and burying her muzzle under Rosewater’s neck in an attempt to escape.

“I don’t suppose,” Prism asked, her voice breaking into a yawn. “You have an inkling to rise and have an early breakfast?”

“Tell her to rut off,” Petal said, her voice too muffled to make it past the comforters and mattress padding.

“Petal is quite comfortable where she is,” Rosewater called back. “I’m afraid she might visit violence on my flank if I were to take away her source of warmth.”

“Too right.” Petal sighed a moment later and pulled her muzzle free to lay against Rosewater’s neck. “What is it, Prism?”

“You must be hungry, and I want to know what’s going to happen, going forward. So do a lot of ponies.” Prism tapped a hoof on the frame again. “Besides. Seed is going to come wandering in before too long. And I want to visit the Treaty office early. Have some business to take care of.”

Then she was gone, her hoofbeats trailing off down the hall.

“Rut me,” Petal groaned. “Why’s she gotta keep that Dammeguard schedule?”

“She’s excited, just like you are.” Rosewater rocked slightly to roll to her hooves on the floor. “Just like I am. Stars. I can hardly believe half of what happened.”

“It happened,” Petal replied with a grin, winking and adding, “Lady Primrose,” in a whisper. She pushed herself from bed, stretched, and opened the door. “Come on. I can’t imagine the rest of the conspirators aren’t already awake or soon on their way thanks to Prism.”

Cloudy woke, not alone, but with Rosemary nestled between her fore and hind legs, her lover’s tail twitching slowly in a pattern that said she’d long been awake. The movement against her loins was teasing, but not overly.

It explained the last bit of dream fragments of her and Rosemary making love, of her with a stallion’s bits mounting the other mare. Only the fact that she didn’t have a cock and balls meant her sheets were more or less clean. Just a slight slickness against her dock.

“Morning,” Rosemary purred, flicking her tail up and pressing her tail’s stiffness against Cloudy’s mons, the muscles of her back twitching against Cloudy’s teats. “Have pleasant dreams?”

“I think I might still be having it,” Cloudy said muzzily, the light streaming in through Rosemary’s curtained window enough to give her a good view of golden mane and pink ears twitching. She could almost see the smile curling her lips. “I dreamt I had Collar’s equipment.”

“Oh?” Rosemary turned her head to look at Cloudy with one eye, and there was that smile, so sweet and seemingly innocent. “How was it?”

“It felt…” Cloudy nibbled at her lover’s ear while she tried to reach for the fading fragments. “I might have to try it to recapture it,” she said after a moment. “I hear there are some artisans that can craft a toy for mares to capture at least the feeling of mounting.”

“Or be a unicorn,” Rosemary murmured, rolling to her back and casting a misty illusion of Collar’s erect cock between her legs, twitching and glistening with the memory of being inside Cloudy at the time. A spurt of white flew from the tip and spattered Rosemary’s chin and neck in an almost real display. It moved too sluggishly for real come, was too brightly speckled for the light coming in… and it faded as Rosemary released the binding spell.

“Or be a unicorn,” Cloudy murmured, her tail curling over her back. “I might have to have you do that for me for real later.” It would be the closest she got to Collar for some time while he and Rosewater were trying to found their new family line. “Promise?”

“Promise,” Rosemary murmured, a hoof trailing along the spatter of wetness along her belly and chest. “And you’ll have to ask around for somepony who can make a toy for us.”

“I will. I might have to ask Rosewater to buy one. I sincerely doubt I could find a crafter who could make such a thing here.” Cloudy shifted and rolled to her back, then her front with one hind hoof hanging off the edge of the bed. “But I need to wake up. Today is going to be busy.”

Rosemary’s eyes looked pained, but she nodded. “For you.”

“For you, too, soon,” Cloudy promised, wishing she knew when Firelight’s promised clemency would come down with official approval. “You heard Firelight.”

“I know. I almost wish he hadn’t said it.” Rosemary rolled towards her, one foreleg crossing Cloudy’s. “I love you. I can hold on until then. Just… remind Collar I want to help with planning, too. I have little else to do.”

“I doubt he would forget,” Cloudy murmured against her cheek. “If it weren’t for his devotion to the law… stars, even being in the room with us was pushing it. But I’m glad you were there, Rosemary.” That night would help her through the weeks and possibly months that it would take to know when Rosewater was pregnant, and the time until then would be filled with Cloudy needing to keep her distance from Collar in a romantic sense.

No more sharing his bed. No more sharing quick kisses.

Cloudy closed her eyes and kissed the one pony she could still make love to, could still kiss and spend the night with. “I need you,” she whispered.

“And I need you,” Rosemary murmured back. “I’ll be here. If…”

“I can spend every night here, Rosemary. We were lovers before you were captured. There’s no power balance we need to address.” Cloudy kissed Rosemary lightly on the lips and slipped from the bed. “Only appearances. And I need a place to stay since my apartment is hardly safe anymore.”

“You still pay for it?”

Cloudy snorted and backed off the bed, then headed for the bathroom to clean up. It would be rude to Collar to show up around him aroused. He might never know, but…

It was the principle of the matter.

Collar’s bed felt empty as he lay in it. Dreams of married life in an idyllic paradise had dogged him throughout the night, disappointing him with the current reality. He was married to a mare who couldn’t share his bed every night, couldn’t even visit every day. His official courtship of her would help somewhat with that, but would make finding time to spend together difficult.

Why am I so…

His hoof landed on the empty bed, the mound of pillows that had, briefly, emulated Cloudy’s presence that had become so familiar and necessary to his good sleep. Or at least waking up in a good mood.

He pulled himself out of bed, following his morning routine without a pony to joke with or tease, and prepared himself for a day spending time with Cloudy, his staff, and preparing the city for what was coming after his brazen and open announcement that he was courting a pony some saw as the greatest threat to their future.

Priceless had helped with some of the planning of the night, but even he hadn’t pushed to announce it in public. He would have likely lost some hairs on waking to find the gentle arrangement of his house of cards radically rearranged in one go.

It was easier to leave his bedroom than it was to enter it alone last night, and halted in the corridor outside his room. The guard in front of Rosemary’s room was standing closer to Glory’s than he was to the door he was meant to be guarding, and his glance at Collar when the click of the latch on his door drew his attention spoke to something not quite sympathetic.

“Good morning, my lord,” the stallion said, edging closer to the door. It took Collar a moment to recognize the young Corporal, Bellwether Feather, a second generation transplant from Los Pegasus. “I… heard…”

“The grapevine works overtime, it seems,” Collar said with a sigh. “Yes. Cloudy and I… well, to be more accurate, Rosemary and Cloudy have decided they wanted to rekindle their old romance.”

Bellwether glanced askance at the door, then back at Collar. “I meant…”

“Yes. Rosewater and I are… courting.” He sighed and strode up to the door. “More will be coming later, but that much you’re free to spread. Stars…” He knocked on the door to Rosemary and Cloudy’s room. At least, he was fairly certain Cloudy had chosen to change her room to her lover’s. Whether she would make that permanent… “I’m in love with her. That much I want you to know,” he said, cocking an ear to the guard, and leaving one on the door. “This isn’t a political move, despite the implications.”

Whatever answer Bellwether had was cut short when Cloudy slipped out of the room backwards, her neck stretched back into the room for as long as she could with each step. Rosemary’s pink muzzle and dark muzzle marks briefly made an appearance before she broke off the kiss.

“Love you,” Rosemary said breathlessly.

“Love you, too,” Cloudy replied in the same breathless tone before she stood up straighter, glancing at Collar not at all apologetically. It was as if she were announcing to the other guard that she was able to love easily and more than one. “And I still love you, Collar, but I know…”

“I do, too, and we all discussed it. You’re in love with Rosemary and not being able to be with her openly has been hard on you,” Collar said gently and laid a gentle kiss on her forehead. “And I’ve fallen in love with Rosewater. This is beneficial for all of us, Cloudy.”

She gave him a hard look, her disgust with acting plain on her face, but thankfully not obvious to the guard. “I know. But it runs counter to everything I grew up with. Everything Rosemary grew up with.”

“I know.” Collar glanced over Cloudy’s head to where Bellwether was trying his best to look away and pay attention at the same time. “Relationships are complicated. Especially when they cross the river. And… nothing says we can’t still be friends. Like we were before we started courting.”

Cloudy snorted. “I know. And that chafes, too. Rosewater is depriving herself more than I am.” She nodded down the corridor. “Come on. We have a meeting, right? And you’re going to lose a few tail hairs for springing that on everypony last minute.”

Collar snorted. “I’ve already lost a few, thank you, dealing with Wing and his wife last night.” He turned his head and flicked an ear at Bellwether. “Please resume your position. Given the upsets last night, it would look bad if we didn’t observe the propriety of guarding a… guest properly.”

Cloudy’s ears splayed flat briefly, then perked back up with an apparent effort of will. Her jaw was tight and her tail held stiff as they made their way down and then down again into the cool halls holding the library, more secure jail cells that hadn’t been used in ages, and on to the center of intelligence apparatus that decided their defensive strategy.

“I know you hate this, Cloudy,” Collar said gently.

“You’re rutting right I hate it. You’re alone at night, Collar. Stars, I know what that’s come to mean to you. Waking up in the morning with me. And… I missed you last night. You’re bigger than Rosemary.”

Collar snorted. “Oh, come now. Tell me you weren’t happy to have a pony you could hold without straining your legs all night.”

Cloudy gave him a sidelong glance, then nipped his shoulder. “I’d rather have all three of you in bed.”

For the rest of the way down to Priceless’s room, he couldn’t think of a way to make light of the situation and her desire. By the time they reached the door, he’d decided that it was best not to make light.

“I know. I’d rather have that, too. I want Rosewater here overnight sometime, if we can manage it.” Collar pushed open the door and ushered her in. “And I want it to be coordinated. I want it to be a part of our…” he winced. “Project.”

Rosewater stopped at the guard post on the Merrie side of the river, glancing at the ponies that had stepped out to intercept her and her small entourage of Prism, Petal, and Bliss.

They were Merrieguard, but not the usual bridge guard that stood watch. Roselight wasn’t there, likely assigned to a different bridge. Their armor was more polished, more impressive than the usual bridge guard fare of scuffed and buffed links that stopped gleaming by day’s end. This armor had never seen actual service aside from polishing and parades.

They were likely Roseate’s personal guard, loyal to her. None of the lackeys that did her dirty work, but professionals. Rosejoy and her cohorts had been around, but shadowing Rosewater from a few streets away from the river. It wasn’t hard to guess where Rosewater was going for those that listened to rumor or got direction from Roseate personally, so shadowing her through the twisting, hilly streets above the river wasn’t hard.

“Behind,” Prism murmured, stepping up beside Rosewater and warning her as quietly as she could of what she could guess on her own.

“I have business with the treaty office,” Rosewater said, taking a step forward towards the guard. “Please do not bar my way.”

Two of the guards glanced at a third, clearly identifying their leader and, after a brief glower at his subordinates, stepped out to do more than block her. “We have orders.”

“And I have rights. I have the right to visit the treaty office for any business or none at all.” Rosewater glanced at the blocky Merrie treaty office, the windows facing the street open, and cocked her head at the sight of movement inside. “You have no right to bar me from exercising my right.”

“Traitors don’t have rights,” the guard to the left growled, earning a snapping tail from his superior.

“So you’re here to arrest me?” Rosewater asked, raising one hoof as if asking them to clap irons around her legs and spoke not to the sergeant, but behind him. “Please, show the representatives of Her Highness just what my mother has ordered you to do.”

After a moment of glaring at her, the stallion followed her gaze to find Wandering Star standing on the front step of her office, watching them with ears perked, a scribe at her side holding a scroll tucked into one hoof. “We were ordered to do nothing, traitor. But we know what you’re doing. You won’t win.”

“So you decided to block my business with the office on your own?” Rosewater moved to the side, edging around them and keeping a glower on the sergeant. Her friends nudged her farther along as she continued on her way, her eyes never leaving them as she set hoof on the path forward.

“You’re on notice, traitor.”

“Oh, wonderful surveillance strategy. Let the target know they’re being watched,” Bliss snapped sarcastically as she hopped forward to place herself between Rosewater and the guards now watching them from behind. “We’re doing nothing illegal.”

The guard snorted to give his belief of that, but waved his long cudgel to his guards and returned to standing guard before Wandering Star could find cause to berate them for blocking traffic.

Wandering Star and her scribe stepped away from the office to intercept Rosewater as she made her way to the bridge’s stone ramp.

“Do you wish to file a complaint?” Wandering asked, her scribe’s quill fairly quivering.

“No. They’re not here on Roseate’s orders, according to them.”

That didn’t seem to make Wandering any happier, but she gave the scribe a look and flicked her ear. “Do you need an escort back? I’ll not see you harassed for doing treaty business.”

Rosewater snorted and shook her head.

Petal, however, nodded. “Please. Could you get us a pass along the Damme riverwalk back to the Rosewine bridge?”

“Petal, that’s not necessary.”

“You thought it was last night, and now I see you weren’t wrong,” Petal insisted, setting a hoof lightly against her ankle. “As your friend, I won’t see you subjected to whatever other harassment they can drum up between now and when you need to go back. Nor do I want Bliss or Prism to be harassed.”

“Then you’ll have an escort.” Wandering stepped back and nodded to her scribe. “Ms. Inkfeather is on loan to me today from Firelight’s office. When you leave my office today, she will take you to the Rosewine and return posthaste to Firelight.”

“I…” Rosewater glanced back at the guards, still well within earshot. This is going to get back to her. It was all going to get back to her. That she trusted Damme to ensure her safety more than she did her own city. “I must decline the offer of escort through Damme. I am still an enemy of that city, my own courtship of Collar notwithstanding, and I will not test our newfound relationship by straining his own citizenry. Nor will I say that I distrust my own city by my actions or words.”

Petal looked like she was ready to steam for only a moment before she flattened her ears and glanced back the way Rosewater had. “Fine. I accept the reasoning.”

“I will accept the escort, but only because there are some matters I’d like you to record, Ms. Inkfeather. I have some business dealings at the Rosewine Villa that I would like to put the Seal on, if it would be possible. Finalizing my land deal with the Vineyard for the acreage outside of town.”

Wandering gave her a curious look, then nodded. “An inheritance question?”

“It is. I am part-owner in the stake, but I have questions regarding the way some of the deeds were written and how they would operate if, well, if Collar and I were to eventually bind our hooves together.”

That casual mention caused a stir in the guards behind them, and Rosewater flattened her ears and ushered Vellum Inkfeather and Wandering Star ahead of her. “Please, to business. All of us are quite busy this morning.”

“I see.”

Collar sipped his tea after finishing his report to Priceless for the reasoning behind his actions. Most of what he’d done had been in the heat of the moment. Even choosing to announce their courtship in public in such a pronounced way hadn’t been planned. Their plan and what they planned to let leak out through rumor and supposition had been a few dances, cordial chatting, and an overall much less… direct approach.

But the dance, her eyes, the moment…

He could still feel the rush of his heartbeat as the choice came and went, the feel of her lips against his and the thrill of being able to kiss her in public…

“I don’t need to say that this mornings reports are full of Roseate’s words from Merrie, and full of Wing and his cohorts’ words here. Backed by real proof—” Priceless held up a hoof when Collar started to object. “In their eyes, my lord. Real proof in their eyes.”

Collar down the rest of his tea, gritting his teeth as the dregs sandpapered his tongue. “I know. Stars, I know. It just feels… raw.”

“I know, Collar,” Cloudy said gently beside him. “I know. But I also agree that this is the best way to handle a difficult situation. If Rosewater suddenly got pregnant two weeks from now and nopony knew she was courting you, and then announced you were the father, that would be so much worse than if you were courting, she became pregnant, and you held a public wedding to make the entire thing official in the eyes of our ponies.”

“You’ve given this some thought.”

“Rosemary and I gave it some thought. That’s what we pieced together after you all went to bed.” Cloudy snorted. “Please, I’m not that politically savvy.”

Priceless gave her a doubting look. “Don’t downplay your own intellect, my dear. You and Rosemary reconnecting in rumor has done quite a lot to soften the separation in rumor. I don’t doubt that was part of your contribution.”

“I-it was.” The look Cloudy gave Collar in that moment hurt. It felt like half of a goodbye, even though he knew it wasn’t. The planning and scheming that had led to the decision to ‘break up’ hadn’t been easy for either of them. To him, it felt too much like going through an actual ending of a relationship, and he could only imagine what it felt like to her, who likely never thought she’d need to choose between lovers before. “I agree it’s the best way to handle a bad situation in the time we had available to us.”

“I’m sure, if you had decided to push off—”

“There isn’t time.” Collar said it firmly as Priceless spoke, making sure his old friend knew not to push. “And… not just because I want to make love to her more, Priceless. That’s a part of it, yes, but more… much more of it is that I…”

“You need an heir,” Priceless said. “And so does she.”

“She more than I. But I wish I didn’t have to put it in such… terrible light.”

“In this time and place, you must be frank, my lord. If you had time, and if the laws were on your side, I have no doubt you’d do a more proper job of courting her,” Priceless said in a consoling tone. “But this is not a time or place to comfort your feelings. The reason you’re moving so quickly is political, not romantic, and we must consider the political ramifications of your moves, both those in the public eye, and how your elopement is going to change the board going forward.”

“Marriage. Fully sanctioned by my mother. It’s not an elopement.”

“Eloping makes it sound so much more rebellious, Collar,” Cloudy retorted, her voice mockingly teasing. “Embrace it.”

Collar rolled his eyes and focused on Priceless. “The first thing we need to do is figure out a contingency if the marriage somehow becomes common knowledge before we’re ready to announce it. What’s our reasoning?”

“The truth. Or at least the political truth,” Priceless suggested. “You married to cement a secret agreement to form an alliance and provide an heir for both regimes who would embody what we can do together.”

“It’s a little on the nose,” Collar said with a sigh. “It also suggests that I’m not doing what I want. Which was the whole point of Rosewater’s speeches last night. Choice, Priceless. My choice. My love. My way forward.” He stood and paced to the small stove, using a spell to refill his teacup with hot water and the infuser with freshly crushed tea. From his bag, he pulled out a bag of roughly ground star anise, cinnamon, and clove, all dried and a gift from Rosewater after their last date. He added a pinch of the mix to the infuser and dunked it into his cup.

Immediately, the rich, earthy scent rose up from the steaming water, reminding him most of the kiss she’d given him when she’d opened the pouch first.

“I’d rather our response be something closer to the actual truth.” Collar sipped the tea, savoring the rich, sweet bite of the star anise and how it accentuated the rest of the mix. Rosewater had been clear that this was a tea enhancer, not a substitute for actual tea, and despite having had it multiple times since, it always surprised him how much the flavor seemed to shift and flow between mixings. “Perhaps we can tell more of the story of our romance. Not all of it, but enough to make it clear that it wasn’t merely political.”

“Enough to avoid revealing just how much time she spent across the river?” Priceless asked, raising a brow and flicking a look at his teacup. “Just how much she’s made her way into your daily life?”

Collar raised his teacup deliberately and took a deep breath. “If she were a part of my daily life, Priceless, she’d be sitting here telling me that I put too much of her mix in my tea.”

Cloudy chuckled. “Too little, love. I’m not swimming on the steam.”

“You take my meaning, though, don’t you?” Priceless tapped the edge of the table. “We need to spend some time crafting the response. Just in case.”

“Just in case.” Collar sighed. “Why does that sound so much like ‘When?’”

Priceless didn’t give him an answer other than a smile as he pulled out a pyramid of scrolls. “Because the rumors are already flying, of course.”

“Of course they are. Then we need to make our courtship look awkward and new.” Collar rolled his eyes when Cloudy gave him a dead stare. “In public. I know we’re still a little awkward together.” He sighed when Priceless shook the pile. “And, dear spymaster, just how many of these rumors are you responsible for?”

“Of those on the street now?” Priceless gave a little shrug. “None yet. I’ve got a few feelers going out for what the reaction would be starting on the docks and I’ve got assets ready to catch what they transform into farther in. I expect we’ll have some reactions by this afternoon.”

Collar drew over one of the scrolls and started reading the parameters of the test rumor, then read the text and would have choked if he’d been sipping his tea. “Seriously? She’s already pregnant with my child and we’ve been married for years?”

Priceless shrugged. “It was a natural extension of your secret courtship.”

“And it hints that every interaction you’ve ever had has been a foil to mislead everypony over your true intention.” Cloudy nipped his neck. “Honestly, if you’d spoken to each other more than twice at the last five years worth of galas, you might already have two foals and this was the announcement of the third.”

The next two were lower on the scale of heart-thumpingly worrying, with him having sired a foal on her accidentally, and they were getting married soon to make the union legitimate. The next was a variant, that Rosemary was actually her biological daughter—an impossibility considering the relevant ages involved—and she needed to marry Collar before the relationship would be seen as valid.

“Not any mind to reality or facts, huh?” Collar asked, tempted to crumple up the scroll and toss it in the fire.

“Your opponents certainly don’t.” Priceless pushed the last two at him. “These are a variant of the truth and the truth respectively.”

“Why are we telling ponies the truth at all, even couched as a rumor?” Collar grumbled, reading through them briefly. “If anypony at all links your leaker to you, and then to me—”

“Then that will also enter the rumor stream as a conspiracy, competing with all of the other conspiracies and rumors out there for dominance.” Priceless shrugged. “The truth usually loses.”

Collar knew that all too well. Rosewater’s truth, the beauty of her heart, was too unknown to his ponies for them to trust the truth of things. “Then we need to give the truth a boost. I’d like to schedule a date with her in public where we can show her heart. Perhaps some of the ponies that ran into her at the Commoner’s garden can be asked to be there.”

“That will push the true rumor closer to public acceptance.”

“As long as Roseate doesn’t believe her daughter is so bold as to marry me secretly…” Collar trailed off with a sigh.

“Believe? You’d be an idiot to not believe she hasn’t already started some plan to oust, discredit, or even kill—”

Collar sucked in a breath.

“You have to consider it as an option,” Priceless insisted. “You need to. Of all of the Rosethorns, she is the closest to our bloody ancestors in temperament. She might not survive the attempt, but neither might Rosewater or any around her. If she’s backed into a corner, I don’t want to let ‘she wouldn’t do it because the treaty forbids it’ lead to the death of your wife, my lord.”

Or your child. “I know. It… it’s been below the surface of my thoughts. She’s poisonous, and… I know. When she’s here, she’ll never be left unguarded.” Collar cocked his head to the side. “And we have three Dammeguard in the garden. Two of whom I think are lovers of hers. Would it be possible to covertly offer them reactivation as her guards?”

Priceless raised a brow. “Bringing back the Shadows?”

“For the protection of a Rose, rather than the prosecution of one. In this, The Rose Shadows’ name will be more fitting. They will be her shadow, always there, protecting her.” Collar didn’t have to glance at Cloudy to sense her approval. “And, it just so happens we have an interview with them we can use to float recruiting them.”

“I would say contacting them sooner than late would be more prudent, my lord. Roseate may decide exile is preferable to inconsequence and strike before we think she will.”

Collar gritted his teeth, but nodded. It was in the far realm of believability, but it was still there. “Then have a proposal to me soonest. If you don’t hear from me regarding implementation within the hour after you send it to me, assume it’s approved.”