Albain cleared his throat. “It seems to me that the least part of the blame is yours, daughter.”
Elandra looked up in surprise.
Hecati frowned.
He continued: “Bixia knew this garment was sacred and not to be touched. What was she doing prancing about in it? Even to show it off to you, Elandra, she had no business doing that.”
Hecati tried to speak up, but he scowled at her.
“If it did not fit, and I do not see how it could, why didn’t she inform you at once? Why demand that Elandra sit up all night in an effort to mend it? An insurmountable task, for all this child’s impressive skill with a needle.” His scowl deepened. “Small wonder she stands here looking dead tired, with dark circles under her eyes. This is not service. It’s abuse. And why does Elandra submit to it? Because she’s been trained to think that’s her place? Who did that to her?”
His scowl aimed itself at Hecati, who raised both hands.
“Now, my lord. You must not misunderstand the situation. You requested that I raise Elandra in domestic training, and—”
“Aye, teach her how to supervise servants and manage a household,” he said angrily. “Teach her grace and poise and accomplishments, not to run about in a patched gown a scullion would be ashamed to wear, with dirt on her cheek and her hair uncombed, and her spirit fair scared out of her.”
“She’s a headstrong, temperamental girl,” Hecati replied with equal heat. “Hard to train and rebellious. Strong measures have been called for to teach her her place. If I’ve made her take a servant’s role to Lady Bixia from time to time, it’s only to make her understand that she is not Lady Bixia’s equal.”
“Isn’t she?” he asked with an edge to his voice.
“Of course not. The factors of her birth—”
“Elandra’s mother was better born than Bixia’s!” he roared.
Hecati sniffed. “But not under lawful union with yourself, my lord.”
“At our rank, what does that matter?” he said. “You have common ideas, woman. Aye, and common morals as well.”
Reddening, Hecati drew herself up. “I can see my years of effort are unappreciated. Well, you’ll soon learn for yourself what your baseborn daughter’s really like when you’re thrown into her company, my lord. Perhaps you will regret not heeding my warnings about her.”
“Elandra is not to blame for what transpired between her mother and me,” he said.
“Her very presence is an affront to Bixia and the memory of my dear sister Ousia!” Hecati cried.
“And so you punish Elandra because you cannot punish me?” he retorted, his voice very quiet and very, very angry now.
The room fell silent. Hecati looked tense and alarmed, as though she realized she had gone too far.
Albain turned to Elandra and stared at her hard.
It was a glare such as he gave his men during inspection. She felt reduced to a speck, insignificant and worthless. She had fallen short of his expectations somehow, and yet she did not see how she could have done better ... unless it was to have avoided the traps Bixia set for her.
Elandra’s mouth went dry. She was so tired. Her eyes felt like grit. Her wits were muddled. All she wanted was for him to dismiss her so that she could escape this room and this woman. But she dared not give way to tears or exhaustion. Albain despised weakness in anyone. The only way to keep his good favor was to be strong. She could not whimper. She could not sway. With all her willpower she forced herself to meet his gaze steadily, her chin high and her aching shoulders straight. It was a struggle to keep her mouth from trembling.
Albain snapped his fingers. “Jinja, here.”
The creature darted to his side immediately.
Albain pointed at Elandra. “It is ended,” he said angrily. “It has gone on long enough. Release her.”
Before Elandra could even guess at what he meant, the Jinja jumped at her. Its hands brushed across her face, and it was as though ice touched her skin.
A wave of dizziness passed through her. She swayed, blinking against a sudden blur in her vision. For a moment she felt strangely cold and empty. Her mind was blank. She opened her mouth, but could not speak.
Albain’s arm steadied her. “Gently, my girl,” he said with kindness. “It will pass quickly.”
Even as he spoke, the dizziness faded. She blinked and felt stronger, more confident, somehow free. She could not explain it, and gazed at him in puzzlement.
Oddly enough, it was he who avoided her eyes now.
His gaze returned to Hecati, who still looked alarmed.
“You took much advantage of what has been commanded of us, sister-in-name. How will you treat her now?”
Hecati’s nostrils flared a moment; then she seemed to rally. “She has always been difficult. What will she do now that you’ve unleashed her to act as she pleases? Let her tear down the palace?”
Elandra’s puzzlement grew. She looked at first one and then the other. “I don’t understand.”
“Well,” her father said uneasily. “Well, perhaps it is better some things are left unsaid.” For a moment he studied her with an odd expression on his face. “You are a good girl, Elandra. A good daughter. You think I don’t know what goes on in this household, that I’ve been blind to the way you’ve been treated, but that’s not so. I let it happen.”
Elandra’s eyes widened. She stared at him with growing shock.
“Aye, I did. And hard it was, too. I stepped in sometimes, when Hecati was getting too harsh with you.”
Her eyes filled with angry tears. He knew nothing about it, for all his boasting. He knew not a tenth of what she’d undergone. For an instant she felt larger than he, older than he, wiser than he. She saw that her hope of becoming his companion was doomed. It was too late for them. Too much had happened. Too little had happened.
Her silence seemed to disturb him.
“I had ... advice as to how to raise you,” he said, wriggling his blocky shoulders uneasily. “None of that matters now. I see you can stand up for yourself when you have to. But you’re not vindictive or petty. You’ve got a generous heart, my girl. And I’m proud of you.”
A few minutes ago his unexpected praise would have made her smile. She would have soaked it up like sunshine after long days of rain. Now she stared at him, unmoved. She felt as though she were being turned to stone, losing all feeling an inch at a time.
He took her hands in his and turned them over. His eyes flickered when he saw how work-roughened they were. Then his gaze turned misty and he pulled her into his arms for a hard, fierce hug that nearly crushed her.
“I’ll miss you most of all,” he whispered.
When he let her go, she stared at him in bewilderment. “But I’m staying here with you,” she said. “I thought—” She broke off abruptly, fear piercing her anew.
He shook his head. “No, my child,” he said gently. “I could not tell you before. You’re going with Bixia.”
Elandra’s mouth fell open. Anger rushed over her, driving back the fear and the disappointment. So this was her future? To spend her life at the beck and call of Bixia? To mouse about with her head down and her back beaten, pledged in eternity to Bixia’s service? She choked on what filled her throat.
Hecati stepped forward. “My lord, it’s too generous of you, but really you do not need to send Elandra along as a companion to Lady Bixia. The time has come to separate the girls. Let each of them follow the paths of their far different lives.”
Albain ignored her. His eyes remained on Elandra, who stood there frozen with fury and shock. “Go and put on one of your pretty gowns. Put up your hair as befits your rank. Have one of the maids pack your things. There isn’t much time.”
But she could not move. Her heart was thudding so hard she could scarcely hear him. Sent away. Her mother had sent her away, years ago. All her life she’d feared the day when her father would do the same thing. And now it was upon her. Kicked out. Unwanted.
Oh, he could c
all it a great honor if he wished. She knew some people would sell their souls for the chance to live at the imperial court. But she saw only the hurt.
Worse than that, it meant no escape from Hecati.
Elandra could not bear it. “Please let me stay,” she whispered pleadingly. “I’ll do anything, Father. I’ll work day and night, run the household or scrub floors, in whatever capacity I can serve. Willingly I will do this. But let mestay.”
He flinched. “Is this what you have been taught? To beg like this? Where is your pride, girl?”
Her lips trembled. If she had to kneel one more time and thank the hag for a whipping, she would die. She looked at her father, who refused to see what she could not tell him. “I have no pride in this matter,” she said at last. “Let me stay.”
“My lord, consider,” Hecati spoke up. “This is Lady Bixia’s ascension into greatness. After a lifetime of training and preparation for her ultimate station in life, she must look ahead to new friends and new companions—those more worthy of an empress.”
Albain scratched his chin. “These protests are unworthy of you both. There is something you do not know, Hecati. Something Elandra does not know.”
Elandra felt tears burn her eyes and frowned to hold them back. “I won’t go,” she said.
“Elandra,” he said to her, “you have your own destiny.”
She glared at him, too defiant at first to understand what he had said.
“Nonsense,” Hecati said with a sniff. “How can your lordship speak of trivial matters when Lady Bixia’s good fortune outshines everyone?”
“Bixia has no destiny, save what has been foretold to me about my own fate,” Albain said flatly.
Hecati twisted her fingers. “But the girl is to marry the emperor. We have known that since her birth. It was—”
“My destiny says that my daughter shall marry the emperor. That is true.”
Hecati nodded emphatically, looking relieved.
“I have worked long and hard to maintain the best relations with the imperial court so this could come about,” Albain said. “But that has nothing to do with Elandra.”
“And Elandra has nothing to do with Lady Bixia’s future,” Hecati said with thin impatience. “Nothing.”
She glared at Elandra, who glared back.
“Father, thank you,” Elandra said, her tone not grateful at all. “You mean to be kind, but I will not go with Bixia. Empress or not, I don’t want to serve her anymore.”
“Nevertheless, I am sending you to the Penestricans,” he said and shot a warning look at Hecati. “Not as Bixia’s servant, mind you. But as my daughter, to be trained in the House of Women, and to be married advantageously through their selection.”
Again Elandra felt as though all the breath had been knocked from her. Her anger vanished, and complete astonishment took its place. Married? She didn’t want to be married. She hadn’t thought about it. In fact, she was sick of the whole idea after watching Bixia moon and plan and gloat for months.
“You’re seventeen,” Albain continued. “Old enough to make a good match.”
Hecati was blinking as though shocked. “Sent to the Penestricans?” she repeated hollowly. “But that’s for wellborn—”
“You’re a fool,” he broke in sharply.
Hecati flushed to the edge of her wimple. Anger filled her eyes, and the jinja positioned itself between her and Lord Albain with its sharp teeth bared.
All expression smoothed from her face, which remained white and pinched. “Forgive me,” she said, although she sounded as though her lips were too stiff to utter the apology. “It’s just that I am surprised at so generous a gesture on behalf of your natural daughter.”
The scorn in that one word was like a slash from the willow switch. Elandra flinched, then felt angry for letting either of them see she could still be affected by taunts. She had to outgrow such foolishness, she told herself. She had to learn to be impervious to the insults. Her mind turned to the possibilities of the future her father offered. She had never even allowed herself to dream of any kind of life such as other young women had. But if she did go and if she was married well...
“Unlike Bixia, Elandra has her own destiny,” Albain said proudly. “It was read by the soothsayer in her mother’s household at her birth.”
Elandra and Hecati exchanged an involuntary glance. Elandra took a step forward. “I did not know this,” she said, intrigued despite a wary sense that she might not like it. “Why have I never been told?”
He smiled at her. “Because of your mother’s wisdom. She asked me not to tell you until you were grown. I was also requested, by another party, to let you be raised more roughly than Bixia, to test you for a purpose I do not know.”
“But—”
“I did not like to keep such a secret at first, but as the two of you have grown up together, I have seen Bixia spoiled and fawned over by everyone until she’s vain and puffed up with conceit. I see you, resilient and wary, expecting no favors.”
“You cannot say that Elandra is better than Lady Bixia,” Hecati said with quick jealousy. “She is too tall, too thin, all awkward elbows. That hair is a fright. It will never stay combed.”
Albain smiled at Elandra. “your hair has the same auburn tint as mine. And today you make me think of the last time I saw Iaris.”
“My mother,” Elandra whispered. Her mother’s name was never spoken. How she thirsted to hear it, how she longed for any detail of what her mother was like.
“Iaris was quite a beauty,” he said, his eyes growing soft and distant with memory. “Not in the common way, but very fierce and reserved. When she sent me away, she looked much as you look today, all haughty and tense, with tears in her eyes she would not let fall. By the gods, it was not easy to win her heart at first. Nor would she be tamed. Nor could I keep her.”
Elandra bit her lip, and her yearning was an ache that filled her entire being. “I long to hear more about her. All my life I’ve hoped that someday you would tell me.”
“I know.” Gently he touched her cheek. “This is not the time. You must go today with your sister, for training and preparation for marriage.”
“But—”
He shook his head to still her protest. “We are not always given our choice in these matters, Elandra. Had I been given leave, I would have warned you of your future long ago. I would have given you a trousseau too. For you are as precious to me as Bixia.”
“But who commands you, Father? Who has told you to raise me thus? Who has made you keep silent?” Elandra frowned at him. “My mother?”
He shook his head. “Give up this guessing game. I am not at liberty to tell you. I have defied them enough by taking off the spell of restraint.”
“But—”
“Hush. You must learn to accept what destiny writes for you.”
“And what is this destiny that has been foretold for her?” Hecati asked in a spiteful voice.
His gaze never wavered from Elandra’s. “She is to marry a man whose name shall be known throughout the ages. Whether he is a warlord or a philosopher depends on the match the Penestricans will arrange according to their wisdom.”
For a moment there was only silence in the room.
Elandra forgot to breathe as her mind turned over his words. In spite of herself she was pleased and Haltered. It was the destiny of someone intended for greatness. Her life was not going to he dull or ordinary after all.
“Well?” Albain asked, breaking the silence.
Elandra drew in a breath, and her involuntary half smile flickered into a frown. “Must my life hinge only on what kind of marriage I make?”
He looked startled by her reply.
“There, you see?” Hecati said scornfully. “All rebellion and hopeless ideas. What is to be done with a creature like her?”
Albain ignored Hecati and gave Elandra his complete attention. “What else would you have for yourself?”
She spun away and crossed the room to the
window overlooking the lush jungles beyond the walls. Hugging herself, she gazed at the sky. A pair of wild parrots flew overhead, their crimson feathers bright. “I don’t know exactly ... only I think I would like to be a scholar or a teacher. I would like to explore the world and see its wonders. I would like to put my own mark on history, not just content myself with running a household and bearing a man’s children.”
Albain laughed. “What a silly child you are.”
Elandra turned around sharply. “Am I?” she asked, hurt by his laughter. “Am I really foolish? Are my dreams wrong?”
He beckoned to her, still chuckling, and she crossed the room to him. He gave her shoulder a little pat, then pushed her away.
“You are ready indeed to go forth and forge a path for yourself,” he said. “The Penestricans can do much with you, I think. I am pleased.”
“Must I marry?” she asked again. “Could I join the order of Penestricans and find a different destiny for myself there?”
The amusement slowly faded in his face. He shook his head. “Some think a destiny is a curse. Others, like Bixia, consider it a blessing. Either way, you must walk the path it sets for you. Now, go and make yourself ready. There is little time.”
“I want to stay.”
“I know.” His voice was firm. “But you cannot. The Penestricans tell me it is time. Today I must lose both my girls.”
She heard the unhappiness in his voice. Her heart went out to him, and she reached for his hand. But with a scowl, he abruptly turned his back on her and left the room. She listened to the rapid jingling of his spurs and knew with a sinking heart that she would probably never see him again.
The jinja lingered a moment. Its dark, mischievous eyes stared up at Elandra in a strangely compelling manner. “Greatness,” it whispered. Then it grinned and vanished.
Elandra would have rushed out of the room then, but Hecati blocked her path.
She handed Elandra a small key off her ring. “This will unlock the cupboard that contains your things. See that you hurry. Wash your face and do something about that hair. You will behave yourself. You will conduct yourself properly. You will do nothing to bring shame to Lady Bixia, is that clear?”
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