"Yes, it matters a lot, Chancellor," Laurel said. "It shows who Rabbit is—and who is his." He looked over at Honor, Basel and the rest of the haunts. "If you would please stay here, honored ones. Having the reminder of your murders follow us in to dinner could be—detrimental.”
I blinked as a ripple of nods went through the ghosts, and everyone else stared wide-eyed at the Faena—even Suiden. Lieutenant Falkin's hand twitched as he started to bless himself.
Laurel gave a faint smile. "I've the earth aspect and so I can ask—as long as it's only asking." He cast a glance over us and then, satisfied with our appearance, bowed, indicating the chamberlain waiting patiently at the door. "If we are ready?”
Jeff was led away to the barracks to have dinner with the other soldiers and the rest of us trooped after me chamberlain as he escorted us back to His Grace's great hall, now filled with tables. All eyes snapped to us as we entered, the muted roar of conversation dropping to near silence while the chamberlain neatly separated out the embassy staff and sent them to the lower tables with the scaff and raff of petty officialdom and high ranking clerks. The ships' officers and Lieutenants Groskin and Falkin were sent to the middle tables with the minor elfin nobles. All eyes at his table snapped to Falkin's northern fairness as the first officer approached, and I saw frowns form on several faces. I started to follow, worried about hostilities over soup, but the chamberlain stopped me and I was herded with the rest towards the front of the hall. I then tried to sit with Captain Javes, Lord Esclaur, and Doyen Allwyn at the table right below the Fyrst's, but once more was stopped and firmly guided, along with Laurel, Vice Admiral Havram, Captain Suiden, and Chancellor Berle, to the raised platform where the Fyrst's high table was placed.
Rather stunned, I sat down next to Captain Suiden, wondering who had been dispossessed to make way for us.
"Do not worry, Rabbit Two Trees'son," the Fyrst said across Suiden, who was seated on His Grace's left. "None will challenge you for taking their place." His brows rose as he took in my ribbons and jewelry.
"Yes, Your Grace," I murmured as I shook my napkin out and laid it across my lap. Leaning out a little, I could see Laurel, Uncle Havram, and Chancellor Berle seated interspersed with the Fyrst's great eorls on the other side of His Grace. While Laurel was quietly conversing with the eorl next to him, Havram and Berle were staring at the female elf seated at Loran's immediate right. Concerned about their impoliteness, I tried to catch either the chancellor's or my uncle's attention. Then the female elf turned and I found myself staring also. Heigh-ho.
"Let me present you to my wife," the Fyrst said. "Her Grace, Molyu.”
Her face just a little fuller than her husband's, Molyu had the normal black hair, winged brows and high cheekbones. What she didn't have were the typical black eyes— hers were gold, and I felt my spine tighten. I also felt a thump on my side. I gave a very respectful nod.
"Your Grace.”
Molyu nodded back. "Prince Suiden, Rabbit Two Trees'son," she murmured in a startling rich contralto.
There were sounds of scraping as the chairs to my left were filled.
"So this is the human who has Magus Kareste all in a lather," a light voice said and I looked away from Her Grace to see an elf with a mane of his black hair sitting down on my right. He turned a young face towards me and I wondered just how old he was.
"My Enchanter, Wyln," the Fyrst said.
Suiden and I murmured a greeting, while I fought not to edge my chair away.
"I understand that you don't eat meat, Two Trees'son," His Grace said, reclaiming my attention.
"No, Your Grace," I said. A servant came by with hot cloths soaked in lemon water. I took one, wiped my hands, and dropped it in the basket carried by another servant following behind.
"I have informed Cook and she has prepared special dishes." The Fyrst dropped his used cloth in the basket. "I hope that you'll like them.”
"Thank you, Your Grace. I'm sure I will." I folded my hands in my lap and concentrated on breathing.
"So, the king of Iversterre calls you cousin?" Wyln asked, a winged brow rising. Several servants appeared with plates of hot bread, setting them down before us.
"Yes, honored Enchanter." I waited as the Fyrst helped himself, then Wyln and Suiden, before breaking off a piece of bread for myself. I dropped it onto my bread plate, my fingers stinging from the heat.
"Sixty-four lines to the throne.”
"An elfin king, so the Faena said, Wyln," His Grace mused. I said nothing and he looked at me, once more taking in the ribbons. "Is this not true, Rabbit Two Trees'son?”
"Yes, Your Grace. He looks a little like your Eorl Commander." I looked out over the hall, and saw Eorl Pellan sitting at the table right beneath us. He must have felt my eyes on him because he raised his head, staring back at me.
"Yet you, his close cousin, aren't elfin at all," Wyln pointed out, also looking at the House of Iver's colors.
More servants appeared in the hall with tureens and I sniffed. Fish soup. "This is very interesting as I have diligently searched my lineage, Two Trees'son, but have been unable to find a human lurking anywhere in it."
"Yes, honored Enchanter, it is odd, but I don't know why that's so." I shifted out of the way so that the servant could fill my bowl, hoping my stomach wouldn't embarrass me with subterranean grumbles.
"You did speculate, Lieutenant, that His Majesty being elfin may have something to do with inheritance and land-law," Captain Suiden said. He caught my panicked glance at him and gave a faint smile. 'This was after Trooper Basel's funeral."
"Oh." I vaguely remembered. "Yes, sir.”
"Indeed?" The Fyrst took a spoonful of soup and nodded. A sigh went through the dining hall and everyone started to eat, the cheerful din of talk and spoons against porcelain filling the room. "But why should the king of Iversterre be an elf at all?”
My mouth full of soup and bread, I glanced again at Captain Suiden, who gave another faint smile.
"Answer His Grace, Lieutenant.”
I swallowed, my throat suddenly tight. "Yes, sir." I looked past my captain to the Fyrst. "The people of Iversterre are becoming fae, Your Grace.”
The Fyrst's spoon slowly went down into his bowl. "What?”
Molyu, who'd been talking with the eorl on her right, broke off her conversation and turned her head, her gold eyes wide, while Wyln made a slight choking noise as if he swallowed wrong, then started to cough.
"Sro Laurel thinks it's because Iversterre was once part of the Border and the land is remaking them in its own image."
Suiden's smile came back. "Whatever the cause, my entire troop translated, Your Grace. As Captain Javes is so fond of pointing out, he turned into a wolf while I was a dragon." He tilted his head, reminding me of Dragoness Moraina when she was about to set a poser. "Haven't you wondered at Rabbit being a wizard—and a very powerful one at that—with him only being one generation removed from Iversterre?
A land of no magic?”
The Fyrst's face was still. He then seemed to remember his food and raised the spoon to his mouth. "No, I can't say that I did, Your Highness." He finished his bread, then gave a faint smile himself. 'The entire human kingdom turning fae?" The smile widened. "How ironic." He broke off another piece of bread.
"How absolutely, wonderfully ironic." He shot a glance at the captain. "And you, Your Highness? You've become a dragon?"
"Apparently so, Your Grace.”
"How? You weren't born in Iversterre nor in the Border.”
Suiden shrugged. "I don't know, Sro Fyrst. Perhaps living for twenty years in Iversterre was enough." He finished his soup. "But most assuredly I was—"
"Still is," I muttered very softly to my bowl.
"—a dragon." Suiden turned to me. "What kind did you say, Lieutenant?”
I raised my eyes to meet the captain's eyes now glinting at me. He heard. "Obsidian, sir.”
The Fyrst's face went blanker than normal, while his eyes turned watchful. "Obsidian." Wyln made another noise and reached for his wine goblet, clearing his throat, while Molyu's wide gaze shifted to Suiden.
"You saw this, Two Trees'son?" Her Grace asked, leaning a little out beyond the Fyrst to look at me.
"You saw the translations?"
I nodded. "Yes, Your Grace.”
"Even before we physically changed, he saw," Suiden said, once more smiling. He returned to his soup, finishing it. "Sro Laurel said that Lieutenant Rabbit has the gift of seeing true.”
"Yes?" The Fyrst's black eyes fixed on mine. "Beyond the obvious?”
"It does makes one wonder, Your Grace," Suiden said, leaning to the side to allow the servant to remove his empty bowl, "about Rabbit's intense abhorrence of his old master.”
"Yes, it does," Wyln said, having washed away all obstructions in his throat. He took another sip of wine.
"So, tell me, Two Trees'son, you stopped a djinn storm? How?"
"I became the wind, honored Enchanter."
This time Wyln's goblet slowly descended to the table. "The wind."
"It talks to you, doesn't it, Lieutenant?" Suiden asked.
"Yes, sir."
"It does? What does it say?" Wyln asked.
I looked up from my plate to answer and found myself looking at twin reflections in the Enchanter's black eyes. As I watched, my doubles shifted, changing into flame, and I leaned closer, fascinated. Then a quick breeze blew between us and I blinked, drawing back, my heart pounding hard in my throat.
'Try that again and I'll sodding take you apart," I said, my voice very soft.
The Enchanter took another sip of wine. "Oh, you will?" He gave me a gentle smile, amused. "All by yourself?”
I smiled back, reaching to the knife in the small of my back. "Sometimes yourself is all you need.”
"Leave it, Lieutenant," Suiden rumbled. I allowed my hand to drop as I looked at my captain—to meet the Fyrst's and Molyu's gazes once more, while Suiden stared past me at the Enchanter. "Is this how Hospitality is shown? By provoking one of my men?”
"I apologize, honored prince," Wyln said, allowing a servant to serve him crab sauteed with butter and vegetables, while shaking his head both at the steamed shellfish in sauce and the baked fish artfully surrounded by mounds of greens shaped as waves. "My only excuse is that I was curious." He waited as a servant poured more wine into his goblet. When the servant moved on, Wyln looked past Suiden and me to the Fyrst. "You have given him into Laurel Faena's care, Your Grace?”
The Fyrst forked up a bite of fish, nodded, and once more the rest of the hall plunged into their own plates. He then looked back at the Enchanter. "Yes. He asked for him.”
Wyln's eyes narrowed in thought. "Perhaps, Your Grace, it would be best if you allow me to oversee Two Trees'son's stay with us, for Laurel—competent as I'm sure he is—is after all, a cat."
The Fyrst speared some crab, giving a slight shrug. "You may be right, Wyln, but it's in the Acta that Rabbit Two Trees'son is given into Laurel Faena's care. Unless there's a compelling reason, like the talent-murder of birds, I cannot change it.”
"True, my husband," Molyu said. "But Wyln speaks wisely. Laurel Faena is a cat and so has a cat's knowledge of the talent." She looked at me, her own face thoughtful. "Perhaps there's another way that doesn't violate the law.”
"Well, I can ask Wyln to stand as Cyhn to Two Trees'son as he is cousin to someone who may be related to me." The Fyrst gave another slight shrug as he once more looked at Iver's colors woven in my hair. "At least I can argue so."
Related? I stared at Molyu's gold eyes. "Uhm—”
" 'Kin,' Your Grace?" Captain Suiden asked over me, his eyes narrowed in speculation.
"Close, Prince Suiden," the Fyrst replied. "Specifically, Cyhn is mentoring—showing a newcomer in a household how to get on. You call it fosterage.”
"Rabbit has plenty of people telling him how to get on, Your Grace," Suiden said. "In fact, he may have too many, each with their own idea of who he should be."
"Including yourself, Your Highness?" Wyln asked.
"When he was an insignificant farm boy from the Border that no one thought two coppers about, he was given into my care. I haven't failed him yet, Sro Wyln.”
The Fyrst laid down his fork on his empty plate and a servant appeared to whisk it away. "He will still be in your care, Prince Suiden, in most matters. We're talking about his talent, with which you haven't the faintest idea how to go on. Laurel Faena does—however, as my wife has pointed out, he is a cat, with a cat's knowledge of the working.”
"So, Sro Wyln knows better?" Captain Suiden also put his fork down on an empty plate, and the servant appeared again to remove it. "Can—and, more importantly—will an elf show a human how to go on?
I've heard, Sro Fyrst, of the games Enchanters play on humans."
So had I. Head bowed over my plate as I ate, I cast a sideways glance at the Enchanter and he gave me his gentle smile.
"I promise, Prince Suiden, not to play with Two Trees'-son," Wyln said, still amused. "He won't have to turn his coat inside out to confound me." He rubbed a finger under his chin. "It's amazing to me, Your Highness, how you fight against my coming near your lieutenant, yet you don't argue against Laurel Faena even though he, ah, bent the truth a bit to get Magus Kareste's runaway apprentice here."
"That's because—" I began.
"Rabbit met Laurel's actions with words and fists," Suiden spoke over me again, "and afterwards he didn't fret about being left alone with him. You, on the other hand, sit down next to him and he moves away, and he damn near pulls his knife on you." He took a sip of wine. "I've learned to heed his reactions, Sro Wyln. For the most part.”
"Seeing beyond the obvious, Two Trees'son?" Molyu asked around her husband. "Or is it just fear of the elfin Enchanter?”
Wyln's smile widened as he watched me struggle to find an answer that didn't insult him specifically or all Enchanters generally. "I don't need to be fostered, Your Grace," I finally said.
"I disagree, young human," Her Grace said, "as you see fit to attack a guest under our roof and draw knives while at our table. The teaching of manners is a strong necessity at the very least.”