The Armies of Heaven

by Jane Kindred

  At the dance following the first banquet, I managed to position myself as Kae’s partner. He went through the motions with his mind elsewhere, gloved hand raising mine at the appropriate time, the other behind his back, taking the steps with dull accuracy.

  When I stepped in close to him, I met his gaze and held it with a fierce look. He focused on me at last while he spun me about, our right arms meeting overhead when we came together.

  “You seem preoccupied.”

  The bitterness of my voice appeared to shake him. “Preoccupied?” He glanced about in search of an excuse. “Uncle Helison and I have been engaged in some tense negotiations over the sovereignty of the duchies.”

  “I’m not talking about politics, Cousin.” I stepped back into a genuflection and then forward, looking up into his face. “I am talking about my sister. Your wife. She is having your child.”

  He looked puzzled, bless his craven heart. “I don’t—?”

  “Ola,” I whispered harshly. “For the love of Heaven!”

  “For pity’s sake, Anazakia!” He spun me about, and I whirled to face him once more. “I know who I’m married to.”

  “Do you?” We were about to switch partners and there was no time to belabor the point. “And whom are you meeting when you go out riding? Do you take my sister for a fool?”

  He released me, and I turned and curtsied to my new partner. I watched my cousin over my partner’s shoulder while we moved farther apart, and saw, at last, some humility in his eyes.

  When the dance ended, Kae made polite conversation before making his way to the alcove seat where I’d retired. He sat beside me.

  “Nenny.” He had not called me Nenny, the name Azel had invented after deeming my customary nickname too hard to pronounce, since I was a bare-legged tree climber. “You’re right. But you’re wrong.”

  I waited.

  “I haven’t been meeting anyone. But I have been going out to see… you wouldn’t… the most beautiful… ”

  “The steed,” I said, and Kae’s eyes snapped to mine. “I saw her.”

  “Yes?” His eyes shone.

  “But I heard her, also, Kae. I heard a woman’s voice, the owner of the steed.”

  He frowned as if considering something contradictory, but said nothing.

  “You are killing Ola,” I told him. “She could not love you more deeply if you had been a love match. You are not just a convenient arrangement to her.”

  Kae stood, giving me a look of rebuke, but at least it was a look I recognized. “Ola is not an arrangement to me. You cannot imagine how much I love her.”

  “I don’t doubt it, Kae. But I’m not the one you need to convince.”

  He turned on his heel. I had angered him, but I hoped I had knocked him from whatever fantasy he was pursuing with the owner of that white mare.

  With relief, I watched him find Ola settled upon a cushioned bench across the hall watching the orchestra play. Kae kissed her hand and held her gloved knuckles to his cheek for a long moment before kneeling on one knee to lay his head against her belly. Ola sifted his pale curls through her fingers. For the moment, all was well.

  Tatia and Maia were making the rounds with Mama, doing their social duty, while my father played host to the noble houses of the Heavens, asserting his autocracy. With Azel still bedridden, I ought to have checked in on him and read to him to cheer him up, but my shade could do it for me.

  Instead, full of restless energy, I had come to the place where I did not have to be charming, or gracious, or even interesting. I had only to put up my crystal and play my hand well. And in a single night at the wingcasting table, I lost everything.