A Magic Of Nightfall Part 2

"Good," Sergei said. "Now, if all of you will excuse us . . ."

The Regent's dismissal was abrupt but effective. Maister ci'Blaylock gathered up his scrolls and limped toward the nearest door; the courtiers drifted away like tendrils of fog on a sunny morning, smiling until they turned their backs. Audric could hear their furious whispering speculations as they left the hall. Sigourney, however, paused. "Is this something the Council of Ca' should know?" she asked Sergei. She wasn't looking at Audric; it was as if he weren't important enough to be noticed.

Sergei shook his head. "Not at the moment, Councillor ca'Ludovici," he said. "If it becomes so, be a.s.sured that I will let you know immediately."

Sigourney sniffed at that, but she nodded to Sergei and bowed the proper obeisance to Audric before leaving the hall. Only a few servants remained, standing silently by the tapestry-hung stone walls, while two e-teni-priests of the Concenzia Faith-whispered prayers as they lit the lamps against the dying light. On the wall near the Sun Throne, the faces of the peasant family in ci'Recroix's painting seemed to s.h.i.+ver in the light of the teni-fire.

"Thank you, Sergei," Audric said. He hacked again, covering his mouth with a fisted hand. "You could have come half a turn of the gla.s.s earlier, though, and saved me the whole ordeal."

Sergei grinned. "And face the wrath of Maister ci'Blaylock? Not likely." He paused a moment, and the lines of his face went serious around the metal nose. "I would have been here earlier to hear your examination, Kraljiki, but I've just received a message from a contact in Firenzcia. There's news, and I thought you should hear it before the Council: Hirzg Jan of Firenzcia is on his deathbed. He's not expected to live out the week. It may be that he's dead already-the message was days old."

"So A'Hirzg Fynn will become the new Hirzg? Or will Allesandra fight her brother's ascension?"

Sergei's grin returned momentarily. "Ah, so you do pay attention to my briefings. Good. That's far more important than Maister ci'Blaylock's lessons." He shook his head. "I doubt Allesandra will protest. She doesn't have enough backing from the ca'-and-cu' of Firenzcia to contest Hirzg Jan's will."

"Which of the two would we prefer?"

"Our own preference would be Allesandra, Kraljiki-after the decade and more she spent here waiting for Hirzg Jan to ransom her, we know her far better. Archigos Ana always had a good relations.h.i.+p with her, and Allesandra is far more sympathetic to the Holdings. If she became Hirzgin . . . well, maybe there would be some hope of reconciliation between the Holdings and the Coalition. There might even be a faint possibility that we could return things to the way they were in your great-matarh's time, with you on the Sun Throne under a reunited Holdings. But with Fynn as Hirzg . . ." Again, Sergei shook his head. "He is his vatarh's son, just as bellicose and stubborn. If he's Hirzg, we'll have to watch our eastern border closely-which will mean less resources we can spare for the war in the h.e.l.lins, unfortunately."

Audric bent over with another coughing fit, and Sergei placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Your cough is worsening again, Kraljiki," he said. "I'll have the healers make another potion for you, and perhaps we'll have Archigos Ana see you tomorrow after the Day of Return ceremony. It's a little early, but with the rains last month . . ."

"I'm better now," Audric told him. "It's just the damp air here in the hall." The nearest e'teni had stopped her chant, her hands frozen in the middle of shaping the Ilmodo-the energy that fueled their magic. She was a young woman not much older than Audric; she blushed when she saw that Audric had noticed her, looked quickly away, and began her chant anew: the lamp set high on the wall bloomed into light as her hands waved in the Ilmodo patterns under it.

Audric's chest was beginning to ache with the racking coughs. He hated being ill, but it seemed he was often sick. He'd been that way from the very beginning of his memories. If an illness were pa.s.sing through the staff of the palais, he was certain to catch it; he was constantly a.s.sailed by coughing fits, by difficulty in breathing. Any physical exertion left him quickly exhausted and gasping. Yet somehow Cenzi had protected him from the outbreak of Southern Fever when he was four, though the illness had taken his older sister Marguerite, named for her famous great-matarh and primed to be the Kraljica on their vatarh's death. Her state funeral-a long and somber ceremony-was one of his earliest memories.

It should be Marguerite standing here now, not him. Audric hoped this meant Cenzi had a plan for him.

He drew in a long breath and this time held back the cough that threatened. "There, you see," he told Sergei. "Just the damp, and having to answer all the Maister's d.a.m.nable questions."

"At least the maister's questions have definite answers. The solutions for a Kraljiki are rarely so clear-cut, as you already know." Sergei put his arm around Audric, and Audric leaned into the man's embrace. "Trust ca'Rudka as your Regent," his vatarh had whispered as he lay on his bed during that final day. "Trust him as you would me . . ."

The truth was that Audric had never quite trusted his vatarh, whose temperament and favor had been erratic at best. But Sergei . . . Audric felt that his vatarh had made a final good choice with the man. Yes, he might chafe under the Regent's hand more and more as he approached his majority, he might be irritated that people at times treated Sergei as if he were the Kraljiki, but Audric could not have asked for a more loyal ally in the chaotic winds of the Kraljiki's court.

It didn't matter to him what the whispers of the courtiers said about the Regent. It didn't matter what the man did in the dungeons of the Bastida, or with the grandes horizontales he sometimes took to his bed.

"I suppose we must draft a statement for the Hirzg's death," Audric said. "And we must listen to ten different councillors requesting that we respond in twenty different ways. Then ten more advisers to tell us what we need to do about the h.e.l.lins in the west."

Sergei laughed. His arm tightened around Audric's shoulder, then released him. He rubbed at his silver nose as if it itched him. "No doubt," he answered. " I would say that you have learned all your lessons very well, Kraljiki."

Sergei ca'Rudka.

HIS AUGUST PRESENCE, the Kraljiki Audric, hunched in his padded, elevated seat alongside Sergei, coughing so desperately that Sergei leaned over to the boy. "Do you need some of the healer's draught, Kraljiki? I'll have one of the attendants bring it over . . ." He started to gesture, but Audric caught his arm.

"Wait, Sergei. This will pa.s.s." Audric said it in three breaths. Wait, Sergei (breath) This will (breath) pa.s.s. . . . Just the effort of grabbing Sergei's arm visibly tired the boy.

Sergei rubbed at the polished surface of the false nose glued to his face, his original nose lost long decades ago in a youthful sword fight. "Would you prefer to return to the palais, Kraljiki?" Sergei asked. "The smoke from the censers and the incense can't be good for your lungs, and the Archigos will understand. In any case, she'll be over to see you as soon as she's finished here."

"We'll stay, Sergei. This is where I should be." We'll stay (breath) Sergei (cough breath cough). This is (breath) where I (breath) should be. . . .

Sergei nodded. In that, the boy was right. The two were seated in the royal balcony of the Archigos' Temple, on the South Bank of the River A'Sele in Nessantico. Below, the main floor of the temple was packed with wors.h.i.+pers for the Day of Return. Archigos Ana stood with several of the a'teni in the quire of the Temple, her hair-streaked with bright, gray-white strands at the temples-gleaming in the glow of the teni lamps, her strong, fierce voice reciting the lines from the Toustour. The Day of Return was the Spring solstice ceremony, preparing the faithful for the eventual return of Cenzi to the world He had created. It was the duty of Kraljiki Audric to attend, which was why the temple was crowded to its very sides with the chevarittai, with the ca'-and-cu', with those lesser-ranked families who could cram into the remaining s.p.a.ce, all of them there to catch a glimpse of the young Kraljiki and perhaps to also catch his eye: for a request, for a pet.i.tion, or perhaps because he was not yet officially betrothed to anyone despite the persistent rumors that the Regent intended to make arrangements soon with one of the great families of the Holdings.

They also would have noted the Kraljiki's deep, barking coughs punctuating the Archigos' reading. Even Archigos Ana stopped once in the midst of her recitation to glance up with concern and sympathy toward their balcony. She nodded almost imperceptibly to Sergei, and he knew that she would hurry to the palais after the ceremony. Sergei leaned over again, whispering into the boy's ear. "The Archigos has promised to come by after we're done here and pray for you. She always helps you, I know. You can endure this, knowing you'll feel better soon."

Audric nodded wide-eyed, m.u.f.fling another cough with a perfumed handkerchief. Sergei wondered if Audric knew-as Sergei did-that the reason the Archigos' "prayers" helped him so dramatically was because, against the laws of the Divolonte that governed the Concenzia Faith, Ana used her skills with the magic of the Ilmodo to heal Audric's ravaged lungs. This was something she had done since soon after Audric's birth, when it was apparent that the boy's life was in jeopardy. She had done much the same for Audric's great-matarh, the much-lamented Kraljica Marguerite, in her last days, keeping her alive when without intervention she would have died.

It had been a month since Archigos Ana's last visit for that purpose; it was obvious that the illness in the boy was returning once more: as it always, inevitably, did. Audric folded the handkerchief and put it back in his bashta; Sergei saw flecks of red caught in the linen. He said nothing, but decided he would send word to Ana that they would instead meet her immediately after the service, in her chambers here. The boy needed attention quickly.

Sergei sat back in his chair as Archigos Ana strode toward the High Lectern for her Admonition to the gathering, as the choir in their loft began a Darkmavis hymn. The ca'-and-cu' stirred in their finery. Sergei could see Karl ca'Vliomani standing near the side of the Temple, lifting his hand to Sergei in acknowledgment-ca'Vliomani, the Amba.s.sador of the Isle of Paeti and of the Numetodo Sect, wasn't a believer but Sergei knew that the Amba.s.sador and Archigos Ana had been, if not actual lovers, then friends and confidants since before the Battle of the Fens twenty-four years ago. During that battle, the young Archigos Ana had used both the Numetodo and her own magic to s.n.a.t.c.h A'Hirzg Allesandra of Firenzcia from her vatarh and hold her as hostage against the Hirzg's retreat. The plan had worked, though Firenzcia and her neighboring countries had seceded from the Holdings in the wake of the hostilities to form the Firenzcian Coalition.

Sergei found himself wondering, again, whether Ana's defeat of the Firenzcian forces had truly been the triumph they had all thought it to be, whether it might not have been better for the Holdings had Hirzg Jan taken the city and become Kraljiki. Had that occurred, both Ana and Sergei himself would be dead, but in all probability there would be only the Holdings and no rival Coalition. There would be only one Concenzia Faith. Had that occurred, then the new Kraljiki could have dealt with the Westlanders' uprising in the h.e.l.lins fully, with all the resources of the Garde Civile and without having to worry about what might happen to the east.

Had that occurred, then Justi the One-Legged Fool would never have become Kraljiki and Audric never his heir, and Nessantico would be flouris.h.i.+ng, not languis.h.i.+ng.

Sergei, frankly, had never expected Archigos Ana to be able to retain her t.i.tle-she had been too young and naive, but the fire of the Battle of the Fens had tempered the steel within her. She had proved stronger than any of the a'teni who might have tried to take her place, stronger than her rival Archigos in Brezno, and certainly stronger than Kraljiki Justi, who had believed he could control the Faith through her.

In the end, Justi had been able to dominate nothing: not Ana, not the Faith, not the Holdings. While Ana showed herself to be surprisingly successful as Archigos, Justi had been a catastrophe as Kraljiki.

Justi the One-Legged squandered in two decades what it had taken his matarh and the Kralji before her more than five centuries to create, and we are left to pay for his incompetence with both the Holdings and the Faith sundered into East and West factions. And now the troubles in the h.e.l.lins compound the issue while we have a boy on the Sun Throne who may not live to sire an heir himself.

Sergei sighed, closing his eyes as he listened to the choir. He would go to the Bastida tomorrow morning, and he would a.s.suage his worries with pain. He'd find solace in screams. Yes, that would be good. The ending chords floated glistening in his mind, and he heard the Archigos step onto the stairs of the High Lectern.

Sergei would remember the next moment for the remainder of his life.

There was a ferocious, impossible light-as if Cenzi had sent a lightning bolt from the heavens through the gilded dome above. The harsh glare penetrated Sergei's closed eyelids; a thunder roared in his ears and the concussion pounded at his chest. Instinctively, Sergei hurled himself over Audric, knocking the boy to the floor of the balcony and covering the Kraljiki's body with his own. His aging joints protested at the sudden movement and the abuse. He could hear Audric gasping for breath; he could also hear the screams and wails from below, pierced by Karl ca'Vliomani's stricken, horrified shout ringing above them all: "Ana! Ana! Nooooooo!"

"Kraljiki! Regent!" Hands pulled at Sergei, lifting him-a quartet of the Garde Kralji, whose job it was to protect the Kraljiki and the Regent. Dust clouded the air inside the temple and Sergei blinked against the grit, barely able to breathe himself. He could hear the desperate coughing of Audric. The temple stank of sulfur and brimstone.

"You, and you-escort the Kraljiki from here and back to the palais immediately," Sergei said, jabbing his fingers at the gardai. "You two, come with me."

Sergei hurried down the forward stairs of the balcony, flanked by the gardai with swords drawn pus.h.i.+ng aside those who were in their way. People were screaming and yelling, and he could hear the moans and shrill cries of the wounded. Sergei was forced to limp, his right knee sore and swelling rapidly; it took him far too long to navigate the stairs, clutching at the railing with each step. Below, everything was confusion.

"Regent! Here!" Aris cu'Falla, the Commandant of the Garde Kralji, gestured over heads to Sergei as gardai pushed at the crowds. The din of pain and grief was enormous, and Sergei noted many bloodied faces and arms. The front of the temple was littered with cracked stone and splintered wood; he glimpsed several bodies in the rubble.

One of the bodies wore the Archigos' robes. Sergei's breath left him, to be replaced by a cold, icy rage. "Commandant, what happened here?"

Cu'Falla shook his head. "I don't know, Regent. Not yet. I was watching the ceremony from near the rear of the temple. When the Archigos came to the High Lectern . . . I've never seen anything like that, Regent. It was a spell of some sort, almost certainly, but like something a war-teni would do. The flash, the noise, the stone and wood and . . ." He frowned. ". . . other things flying everywhere. The blast seems to have come from underneath the High Lectern. There are at least half a dozen dead, and far more injured, some of them badly. . . ."

Groaning at the pain in his knee, the Regent crouched next to Ana's body. Her face was nearly unrecognizable, the lower half of her body and her right arm entirely gone. He knew immediately that she was dead, that there was no hope here. An odd black dust coated the floor around her. Sergei turned his head away to see Karl ca'Vliomani being held back by the gardai, his face panicked, his bashta coated with dust. Sergei pushed himself slowly to his feet again, grimacing as his knees cracked. "Cover her and the other bodies," he told cu'Falla. "Clear the temple of everyone but the teni and gardai. Send for Commandant cu'Ulcai of the Garde Civile if you need more help." He released a long, shuddering breath. "And let the Amba.s.sador through to me."

Cu'Falla nodded and called out orders. Ca'Vliomani immediately darted toward Ana's body, and Sergei moved to intercept him. "No," he told Karl, clutching his shoulders. "She's gone, Karl. There's nothing you can do. Nothing."

He felt the man sag, heard him sob once. "Sergei, I have to see her. Please. I have to know." His eyes were stricken, and he looked suddenly decades older. His Paeti accent, which the Amba.s.sador had never lost despite his years in Nessantico, was stronger now than ever.

"No, you don't, my friend," Sergei persisted. "Please listen to me. You don't want this to be the last image you have of her. You don't want that. Truly. I say that for your own sake."

Ca'Vliomani started to weep, then, and Sergei held him as the gardai moved around them, as teni of the temple-silent in their shock and horror-went to tend to the wounded and the dead, as the dark dust settled around and on them, as the roar of the spell echoed eternally in Sergei's ears.

He didn't think he would ever forget that sound, and he wondered what it heralded: for himself, for Audric, for the Concenzia Faith, for Nessantico.

Nico Morel.

NICO SIPPED AT THE TEA that his matarh placed in front of him, holding the wooden mug with both small hands. "Matarh, why would someone want to kill Archigos Ana?"

"I don't know, Nico," she answered. She set a slice of bread and a few hunks of cheese before him on the scarred table near the window. She brushed wisps of brown hair from her forehead, staring through the open shutters to the narrow street outside. "I don't know," she said again. "I just hope . . ."

"You hope what, Matarh?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, Nico. Go on, eat."

They'd attended the Day of Return ceremony at Temple Park, a long walk from their apartment in Oldtown. Nico always enjoyed it when they went to Temple Park, since the open, green s.p.a.ce was such a contrast to the crowded, dirty streets in the maze of Oldtown. Just as they were leaving the park, they heard the wind-horns start to blow, and then the rumors had gone through the crowds like a fire in a summer-dry field: the Archigos had been killed. By magic, some of them said. Awful magic, like the heretic Numetodo could do, or maybe a war-teni.

Nico had cried a little because everyone else was crying, and his matarh looked worried. They'd hurried home.

Once, Matarh had taken Nico across the Pontica Mordei to the Isle a'Kralji, and he'd seen the grounds of the Regent's palais and the Old Temple, the first one built in Nessantico. He'd marveled at the new dome being built on top of the Old Temple, with the lines of scaffolding holding the workers so impossibly high up in the sky. It made Nico dizzy just to look at them.

Afterward, they'd even gone over the Pontica a'Brezi Nippoli to the South Bank, where most of the ca'-and-cu' lived. He'd walked with Matarh through the grand complex of the Archigos' Temple and glimpsed the Archigos herself: a tiny figure in green at one of the windows of the buildings attached to the ma.s.sive temple, waving to the throngs in the plaza.

Now she was dead. That was easy enough to imagine. Death was utterly common; he saw it often in the streets and had watched it come to his own family. Matarh said that Ana had been Archigos since she'd been a baby, and Matarh was twenty-eight years old-practically ancient, so it was hardly a surprise that the Archigos would die. Nico could barely remember his gremma, who had died when he was five. Maybe Gremma had been as old as Archigos Ana. Nico could remember his older brother fairly well, who had died of the Southern Fever four years ago. Matarh said there'd been another, even older brother who had also died, but Nico didn't really remember him at all. There was Fiona, his sister who had been born first-he didn't know if she was still alive, though he always imagined that she was; she'd run away when she was twelve, almost three years ago now. Talis had been living with them-Talis had been living with Matarh ever since Nico could remember, but Fiona had told him that hadn't always been the way it was, that there'd been another man before Talis who had been Fiona's vatarh and the vatarh of his brothers. She said that Talis was Nico's vatarh, but Talis never wanted Nico to call him that.

Nico missed Fiona. He sometimes imagined that Fiona had gone to another city and become rich. He liked to think of that, sometimes. He dreamed of her coming back to Nessantico with a ce' or even a ci' before her name, and he'd open the door to see her wearing a tashta that was clean and brightly-colored as she smiled at him. "Nico," she'd say. "You, Matarh, and Talis are going to come and live with me . . ."

Maybe Nico would leave home when he was twelve, too-two years from now. Nico could see the deep lines in Matarh's face as she stared out toward the street. The hair at her temples was streaked with white strands. "Are you watching for Talis?" he asked.

He saw her frown, then smile as she turned her head to him. "You just eat, darling," she said. "Don't worry about Talis. He'll be along soon enough."

Nico nodded, gnawing on the hard crust of the nearly stale bread and trying to avoid the loose back molar that was threatening to fall out, the last of his baby teeth. He wasn't worried about Talis, only the tooth. He didn't want to lose it, since if he did Matarh would make him smash it with a hammer and grind it up, and that was a lot of work. When he was done, she would help him sprinkle the powder onto some milk-moistened bread, and they'd put the bread outside the window next to his bed. At night, he'd hear the rats and mice eating the offering, scurrying around outside. In the morning, the dish would be empty; Matarh said that meant that his new teeth would grow in as strong as a rat's.

He'd seen what rats could do with their teeth. They could strip the meat from a dead cat in hours. He hoped his teeth would be that strong. He reached into his mouth with a forefinger and wiggled the tooth, feeling it rocking easily back and forth in his gums. If he pushed hard, it would come out. . . .

"Serafina?"

Nico heard Talis call out for his matarh. Matarh ran to him, and they embraced as he shut the door behind him. "I was worried," Matarh said. "When I heard about . . ."

"Shh . . ." he said, kissing her forehead. His gaze was on Nico, watching them. "Hey, Nico. Did your matarh take you to Temple Park today?"

"Yes," Nico said. He went over to them, sidling close to his matarh so that her arm went around him. He wrinkled his nose, staring up at the man. "You smell funny, Talis," he said.

"Nico-" his matarh began, but Talis laughed and ruffled Nico's hair. Nico hated when he did that.

"It's all right, Serafina," Talis said. "You can't fault the boy for being honest." Talis didn't talk the way other people did in Oldtown; he p.r.o.nounced his words strangely, as if his tongue didn't like the taste of the syllables and so he spat them out as quickly as possible instead of letting them linger the way most people did. Talis crouched down near Nico. "I walked by a fire on the way here," he said. "Lots of nasty smoke. The fire-teni put it out, though."

Nico nodded, but he thought that Talis didn't smell like smoke exactly. The odor was sharper and harsher. "Archigos Ana died, Talis," he said instead.

"That's what I've heard," Talis answered. "The Regent will be scouring the city, looking for a scapegoat to blame it on. It's time for foreigners to lay low if they want to stay safe." He seemed to be talking more to Nico's matarh than to Nico, his eyes glancing up toward her.

"Talis . . ." Matarh breathed his name, the way she sometimes called out Nico's name when he was sick or he'd hurt himself. Talis stood up again, hugging Nico's matarh. "It will be fine, Sera," he heard Talis whisper to her. "I promise you."

Listening to him, Nico pushed at the loose tooth with his tongue. He heard a tiny pop and tasted blood.

"Matarh," Nico said, "my tooth came out . . ."

Allesandra ca'Vorl.

"MATARH?"

Allesandra heard the call, followed by a tentative knock. Her son Jan was standing at the open door. At fifteen, almost sixteen, he was stick-thin and gawky. In just the past several months, his body had started to morph into that of a young man, with a fine down of hair on his chin and under his arms. He was still several fingers shorter than the girls of the same age, most of whom had reached their menarche the year before. Named for her vatarh, she could glimpse some of his features in her son, but there was a strong strain of the ca'Xielt family in him as well-Pauli's family. Jan had the duskier skin coloring of the Magyarians, and his vatarh's dark eyes and curly, nearly black hair. She doubted that he would ever have the heavier ca'Belgradin musculature of his uncle Fynn, which Allesandra's great-vatarh Karin and vatarh Jan had also possessed.

She sometimes had difficulty imagining him galloping madly into battle-though he could ride as well as any, and had keen sight that an archer would envy. Still, he often seemed more comfortable with scrolls and books than swords. And despite his parentage, despite the act (purely of duty) that had produced him, despite the surliness and barely-hidden anger that seemed to consume him lately, she loved him more than she had thought it possible to love anyone.

And she worried, in the last year especially, that she was losing him, that he might be falling under Pauli's influence. Pauli had been absent through most of Jan's life, but maybe that was Pauli's advantage: it was easier to dislike the parent who was always correcting you, and to admire the one who let you do whatever you wanted. There'd been that incident with the staff girl, and Allesandra had needed to send her away-that was too much like Pauli.

"Come in, darling," she said, beckoning to him.

Jan nodded without smiling, went to the dressing table where she sat, and touched his lips to the top of her head-the barest shadow of a kiss-as the women helping her dress drifted away silently. "Onczio Fynn sent me to fetch you," he said. "Evidently it's time." A pause. "And evidently I'm little better than a servant to him. Just Magyarian chattel to be sent on errands."

"Jan!" she said sharply. She gestured with her eyes to her maidservants. They were all West Magyarians, part of the entourage that had come with Jan from Malacki.

He shrugged, uncaring. "Are you coming, Matarh, or are you going to send me back to Fynn with your own response like a good little messenger boy?"

You can't respond here the way you want to. Not where everything we say could become court gossip tonight. "I'm nearly ready, Jan," she said, gesturing. "We'll go down together, since you're here." The servants returned, one brus.h.i.+ng her hair, another placing a pearl necklace that had once been her matarh Greta's around her neck, and yet another adjusting the folds of her tashta. She handed another necklace to her dressing girl: a cracked globe on a fine chain, the continents gold, the seas purest lapiz lazuli, the rent in the globe filled with rubies in its depths-Cenzi's globe. Archigos Ana had given her the necklace when she'd reached her own menarche, in Nessantico.

"It belonged to Archigos Dhosti once," Ana had told her. "He gave it to me; now I give it to you." Allesandra touched the globe as the servant fastened it around her neck and remembered Ana: the sound of her voice, the smell of her.

"Everyone keeps telling me how Onczio Fynn will make a fine Hirzg," Jan said, interrupting the memory.

"I know," Allesandra began. And why would you expect anything else? she wanted to add. Jan knew the etiquette of court well enough to understand that.

He evidently saw the unspoken remark in her face. "I wasn't finished. I was going to say that you would make a better one. You should be the one wearing the golden band and the ring, Matarh."

"Hush," she told him again, though more gently this time. The maidservants were her own, true, but one never knew. Secrets could be bought, or coaxed out through love, or forced through pain. "We're not at home, Jan. You must remember that. Especially here . . ."