Stormqueen! (26 page)

Donal said, “First,
vai domyn
, I am to bear you Lord Aldaran’s apologies for sending me in his place. He would not hesitate to come as suppliant and petitioner, but he is old, and hardly fitted to bear the long road from Aldaran. Also, I can ride more quickly than he. Indeed, I had thought to be here within eight days’ ride, but I seem to have lost a day on the road.”

Damon-Rafael and his damned mind-probing
, Allart thought, but he said nothing, waiting for Donal to make his request.

Coryn said, “It is our pleasure to do courtesy to Lord Aldaran; what does he ask?”

“Lord Aldaran bids me say that his daughter, his only living child and heir, is cursed with
laran
such as he has never known before. The aged
leronis
who has cared for her since her birth no longer knows what to do with her. The child is of an age when my father fears lest threshold sickness destroy her. He comes, then, as suppliant, to ask of the
vai leroni
if they know of one who will come to care for her during these crucial seasons.”

This was not unknown, that a Tower-trained
leronis
might go to guide and care for some young heir during the troubled years of adolescence, when threshold sickness took such toll of the sons and daughters of their caste. A
laranzu
from Arilinn Tower had first counseled Allart to seek sanctuary at Nevarsin. And, Allart thought, if Aldaran was beholden to Hali for such a service, Aldaran would be all the more ready to refrain from angering Elhalyn by coming into this war.

Allart said, “The Hasturs of Elhalyn, and those who serve them in Hali Tower, will be pleased to serve Lord Aldaran in this matter.” He asked Coryn in their own language, “Who shall we send?”

“I thought you would go,” Coryn said. “You are none too eager to remain and become entangled in this war.”

“I shall go, indeed, at my brother’s bidding and on his mission,” Allart said, “but it is not seemly that a
laranzu
shall have the training of a maiden. Surely she needs a woman to guide her.”

“Yet there is none to spare,” said Coryn. “Now that I am to lose Renata, I shall need Mira for monitoring. And, of course, Cassandra is not even well enough trained for monitoring, far less for work of this sort, teaching a young girl to control her gift.”

Allart said, “Could not Renata fulfill this mission? It seems to me that this would remove her from the combat zone, as much as returning to Neskaya.”

“Yes, Renata is the obvious choice,” Coryn said, “but she is not to go to Neskaya. Did you not hear? No,” he answered his own question. “While Cassandra has been ill, you have stayed with her and you did not hear the word from the relays. Dom Erlend Leynier has sent word that she is not to go to Neskaya Towers but to go home to her wedding. It has twice been delayed already. I do not think she would wish to delay it again to go to some godforgotten corner of the Hellers, to teach some barefoot mountain girl how to handle her
laran
!”

Allart looked apprehensively at young Donal. Had he heard the offensive remark? But Donal, like a proper messenger, was staring straight before him, appearing neither to hear or see anything but what concerned him directly. If he
did
know enough of the Lowland tongue to understand Coryn’s words, or had enough
laran
to read their thoughts, neither Coryn nor Allart would ever know.

“I do not think Renata is in such a great hurry to be married,” Allart demurred.

Coryn chuckled. “I think you mean
you
are in no hurry for Renata to be married, cousin.” Then, at the glare of rage in Allan’s eyes, he said hastily, “I was but jesting, cousin. Tell young Delleray that we will ask the
damisela
Renata Leynier if she will undertake the journey northward.”

Allart repeated the formal phrases to Donal, who bowed and replied, “Say to the
vai domna
that Mikhail, Lord Aldaran, would not have her make this tremendous service unremunerated. In gratitude, she will be dowered as if she were his younger daughter, when the time comes for her to marry.”

“That is generous,” Allart said, as indeed it was. The use of
laran
could not be bought or sold like ordinary service; tradition stated it should be used only in service to caste or clan and was not for hire. This was the usual compromise. The Leyniers were wealthy, but they had no such wealth as the Aldarans, and this would give Renata the dower of a princess.

After a few more courtesies, they had young Donal conducted to a chamber to await the final arrangements. Coryn said regretfully, as he and Allart went through the force-field into the main part of the Tower, “Perhaps I should have arranged this journey for Arielle. She is a Di Asturien, but she is
nedestro
and has no dower to speak of. Even if my brother would give me leave to marry, which is not likely, he would not allow me to wed with a poor girl.” He laughed bitterly. “But it matters not… even if she were dowered with all the jewels of Carthon, a Hastur of Carcosa could not wed with a
nedestro
of Di Asturien; and if Arielle had such a dowry, her father would surely offer her to another, and I should lose her.”

“You are long unmarried,” Allart said, and Coryn shrugged.

“My brother is not eager for me to have an heir. I have
laran
enough, and I have fathered half a dozen sons for their accursed breeding program, on this girl and that, but I have not bothered to see the babes, though they say they all have
laran
. It is better not to get too fond of them, since I understand that every attempt to breed the Hastur gift to Aillard or Ardais has meant they die in threshold sickness, poor little brats. It is hard on their mothers, but I have no intention of letting myself be heart-wrung, too.”

“How can you take it so casually?”

For a moment the mask of indifference broke and Coryn looked out at him in real distress.

“What else can I do, Allart? No son of Hastur has a life he can call his own, while the
leroni
of this damned stud-service they call our caste make all our marriages and even arrange the fathering of our bastards. But we are not all like you, able to tolerate living the life of a monk!” Then he was stony-faced, impassive again. “Well, it is not an unpleasant duty to my clan, after all. While I dwell here as Keeper, there are plenty of times when I am no use to any woman, which is almost as good as being a monk… Arielle and I are willing to take what we can have when occasion permits. I am not like you, a romantic seeking a great love,” he added defensively, and turned away. “Will you ask Renata if she will go, or shall I?”

“You ask her,” Allart said. He knew already what she would say, knew they would ride northward together. He had seen it again and again; it could not be avoided.

Was it unavoidable, then, that he would love Renata, forgetting his love and his honor and his pledge to Cassandra?

I should never have left Nevarsin
, he thought.
Would that I had flung myself from the highest crag before I let them force me away
!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Renata hesitated at the door of the room, then, knowing that Cassandra was aware of her presence, went in without knocking. Cassandra was out of bed, although she still looked pale and exhausted. She had some needlework in her hands, and was setting small precise stitches in the petal of an embroidered flower, but as Renata’s eyes fell on it Cassandra colored and put it aside.

“I am ashamed to waste time on so foolish and womanly a pastime.”

Renata said, “Why? I, too, was taught never to let my hands sit idle, lest my mind find nothing to occupy itself but too much brooding on my own problems and miseries. Although my stitches were never so fine as yours. Are you feeling better now?”

Cassandra sighed. “Yes, I am well again. I suppose I can take my place among you. I suppose - ” Renata, the empath, knew that Cassandra’s throat closed, unable to speak the words.
I suppose they all know what I tried to do; they all despise me
…

“There is not one of us feels anything for you save sympathy, sorrow that you could have been so unhappy among us, and none of us spoke or tried to ease your suffering,” Renata said gently.

“Yet I hear whispers around me; I cannot read what is happening. What are you concealing from me, Renata? What are you all hiding?”

“You know that the war has broken out afresh,” Renata began.

“Allart is to go to war!” It was a cry of anguish. “And he did not tell me.”

“If he has hesitated to say this,
chiya
, surely it is only that he fears you might be overcome again by despair, and act rashly.”

Cassandra lowered her eyes; gently as the words were spoken, they were a reproof, and well-deserved. “No, that will not happen again. Not now.”

“Allart is not to go to war,” Renata said. “Instead, he is being sent outside the combat area. A messenger has come from Caer Donn, and Allart is being sent to escort him, under a truce-flag. Lord Elhalyn has sent him on some mission to the mountain people there.”

“Am I to go with him?” Cassandra caught her breath, a flush of such pure joy spreading over her face that Renata was reluctant to speak and banish it.

At last she said gently, “No, cousin. That is not your destiny now. You must stay here. You have great need of the training we can give, to master your
laran
, so that you will never again be overcome like that. And since I am to leave the Tower, you will be needed as a monitor here. Mira will begin at once to teach you.”

“I? A monitor? Truly?”

“Yes. You have worked long enough in the circle so that your
laran
and your talents are known to us. Coryn has said that you will make a monitor of great skill. And you will be needed soon. With Allart’s and my departure, there will hardly be enough trained workers here to form two circles, and not enough trained to monitor.”

“So.” Cassandra was silent a moment. “In any case, I have an easier lot than other women of my clan, who have nothing to do but watch their husbands ride forth to battle and perhaps death. I have useful work to do here, and Allart need have no fear that he leaves me with child.” To answer Renata’s questioning look, she said, “I am ashamed, Renata. Probably you do not know… Allart and I made one another a pledge, that our marriage would remain unconsummated. I - I tempted him to break that vow.”

“Cassandra, Allart is not a child or an untried boy. He is a grown man, and fully capable of making such a decision for himself.” Renata smothered an impulse to laugh. “I doubt he would be complimented by the thought that you ravished him against his will.”

Cassandra colored. “Still, if I had been stronger, if I had been able to master my unhappiness - “

“Cassandra, it’s done and past mending; all the smiths in Zandru’s forges can’t mend a broken egg. You are not the keeper of Allart’s conscience. Now you can only look ahead. Perhaps it is just as well that Allart must leave you for a time. It will give you both the opportunity to decide what you wish to do in the future.”

Cassandra shook her head. “How can I alone make a decision that concerns us both? It is for Allart to say what shall come afterward. He is my husband and my lord!”

Suddenly Renata was exasperated. “It is that attitude which has led women to where they are now in the Domains! In the name of the Blessed Cassilda, child, are you still thinking of yourself only in terms of a breeder of sons and a toy of lust? Wake up, girl! Do you think it is only for that Allart desires you?”

Cassandra blinked, startled. “What else am I? What else can any woman be?”

“You are not a woman!” Renata said angrily. “You are only a child! Every word you say makes it evident! Listen to me, Cassandra. First, you are a human being, a child of the gods, a daughter of your clan, bearing
laran
. Do you think you have it only that you may pass it on to your sons? You are a matrix worker; soon you will be a monitor. Do you honestly think you are no good to Allart for anything but to share his bed and to give him children? Gods above, girl,
that
he could have from a concubine, or a
riyachiya
…”