“If the princess is not guarded by Riders, she does not stay in this house. We will spend the night at some more accommodating establishment and return to Ghosenhall in the morning.”
Now the steward was nervous, not sure where his greatest offense might lie. He could not afford to be the one who turned the princess away from the door—when the princess had not been seen outside the gates of Ghosenhall for years—but he could not recklessly commit his lady to such a course of action. “Serra,” he said, as calmly as he could, “be pleased to wait. I must consult with the marlady.”
Senneth nodded. “I understand. Please be swift.”
The steward disappeared. The Kianlever servants had stopped their feverish unpacking and now stood uncertainly near the coaches, bags in their hands and trunks at their feet. Melly and the other royal servants climbed back into the coaches to wait.
Kirra crept close enough to Senneth to whisper in her ear, “What a fuss! Whose idea was this?”
“Tayse’s,” Senneth breathed in response. “War strategy. Establish your position early. Make a show of strength. Your enemy will think twice before attacking.”
“Will she allow it?”
“I don’t think she has a choice.”
Indeed, fifteen minutes later, Eloise Kianlever herself came flowing out the door. At least that was how it looked, for she was wearing a filmy dress of aqueous colors and many layers that seemed to swirl about her like the currents of a river. Her hands were flung before her in a gesture that was half welcoming, half conciliatory. She was a middle-aged woman with regular features and unremarkable brown hair, but she always dressed in such vivid colors and outrageous styles that she had a certain flamboyant presence nonetheless. Kirra had never thought she was exceptionally intelligent, though infinitely likable.
“But, Senneth! What is this?” Eloise demanded, taking both of Senneth’s hands in hers. Surprised at the warm greeting, Kirra belatedly remembered that Senneth had relatives in Kianlever; her grandmother had been born here. Though Senneth had never seemed too eager to call on those Kianlever connections once she severed her ties with the nobility. “Not even across my threshold and you are already ruffling the whole household!”
Senneth permitted Eloise to lean forward and kiss her on the cheek. “I am sorry to seem so demanding,” she said, though she did not sound sorry. “I am charged with making sure Princess Amalie is secure. To me, in a place as open as Kianlever Court—charming as it is!—she does not seem safe. I want assurance that the king’s men can be deployed around her at all times.”
“You mean, standing beside her chair at dinnertime?”
“I mean, within call of her voice. They will stay out of the way. They will cause no trouble—unless trouble comes hunting the princess.”
“Yes—yes—of course, they shall follow her wherever she goes, if that is your condition,” Eloise said. “I am certain she will be entirely safe—but the king’s only daughter! I understand he cannot be too careful.”
Senneth nodded. “Thank you. You are most gracious.”
She turned to signal to the occupants of the final coach. Eloise more enthusiastically waved everyone back in motion. “Come! Carry those trunks inside! Let us not keep our guests waiting any longer!”
Then followed the usual flurry of arrival, with shouts and curses and questions accompanying the great migration indoors. Eloise curtseyed very low to both Valri and Amalie, and looked absolutely delighted at the thought that her house was the first one these exalted guests had deigned to visit. “You’ll want to go to your rooms, of course,” Eloise said, leading the way, “but then I want you to come right down and visit with me! All of you—Senneth, and both your majesties.”
Senneth flicked Kirra a quick look and Kirra gave an infinitesimal shake of her head. “I think it is possible you do not know my traveling companion,” Senneth said, “for she has been almost as reclusive as the princess herself. She hates to leave her own home but has been persuaded it is time to visit more of Gillengaria.”
Eloise stopped right there in the hallway, causing a corollary confusion in the long line of people following her. “Is that Casserah?” she demanded. “I haven’t seen you since you were a baby! Forgive me for my terrible manners—it has been
such
a distracting morning.”
Eloise kissed Casserah on the cheek as well; she seemed ready to bestow warmth on anyone. Kirra gave her back Casserah’s guarded smile. “Serra Senneth has a way of creating distractions wherever she goes,” Kirra said. “It is rarely quiet in her vicinity.”
Senneth flashed her an indignant look, though she couldn’t put any real force behind it and still maintain her righteous attitude. Eloise continued, unheeding, “I have met your sister dozens of times and liked her very much! I’m so happy you’re here! Do come down with the others and we’ll have a nice little visit without too many other people around.”
Finally the whole lot of them had navigated the many corridors to find a wing that seemed to have been set aside for the royal party. They sorted themselves out into rooms, Kirra marking the rooms assigned to Senneth, Valri, and Amalie. She briefly followed Melly into her own room and found it very agreeable, all white lacy curtains and canopies, airy and serene.
“Try not to shed on the rug,” she said to Donnal, who merely opened his mouth in a canine laugh.
“What would you like to wear to dinner tonight, serra?” Melly asked.
“Mmmm. Something with Danalustrous colors, I suppose, but not the red dress. I’ll wear that to the ball in a couple of days. Something a little less forceful.”
“The pale gold dress and your ruby pendant?”
“Yes, thank you. That would strike just the right note.”
Donnal followed her back out to the hall a few minutes later. A Rider she did not know stood outside the room that must be Amalie’s, but everyone else had disappeared. Probably all in Senneth’s room. She knocked and then entered without waiting, Donnal at her heels.
Tayse and Justin and Senneth stood together in the center of the room, talking quietly. Cammon sat in the window seat, watching a new arrival. “Storian, by the crest on the coach,” he said. There had been a day not so long ago when Cammon couldn’t even name the Twelve Houses, but now he could recognize colors and heraldry. “Some old guy. He doesn’t look very interesting.”
“He’d probably say the same about you,” Justin remarked.
Cammon glanced at him. “I’m not
old.
”
Kirra joined the others. “Making plans? Anything incendiary?”
“No, Senneth’s going to try not to set the place on fire,” Justin said. “Want to place any bets on the outcome?”
Kirra grinned. “My bet would be—fire, sometime on our trip. Maybe not at Kianlever Court, but before we get back to Ghosenhall.”
“I’m trying to decide,” Senneth said, “if I need to sleep in the same room as the princess. Valri has her own room, so it’s just Amalie and her maid.”
“And a Rider outside the door,” Tayse pointed out.
“Sometimes things come in through the windows,” Senneth said.
“Sometimes things come in through the walls,” Kirra added. The men looked at her, and she shrugged. “When I was wandering the halls in Tilt, I was a bird and a spider and a cat. I don’t know that a Rider would have stopped me.”
Justin was grinning. “If I see any spiders, I’ll step on them.”
Kirra glanced down at the dog. “Let’s try it. See if Donnal can get inside the room with a Rider watching. I am positive he can.”
A wolfish grin from Donnal. He was sure he could, too.
“But are there any mystics who have the kind of power Kirra and Donnal have?” Tayse asked. “Who can transform themselves so completely to another shape and size?”
“I’m sure there are,” Senneth said. “Bright Mother knows I haven’t met every mystic in Gillengaria.”
“Mystics willing to ally themselves with Halchon Gisseltess?” Tayse pursued. “A man who hates and persecutes mystics?”
Senneth shrugged. “They might have their own agenda. Or they might have been promised—who knows?—anything. People have betrayed their own natural allies long before this.”
“It seems obvious,” Kirra said. “You’re here to protect the princess. You have to sleep in the room with her.” She glanced at Tayse, whose face was expressionless. “No matter what your preferences might be.”
Senneth ignored the comment. “So then we have this room empty. I think Justin and Tayse should use it when they’re not on guard. I feel certain Eloise Kianlever would prefer not to house soldiers in one of her finest bedrooms, but as no one will be able to keep track of the Riders anyway, she won’t know who’s here when and why. And if the two of you are sleeping nearby, and there’s a Rider outside the room and I’m inside it, surely the princess will be safe.”
For the first time, Kirra took this whole exercise seriously. “You really expect an attack on her?” she asked. “That wasn’t all for show?”
Senneth spread her hands. “The king is very, very nervous about this trip outside Ghosenhall. Is he overprotective of his only daughter and his only heir? Or is he right to have kept her so close all these years? I don’t know. I do know that there’s unrest in the kingdom and she could be a target. And I’m here to make sure she survives.”
“As are we all,” Tayse said.
“I’m here to find a husband for Casserah,” said Kirra. “But I’ll do what I can to help you, too, of course.”
Cammon looked over from the window. “What about me? Is there anything in particular you want me to do?”
Senneth turned his way. “I want you to sleep in this room at night with Justin and Tayse. And—pay attention. The way you do. Wake us all up if something odd seems to be happening. Even if it turns out to be nothing. Wake us up anyway.”
He nodded and turned back to the window to watch another new arrival pull up at the front entrance. Suddenly he was up on his knees, wriggling on the window seat, waving out the window as if trying to catch someone’s eyes. “Hey, look! It’s Romar Brendyn!” he cried. “He’s come to Kianlever for the ball!”
CHAPTER
14
T
HE first dinner at Kianlever Court was the most intriguing and most excruciating period of time Kirra had passed since she’d escaped from Tilt. So much was going on that it was difficult to note and analyze everything.
And she was distracted. All she really wanted to do was make a curtsey to Romar Brendyn, ask urgently after his health and safety, and then spend the rest of the night talking to him, uninterrupted by lesser and less-interesting mortals. Conversely, she hoped she never had to speak to him at all, that she managed to get through the pre- and post-dinner socializing without being introduced to him, that he was seated on the opposite side of the room from her when they went in to dinner.
But she was always aware of him. She always knew where he was standing, to whom he was speaking. Like the sun, he cast a bright circle of illumination around himself, and anywhere he moved, the world grew brighter.
This was going to be problematic, Kirra thought. This was going to make it awfully difficult to get through the next few days.
She didn’t do so badly during the hour all the guests gathered in the salon outside the dining hall. Melly had worked hard on her toilette, and she knew she looked beautiful—or rather, that Casserah looked beautiful. The filmy gold dress was cut with a square neckline that showed off the large, smoldering ruby she wore just over her housemark. Melly had twisted her dark hair into some kind of complex weave of braids and curls, using gold ribbons to tie the whole confection in place. Everyone had been most responsive, both strangers and acquaintances murmuring words of praise or admiration.
Eloise Kianlever had made a point of showing Casserah around, almost as if she was as big a prize as Amalie. It was clear to Kirra almost immediately that all the people in the room, all thirty-five or forty of them, were Twelfth House; not a single Kianlever vassal was in attendance, no one whose blood wasn’t absolutely pure.
She took the first chance she had to make this observation, and Eloise laughed. “Oh, they’ll all be here in two days for the big event! But today’s their Shadow Ball, so, of course, none of them could attend.”