Yet minor disappointments could not quell the festive spirit. The merchants of Hope (and her sister city Good Crossing) saw half a year's earnings or more flow into their coffers. This in turn made them able to be more generous with those they hired. Even the hard feelings raised when merchants lured away workers in their neighbors’ employ were dismissed as points scored in a rather rough and tumble game.
Normally, Elise would have delighted in such a shopping expedition, especially when she discovered that due to extensive smuggling through the area fine goods imported by the sailors of Bright Bay were far less expensive here than they were in Eagle's Nest. The excellent wools of Stonehold were also well represented and, although the weather was too warm for wool, Elise and her father purchased several bolts of fabric to ship home.
Yet, despite such distractions, the tholight of the conference she must arrange for later that night was rarely far from Elise's tholights. During a visit to an herbalist who also dis-tilled the most wonderful floral scents, Elise managed to slip Derian a note. His quick nod and a light of interest in his greenish-brown eyes acknowledged her message and agreed to the suggested arrangements. Then he switched back into servile invisibility with such skill that she could hardly believe he was the same man.
Later than evening, when the parties had broken up, Elise pleaded exhaustion and went to her pavilion. Fortunately, Baron Archer was one of the night officers, so no one would miss her. Even if they did, Ninette would cover for her.
Elise skirted the fringes of the camp until she came to the edge where the Kestrel tents were pitched. She avoided these, going out into the fields to a cluster of rocks that had been appointed as their meeting place. Derian, Firekeeper, and Sir Jared were already there with a shielded lantern and a pot of tea.
“Valet,” Elise said to Derian, “is making his mark on you.”
Derian grinned. ‘To think that when I first met him I judged him a useless mouse of a man. I know better now.”
Firekeeper, from at the fringe of the circle of light where she sat with her arm thrown around Blind Seer, had no patience with such niceties.
“All day, Elise, you have smelled of fear. Last day, too. Tell us why.”
Elise laughed nervously. “I hope that everyone does not have your nose, Firekeeper.”
“Not just my nose. Blind Seer, too. If someone has frightened you, we will frighten them back.”
“Thank you,” Elise said, genuinely grateful. “But it's not as simple as that. Might I have a cup of tea?”
Part of her reason was to win a moment's more respite. Part was remembering what had happened when she had tried to tell before. While Derian poured, she began, telling them of how she and Ninette had gone out to the cluster of rocks near the Fortress of the Watchful Eye.
“We hid ourselves because we did not want to invite the attention of the soldiers. However, we were not the only ones to have marked out those rocks as a good place for privacy. Melina Shield came there with Sapphire, Jet, and Opal.”
Without wasting words, Elise told how Melina had scolded her children. She was grateful for the darkness when she must relate how bluntly Melina had berated Jet for his sexual exploits, but she must be honest or risk leaving out some-thing that might assist them.
Thus far, any pain she had felt could have been imagined or dismissed as the slight burning of the tea, but when she began to tell how Melina had cursed Jet, a sharp hot sensation, precisely as if her tongue had been bitten, caused her to cry out.
“Lady!” Jared Surcliffe jumped to his feet. “What is wrong?”
She waved him back. “Part of this tale, I fear.”
Digging the nails of her right hand into her palm, Elise continued. She tasted blood by the time she had finished telling of Jet's cursing, but memory of Sapphire's courage shamed her into going on. She, too, had tholight herself worthy to be queen. She might not be a warrior, but surely she was not without courage.
Firekeeper's soft voice from the shadows broke through her pretense.
“I smell blood on your breath,” she said. “What causes this?”
Elise felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks unbidden, as if Firekeeper's detection of her pain had freed them.
“A third curse,” she said, each word a throbbing stab. ‘To guard against… any telling what… Melina has done. Jet and I… she didn't know… but still.”
The pain was horrid. Perhaps because this curse was the one that had affected her personally, the sensation of biting ants was so acute that she could even feel their little feet tromping on the swollen flesh of her injured tongue.
“Quiet,” Derian urged Elise, pouring her more tea and holding the cup to her lips. “Rinse your mouth and. spit. Don't be proper.”
Sir Jared had vanished, returning a moment later with his medical bag in his hand.
“Chamomile and sage,” he said, drawing out two packets. “Both good for the mouth and throat. Chamomile has soothing properties as well. Do we have more hot water, Derian?”
“In the kettle by the fire.”
“I get,” Firekeeper said and was gone and back before anyone could answer her.
Sir Jared's potion did seem to help. At his urging, Elise first rinsed her mouth with a tincture of sage, then drank more in a tea blended with the chamomile and some honey.
“Don't talk yet,” Sir Jared said when she started to thank him. “Let us see if the pain is as intense if you respond to our questions. We have enough information to begin.”
Elise nodded. “Good idea.”
“Melina Shield cursed her son Jet with impotence. Lovely.” Jared paused. “Did she know that you were there when she cursed him?”
“No.”
“Any pain?”
“No.”
Actually, there might have been a twinge, but Elise wasn't going to tell him. He might refuse to go on and she needed to tell this.
“Good. Now, based on what you said before, you think that because you and Jet are betrothed, her magic was able to touch you.”
“Yes.”
“Have you asked Ninette if she feels similar pain?”
“No. She is so very frightened.”
“We'll still need to test this.” In the lantern light she saw him frown, then look embarrassed. “Lady Elise, are you and Jet… lovers?”
“No.” Did she imagine it or was Sir Jared's expression a bit too pleased to be merely relief?
Derian cut in. “Elise wears a betrothal pendant. It's made of the same jet that he is named for, the same stone that the sorceress used when she cursed him. Could there be a connection?”
“There might be,” Sir Jared said. “Lady Elise, take the pendant off.”
Elise had not removed the carved wolf's head pendant since the betrothal ceremony. Even when she had bathed or slept, it had remained in place. She felt curiously reluctant to take it off now, an almost physical nausea that roiled the tea in her stomach.
To combat the nausea, Elise summoned an image of Jet bedding some light woman, her own lynx pendant swinging from his neck or tossed casually on a bedside table. Deliberately, she built the details, fueling what she didn't know from her imagination until she roused an answering anger.
Quickly, before she could lose the will, Elise lifted the chain from about her neck and set the pendant on the rock beside her.
“That was difficult, wasn't it?” Jared asked. “Interesting. When I was betrothed and later married I had no such difficulty removing the associated jewelry.”
“My father takes his off all the time,” Derian added. “Especially when he's working with the horses, yet he adores Mother.”
Sir Jared nodded. “I think you have guessed right, Derian, that pendant, as much as anything, may be what Lady Melina used to channel her spell. Tell me, Elise, did she do anything in particular during die ceremony or soon thereafter?”
Elise tried to remember. She had attended numerous betrothals in her capacity as heir to the Archer estates. In recent years, he
r father had been tutoring her in how to perform the ritual since, as head of the family, it would someday be her duty.
“Not during the ceremony,” she said, “but afterwards she drew me aside and made quite a fuss about the pendant. She asked to see it.”
“Did you take it off?” Derian asked.
“Yes. I had no problem with that—except for a girl's romantic heartflutters,that is.” The only pain Elise felt as she spoke was disdain for herself. “Melina held it up to admire the carving. She told me that I should be proud to wear it always since it marked me as a member of her family. Now that I think about it, she swung it back and forth, much as she did when she…”
Elise hid a wince as a faint but certain bite pierced her tongue near the tip.
“Cursed her children,” she finished steadily.
“Her children, you say,” Sir Jared nodded. ‘Time for question and answer again. Did she curse Sapphire as well?”
“Yes.”
“Not with impotence. That would hardly be appropriate. What with?”
“Pain from her wounds.” Elise was certain that the ant bites were less sharp now. “Pain and inability to heal until Lady Melina releases her curse.”
Jared swore, invoking his society patron—the Eagle, Elise noted in passing—and a long line of Surcliffe ancestors. Firekeeper spoke for the first time since volunteering to bring water.
“What happens if Melina Shield dies?”
Firekeeper's intention was obvious. Though she was but a shadow in the darkness, they could see her hand resting upon her knife. Blind Seer's hackles were up and his fangs gleamed white as he snarled.
“No one knows,” Sir Jared answered. “The curse may last forever without her to lift it. It may die with her. Great magics were never talight in the New World. Most of what our people had were inborn talents, like my gift for healing or Holly Gardener's green thumb. Some were trained in sorcery but those with the most promise were taken back to the Old World for their final training. Legend said that they were bound not to reveal their arts to anyone.”
Derian whistled softly. “Bound. That's just what she did to her children. I doubt they could get around that.”
“We need to know more,” Elise said, feeling panicked, “but how will we leam! If we were at home, I might consult the library. There are musty tomes there, dating back to be-fore Queen Zorana captured the Castle. Aksel Tmeheart often roots around in them gathering information for his history.”
“I wonder if that library or someplace similar is where Melina got her knowledge,” Jared mused. “You're right, Elise. We can't go ahead in ignorance. We may do more harm than help.”
“We have time,” Derian said. “Not a lot, but some. King Tedric won't leave or make any great changes until after this ball, so we have time. I think I know where to start. Hazel Healer strikes me as a wise woman. I saw lots of books in her workshop and not all were about herbs.”
“Good,” Sir Jared said. “Happily, with the ball to prepare for, no one will think it at all odd if we call on her. They'll just think the ladies are shopping for scent. I have the excuse of searching for odd medicinal herbs. Indeed, since Sapphire was assaulted, everyone is traveling in larger grolips.”
Firekeeper had risen to her feet. ‘Tomorrow then. Early. Derian may think we have time, but wolves hunt when they are hungry and I am very hungry.”
She turned then and in a few steps was gone.
Elise sighed. “I wish I could be as sure as she is.”
“She's less certain than she seems,” Derian said. “I think.” Aware of her trembling hand, Elise lifted the betrothal pendant from the rock and put it back on.
“I can't be seen without it,” she said. “Good night, gentlemen.”
“Good night, Elise,” Derian said.
“Let me walk you back to your tent,” Sir Jared suggested.
“No. Better no one sees us together. There is enough un-certainty tonight. I'll be fine.”
She smiled at him. “Have Firekeeper call for me in the morning. My aunts dislike that Sapphire and I insisted on bringing her shopping today. No one will press to accompany us.”
“What about Sapphire?” Derian asked.
“I think she has a dress fitting early. Don't worry. Now, good night.”
As she hurried back to her pavilion, Elise tholight about the look in Sir Jared's eyes as she had turned away. Concern had been there, and admiration, and something more. A sudden warmth touched her cheeks as she realized that he might be the admirer who had anonymously left her a small pot of very expensive rose attar scent.
XIX
WHEN ALLISTER SEAGLEAM AWAKENED, hereof alized with something like astonishment that he was III actually looking forward to his meeting with King Tedric. He listened with half an ear as Sir Tench briefed him on various things he should and should not do, kissed Pearl and assured her that the sketches for her new gown and those for the twins looked wonderful, tossed said twins in the air while they shrieked at this assault on their eleven-year-old dignity, and then drew Shad and Tavis aside for a private word.
“You'll be escorting your mother into the town today, I expect.”
Shad, a serious-looking young man of twenty who had his mother's rounded lines and fair coloring—but no longer any of her plumpness—nodded.
“That'sright,Father. She is insisting on having us all fitted for new clothes. I think my dress uniform should do quite well, but Mother is acting as if this ball is Queen Gustin the Fourth's coronation all over again.”
“It is, Shad, especially for our family,” Allister replied. “However, if you wish to wear your dress uniform, tell Pearl that this is my wish as well. If you do choose to wear it, make certain that every button and line of braid is as perfect as if you were expecting an inspection by the Lord High Admiral.”
“I will, Father,” Shad said earnestiy. His recent promotion from ensign to lieutenant was the most important event in his young life. Allister understood. He had also straggled to prove himself though hampered by high birth and outiander blood.
Tavis, at fifteen, had yet to enter the Navy formally, though like any youth raised in Bright Bay he swam like a fish and sailed as if the masts and lines were extensions of his own body. He scuffed his shoe along the ground and looked sidelong up at his father. Beneath his thick golden lashes, his eyes were the exact shade of a the sea before a thunderstorm.
“I suppose,” Tavis said gloomily, “that I have no choice but to let my mother doll me up in lace and brocade.”
“None at all,” his father said sternly. “It is time you realized that you have a responsibility to this family. Think about this little fact while I am away. If a marriage alliance is made between our family and one of the royal scions of Hawk Haven, you are as good a candidate as your elder brother—better in many ways for he is already betrothed.”
Tavis looked at his father wide-eyed. Although a second child in Bright Bay prepared for the possibility of becoming heir far more stringently than his counterpart in Hawk Haven might, Tavis had passed from boyhood onto the threshold of young manhood secure in the knowledge that he was protected by the double bulwark of father and elder brother.
“But I… but the girls… but Mother said,” he stammered.
“But nothing. I say all four of you must conduct your-selves as if the entire fate of our family rests upon you alone. You boys have been taking this upcoming ball less than seriously. I hereby order you to start doing so.”
“Yes, sir!” snapped Shad.
“Yes, Father,” Tavis said slowly, but his expression assured Allister that he would obey.
Allister could pity the boy. Born into another family, Tavis would probably have become a musician or poet, a burden to be cherished lest he starve but cherished nonetheless for the evidence that he had been blessed by the ancestors with a special gift. Tavis, named for a grandfather he had never met, now must take his own part in the political games to which his namesake had been sacrificed.
He turned then, resisting the impulse to tousle their heads. For a moment, twenty and fifteen though they might be, his sons had looked very much like little boys.
TODAY ALLISTE R MUST CROSS the courtyard between the sides of the Toll House to mount the stairs on the Hawk Haven side of the building. A woman he recognized as Lady Melina Shield was busy discussing potential decorations for the ball with one of Lord Tench's assistants. The matter under discussion seemed to be whether or not the emblem of the royal family of Bright Bay should be displayed given that the queen herself was not in attendance.
More of this eternal political maneuvering for position, Allister tholight. And I am beginning to think that it matters as little to Uncle Tedric as it does to me.
At that very moment, he made up his mind to tell King Tedric about Zorana Archer's letter. After greetings were ex-changed, he began on this immediately.
“Yesterday, Uncle Tedric, when the physician reminded you of your health, I was about to tell you something rather interesting. Lest we get distracted today, I would like to begin with that piece of business.”
“I am quite curious,” the old monarch said equably. “Speak on.”
“Some twenty or so days ago, I received a letter from a member of your court. It was carried by private courier and delivered in great secrecy. The letter suggested that it would be to the mutual advantage of the writer and myself to ar-range a marriage alliance between our families. She…”
“Ah, she,” King Tedric murmured. “Do go on.”
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