She blinked. “Excuse me?”
“No more ‘Your Highness.’ I get enough of that from…everyone else. You should just call me Kai.”
“No. That wouldn’t be—”
“Don’t make me turn it into a royal command.” He hinted at a smile.
Cinder scrunched her shoulders up by her ears, suddenly embarra.s.sed. “All right. I suppose.”
“Thank you.” He c.o.c.ked his head toward the hall. “We should go, then.”
She had nearly forgotten that they were in the research hall, surrounded by people, everyone politely ignoring them as if they were not even there. She started down the hallway, wondering if she’d spoken out of place, and awkward beside the prince who was suddenly just Kai. It didn’t feel right.
“What was wrong with the android?”
She scratched at an oil stain on her glove. “Oh, I’m sorry. She’s not done yet. I’m working on her, I swear.”
“No, I meant the med-droid. That you fixed for Dr. Erland?”
“Oh. Oh, right. Um. It was…it had…a…dead wire. Between its optosensor and…control panel.” Kai lifted an eyebrow and she wasn’t sure that she’d convinced him. She cleared her throat. “You, uh, said something was worse? Before?”
When Kai said nothing for an awkward moment, she shrugged. “Never mind. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“No, it’s all right. You’ll find out soon enough.” He lowered his voice, inclining his head toward her as they walked. “The Lunar queen informed us this morning that she is coming to the Commonwealth on a diplomatic mission. Supposedly.”
Cinder nearly tripped, but Kai kept walking. She stumbled after him. “The Lunar queen is coming here? You can’t be serious.”
“I wish I weren’t. Every android in the palace has spent the morning taking down every reflective surface in the guest wing. It’s ridiculous—like we have nothing better to do.”
“Reflective surfaces? I always thought that was just superst.i.tion.”
“Evidently not. Something about their glamour…” He twirled a finger around his face, then stopped. “It doesn’t really matter.”
“When is she coming?”
“Today.”
Cinder’s stomach plummeted. The Lunar queen? Coming to New Beijing? A chill crawled down her arms.
“I’ll be making an announcement in half an hour.”
“But why would she come now, when we’re in mourning?”
A grim smile. “Because we’re in mourning.”
Kai paused. With a glance around the hallway, he inched toward Cinder, lowering his voice. “Look, I really appreciate your helping with the med-droids, and I’m sure the best mechanic in the city has a million jobs to prioritize, but at the risk of sounding like a spoiled prince, could I ask that you move Nainsi to the top of your list? I’m starting to get anxious about getting her back. I—” He hesitated. “I think I could use the moral support of my childhood tutor right now. You know?” The intensity in his eyes did not try to hide his true meaning. He wanted her to know he was lying. This had nothing to do with moral support or childhood attachments.
The panic behind the prince’s eyes spoke volumes. What information could that android have that was so important? And what did it have to do with the Lunar queen?
“Of course, Your Highness. Sorry, Prince Kai. I’ll take a look at her as soon as I get home.”
She thought she spotted grat.i.tude hidden somewhere beneath all his worry. Kai gestured at a door beside him, labeled DR. DMITRI ERLAND. He opened the door and ushered her in.
Dr. Erland was sitting at a lacquered desk, poring over a screen set into the surface. When he spotted Kai, he leaped to his feet, simultaneously s.n.a.t.c.hing up his wool cap and rounding the desk toward them.
“Your Highness—I am so sorry. What can I do to help you?”
“Nothing, thank you,” said Kai, a practiced reaction. Then he pulled his shoulders back, reconsidering. “Find a cure.”
“I will, Your Highness.” He pulled his hat on. “Of course I will.” The conviction in the doctor’s face was almost startling, but also comforting. Cinder immediately wondered if he’d found something new in the hours since she’d last seen him.
She thought of Peony, alone in the quarantine. Though it was an awful thing to think, and she immediately chastised herself for it, she couldn’t help it—with Emperor Rikan dead, Peony was the first in line for an antidote.
Kai cleared his throat. “I found your pretty new mechanic down in the lobby, and she tells me she’s here to check on the med-droids again. You know I could get you funding for some upgraded models if you require it.”
Cinder started at that simple word—pretty—but neither Kai nor Dr. Erland looked at her. Teetering on her feet, she scanned the room. A floor-to-ceiling window captured a perfect view of the lush palace gardens and the city beyond. Open shelves were filled with objects both familiar and unusual, new and ancient. A stack of books—not portscreens, but solid, paper books. Jars filled with leaves and dried flowers, jars filled with finely labeled liquids, jars filled with animal specimens and formaldehyde. A series of rocks and metals and ores, all finely labeled.
It was the office of a witch doctor as much as an acclaimed royal scientist.
“No, no, they only needed a touch of maintenance,” Dr. Erland was saying, lying as smoothly as he had the day before. “Nothing to worry about, and I would hate to have to program a new model. Besides, if we didn’t have any malfunctioning androids, what excuse would we have for asking Miss Linh back to the palace from time to time?”
Cinder glared at the doctor, half-mortified, but the start of a smile grew on Kai’s face.
“Doctor,” said Kai, “I heard a rumor that you’ve made some sort of a breakthrough in the past few days. Is it true?”
Dr. Erland pulled the spectacles from his pocket and set to cleaning them with the hem of his lab coat. “My prince, you should know better than to ask after rumors like that. I hate to give you hope before I know anything concrete. But when I do have solid information, you will be the first to see the report.” He slid the gla.s.ses onto his nose.
Kai tucked his hands into his pockets, seemingly satisfied. “Right. In that case, I’ll leave you be and hope to see a report cross my desk any day now.”
“That could be difficult, Your Highness, considering you do not have a desk.”
Kai shrugged and turned to Cinder. His eyes softened a little with a polite bow of his head. “I hope our paths will cross again.”
“Really? In that case, I guess I’ll keep following you.” She regretted the joke for half a breath before Kai laughed. A real laugh, and her chest warmed.
Then the prince reached for her hand—her cyborg hand.
Cinder tensed, terrified that he would feel the hard metal, even through her gloves, and yet even more afraid to pull away lest he find it suspicious. She mentally urged the robotic limb to go soft, to be pliant, to be human, as she watched Kai lift the hand and kiss the back of it. She held her breath, overwhelmed and embarra.s.sed.
The prince released her, bowed—his hair falling into his eyes again—and left the room.
Cinder stood frozen, her wired nerves humming.
She heard Dr. Erland grunt in curiosity, but the door opened again as soon as it had closed.
“Gracious,” Dr. Erland muttered as Kai stepped back inside.
“Pardon me, but might I have one more brief word with Linh-mèi?”
Dr. Erland flicked his wrist toward her. “By all means.”
Kai turned to her, still in the doorway. “I know this sounds like very poor timing, but trust me when I say my motives are based on self-preservation.” He inhaled a sharp breath. “Would you consider being my personal guest at the ball?”
The floor dissolved beneath Cinder. Her mind blanked. Surely, she hadn’t heard correctly.
But he just stood, patient, and after a long moment raised both his eyebrows in a mute prompt.
“E-excuse me?”
Kai cleared his throat. Stood straighter. “I a.s.sume you are going to the ball?”
“I-I don’t know. I mean, no. No, I’m sorry, I’m not going to the ball.”
Kai drew back, confused. “Oh. Well…but…maybe you would change your mind? Because I am, you know.”
“The prince.”
“Not bragging,” he said quickly. “Just a fact.”
“I know.” She gulped. The ball. Prince Kai was asking her to the ball. But that was the night she and Iko would be running away, if the car was fixed in time. The night she would escape.
Besides, he didn’t know who, what, he was asking. If he knew the truth…how mortified would he be if anyone found out?
Kai shifted on his feet, casting a nervous glance toward the doctor.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “Thank you—I…Thank you, Your Highness. But I must respectfully decline.”
He blinked. His eyes fell as he processed her response. Then he lifted his chin and attempted a grin that was almost painfully dejected. “No, it’s all right. I understand.”
Dr. Erland leaned back against his desk. “My sincerest condolences, Your Highness. In more ways than one, it seems.”
Cinder cast him a frosty glare, but he focused his attention on cleaning his spectacles again.
Kai scratched behind his neck. “It was nice to see you again, Linh-mèi.”
She flinched at the return of the formality and made to speak, her voice catching at apologies, explanations, but the prince didn’t wait for them. The door was already shutting behind him.
She snapped her jaw shut, thoughts sparking in her head. Dr. Erland clucked his tongue, and Cinder prepared to rail at him with those budding explanations, but he turned away before she could and paced back to his seat.
“What a shame you cannot blush, Miss Linh.”
Chapter Nineteen
DR. ERLAND HELD BOTH HANDS TOWARD A CHAIR ON THE other side of his desk. “Please sit down. I only need to finish up a few notes, and then I will tell you some things I’ve learned since yesterday afternoon.”
Cinder sat down, glad to get off her weak legs. “The prince just…”
“Yes. I was standing right here.” Dr. Erland reclaimed his own seat and tapped at the screen in his desk.
Cinder leaned back against the chair, gripping its arms to quell her shaking. Her mind was replaying the conversation while her retina scanner informed her that her body was producing ma.s.s amounts of endorphins and she should try to calm down.
“What do you think he meant by his motives being based on self-preservation?”
“He probably doesn’t want to be mauled by all the young ladies at the ball this year. You know there was nearly a stampede a couple years back.”
She bit her lip. Of all the girls in the whole city, she was…
The most convenient.
She forced these words to resonate, to stick. She was here and she seemed to be sane and she was a safe bet for him to ask to the ball. That was all it could be.
Besides, he was in mourning. He wasn’t thinking straight.
“Emperor Rikan is dead,” she said, s.n.a.t.c.hing for anything else to think about.
“Indeed. Prince Kai was close to his father, you know.”
She lowered her gaze to the screen Dr. Erland was hunched over. She could see only a small diagram of a human torso, surrounded by boxes of dense text. It did not appear to be hers.
“I would be lying,” Dr. Erland continued, “if I said that I had not harbored secret hopes of finding an antidote in time to save His Majesty, though I knew from the moment the diagnosis was made that it was unlikely. Nevertheless, we must proceed with our work.”
She nodded in agreement, thinking of Peony’s little hand gripping hers. “Doctor, why haven’t you told the prince about me? Don’t you want him to know that you’ve found someone who’s immune? Isn’t that important?”
He pressed his lips, but he didn’t look up at her. “Perhaps I should. But it would be his responsibility to share the news with the country, and I don’t think we’re ready to draw attention to this. When we have solid evidence that you are…as valuable as I hope, then we will share our news with the prince. And the world.”
She picked up a portscreen stylus that was lying abandoned on the desk and examined it like a scientific mystery. Twirling it like a pinwheel over her fingers, she murmured, “You also didn’t tell him I’m cyborg.”
The doctor made eye contact now, his crow’s-feet crinkling. “Ah. And that is what you’re most concerned about?”
Before she could confirm or deny, Dr. Erland waved his hand as if to dismiss her defensiveness. “Do you think I should tell him you’re a cyborg? I will if you want me to. But I frankly didn’t see that it was any of his business.”
Cinder dropped the stylus into her lap. “No, that isn’t—I just—”
Dr. Erland snorted. He was laughing at her.
Cinder huffed in irritation and glared out the window. The city was almost blindingly bright in the morning sun. “Not like it matters. He’ll find out eventually.”
“Yes, I suppose he will. Especially if he continues to show, erm, interest in you.” Dr. Erland pushed his chair back from the desk. “There. Your DNA sequencing has been completed. Shall we make our way to the lab room?”
She followed him into the sterile hallway. It was a short walk to the labs, and they entered lab room 11D this time, which looked exactly like lab room 4D: netscreen, built-in cabinets, a single exam table. No mirror.