*
“I wonder what this is about,” Eleanor murmured to Daniel as they gathered in the council chamber. There had been a lot of unusual meetings since they’d got back from Taraska.
“Ah, Eleanor, glad you’re here,” Nicholas said as soon as she sat down. “Looks like this one’s for you.”
“For me?”
She reached out for the paper, but he held it just beyond her reach.
“Let me read, then.”
“From the hand of the Empress herself, in the strictest of confidence, et cetera, et cetera,” he read aloud. “Understanding that a woman has joined the Association’s ranks, we request her attention to the following matter.”
“How strange.”
“The next bit is the interesting part: young lady to be embedded in the Imperial harem to attend the Crown Prince and administer a potion, to be supplied.”
“She wants me to poison the Crown Prince?”
“No, it doesn’t say that.”
“Let me read it.” She took the sheet. “Huh, you’re right, it says potion. No details. Very mysterious.”
“That is preposterous,” Daniel said. “There is no need for Eleanor to enter the Imperial harem when any one of us could find an easier way to answer such a simple request.”
“It does sound rather extreme,” Nicholas agreed. “What do you reckon, Eleanor?”
“Well, if it’s the easiest way to get close to the prince without him suspecting anything, then maybe it makes sense.”
“But you shouldn’t need to,” Laban said. “It’s an extremely irregular request. I think we should refuse.”
“How long have we got?” Eleanor asked. “Can I have a day or two to think?”
“We’ll reconvene tomorrow evening,” Ragal said. “You have until then.”
“And can we get some more details? I want to know what I’m actually agreeing to.”
“Or not agreeing,” Daniel added. “As the case may be.”
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Nicholas said. “Though the Empress won’t like to be questioned.”
Eleanor went down to the academy gardens after the meeting, where she found Raf practising blindfolded throwing techniques. She stood and watched him as he fired blade after blade at the target, then crept up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders just as his last knife sailed towards the board.
He turned in surprise, pulling the blindfold from his eyes. “Ellie! I wasn’t expecting you!”
“How are you getting on?” she asked.
He looked over at the target board, where half a dozen knives now protruded from irregular points around the target. “Improving,” he said, striding over to retrieve his weapons. “At least they all hit the board this time.”
“Well, no-one’s going to blindfold you in the real world – or even for the contests. Anyway, I need to ask you something, can we talk?”
“Any time,” he said. They wandered over to a nearby grassy bank and he pulled her down to sit beside him on the frozen ground. “What’s troubling you?”
“If someone asked you to do a job – when you’ve graduated, I mean – that meant you had to go and charm secrets out of a girl, would you do it?”
“Of course,” he said without hesitation. “Why not?”
Eleanor took a deep breath, unsure whether she should be asking him these questions. She couldn’t explain why his answers mattered more than all the views of her fellows on the council. “What if it was sex?”
“If it was necessary.” He looked at her troubled face. “But Ellie, if you’re not happy you can just refuse – that’s why you went to all that effort to get yourself a seat on the council, isn’t it?”
“It’s not that,” she said. “The council aren’t trying to make me do anything – quite the opposite. We’ve had a peculiar request from the Imperial Court, but a lot of people are saying I mustn’t. I just don’t think there’d be the same fuss if they were asking a man to do it.”
“Probably not. But I’ve told you before, the Association can be old-fashioned sometimes.”
“I’ve noticed.” The bitterness crept into her voice despite her best efforts.
He put his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t take it personally, okay? It’s not really about you.”
“I know.” She sighed and sank back to lie on the grass, staring up at the clear winter sky. “I do know that. It’s just hard work being the odd one out, and I thought they might’ve got over it by now.”
“Most of them have.” He leaned back alongside her. “Most people only care that you’re doing a great job. They’re just not quite used to you yet.”
“How long is it going to take?”
“Well, you were out of the country for months. You haven’t been around here for long enough, yet.”
“I was two years at the academy!”
“That’s two years of people getting used to having a woman anywhere. A woman on the council is going to take a while longer.”
“Yeah, I suppose.” The cold was starting to bite through her clothes, but she didn’t want to go back inside. “Hmm, I’ve just remembered – we’ve got a fight to finish...”