Royal Airs (46 page)

“I think I would
recognize
you, if I just happened upon you like this, but you look completely different,” she told him, coming close enough to touch his shoulder through the black silk.

“In a good way or a bad way?”

“Definitely good.”

Corene’s assessment was even more blunt. “Oooooh, I didn’t know you could look like this!” she exclaimed. “Just like a prince, but a
handsome
one.”

“Glad to know I won’t embarrass you at the dinner,” he replied.

“For the first time,” Corene said disparagingly, and then burst into laughter.

As Darien had predicted, there were two hundred people at the meal, and Josetta knew that Rafe was only acquainted with a handful. So she spent much of the evening identifying the major political players in Chialto for him, and following up names and titles with tidbits of gossip.

“That’s Mirti Serlast. Darien’s aunt and the hunti prime. I need to introduce you as soon as I can . . . The woman wearing the very blue headdress? Queen Seterre. My mother. When you meet her, say something nice about the feathers . . . And
that
is my cousin Rhan. Nelson’s son. See him flirting with Alys? That’s why Zoe thinks he told her about the succession.”

“Where’s her husband? That Dominic fellow?”

“Darien won’t allow him at any function where Corene will be present.”

“And she agreed to that?”

“Darien had guards take him away when he tried to accompany Alys to some event recently. So she didn’t have a choice.”

“Things are going to change if—” He didn’t finish his sentence.

Josetta nodded. “Oh yes. One way or the other, things are going to change.”

 • • • 

S
o the first meal wasn’t bad and there was better news to come. It turned out Filomara had little patience for sumptuousness, as she made plain the very next morning.

“Spare me the expensive and pointless assemblies of your rich and powerful,” the empress said to Darien as a much smaller group finished up a delicious breakfast. They were in Elidon’s quarters in the queen’s wing, a place where Josetta had spent uncountable hours watching the four queens spar and maneuver for precedence. She still hated this room. “I will take it as a given that you wish to do me honor, but I would be spared the tedium of experiencing it.”

“You are not the only one who benefits from such events,” Darien said in a mild voice. “Invitations to attend receptions at the palace are prized among the members of our Five Families.”

“Let them find some other form of social currency,” Filomara said.

Darien glanced around the room, making brief eye contact with Elidon, Zoe, Mirti, Kayle, and Nelson. He didn’t bother glancing at Corene or Josetta, who had retired to a divan pushed against the east wall, or at the empress’s attendants, who had taken a rather uncomfortable set of chairs on the other side of the room. He was looking for consensus from the power brokers of his circle. “Certainly we do not want you to be either bored or overwhelmed,” Darien said. “We will drastically curtail the activities we had planned for you. As long as
you
are satisfied with the treatment you receive at our hands.”

“If you speak sense and listen to mutually beneficial proposals, I assure you I will be satisfied,” the empress replied.

“Then let us proceed.”

Now Filomara glanced at the other Welchins at the table, and turned her head to take a long, deliberate look at the princesses. “And these are the people who make the decisions in Welce?” she asked, not bothering to hide the fact that she was unimpressed. “Now that the king is dead?”

“Some of us were deeply involved in making decisions even while the king was alive,” Mirti said dryly. “Particularly in his last two years, when he was not well.”

“So if there are issues you would like to raise, we are the ones you may speak with freely,” Darien said with an edge to his voice.

When the empress spoke again, it was clear she had been counting noses. “But there are missing faces,” she said. “I understand that you have five primes and four princesses. And assorted queens. They are not all here.”

“Of Vernon’s wives, only Elidon still keeps her hand in politics,” Darien said. So he had decided to do without Romelle as well as Alys, Josetta thought. That was interesting. Seterre had long ago given up any hope of being included in Darien’s calculations. “The fifth prime is on his way.”

“And the missing princesses?”

“One is not quite five and one is almost seven. I doubt you would find their counsel useful.”

The rest of them could not look at each other, thinking about how unlikely it was Odelia would ever have much conversation to offer in an assembly like this.

“But they are healthy, both of them, young as they are?” the empress pressed.

At that point, Josetta noticed, Nelson narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on Filomara’s face. Everyone else was too busy being annoyed to wonder what she might mean by her interrogation, but the sweela prime had caught a hint of the thoughts uppermost in her mind. And didn’t much like them. But he stayed silent and let Darien handle the conversation.

Which he did with his usual ability to lie with ease. “They are quite healthy. Those of us who have known them from birth are amazed to realize they have grown so quickly.”

“Children do,” Filmomara said, a dark note in her voice.

Mirti stirred impatiently in her chair. “So then,” said the hunti prime, who could match anybody for bluntness, “are we enough for you, or do you want to wait until the table is full before you offer us your proposals?”

Filomara nodded once, sharply, and said, “This is enough to begin with. I am looking for allies. Berringey has been making extensive trade agreements with Cozique and a few of the island nations, and there is some thought they are making pacts of aggression as well. There is no love between Malinqua and Berringey. I am looking to find my own allies that I can call on if I am suddenly pushed into war.”

That
was an honesty so rough as to be almost brutal, and Josetta knew her own face showed shock. But Darien was nodding as if he had expected her to say exactly that. “We are a small country, and while we deploy enough military might to protect our own coasts, we have never looked for war outside our borders. Apart from skirmishes with Soeche-Tas many years ago, we have been an entirely peaceful nation.”

“I envy you the geography that has made peace a viable option,” Filomara answered. “But Malinqua has many nearer neighbors, some of them warlike, and we have a long history of conflict.”

“I am sorry to hear it,” Darien said, “but I am not eager to share it.”

Filomara’s mouth quirked. “You may not be eager to, but you may all the same.”

“Please,” Darien said, his voice edged in sarcasm, “speak plainly.”

Filomara leaned back against her chair. “I know Ghyaneth Kolavar visited here this spring. You think he wanted to talk trade, but he was assessing Welce for its assets and its strength. Is the country rich in anything Berringey would like to have, and if so, how much trouble would it be to seize the nation through war?”

“That’s an interesting theory,” Darien said.

“And when he left here, he traveled to Soeche-Tas, did he not? A country that is not overfond of Welce, due to a diplomatic disaster five years ago.”

Nelson spoke up. “Congratulations on your network of spies,” he said. “You’re singularly well-informed.”

Filomara snorted in disdain. “You have spies in my cities as well. Or if you do not, you should.”

Darien didn’t answer that. “At any rate—” he began

Filomara interrupted. “At any rate, I think it would not take much to rouse Soeche-Tas against you, particularly if Berringey promises aid. At which time, you would be glad to have allies like Malinqua at your back.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Kayle said, unexpectedly entering the conversation. “What would it cost us to have a treaty with you? What are
you
looking for?”

“I want a blood alliance,” she said flatly. “I want one of your princesses.”

There was a long silence in the room. Josetta felt Corene go rigid with shock, but she didn’t think anyone else was surprised. Darien, in fact, looked perfectly relaxed, almost sprawled back in his chair.

“And what would you do with one of our girls?” he asked softly. “You have no sons of your own to marry them off to.”

So Filomara had been right, Josetta thought; Darien
did
have spies in her cities. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised.

“No, no sons, and no daughters living, either, though I bore two,” Filomara said heavily. “But I have nephews, and brothers who are eager to see one of their sons take the throne. I would marry one of them to one of your girls.”

“And promise her the crown?” Darien asked.

“I have some years left before I have to yield my place,” Filomara responded. “I have not yet made final determination on my heir. But that would not make the bond between our countries any less strong.”

“With our abundance of princesses, we have also had the luxury of wondering which one to name heir,” Darien said, which earned him sidelong glances from all of his advisors. “What if we offered a counterproposal? One of
your
blood relations marries one of our princesses and they take the throne in Chialto?”

Zoe and the other primes were now openly staring at Darien, which made Josetta realize he had come up with this plan without discussing it with anyone. Corene poked her in the ribs and, when Josetta looked over, opened her hands in a gesture that meant,
What is he doing?
Josetta shook her head.
I have no idea.

She glanced at her uncle Nelson again. Now he was frowning in concentration as he tried to figure something out. He looked from Darien to Filomara—and over at Josetta, where his gaze lingered. Without knowing why, she felt her stomach tighten.

What was going on here?

Filomara’s face hardened and her shoulders straightened. “That is not an arrangement that appeals to me,” she said. “Besides, I am looking for brides for my nephews to strengthen
my
royal line. I am not as interested in how you shore up your own.”

“I think you are merely afraid of repeating an old mistake,” Darien said. “And you want to make sure you control any future power alliances between you and another nation.”

The empress scowled and her attendants buzzed, and it was all too much for Mirti. “Darien, for once stop playing games,” the hunti prime burst out. “The empress has spoken openly. You could at least do the same.”

“The empress has not been honest with us,” Darien said. “I will accord her that courtesy when she extends it first.”

There was a long silence in the room, broken only by the sound of Filomara drumming her fingers on the table. Nelson had sat back in his chair, a certain satisfaction showing on his face, but now Kayle leaned forward, almost as if he was sniffing at a bouquet. His blue eyes blinked rapidly behind his glasses as a look of excitement crossed his face.

“Darien,” he began, “this woman—”

“I know,” Darien interrupted. “Let her tell us in her own time.”

Josetta felt Corene’s grip on her arm. “What is it?” Corene whispered. “What have the primes figured out?”

“I don’t know,” Josetta whispered back, “but Mirti and Zoe don’t know it yet. So it has to be something they could only analyze by touch, and neither of them has laid a hand on her.”

Finally Filomara loosed another short bark of laughter. “So you’re not quite as unsophisticated as you seem,” she said.

“If by that, you mean I, too, keep international informants, then you’re right,” Darien answered.

“Please,” Elidon said, managing to sound soothing instead of pleading. “Obviously Darien would like you to share some details before we can proceed. We are at an impasse unless you tell us more.”

“Well, it’s hardly a secret,” Filomara said in a rough voice. “I bore two daughters, named the eldest my heir, and married the younger one to a likely prince. But my eldest daughter died of a fever and my youngest was murdered by her husband. Which is why I am not eager to see any of my other heirs take up residence in foreign nations.”

That was when Zoe got it; Josetta could tell by her sudden start and her look of astonishment, quickly hidden. But she sent one quick, marveling look Darien’s way.

Elidon was offering official condolences. “What terrible tragedies. My heart goes out to you for the losses you suffered.”

“It was more than twenty years ago,” Filomara said gruffly. “I am past the heartbreak, but I do not forget the betrayal.”

“No, and how should you?” Darien agreed. “No wonder you despise the people of Berringey.”

“Berringey!”
Corene exclaimed, as every last person in the room now put the pieces together. “But—”

Darien stopped her with a single icy look before addressing Filomara again in a smooth voice. “I knew your daughter died, but I had not realized she was murdered,” he said.

Filomara nodded bleakly. “In good faith, I married her to the queen’s second son, and she bore him a child. But they have odd customs in Berringey. They kill off some of their heirs when they become too numerous, and my daughter and her son were among the ones deemed expendable.”

“Sad indeed,” Darien commented. “If only your spies would have known about such customs before you agreed to the wedding.”

The resulting silence was even more toxic than the last one. Filomara glowered and everyone else, even Kayle, looked a little unnerved, but Darien still seemed wholly at ease.

Sitting there with Corene still tugging on her arm, Josetta worked out the rest of the puzzle.
Darien probably knew their customs, even before Ghyaneth arrived this spring, even though the rest of us had no idea. So Filomara must have known, too, before she married her daughter to Ghyaneth’s uncle. She took the risk in the hope that her daughter might become queen. Did her daughter know before the wedding? Maybe she didn’t. Maybe that’s why she came to Welce instead of returning home—because she realized her mother had been willing to risk her life.