By the time Alydia was dressed, Zairr and Guelida were settled in two of the comfy chairs in the front room, Genoff perched on the arm of the couch across from them.

Guelida was Alydia’s twin, perfectly identical, but the last few weeks had been hard on her. Dark shadows under Guelida’s eyes and a weary slump as she sat—no one would have any trouble telling her apart from Alydia right now.

Zairr and Genoff both stood as Alydia came in, and Guelida said, “Leave us alone for a bit?”

Alydia waited to sit down until the guardsmen were gone. “How are you holding up?” she asked, knowing the answer wasn’t a good one if Guelida had come here to hide in the middle of the afternoon.

“I have several people I’d like to strangle. A Marquine for whom that’s too kind a punishment. And the desperate wish to be allowed to sleep for a week. You?”

In all their lives, Guelida and Alydia had never kept a single secret from each other. “I hate the waiting. I want everything to just be done. I hate that everything’s changing and I feel like baggage being dragged along rather than a participant. Drink?”

“Please.”

Alydia had a whole collection of alcohols on a side table near the balcony doors. She ignored the wines and reached straight for the whiskey.

“Mother’s pushing the engineers,” Guelida said as Alydia dropped ice cubes into glasses. “Which is bad. At the same time, she’s ignoring complaints about the treaty, which could be worse.”

“The nobility complain about mother. It’s what they do. They wouldn’t know what to do with themselves if she ever had an idea they agreed with.”

“This is different.” Guelida accepted her glass and took a drink, wincing as it hit the back of her tongue. “It’s worse, somehow. I don’t like it.”

Alydia stretched out on the couch, sipping at her own drink, savoring the rich burn of it. “Is this just nerves, or is this a for-real bad feeling?”

“It’s not real. Not yet, but…” Guelida fell silent.

It had been an unfair question. One Alydia never would have asked if she hadn’t been so close to the end of her own patience. If Guelida had a real, gifted sense of something bad coming, she would have said so. And if not…

Their father had been lost in his visions for the whole of their lives. Their younger sibling, Elinas, was just starting to move down that path.

Guelida had heard the first whisper of a voice that didn’t belong when they’d been twelve, when their gifts were just waking. Alydia had been the one person she told. Together, they figured out what it meant, that Guelida had inherited the seer’s gift that had been blessing and curse on the royal family for untold generations.

Guelida had fought back the only way they could think of. She’d locked her mind down, learned how to shield herself so tight from both her own gifts and the gifts of others that no one ever learned what she could do. Her family, her friends—everyone but Alydia believed Guelida to be a blank, a person born ungifted, with a mind locked shut.

They both knew it was only a stopgap solution, but so far it had worked. Guelida could move through the world without being overwhelmed by visions or haunted by questions of what was real and what wasn’t. But the last thing she needed was Alydia questioning her perceptions.

“If you say this is different, I believe you.”

Guelida gave her a tired smile. “What am I going to do when you’re on the other side of the world from me?”

What were they both going to do? But the treaty—they needed it so much. The whole world needed it. “I don’t want to think about it anymore. Distract me, Lida. Give me something good to think about.”

Guelida sipped at her whiskey, saying nothing, but she couldn’t fool Alydia. The twitch at the corner of Guelida’s lips, the way her eyes flicked up and over, never looking directly at Alydia. “You do have something good.”

“Maybe.”

Alydia grabbed one of the pillows off the couch and threw it at her sister. Guelida deflected it with a forearm, but now she couldn’t hold back the grin. “Come on,” Alydia prodded. “Tell.”

Guelida leaned forward. “After the last earthquake, I had a dream.”

“The pale woman again?”

Guelida nodded. “She showed me a place—I think it’s a real place. A crack that opened, leading into a part of the underground that’s been sealed away. It’s new, Alie. Untouched for ancestors-know how long. Think about it.”

Guelida knew exactly how to cheer Alydia up. “Now if we can just find the time to sneak away.”

“After Bastyen’s here, after we’ve gotten through all the business of welcoming him and settled in for the negotiations, there should be plenty of down time. We’ll go. Before you have to leave. I promise.” With that, Guelida polished off the rest of her drink in three gulps and stood. “I should get going. I’ve got—“

“Things to do, yes.” Alydia smiled at her sister, trying to show she didn’t hold Guelida responsible for the state of things. “I’ll just continue to sit here and look pretty.”

“Mother’s an idiot for thinking…well, you know my opinion.”

“Go on,” Alydia said. “I’m fine.” If she said it often enough…

Tomorrow, Bastyen arrived. And then the real pretending would begin.