The Rose Throne (6 page)

She wore her best short-sleeved damask gown, but added a shawl over it, for the castle could be cool even
in late summer. The shawl had been knitted with neweyr in an elaborate pattern that echoed the braids the women wore. Issa had designed it herself, and she was proud of her work.

She went downstairs and found her father on his throne. It was made from a single piece of white sea-stone, shot through with threads of black and silver. They formed patterns that Issa had once believed would show her the answer to the prophecy, if only she looked hard enough.

Duke Kellin and her father were already there, waiting for her. Their silence was not a comfortable one.

“I am sorry to be late, Father,” said Issa, head bowed.

“I shall explain any necessary details to you later, Issa, when Duke Kellin has gone,” said King Jaap. “There is no need for him to waste his time with repeating what he has already said.”

“My time is not wasted when I am serving you in any capacity, Your Majesty,” said Kellin. “Though perhaps your daughter does not know how valuable the time of her father the king is.”

“She is my only child, and the image of her dead mother. I have indulged her too much,” said King Jaap.

Issa flushed, embarrassed that her father was forced to lower himself in the eyes of another kingdom’s emissary. “I apologize to you, as well, Duke Kellin,” she said.

“Clearly. I should ask King Haikor to send someone else to speak to you on this matter, someone whose company you would find less loathsome,” said Kellin. “It would take some weeks for the journey back to Rurik and here again, but it could be done. King Haikor would want to ensure that you had no grudge against the man with whom you will hold such a deep obligation.”

“No! I did not mean that at all,” said Issa. “It was nothing personal. I was late because I was distracted with the neweyr in the Queen’s Garden.” She hated to admit a true weakness, but she had no choice.

“Yes? And does this happen often?” asked Kellin.

“I shall work hard to ensure that it does not happen when I am in Rurik,” said Issa. To herself she wondered if there was enough neweyr there for anyone to be distracted by it, either in King Haikor’s court or out.

“You will work hard?” said Kellin.

“She will make sure of it,” King Jaap said.

“My own subjects appreciate my abilities with the neweyr,” Issa said stiffly. How dare this duke of
Rurik come here, demand she marry the puny prince of his kingdom, and then tell her that she was not good enough as a princess?

“But Rurik is different than Weirland, as perhaps you might have heard if you had been here while I spoke to your father.”

“I have said I am sorry and I have promised it will not happen again,” said Issa.

Kellin took a deep breath. “Quite right,” he said, and the tension seemed to melt out of him.

There was a silence and Issa knew that it was her place to break it.

“I shall agree to the betrothal,” she said, and found herself looking for her father’s smile and slight nod of approval.

“That is good to hear,” said Kellin. “Well, then the official ceremony will be scheduled for the first day of autumn in the new year. I shall remain for a few days here in Weirland until I know all your father’s needs with regard to the official documents,” said Kellin. “King Haikor instructed me to tell you to bring a retinue of up to twenty women to the palace, as well as twice that many guards.”

“I do not know how many guards my father will wish to accompany me.” Twenty guards was more than he had for himself, even when he left the castle.
But Weirland was not Rurik. “I shall not need so many women, however. Perhaps five.” It would be difficult for her to find that many, in fact.

Kellin’s eyebrows rose. “Five for the princess of Weirland and the future queen of Rurik? Well, it is to be your choice.”

The future queen of Rurik and Weirland, Issa thought to herself.

Kellin turned to her father. “Then we are finished, King Jaap.”

“Wait,” said Issa. “I had a question to ask you regarding Prince Edik. What does he love best? If I were to bring a gift for him, what should I bring?”

“I am sure that he would like anything that you would like to bring him, in honor of your own kingdom and yourself,” said Kellin.

But she did not mean that kind of gift. Of course, she would bring official gifts from her kingdom. She meant a personal gift. “A metal soldier?” she hazarded.

There was a momentary twitch in Kellin’s face. “He has a fondness for metal soldiers,” he admitted, but it seemed it was with reluctance. He had brought a metal figure as a gift for Issa to Weirland. In Rurik, however, her presentation of Edik’s gift would be
public. It would be very different and the boy would not wish to be seen as a child.

“I might bring instead something that he will remember me by. A book of poems that I loved as a child?” said Issa.

“Yes,” said Kellin politely. “I’m sure that he would like that.” His eyes seemed distant.

Not a book of poems, then. “Or a hound that I have raised myself?” Issa asked. Must she continue to guess at what the prince would like?

“You raise hounds?” asked Kellin with surprise.

“With the help of my servants,” said Issa.

“Well, then, a hound would be a perfect gift. Edik loves the king’s hounds. I am sure he would like to have one of his own,” said Kellin.

“Ah,” said Issa. “Thank you!” Some truly personal information about the young prince at last.

Duke Kellin bowed and excused himself, leaving Issa once more alone with her father.

“I am sorry,” she said again. All this time, her father had put up with her. She had not seen herself as petted and spoiled until now. “I did not mean to embarrass you in front of that man.” She shivered, though she knew she would have to get used to him, and more than that, to King Haikor himself.

Her father put a hand on her shoulder. “You are
doing well, Issa. You have always made me proud of you, and I expect no less this time. You may even enjoy the court of Rurik. You have a bright mind. There will be so many things for you to learn there that I could never offer you here.”

“I’d rather not learn them, then,” said Issa. It was true, even if it was petulant.

“King Haikor is not the only man in his court,” said her father. “There will be others who are as interesting as Duke Kellin is.”

Issa did not like Kellin at all. He was arrogant, presumptuous, and he could only see the bad in things. Or at least the bad in her. “If by interesting you mean disagreeable,” she said.

Her father laughed. “My only worry is that Duke Kellin is too honest and faithful a man to last long with King Haikor.”

“He seems intelligent,” Issa allowed. “But that does not excuse his arrogance.”

“And so you would not mind seeing him die at King Haikor’s hands, his heart stopped with taweyr on the Tower Green?” asked her father.

The thought made Issa feel ill. “Of course, I would mind that,” she said. “I would not wish to see anyone face that fate, especially undeserving.”

“Well, Issa, try your best to see that he is not
deserving of it. He may be your one ally when you arrive there.”

Issa did not understand what her father meant. If she was sure of one thing, it was that Kellin was not to be her ally, here or in Rurik.

T
HE NEXT DAY
, Issa went to visit the ekhono, refugees who had come to Weirland from Rurik. They were housed past the courtyard, beneath the guardhouse beside the castle pastures, underground. Once, Issa had asked her father why he kept them hidden. He had told her that the purpose was to keep those who had newly arrived from Rurik safe. Otherwise, King Haikor’s spies might find them and do them harm, even in Weirland.

It was cool and dark inside the ekhono refuge, with a deeply peaceful quiet that was one of the things that drew her back there often. Her father knew of her
trips there and did not disapprove, and Issa liked it that the ekhono from Rurik did not treat her with the same caution and formality that her own people did.

The damp smell grew more intense once Issa entered the elaborate underground courtyard. Here, heavy sunflowers, black currant bushes, and creeping moss grew with neweyr drawn from underneath the ground. Light came in from openings cut into the dirt ceiling and candles placed at regular intervals along the walls. Within the refuge were nearly a hundred ekhono from Rurik. They typically stayed for a year or more. Once they could prove that they could use their weyr well, they were placed in homes around Weirland where there were those willing to protect the ekhono. Some married and had children, but most lived rather solitary lives and were unable to inherit property or to run a business without help.

In the courtyard, both men and women were sewing and knitting, cleaning skins and making boots. There were a few young mothers who had brought their children with them out of Rurik, playing and cooking food over a large hearth that vented upwards through a chimney. But mostly, the ekhono were youths and a little older, those who had come to Weirland to be able to show their weyrs freely. They were all familiar to Issa from her previous
visits, except a man standing by Kedor, a bright youth whom Issa had met two years ago. She moved toward the man, thinking that he must have come recently to the refuge.

But when he turned, Issa realized it was Duke Kellin. He looked up at the same moment and seemed startled.

“Princess Marlissa,” he said.

Issa glanced back and forth between Kedor and Kellin. She had not noticed the similarity between them earlier, but now that he was standing next to Kedor, she could see that they had the same dark coloring, the same pointed chin and sharp eyes. They were quite obviously brothers.

It seemed that there was more than one reason for Duke Kellin’s journey to Weirland. Had he come before? If so, she had not seen him.

“Kedor,” said Issa. She did not know what else to say.

“Good to see you again, Princess Marlissa. And this is—” Kedor began.

“She knows very well who I am,” said Kellin, his chin lifted. “And now that you know the truth about my brother, what will you do with that information?”

“You may count on my discretion,” she said,
determined to give a better impression than earlier in the Throne Room.

“Oh?” Kellin seemed dubious.

“I swear to you, I shall tell no one.”

“Not even your father, who could use the information to force me to give him more favorable conditions for the betrothal?” asked Kellin.

Issa paused a moment, thinking how difficult it would be for Kellin to explain to King Haikor how King Jaap had managed that. “Not even him,” she said. Why did Kellin have to think the worst of her at every step? She had not come here to embarrass him. She only meant to help the ekhono.

“Thank you.” Kellin nodded.

“Your father says that it won’t be long before I leave here,” said Kedor, sounding happy. “I’m almost fully trained in the use of neweyr.”

“Would you like me to show you the sunflower again?” asked Issa. She had done several lessons with Kedor, trying to get him to use the proper amount of neweyr for flowers, so they did not grow too large and rip their stalks out of the ground. It was one of the reasons there were so many sunflowers here, for their neweyr was tricky and hard to handle.

“That would be very kind of you,” said Kedor.

“Do you know how many years he has been
waiting here?” asked Kellin, a sour look on his face. He did not wait for her to answer. “Nearly three, and there is still no place for him? It is hardly better than Rurik for the ekhono here in Weirland.”

“In Rurik, your brother would be dead, would he not?” said Issa. “That is why you brought him here. And that is why you are able to come visit him.”

“I visit him in this prison,” said Kellin angrily.

“My father has his reasons for what he does. I’m sure if you asked him—” said Issa.

“You promised you would not speak to him of this. I am here as Duke Kellin of Rurik, the right-hand man of King Haikor. I cannot be known to have any connections to the ekhono.”

Issa put up a hand. “I only meant that my father has reasons for what he does here in the underground. He wants to protect the ekhono, from their own untrained weyrs if necessary, but also from the people of Weirland who are unsure of them. There are far more ekhono in Weirland now than there were in previous years, and some are uneasy about it.”

“Kellin, whatever you think of the king, I have heard many speak of the kindness of Princess Marlissa,” Kedor interrupted.

Issa blushed at this compliment and turned to the young man. He would be very handsome in a few years, perhaps even more so than his brother. “You are so sweet,” she said. “Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

Kedor turned bright red. “Thank you, Princess Marlissa,” he said. “I hope that you will rule many years after your father.”

There was a silence and Duke Kellin began to laugh. “Kedor, think about what you say first.”

Kedor looked at Issa, confused. “Did I offend you?” he asked.