Adorinda frowned. “You are bold.”
“Just following your example. What sense is there in sending ships on a voyage into mostly unknown waters, to a new country you know nothing about? What sense is there in assuming that country is unpopulated and open to your pillaging it? Eskandel won’t waste its resources like that.”
“Instead to waste its resources supporting a child-King’s bid to take the Crown of a foreign nation?”
“It’s not a waste of resources to ensure good relations with a neighboring country and economic growth.”
“A King who cannot himself gain his Crown, too weak to make good relations is. But let us say for discussion’s sake that Eskandel fool enough is to follow where the boy leads. What of the repercussions if he loses? Eskandel will have now an enemy on its northern border and not an ally.”
“He won’t lose.”
Adorinda’s cruel smile widened. “I think you cannot see the future.”
Willow didn’t flinch as Adorinda threw her own words back at her. “Which leaves us both where we started. You backing your question and me defending Serjian’s. And you’re right, neither of us can see the future.”
The smile faltered, just the tiniest bit. “I know where my support lies. Do you?”
“I don’t, actually. To be honest, I’m not worried about it.”
“You are arrogant.” Adorinda spoke even more loudly.
“I can see how you’d think that way. People always see their own worst traits in others.”
Adorinda flinched. Before she could speak, Willow said, “No, I’m not arrogant. The reason I’m not worried is that I have faith the rulers of Eskandel will see what’s best for their country and will vote accordingly. Supporting Felix is best for Eskandel, Adorinda. Supporting Mahnouki only benefits you.”
“You do not use my name, girl,” Adorinda said in a low, cutting voice.
“I apologize. I don’t know your customs well and I mean no disrespect.”
“Do you accuse me of profiting by my question?”
“No, but I’m guessing you’d come up covered in glory if that voyage is successful.” Willow lowered her voice and made a logical leap. “And I bet if someone dug into the ownership of those vessels, they’d find the Mahnouki name written all over them. Is that legal, Adorinda?”
“Lies,” Adorinda said.
“No lie is needed when the truth will bind you better. Someone very wise told me that once.” Willow raised her voice again. “I’m not Eskandelic. I can’t tell the principalities how to vote. All I know is that Felix is the rightful King of Tremontane, and I’m sworn to protect him and help him regain the Crown. I hope Eskandel chooses to side with him. Good day, Mahnouki Adorinda.” She hitched the drape of her giorjanesh higher, bowed to Adorinda—the perfunctory bow of equal to equal, because she didn’t think she could get away with implying Adorinda was actually her inferior—and swept away down the hall, towing Felix behind her. Leave a meeting on your terms.
“Slow down, Willow,” Kerish said in a low voice.
“Not if there’s any chance she’s chasing me. She isn’t, is she?”
“I think you might have paralyzed her with rage.” Kerish put his hand on Willow’s arm. “That was incredible.”
“Was it? I can barely remember what I said.”
“It was effective. I wish Mother had been here to see it. Of course, if she had been, the fight would have been between her and Adorinda, and you wouldn’t have been involved at all. Do you really think Mahnouki is illegally profiting off the proposed voyage?”
“I don’t know what’s illegal or not, but she sure acted like someone with something to hide. I’ll have to tell the harem and let them ferret it out. It might make a difference.”
“She’s wrong, isn’t she? About the voting?” Felix’s voice had a tremor in it. Willow squatted, carefully, and put her arms around the boy.
“We don’t know how the vote will go. Adorinda just wanted to scare us. You’re not scared of her, are you?”
“Of course not. Hilarion says fear is the unwanted visitor we choose to entertain, and a King should rule his fear and not let it rule him.”
“I might have known Hilarion would have something to say about that.”
“But what are we going to do if they vote against helping us?”
“Don’t worry about that. I have a plan.”
“Does it mean running away?”
“Sort of.” Felix didn’t sound frightened anymore, just curious. “Would it make you feel better if I told you what it was?” He nodded. “Then tonight before you go to bed, we’ll talk about it.”
“All right.” Felix took her hand again. “Can we watch the dogs now? I want to see the stevaashi parade, because they’re the prettiest.”
“We’re going to take one more walk around this place, and then we can watch the dogs,” Kerish said. “If we don’t see him by then, we’ll have to think of something else,” he told Willow, who nodded.
The exhibition hall had grown more crowded and stuffy with the smell of warm bodies and warm dogs all in one place. The draft Willow had felt earlier was gone. She hitched the drape of the giorjanesh higher for what seemed like the hundredth time and surreptitiously scratched her armpit. Her clothing was beautiful, but the fabric was heavy and hot and she wished for a cool linen tunic, or better yet, a cool bath.
They walked, pushing against the current of attendees, toward the entrance, where the air was marginally cooler. Willow found a spot where an occasional breeze whistled past her face. It smelled of sweat, but she didn’t care. “Maybe we should forget about this,” she said. “There have to be other places where we can encounter him.”
“Don’t tell me you’re giving up already.”
“I’m not. Well, maybe a little.”
“May we see the dogs now?”
Willow sighed. “All right, Felix, we’ll go watch the dogs.” His constant requests, however polite, were starting to grate on her, but she controlled her impatience. He was only eight, after all, and this…quest of Willow’s didn’t mean anything to him. Even though, technically, it meant life or death to him.
She shifted her grip on his hand. If the Abakians were behind the assassination attempts, she would make them pay. There had to be something she could do to make them suffer.
The noise was becoming intolerable, all those people trying to be heard above everyone else, a thunderstorm someone had let indoors. Willow tugged on Felix’s hand, leading him away from the entrance. Better the stuffy heat than the unbearable noise.
Behind them, a boisterous mob of men came through the entrance, laughing and shouting at each other as if they were separated by the length of the exhibition hall instead of shoulder to shoulder. They bore down on the crowds without stepping out of anyone’s way, moving like the lords of creation they no doubt believed themselves to be.
Willow took a few quick steps to the left, then darted right, trying to anticipate their movement, but they swept over her and Felix like an inexorable tide, not even bothering to try to avoid them. One of the bodyguards moved in front of her, breaking the tide with his body; the other, Willow couldn’t see. Willow drew Felix closer, shielding him with her body, and looked around for an escape. Should she try to get out of the crowd, or wait for them to pass?
She felt a tug on her hand, then a harder tug, and suddenly Felix was gone, swallowed up in the mass of alarmingly large and energetic men.
“Felix!” she shouted, diving after him, but he was gone as if he’d never been there.
“Willow! There he is!” Kerish shouted. Willow looked around wildly. He was pointing in the wrong direction. Felix had gone missing to her left. Where had the bodyguards gone? She ignored Kerish and shoved her way past a couple of older women who gabbled at her in Eskandelic. It didn’t sound friendly, but Willow didn’t care. The men continued to swarm around and past her. One jostled her elbow and muttered something in Eskandelic that could have been a curse or an apology, but spared her n
o more than a glance.
“Felix!” she cried out again. She was almost free of the mob, but still saw no sign of Felix. He had to be somewhere. He couldn’t have simply vanished, unless… Willow shoved past a few more people, trying to control her panic. No one would try to kidnap him, would they? They absolutely would.
Then she saw him, standing by himself in an open space, and her leaden heart lightened. She ran to his side and hugged him, felt him throw his arms around her and cling to her. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I should have held on more tightly.”
“I was trying to go to the dogs and I let go,” Felix said. “I won’t do it again.”
“Let’s find Kerish, and this time we’ll both hold on tighter.”
Felix’s grip on her hand was almost painfully tight. She could hardly blame him. One of the bodyguards came staggering up, then the other. “Where the hell did you go?” Willow shouted. “Anything could have happened to Felix!”
The first bodyguard said, “I see him, but he—” He made a little motion with his hands that Willow couldn’t interpret. His companion said something rapidly in Eskandelic. Willow wanted to take both of them by the hair and crack their heads together. The bloodthirsty image stopped her cold. She was frightened, and tense, and that weakened her when she needed to be strong.
“Never mind,” she told them, cutting across the first guard’s attempt to translate for his comrade. “Never mind. I don’t want to hear it. Stay close, and you can explain yourselves to Janida when we get back to the Residence. Now we’re going to find Kerish.”
She looked around, but Kerish had disappeared as thoroughly as Felix had. She swore under her breath. This was a really bad idea. She should never have taken Felix into such a crowded, public place.
“I see him!” Felix said, pointing. “Talking to that man.”
With relief, Willow looked where Felix pointed and saw Kerish in conversation with someone else. The man was enormous, taller even than Kerish and broad in the shoulders and belly. His arms were twice the size of her own, and his fingers looked like knobby sausages. He wore the same vest and trousers almost all the men did, but on him they looked undersized, the vest straining across his stomach and the trousers tight instead of billowing. Whatever Kerish was saying had both of them on edge. Willow moved toward them, dodging more people—why was she the only one getting out of anyone’s way?
“—jeh dua din,” Kerish was saying as Willow neared. He hooked his arm around her elbow and drew her closer. “Abakian Terjalesh, this is Willow North. Willow, Abakian Terjalesh.”
“So what?” Terjalesh said. His voice came from somewhere very deep, possibly well beneath the bottom of the pool the building was built over. “Abakian wants nothing to do with Serjian.”
“Are you sure about that?” He hadn’t noticed the pendant. Willow reached up and found it had slipped beneath the neck of the giorjanesh. She hadn’t even felt the burning, she’d been so caught up in finding Felix. She pulled it out and settled it where it was visible. “From what I hear, Abakian has been very involved in Serjian affairs.”
The big man looked puzzled, as if he didn’t quite understand her. Then he said, “You hear lies. I leave now.”
“Wait! I want you to meet someone,” Willow said, not quite daring to put a restraining hand on his arm. “This is King Felix Valant.”
Terjalesh took a few steps and loomed over Felix, who miraculously didn’t flinch. “This the King is?” he said. “He puny is.”
“I’m eight,” Felix said. “I’m still growing.”
A nasty smile spread across Terjalesh’s face. “True. For now.” Felix took half a step backward. Terjalesh followed him. The bodyguards moved forward to intercept him.
“Terjalesh!” Willow said. “Missing something?” It was brash, but the amount of metal in the room just kept growing and the drunk feeling was growing with it. She ran her finger under the leather thong holding the pendant, making it shift and gleam in the low light.
She’d managed to confuse him. He turned back toward her, mouth open to frame a question. Then he saw the pendant, and his mouth dropped open farther, making him look like the monkeys’ older, uglier, fatter cousin. “How do you have that?” he said. “That yours is not.”
“I know. Whose is it, Terjalesh? Someone you know?”
Terjalesh’s meaty hand whipped out, far too fast for a man of his size, grabbed the pendant, and yanked it hard enough to break the cord. Willow cried out at the pain of the leather cutting into her neck. Kerish grabbed Willow and put himself between her and the giant. “Don’t touch her again, Terjalesh, or we’ll see how far Serjian privilege will take me,” he said, laying a hand on the hilt of his sword.
“You steal this. I tell everyone so.” Terjalesh’s fingers closed around the pendant, hiding it entirely.
“Then I’ll tell everyone where I found it—in the property of a dead assassin,” Willow said. “An assassin hired by you in Hajimhi colors. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
“Not you.” Terjalesh smiled again, an unpleasant expression. “Abakian wields great power. Will vojenta mahaut this year be. The boy king nothing is.”
“You might as well stop hiring assassins. He’s protected.”
“For now.” Terjalesh turned back to Felix, unconcerned by the bodyguards’ looming presence. “Do not sleep easy, boy King.”
“Don’t you dare threaten Felix!”
Terjalesh laughed. “We know who the true King of Tremontane is and we respect him. Abakian prepared to treat with him is. Serjian building on false hopes is. The more fools you.”
“Willow,” Felix said in a small voice.
“How does it feel, that your own uncle wants you dead?” Terjalesh said to Felix. “And if we his right hand are, you can prove nothing.”
Kerish drew his sword and shouted something in Eskandelic, gesturing the bodyguards back. He keeps picking fights, Willow thought wildly, but Terjalesh only laughed and replied with what sounded like a challenge. Felix stepped closer to Willow. “He scares me,” he whispered.
“Don’t be scared. He’s not going to hurt us,” Willow said, hoping it was true.
The shouting had drawn quite an audience, men and women forming a lopsided circle around them and whispering to each other. Kerish replied at length, his voice cool and commanding, and gestured with his sword. Terjalesh went rigid, and for a moment Willow saw uncertainty in his slab of a face. Then he laughed again, a forced sound, and turned away, saying something over his shoulder. Kerish stood there, his hand balled into a fist, his jaw rigid. “Kerish?” Willow said.
“It’s all right,” Kerish said. “He was afraid.”
“He didn’t look afraid. He looked like a beast barely under control.”
“He wouldn’t have walked away if he weren’t afraid of what might come out if we dueled.” He sheathed his sword and turned his back on the retreating giant.
“Dueled? Would you have fought a duel?”
“Over you? Of course. We can’t afford to have people thinking you’re weak. And I object to seeing the woman I love treated so disrespectfully.”
“But wouldn’t they think I’m weak if I don’t fight my own battles?”
“It doesn’t work that way. You’d be…it shows your status, that you have powerful people willing to fight for you. But it doesn’t matter, because he refused my challenge. He’s big, but he’s not stupid. I may not have fought often in the past eight years, but I still have a reputation as a skilled swordsman—more skilled than he ever was. He might even have been grateful for the excuse to turn me down.”
“That’s because the Abakians are doing Terence Valant’s bidding. They’re not doing it of their own volition, they’re doing it because he wants them to and they want stronger ties with Tremontane.”
“That’s quite a leap, Willow.”
“It’s what he said—about being Terence’s right hand in his wanting Felix dead. And all that stuff about Abakian becoming vojenta mahau
t, and planning to treat with him—I’m convinced they’re behind the assassins.”
“It won’t be enough proof for the other principalities.”
“No. But it’s a start.”
She realized Felix’s grip on her hand was painfully tight. Felix’s face was ashen and drawn with fear, and he stared at nothing, unblinking. She crouched, not caring what it did to the giorjanesh, and gathered Felix into her arms. “You’re very brave, you know that?”
“I don’t feel brave.”
“Hilarion says bravery is doing the right thing even when you’re scared.”
A weak smile broke over Felix’s face. “Hilarion never said that.”
“Well, he would have if he’d known me. And it’s true.”
“Is that the man who hired the assassins?”
“Yes. And we’re going to stop him. Now, let’s go watch the…what did you call it? Stevaashi? We’ll watch that, and then we’ll go have dinner and a nice cool bath, and you can show us Ernest’s new trick.”
“All right.” He still looked pensive.
“Is something wrong?” I should say ‘is something else wrong?’
“Did we miss Nanitan’s trial?”
Willow burst out laughing. If he could still worry about the dogs, he would be all right. “Let’s go over there, and find out,” she said.
Chapter Seventeen
“I realize it’s not proof enough to condemn them in public,” Willow said, “but it’s enough to justify searching for more evidence.”
“Agreed,” Janida said. “Catrela?”
Catrela stood and began pacing the harem chamber, weaving a path between sofas and floor pillows. “Definitive would be to catch them in the act of arranging for another assassination,” she said, “but that complicated is. We would have to have our own ‘assassin’ in place to accept the commission, and find someone acceptable to all a witness to be.”
“And I’d rather not risk Felix’s life again,” Willow said.
Catrela nodded acknowledgement. “Less complex but more difficult, documentation to find. A letter from Terence Valant requesting their services would convince all but Abakian’s staunchest supporters.”
Guardian of the Crown Page 21