“I can’t see them, Gracia. I know it’s wrong of me, but I can’t. I know they hadn’t the slightest part in what he did, but they were in the courtroom, and I knew immediately who they had to be. I could hardly look at them. The resemblance!”
Gracia embraced her again, as a mother would, and a tear of hot guilt slid down August’s cheek. The queen said, “Put yourself first, yourself and that child, you understand? If you cannot bear to see them then you cannot bear it, and that’s that.”
“Val and I should have told you I was….” And August’s voice broke. She had not been able to say pregnant since Amison’s reaction to the word. “We should have told you about the baby.”
“You and the little angel are all right, and Vane’s recovered. That’s the important thing.”
Gracia was too polite to ask why they had left Traigland’s security, why they would ever return to this place and especially with a child on the way, but August noted a mild accusation in her tone and tried to justify herself:
“We had to come back. We left so much unfinished.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me. But August, tell me you both took a moment to consider staying where no one could touch you, more time than you took to consider marriage.”
“We most certainly did. Your Highness, we realize the days are gone when we could afford to somehow throw caution to the wind.”
“You knew that much before the attack, my dear, and you did nothing imprudent. The attack still came. That’s what worries me.”
“Zacry could have brought us home before now, but we waited until Val had the strength to transport, just in case he’ll have to transport us away again. And Val’s putting more protections around the manor,” August assured the queen. “He’s getting up before dawn to take care of that, and to vanish all the things people hurled across the fence: burned cloths and spent torches, rocks everywhere, buckets of manure.” Her face turned red. “He doesn’t want anyone touching the smallest scrap, said things could be poisoned or carrying disease. He’s right, of course. He’ll just have to vanish it.
“Gracia, the defacements came before the trial. People seem to understand now what happened, and why, thanks to…. Did the boys really find those record books hidden here?”
“Luckily, they brought them straight to Rexson.”
“Without them, Val and I would still be in Traigland. Without those books to explain Amison’s motive, no one would have believed he attacked me, that Val didn’t murder him.”
“I know, dear,” said Gracia. She folded August in her arms once more. “I know.”
* * *
The following evening, Vane and August made their way to Gratton’s inn. He had not returned from work yet, so they sat unrecognized in plain clothes and ate some broiled fish while they waited. Gratton spotted them as soon as he walked in. His gait revealed he was dog-tired, but sober, without a doubt sober. He even was clean-shaven, and looked to have cut his hair recently. August was not expecting him to be keeping up his grooming, and she took his smooth chin as a positive sign.
“It’s about time you two made it back to Podrar. We’ll speak in my room?”
“You haven’t eaten.”
“I’ll have them bring something up.”
Gratton’s room was not much larger than his wife’s had been in Yangerton; he could afford nothing more spacious until he sold his house. Her house.
“How are you?” asked August, after Gratton removed his uniform hat and Vane erected a sound barrier.
“Working long hours to keep busy. It’s all I can think to do, but it’s enough. I’m so exhausted at the end of the day I can’t help but sleep, and I wouldn’t otherwise.”
“Sleeping’s good,” said August.
“You sleeping any?” he asked her.
“I drink tea at night. Some days it helps more than others.”
“Listen, I appreciate what you did on the stand, defending Bennie.”
“The papers were out of line to suggest…. And people know it, Gratton.”
“And you,” he told Vane, “I’m glad you killed the bastard. I’d rather have done it myself, but under the circumstances…. You sure made the son of a bitch pay.” He started to apologize to August for his language, but she told him to call Amison anything he wanted. “You’re all right, you know, the both of you. I knew you wouldn’t stay away for long, not from Herezoth. Somehow, when I think of you two and that kid instead of her, it’s easier not to want a drink.”
“I knew you before you married,” said Vane. “Not well, but I knew you then, and I know you now. You’re better for the time you had with her. And I never was able to thank you for coming along that day, with Zac and me.”
“Thanks to you, I got the chance to make his peons regret taking her. I guess magic has its upside.”
Vane said, “You witnessed the hanging, didn’t you?”
“Goodly’s? Of course I did! Whimpering little worm he was.”
Gratton failed to notice August’s shudder, but Vane did not. He asked Gratton how selling the house was going, and where he was hoping to move.
“Partsvale,” he said. “Where I was raised. My brother still lives there, works in the record room at Town Hall from what I hear. I’ll have to give up my captaincy, but I should be able to arrange a transfer.”
“A change of scene might do wonders for you,” said August.
“Either that, or it’ll be a complete disaster. Haven’t seen my brother in twenty years. We didn’t part on the best of terms: my fault, of course.”
Vane said, “Troubled youth, were you?”
“We got in a fight over some girl when I was seventeen. Don’t even remember who she was. We both had quite a few. Well, I had more than was decent. He was looking for a wife and only saw one at a time, at least.”
“What kind of fight?” asked August.
“The kind where I broke his arm and left home to join the guard. And months after that, the Resistance. I never did tell Bennie about him. Figured she’d want us to reconcile, and frankly, I didn’t want to deal with that long a trip or a string of letters after which he’d just tell me to go to hell.”
August agreed, “Bennie would have pushed you to patch things up.”
“I figure now I should try. It would make her happy, and I’ve got nothing better to do. Work’s something, but thirteen or fourteen hours a day of it…. I owe Hayden one. He and his wife are getting the house in order and going through Bennie’s things. She didn’t have much, but I haven’t the time or the head for that right now. Hopefully I’ll sell the house by the end of the year and can leave this dump of a city.”
“Well,” said August, “I’m glad you’re not gone yet. We wouldn’t have seen you.”
Gratton nodded his thanks as a woman from downstairs knocked with his dinner. Vane removed the sound barrier to let her in, and after another hour or so, he and August told Gratton goodbye.
“He’ll get on,” said August, when they had snuck behind the inn and transported to Oakdowns. “It really does seem he’ll get on. Maybe when some time goes by, he’ll even reconnect with one of those girls up in Partsvale…. Val, this might sound strange, but do you ever get the feeling your parents are watching over you?”
“As a child I liked to think that, once I learned who they were. Why?”
“Because Gratton…. It really seems Bennie’s still with him.”
“He was never a bad person, I don’t think. Just needed someone to bring out the best in him, and she did that. It’s a crying shame he lost her, but the influence will stick. He’s resolved on that point, don’t you think?”
“He certainly seems to be.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Court
Three weeks after Vane returned to Herezoth, Rexson hosted a state dinner to welcome a group of Traiglandian diplomats who had come to adjust the terms of a trade treaty. The five visitors were to work with the king and his Foreign Affairs and Commerce Councils,
both of which had a core formed of nobility but also a secondary group of experts—historians, linguists, economists—that the noblemen in question regularly consulted.
Rexson strongly suggested Vane attend the dinner, and though Vane knew he would have to return to court at some point, he was dreading the very thought. He spent the morning of that day in the garden, staring at a book but not really reading it, wondering how Thad would react to his return. How coldly would Mason Greller’s eldest son, Amison’s brother-in-law, treat him? Would those cursed murmurs behind his back return, or would people speak their minds to his face this time? Vane had not killed just any man; he had butchered Carson Amison, head of the very council on foreign affairs that had been in session each day for a month preparing for the treaty talks; Carson Amison, from a bloodline among those of the first warrior lords Herezoth had known; Carson Amison, powerful enough that no one in fifteen years had dared challenge him over the degree of support he had offered Zalski, not even the king.
Vane went inside to lunch with August, though he wasn’t hungry. She distracted him from his worries by showing him a hat and blanket she had knitted for the baby, and he went back outside for two or three hours before he had to get ready for the banquet. August had offered to go to the library so as not to be in his way, and to wash and dress took him hardly any time. After that, he decided to join his wife.
He found her wearing an empire-waisted gown, emerald green, with a hoop skirt wide enough that he could barely notice she was pregnant. Two servants were just finishing putting up her hair, half of which was twisted in a rose-shaped bun on the back of her head. Vane had never seen her dress formally or fix her hair that way, and could only gawk as the women bustled about with clips to hold a few stray strands in place. They left when August dismissed them, and she took Vane’s hand to say, “I’m coming with you.”
“When did you…? Where…?”
“The queen gave me the dress. It was easy enough to take the seams in. I arranged things so you wouldn’t find out ahead of time, but you’re not facing this alone. I won’t let you.”
“August….”
“I’m going with you, and that’s that.”
“The king’s arranged for me…. I’m meeting with Amison’s family beforehand.”
“We’re meeting with Amison’s family,” she corrected. “And it’ll be awkward and horrible, and no one will have a blasted word to say, but it is necessary. You’ll have to coexist with them if you want to remain at court and on the council. You can’t see them for the first time after everything that happened at this dinner, in public, with ambassadors from Traigland there while the treaty’s still on the table. I know what’s at stake, and I’m coming with you, Val. Gracia says if I’m ever to make an appearance, this is the time: when overseas visitors standing around will ensure no one treats me rudely, even if they want to; when the attack and the baby might dispose people to be welcoming. It’s more important than ever to establish that we’re both in this relationship and in Herezoth for good. I don’t expect we’ll have a pleasant evening, and I don’t imagine I’ll become bosom friends with Carlina Greller, but you are not going through this by yourself, not after you nearly died for me.”
“Are you sure you can face that man’s family?”
“I wasn’t before this morning,” she admitted. “I am now, though. I’m positive. Val, we plow through the hard things together. I thought you understood how this works?”
“And Rexson and Gracia are expecting you?”
“There’ll be an empty seat at your table if I’m not there. Now, I’m no expert in etiquette, but I believe it’s frowned upon to throw a host in that situation, barring illness or the like…. Would you bring me my jewelry box? You came in earlier than I thought you would to get ready. I saw you through the window and didn’t have time to pick anything out.”
He thanked her and kissed her cheek.
“You can thank me by fetching my jewelry.”
Vane was back with the box in thirty seconds. He helped August select a ruby pendant necklace surrounded by diamonds, with a pair of diamond earrings to match and white silk gloves that ran to just below the elbow. After he clasped her necklace, she stood to straighten out her skirt. She caught him staring at her with a glazed look in his eye when she raised her head, and she asked him, “What is it?”
“You’re gorgeous,” he told her.
“I look like a watermelon.”
“You’re gorgeous,” he repeated. “That dress, and your hair that way…. You never do that with your hair.”
She moved instinctively to pull a curl, then realized she should not and pressed her hands together instead. “Am I forgetting something? Will I fit in at all?”
“You’ll be the most beautiful woman there. That makes fitting in difficult.”
“Val, I mean it.”
“You look perfect,” he assured her.
As Gracia walked Vane and August to the parlor-style room where they were to meet with Amison’s family, she described for the girl’s benefit each person they would find waiting.
“Tanya Greller is the elder of the sisters. Her air is intense and can seem judgmental, but she means no insult. She would rather go on as though nothing had happened, so don’t be alarmed if she says little.
“Rayla Amison’s quite the opposite. She means well, but speaks more than she should. They both feel horrible for what their brother did, even if Tanya seems insensitive and Rayla insincere. They aren’t cold. They’re at a loss as to how to respond to this, and remember, they’ve no idea at all Vane was stabbed, so they can’t feel for that.
“Gilbert Greller, now, is the epitome of tact under normal conditions. He and Tanya have three children, but you won’t see them until dinner. Here we are….”
Gracia entered the first-floor parlor where Vane and August found Amison’s family dressed for the banquet to follow. As the queen introduced the Duchess of Ingleton, August realized both that man’s sisters looked as uncomfortable as she herself must, especially the bony-faced Tanya. Gilbert Greller had chiseled cheeks and a powerful frame as he approached forty years, and gave Vane a firm handshake, August an unexpected but comforting smile. Rayla, Carson’s youngest sister, shared her brother’s penetrating gaze but not his air of egotism; even having just met the woman, August knew Rayla would be horrified to suspect how much her sharp, amber-tinted eyes unsettled her.
Amison’s family sat on a settee and chairs beneath a window on the north wall, so August and Vane took seats on a sofa across from them. Gracia, whom August had asked ahead of time not to leave, settled in an armchair.
Gilbert Greller was the first to speak, addressing Vane, whom he had met on various occasions earlier in the year. “When did you return to Oakdowns? Are things settled there?”
“We went back almost a month ago,” Vane told him. “Things are calm now.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Gilbert. “Glad to hear it….” He cleared his throat before turning blunt. “My wife and her sister and I, we’re quite aware you’re guiltless. It’s a bloody tragedy he put you in position to…. We feel quite ashamed of it all.”
August told them, “Please don’t. We know you had nothing to do with it, any of you.”
Rayla said, “Things were difficult for you both before he caused this mess. I’ve been so relieved he hurt neither one of you, or the baby, your precious baby…. Congratulations to you! How far along…?”
“Five months,” said August.
Vane offered, “I’m sorry you had to suffer the indignity of that trial, with the reporters and all that testimony.”
“Nonsense,” said Gilbert. “The truth had to come out, anyone with sense could see that. Me, I knew and loved your parents. Grew up with them. I told Tanya as soon as we heard about Carson there was no way you…. The truth had to come out,” he repeated. “It wasn’t pleasant, but it was everyone’s duty. Anyway, every family has its black sheep.” His face turned red as he realized to whom he addre
ssed that comment. “I didn’t mean….”
“I know you didn’t,” said Vane.
Rayla asked August, “Will this be your first time among the titled?” August nodded, and Rayla offered, “I’ll be happy to introduce you to the women. Her Highness won’t be able. The diplomats’ wives, you see….”
“That’s very kind,” said August, beginning to blush.
“It’s not often we find a new face among us, but I promise, I’ve no reason to suspect everyone won’t just adore you.” Rayla lowered her voice conspiratorially. “They’ll latch onto preparations for baby if they can think of nothing else to say. Prepare yourself for that.”
“You’re very kind,” August repeated. She had rarely felt so awkward, but she went on. “Her Highness suggested I stay near my husband tonight, and I imagine I should do that.”
“But dear, if you’re to give and receive calls from these women, have tea with them….”
Gracia interrupted on August’s behalf. “She’s not likely to receive many invitations beyond those wrought of rabid curiosity, Rayla, no matter what praise you or I bestow on her. And she wisely plans to refrain from presenting herself among your peers more often than she must. She’s no more interested in clawing her way into society than you would be in her place and with her background. She’s come to support Ingleton. That’s the extent of her aspirations, and she really should stay with him this evening.”
“I do appreciate your welcome,” August assured Amison’s sister.
Tanya said, “You shouldn’t. She only wants to separate herself from Carson, and figures you’re a useful scalpel. He threatened, so she’ll protect. It’s sickening. You’ve suffered enough at my family’s hand and will forgive me, I’m sure, if I prefer to allow you to live your life without further interference on my part.”
“Of course,” blustered August. “This is difficult for everyone. We just want to put the past behind us, we all do.”
Gilbert asked Vane, “And how do you intend to do that?”
The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) Page 47