by Sharon Shinn
“That was my impression as well.”
“So what took you to Malinqua?” Josetta asked. “And what brought you back?”
The same thing: Mally. Leah managed a rueful smile. “I wasn’t happy with the life I was living here so I thought I’d try someplace else. And eventually I realized that the things I’d left behind were still in my heart, so I might as well come back and deal with them. Not to be too mysterious about it.”
“So Darien sent you to Malinqua to spy for him, because Darien never minds capitalizing on anyone’s misfortunes,” Josetta said dryly. “But how did he know you? If you’re a Frothen, you must be related to Taro somehow? Which means I must have known you, too, but I don’t really remember you. I’m sorry.”
“My mother was Taro’s youngest sister, but she died when I was a girl. When I wasn’t with my father, I was with Virrie and Taro. But I wasn’t at court much. And I have to be ten years or twelve years older than you. No reason for you to remember me.”
“So now that you’re back—what next?” Josetta asked.
Leah wasn’t sure how many people should know the details of her arrangement with Darien, so she said carefully, “I’m opening a boutique in the shop district that specializes in foreign goods. The regent is one of my backers.”
Josetta’s face showed instant comprehension. “Is he?” she replied. “Then I’m sure it will be quite successful.”
“I’ve imported some beautiful things from all around the southern seas,” Leah added. “I’m opening on secondday. You should come.”
“I’m not much of one for shopping,” Josetta said. “But I’ll come anyway.”
• • •
They talked a few more minutes before Josetta observed that Nelson would be disappointed if she didn’t speak to at least a few of her cousins. They headed back to the main room, to find it even more crowded with people, a good half of them redheads and all of them talking as fast and loud as they could.
Naturally, the first person to spot them was Rhan. He had a drink in each hand and a somewhat disheveled look, but he was smiling as he sauntered over. “How long have you shy little flowers been hiding away?” he asked, leaning over to kiss Josetta on the cheek. “Here, do you want some wine? It’s very good.”
“Surely you fetched it for yourself,” Josetta said.
“I can find more.”
“I’ll get some,” Rafe said, and lounged off.
Leah perforce accepted a glass from Rhan but only pretended to sip from it. Josetta said, “Rhan, do you know Leah Frothen?”
He gave Leah a lazy smile. “I do. I was so pleased to learn she was back in town after a long absence.”
“She’s opening some posh store,” Josetta added. “You’ll have to go buy things.” She glanced at Leah. “Rhan is much more interested in shopping than I am.”
“And I have better taste.”
“That’s because I keep my mind on loftier things.”
“That’s because no elay woman in the history of Welce ever had a sense of fashion.”
Wasn’t this unexpected? Rhan Ardelay bantering with some other woman while Leah stood casually by. Of course, Josetta was his cousin and in love with another man, so they weren’t really flirting. But Leah wouldn’t have thought she’d be able to endure even this much light conversation without wanting to scream her lungs out.
He turned to Leah with his easy smile. “And what brings you to this very noisy party at my father’s house?”
Her own smile was strained. “Virrie brought me. And Mally.”
“Mally,” Rhan repeated, raising his eyebrows.
“You remember Mally, don’t you, Rhan?” Josetta put in. “Taro and Virrie want to start introducing her to the world as herself now that she doesn’t have to pretend to be Odelia anymore. I think it’s so kind of them.”
“It is kind,” he said. “Now that you mention it, I don’t think I’ve ever laid eyes on the girl when I was sure it was her.”
“You know, I haven’t, either,” Josetta said. “We should go meet her formally. I wonder where she is?”
“Nelson took her and Celia off to play with Beccan,” Leah said in a subdued voice.
“Then I know where they’ll be,” Josetta said, turning toward the hallway that led to the grand stairwell.
“What about Rafe?” Leah asked.
Josetta laughed. “He’ll find us. Or not. He won’t be worried.” She motioned to her cousin. “Come on. You should meet her, too.”
Rhan apparently couldn’t resist the chance to give Leah one quick, sly smile. “I think I should,” he said. “Seems like it’s about time.”
• • •
They found Beccan with Mally and Celia in a playroom on the second level of the house. The room was full of toys and half-size furniture and pillows scattered on the floor. Beccan was seated on a pillow, Celia on her lap. Mally knelt beside her on a tufted rug, arranging colorful marbles in some kind of design.
Beccan glanced up when they walked in the room and looked straight at her son. Her gaze was full of regret and delight in almost equal measure, sprinkled with remnants of anger and reproach. She was a slim brown-haired woman with elegant hands and a patrician face only just now showing the lines of age. She was the only person Leah had ever known who could silence Nelson with a single word.
“Rhan,” Beccan said. “I was hoping you’d come look for me.”
“Leah told me you were watching our younger guests, so I thought I’d say hello,” he answered.
He dropped to a crouch next to Mally and spent a moment admiring her design. She paused, a blue marble in her hand, to give him a considering look. “Hello,” she said.
“Hello yourself,” he replied. “I’m Rhan. I hear you’re Mally. That’s a pretty name.”
“Rhan’s a nice name, too,” she said politely.
He grinned. “So what are you making here?”
“A picture.”
“Can I help?”
Mally frowned, clearly not interested in collaborating. “There’s another box over there,” she said, pointing. “You can make your own picture.”
Rhan fetched it, then settled on the rug next to Mally. Josetta and Leah pulled some of the small chairs closer to Beccan and tried to make themselves comfortable on the insufficient seat bottoms.
“I’ll take Celia if you’re willing to give her up,” Josetta offered.
“She’s getting sleepy,” Beccan said, handing her over. Celia had settled on Josetta’s lap with her cheek against the princess’s chest, but her eyes were still wide open. Leah thought she was doing her best to stay awake. Josetta kissed the top of the child’s head and began swaying very slightly.
Rhan was unpacking the contents of the second box and spreading them on the floor in front of him. These weren’t marbles; they were game pieces carved from a variety of different stones and woods, and they all seemed to have been thrown in this box because their companion pieces were lost or broken. “I used to play with these when I was a little boy,” Rhan told Mally as he began arranging them in rows on the rug. “Everything in this room.”
“Did you come here to visit?”
“I lived here.” He nodded at Beccan. “That’s my mother.”
“Are you sweela?” Mally asked.
Rhan laughed. “What gave it away? My red hair?”
“It’s a sweela house.”
“It is that,” Beccan said. “Though I did my best to add a little stability. To the house and the people who lived in it.”
“You succeeded a little better at that with Kurtis than with me,” Rhan said. He finished a row of wooden disks and started on a row of stylized white quartz horses. “I was a wild child.”
That caught Mally’s attention. “Were you bad?”
“Not bad,” he equivocated. “I just didn
’t always do what I was told.” He sorted through his pile to find more quartz pieces. “What about you?”
“I always do what I’m told,” Mally said.
Rhan leaned down to whisper in her ear, loudly enough for all of them to hear. “Sometimes life is more fun if you don’t.”
Mally took up a handful of yellow marbles and began working them into her design. “Sometimes it’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Rhan repeated.
Mally gave him a serious look. “People can get hurt if you’re not careful.”
There was a small silence while the four adults contemplated how often Mally must have heard that from Romelle, probably even from Taro and Virrie. You must tell everyone your name is Odelia. You can’t ever let anyone guess the truth. Do you understand? Something terrible could happen to Odelia. Do you understand? Leah pressed her hands against her cheeks, hoping to push back the tears.
“I used to always do what I was told,” Josetta announced. “Always. I was such a good girl! And then one day I decided I wouldn’t let anybody else tell me how to behave.”
Now Mally looked at her. “Were you bad?”
Josetta laughed. “No! I didn’t do anything mean. I just made my own decisions and didn’t let anybody talk me out of them.”
“To be fair, you were about sixteen before you became a rebel,” Beccan said. “Mally is a little young to suddenly start deciding the course of her own life.”
Leah slid from her chair and went to her knees beside Mally. The rest of the yellow marbles were in a pile just slightly out of the little girl’s reach, so she scooped up a handful and held them out. Mally delicately picked two from her palm. “It’s tricky,” she said to her daughter, “to know when to do what you’re told and when to think for yourself. Sometimes the adults in your life really do know better and all they want is to keep you safe. But sometimes they don’t know better. Sometimes they’re wrong. And some adults aren’t very smart, or aren’t very nice, and you shouldn’t do what they say.”
Mally considered that for a moment, her flecked eyes searching Leah’s face. “How do you know the difference?” she asked at last.
“That’s the hard part,” Leah admitted. “What you need to do is find a few people you can always trust. Who will never hurt you. And who won’t ever let you get hurt.”
“Like Virrie,” Mally said, going back to her work on the picture.
“Absolutely like Virrie,” Leah confirmed. “And like any of the people in this room.”
Mally looked up and glanced from face to face as if committing each one to memory. Her gaze lingered a little longer on Rhan’s countenance, as if she wasn’t positive he would be her best guide or champion, but then she nodded. “Not Romelle,” she said.
Leah heard Beccan’s swift intake of air, caught the sharp way Josetta turned her head to stare at Mally. But Leah just nodded. “Not Romelle,” she agreed. “I’m sure what Romelle wants is to keep Odelia safe. That probably means she doesn’t always think about what’s good for anyone else.”
“Well, I can’t say I blame her,” Beccan said on a sigh. “I probably would have sacrificed the whole world on behalf of Rhan or Kurtis.”
“And I’m sure Zoe would do the same for Celia,” Josetta added.
Beccan looked over at Josetta. “Is she asleep? Good. There’s a crib over there if you’d like to put her down.”
“I like holding her when she’s not squirming to get away. It happens so rarely.”
“She is quite an active little girl,” Beccan agreed.
“Celia never does what she’s told,” Mally said.
They all laughed. “Well,” Beccan said, “no. But I’m not sure I would let Celia be the model for my behavior.”
Mally sat back on her heels. “I’m done,” she said.
They all leaned forward to study her completed design in the short tufts of the rug. A swath of blue marbles arched over a field of green; a squarish block of brown ones anchored the left side, while a swirl of yellow ones collected in the upper right corner. Individual red marbles randomly dotted the border between green and brown.
“Look at that,” Leah said. “It’s a landscape. Grass and sky and sun and a big house.”
“Taro’s house,” Mally said, pleased. She pointed at the bits of red. “Those are flowers.”
“How clever of you!” Beccan exclaimed. “Much better than whatever Rhan’s been making.”
“I’m just organizing,” he defended himself. “I wasn’t trying to be creative.”
“Organizing is better than nothing,” Mally told him, clearly trying to make him feel better.
He laughed in delight. “It is! But next time I’ll try harder.”
“Leah keeps rocks for me at her store,” Mally said. “You could come play with them, too.”
He didn’t even look in Leah’s direction. “Thank you, Mally,” he said. “I might do that.”
There were loud footsteps at the door, and Nelson’s burly form burst in. “Here you all are!” he exclaimed. “Just what I’d expect of Josetta and Leah, to be hiding away like this, but Rhan? You’re a disappointment.”
Beccan tilted her head back to look at him. “He’s been getting to know Mally. It’s been very nice.”
“Good. I’m glad. Now everyone else wants to get to know her,” Nelson said. “Come on, all of you! On your feet! There’s a party here, or don’t you remember?”
EIGHT
The next day was firstday, and Leah spent it preparing to open her shop the following morning. Made sure every display was just right. Laid in plenty of paper at the cash register so she could write out receipts. Swept the floor one last time.
Since she figured she’d spend far more time at the shop than the apartment, she’d brought the reifarjin with her in the morning and set it up in a big glass tank on a pedestal near the coru table. It seemed happy in its new surroundings, watching all the activity with its inscrutable eyes and fanning its frills as if in excitement.
“You think this is going to be fun, don’t you?” Leah asked, feeding it the leftovers from her lunch. “So do I.”
Late in the day, an elaymotive pulled up in front, and Zoe, Annova, and Yori climbed out. “We’ve brought you a present!” Zoe called as she and Yori wrestled a large, unwieldy, and well-wrapped item from the back of the smoker car.
“I’m supposed to be selling things, not collecting things,” Leah said. But they carried their bundle inside anyway and set it up in the smaller of the two display windows. Zoe whipped off the cover to reveal a swirly tube of red glass that had clearly been bent into some kind of pattern, while Annova tinkered with a connector designed to hook into the gas feed.
“It’s a sign for your shop,” Zoe explained. “Go outside and look in.”
Leah had barely stepped out onto the chilly street when the red tubing came to life, spelling out LEAH’S in glowing scarlet letters. She laughed and bounced back through the door.
“That’s fantastic! Where did you get that?”
“There’s a crazy sweela boy who’s just started making these sculptures,” Zoe said. “He’s working with one of Kayle’s nephews.”
“We couldn’t think of anything else you might need,” said Annova.
“I love it.”
Yori looked around with her hands on her hips. “So you’re ready? Everything’s set for tomorrow?”
“Everything’s set,” Leah said.
“Well, then,” Zoe said. “We’ll see you in the morning.”
• • •
Leah knew she should go home early, eat a light dinner, and get a full night’s sleep so she was rested for the grand opening. But there was a buzzing in her blood, a humming in her head; she couldn’t settle. So just as dark began falling, she put on a warm coat, took a public transport to the Plaza of Men, and walked around for a
bout an hour, hoping to siphon off some of her nervous energy.
The Plaza of Men had an entirely different feel than the Plaza of Women. The outer perimeter was defined by stalls and booths that had been in place so long they had an air of permanence; they were almost as solidly built as some of the establishments in the shop district. The goods and services on offer were very different as well, provided by bankers, moneylenders, horse traders, carriage makers, and recorders of legal documents. Leah had no reason to seek out the betting booth, though she supposed it might be interesting to lay a wager on how successful her shop would be, but she found herself halting in front of the booth of promises. Here patrons could swear, before witnesses and for all eternity, that they would accomplish specific tasks, and their vows were recorded in books kept by the booth owner and his family.
According to legend, Darien Serlast had gone to the promise booth to put in writing that he intended to marry Zoe, and he had made this vow only one or two ninedays after meeting her. Leah doubted the story was true—it seemed so unlike Darien—but she wished that she might someday find the courage to ask.
Leah could think of many commitments in her own life she would like to be able to keep. I will stop caring about Rhan Ardelay. I will willingly and unselfishly serve the crown. I will become the calm and courageous woman I want to be. But really, there was only one vow that she was absolutely determined to uphold. She didn’t need a piece of paper to serve as a reminder; it was written on her heart.
But she wanted the piece of paper anyway.
So she loitered outside the booth for a few minutes, keeping mostly to the shadows, watching the other patrons come and go. The booth had a sturdy wooden roof and three solid walls, but the front was open and several hanging lamps provided ample illumination for the activity under way. Men and women spoke their vows while two young men carefully recorded their words, first in the pages of a huge leather-bound book, then on separate sheets of thick, pressed paper. The patrons signed both copies, then the loose papers were rolled into scrolls, sealed with wax, and handed over. Leah noticed that everyone who left looked both excited and a little anxious, as if wondering: What have I just done?