The River King
Page 16
After that, his remarks were similar in nature to those he gave at the negotiation session back on Eriis: two worlds that ought to be the closest of friends. She was surprised to hear him invite anyone who might be interested in seeing his home, once the weather was fully restored, and she wondered what his mother would think of that. He only spoke for a few moments, and then said his thank yous and made his way back into the crowd.
“He did well,” Althee said. “I know he hates this sort of thing.”
“Al, Auri is about to make his announcement. About us. Please keep an eye on Moth. This place is full of old fabric.” She squeezed her friend’s arm and joined Auri at the podium.
“We don’t need to be so formal, do we?” Auri said, addressing the room. “We all know why we’re really here. I mean, being an ambassador is a nice job, I suppose, but the real pleasure in life, the real value, is to be found with the person you truly love. I am delighted to announce that Lelet va’Everly and I will join our lives together and be wed. You are all invited to witness our joy. Dates and places, of course, to come in the future.”
There was a moment of hushed breath as all eyes turned to Rhuun. Lelet stared at him with wide, blank eyes. For a moment he did nothing. Then he took a package from Althee, smiled, and strolled back to the front of the room.
“I understand it is the custom of your people to give gifts on occasions like this. Please, accept this gift from the court of the High Seat.” He handed Auri the small package, heavy for its size. “Please, do open it.”
Auri, frowning slightly, pulled away the paper. When he opened the box, he stared for a moment then cleared his throat.
“This is...generous. Extremely.” He held it up, and the crowd gasped. It was a sculpture of a prancing horse, as large as a human man’s hand, wrought of solid gold.
“We’re practicing with the gold,” Rhuun explained. “It seemed appropriate, a beautiful thing to honor something even more beautiful and precious than itself.” This time when his eyes locked with hers, neither looked away.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mistra
Auri was holding the horse sculpture like he wanted to whack Lelet in the head with it. “What was the meaning of that look?” he hissed.
She gave him her finest Aelle-at-dinner smile. “Showing my appreciation for this lovely gift?”
He could do nothing, not even glare, because they were at once surrounded by well-wishers. He did take her by the arm, harder than he needed to. She remembered the last person who’d gripped her arm like that; he was a pile of ash in a forgotten forest clearing. He thinks I’ll run after Moth. He’s been upstaged, and even though he may yet get his precious number, his status has been damaged.
But as long as May and Stelle were in play, she could do nothing, say nothing. Even showing her heart the way she had with Moth just then had been terribly dangerous.
“Careful with that arm, binner,” Stelle said. She and May had worked their way to her side, and Stelle for some reason was using Fool’s Hill slang on Auri. Lelet thought binner meant something to do with trash—she’d read it in a novel. Auri gave a start and dropped Lelet’s arm, and she took a step away.
“Are you an actress as well as a speechmaker, Miss Stelle?” His cheerful good humor sounded forced.
“Just lippin’ as from back to home,” she answered. “One to ‘nother, like.”
The group of partygoers around them stood back to give her room to work. They thought this was part of some sort of show. Auri truly was a good host, providing so much entertainment. Lelet took another step back. Rhuun had already disappeared.
“Hmm,” he said. “Are we telling truth today? Revealing our secrets? Would you like me to start?”
May’s eyes went wide, but Stelle just laughed and replied in her normal voice, “Let’s do. But I’ll start with a good one. Who here knows the story of how Auri got his last name?”
“I don’t know that story,” said May.
Around them, several hands went up: “Tell,” “I’d love to hear it,” and “Let her speak.”
“It’s an old one, innit? From the days when his grandda be foun’ down ta du rivah.”
“Du rivah? The river?” someone said. “That’s from the Hill, isn’t it?”
Stelle pointed at the guest, who was delighted to be correct. “Middle face, you. Yeah, lookin’ for grandda, ya wan’ him, he drunk in da mud down ta du reeds.”
Auri fumed. “My turn. I’ll tell. You think I won’t? I’ll tell what I know about you two...deviants.”
Stelle smiled a thin smile. “Who ya gon’ lip? An’ which?” She narrowed her eyes and leaned towards him. “Straight lonely wit’ du flick, ya knock?”
“This isn’t over.” His grip on the sculpture threatened to bend it out of shape.
“Ya bum.” Stelle laughed and made a gesture with her fist so that her pinky pointed up, and the rest of the gaggle around them laughed too. Everyone knew that hand sign, even if they didn’t understand everything Stelle said.
“Did you...did you just call him a bum?” one of them asked.
May took a deep breath. “He doesn’t like the fact that Stelle and I are...” She looked at Stelle, who nodded and put out her hand. She took it, tightly in her own. “Together.”
Heads cocked, there was some sage nodding and some ahhs.
“Like the way you’re all most likely thinking. We are together. I’m sorry if I’ve shocked any of you.”
Lelet held her breath. She’d forgotten she was supposed to be sneaking off and backed away.
“I knew it.” Auri took in the crowd around them. at once contemptuous and self-righteous. “Vile.”
And in fact there were some disapproving stares, a handful of people sniffed and turned away, but an older woman patted May’s hand.
“My granddaughter’s that way.” She leaned closer, but Lelet could still hear her. “My son-in-law is a lock for a seat on the Primes. If there’s trouble with your father, you send him to me.” In a louder voice, she added, “Truth makes the air fresh, don’t you all agree?”
While everyone’s attention was on the woman, Lelet took another step back until she was tucked behind an open door and safely out of sight.
“Deviants.” Auri wasn’t letting go of his prize so easily. “Disgusting. Letty is damned lucky I even agreed to marry her, what with this...where is she, anyway?”
“Gone off to find the ambassador, more than likely,” someone said with a laugh.
A woman added, “I hope you can get back your deposit on the flowers.”
Another said, “Shame if they have to give that horse back.”
Auri growled and slammed the sculpture onto a side table then spun on his heel and headed towards the back of the house.
“Wait,” Stelle called after him. “We haven’t talked about your extra lady friend, here.”
She pointed at a tall, dark-haired woman hovering near the bar. Lelet recognized her as the lady she’d found having dinner with Auri. She gave him credit for his stones, inviting his girlfriend to his engagement party. The girl went pale.
“It seems Auri thinks he gets two,” Stelle continued. “Now, is that fair?”
Everyone was either laughing or talking excitedly by this point. The woman Stelle referred to, finding herself abandoned by Auri, made a dash for the exit without even slowing down to retrieve her coat. Auri slipped around a corner, deeper into the house. Lelet looked at her hands. They were bright enough to read by. She forced the fire down and, stepping back into the light, followed Auri down the hallway.
Chapter Thirty
Mistra
Rhuun couldn’t disappear anymore, but he hadn’t lost the knack of blending into a crowd. He took advantage of that now. It only took a few minutes after he delivered his ‘gift’ for Auri and Lelet to be surrounded by well-wishers. They had less to say to Lelet, who with one heartfelt look, had apparently chosen to drop the act and declare herself to another man—Rhuun. Auri stil
l had a grip on her upper arm, though, so she couldn’t follow him. Her timing was either perfect or catastrophic. He’d find out soon enough.
This was it.
He let the crowd flow around him and took stock of the room. Lelet seemed to have gotten free of Auri and vanished herself, and Auri was talking with May and Stelle.
Were those raised voices? No time to find out.
From his pocket he pulled the little map Scilla had sent him. Although he knew it by heart, he maintained it never hurt to go over things you thought you knew. A hallway, a door to the left, turn again, another door. He opened it. The staircase leading down to Auri’s secret study.
The room at the bottom of the staircase reminded Rhuun of his office back home—desks, papers, and bits of work. But instead of neat rows of books, glass pens, and bottles of ink, Auri seemed to favor vials of luridly colored liquid, knives of different shapes and sizes, strange-smelling candles, and indifferently scattered, stained texts open on every surface. Compared to the order and calm of the rest of the house, it might have belonged to another person.
The big metal-faced door was not locked, and Yuenne was correct in that behind it, the second, much smaller room was nearly empty. It contained only a large wooden desk, a battered leather armchair, and a single long table along the back wall. The walls were reddish brick and dusty. Rhuun pulled out the key and liberated the two little books from the center drawer. One was simply titled Luck and How to Bend It, and the other, much older work had a long inscription regarding face changing and using it on someone else. There was also a thick blue envelope marked “Estate” and another addressed to a barrister. He shoved the lot in the pocket of his coat and relocked the desk.
“My Letty didn’t tell me you were a thief, but I shouldn’t be surprised.” Auri lounged in the doorway.
“I believe her name is actually Lelet,” Rhuun said. “If you’ll excuse me, I must have made a wrong turn. I’ll just follow you back up.”
“Will you?” Auri wandered to the opposite wall and leaned against one of his work tables. He looked like he wanted to chat.
Rhuun decided to let him.
“Perhaps we ought to stay here, at least until the police arrive. They’re on their way, thief. Let us talk. Letty, she had lots to say about you. Fond of your drink. No one’s idea of a real leader. Weak, even. They were glad to see the back of you, on Eriis. Or so she told me. They did you a favor by shipping you here as...what are you calling yourself? An ambassador? Not for much longer.”
Rhuun thought fleetingly of all the sharp words, dark looks, blasts of flame, knives that in his life had pierced his skin. “I understand you think you have a drop or two of demon blood inside you.”
“Who told you that?” Auri jerked his head up, his eyes lit at an angle by the gas light. No mistaking that shade, even if it was buried under generations of humanity. “It was that Jan, wasn’t it? Out for himself and no one else. What else did he tell you? That I saved his life? Him and that miserable brat he goes around with? His so-called daughter? I’ll have him out on the street.”
Rhuun smiled and pulled the chain from inside his coat, the brass key twirled slowly. “He was my most deadly enemy back home, but after spending time with you he had a change of heart. He’s long gone and the child with him. Soon, I’ll be gone too. And I’ll be taking Lelet with me.”
“She is mine,” Auri snarled. His hands were behind his back, fumbling with something on the desk. What was he doing? “Even that stupid woman can tell I’m a better demon than you are.” He held up one hand. A pale ball of flame writhed an inch or two above his palm. “I’ll take what’s mine. What I deserve.”
For not the first time in his life, Rhuun wondered if laughing was the correct response, but it was too late to stop. “You can’t mean the High Seat? You do? Oh, have at it. Because you think your great ancestor might have left a spark in some human woman a hundred years ago? Your claim sounds rock solid. And your little fire, there, is adorable, by the way.”
Auri clenched his fist, the flame jumped and flared. “I worked my whole life from nothing to be able to do this, something you can’t even do. She told me you have no fire. What good are you?”
This was becoming tedious. “Are you expecting these police persons to show up soon?”
In response, Auri took his other hand from behind his back. He held a short, stubby knife with a green-glinting blade. “They can take their time. They’ll find my possessions on the floor and the thief fled. Witnesses saw you sneak down here. Letty herself will take my part. Everyone knows you’re—”
“Are you going to set yourself on fire as well?”
“No.” The flame above Auri’s hand seethed. “This is for burning the evidence.” He drew the knife hand back.
He means to kill me. Now that it was right in front of him, he was genuinely surprised. He had a sudden memory of a day at the school yard, of Niico taunting him, throwing dust in his face, of reaching up and catching him in midair, and how Niico had come crashing down, his wing a shattered wreck. Momentum, leverage.
He looked Auri over. He’d have to grab him by the wrist—
“Put it down, Auri.” Lelet stood in the stairwell.
“Go back upstairs,” Auri snapped. “I’ll deal with you and your family of freaks when I’ve taken care of this.”
Now I don’t have to. He exhaled, ashamed of his relief. Auri couldn’t use the knife on her at that distance, and that his little flame would be no match for her fire. But one day I will protect her.
She shook her head. Even in the low light, he could see the blank red stones of her eyes and the tears on her cheeks. When she raised her hands, they lit the room with a clear, blue-white light. “I stand between the prince and harm. I will not be moved.”
“Better do as she says,” Rhuun said, thinking of those who had not.
Auri laughed. “Or what?”
For the rest of his days, Rhuun was never sure what he saw next. Had Lelet actually shimmered to stand directly in front of him? Or had she just moved too quickly for him to see? Because as Auri’s knife hand flicked, there she was, and it happened too fast to stop her. Then she gave a gasp and stumbled backwards, turning to face him. He stared, shocked. The knife had buried itself to the hilt in her palm, and the force of the blow had driven it into her breast, pinning her hand to her heart. Already, the stain was spreading.
She stumbled, her eyes went glassy, and she collapsed, landing on her face with only one hand to break her fall. He rushed to her side. She radiated heat, and her breath came in thin screams. Her lovely light sputtered and dimmed.
“Now you,” said Auri. He was holding a second blade, long and thin, also painted with the green poison. This wasn’t for throwing. It was for close work. “Can’t hide behind Letty this time.”
Rhuun rose to his feet and stood in front of her. If he couldn’t save her, if the moons fell here in this dirty basement, he’d go out with Auri’s blood on his teeth if he had to. But Lelet’s hand was on his leg, pulling herself upright.
“I will not be moved,” she said again and struggled to right herself. Rhuun helped her sit up, and she pushed him away.
She raised her free hand and stared at it. Her eyes were no longer blank red stones but warm and alive and wide with concentration. The tips of her fingers flickered and glowed, and then the rest of her hand caught. She got to her feet, almost slipping in the blood on the floor but got her balance, swaying slightly.
She burned like a bright star in the dark room, and she pointed at Auri. “And my goddamn name is Lelet.”
Her fire, when it leapt from her hand, was too intense to look at, and when it dimmed, where Auri stood—the desk, books, papers, blades, the man himself—there was nothing but flame and ash.
Rhuun caught her as she collapsed and dragged her back into the smaller room, as the basement was now ablaze. Shouts came from the party goers upstairs, and he wished them luck and slammed the metal door against the flames.
I could probably make it, but she never would. And he turned away from the door.
He knelt on the floor and pulled her into his arms. When he made to remove the knife, she gave a weak scream. He put his hand back to support her head. “Why? You know how I am. It wouldn’t have hurt me.”
“Maybe not,” she whispered. “But maybe. I saw the green. It’s poison. I think he made it for you. He hates you. I’m sorry. That letter. I didn’t mean.”
“He’s gone. There’s nothing to be sorry about, and we can talk about it later. I’ll get you away from here. You’ll be fine,” he said.
She closed her eyes and smiled. Her hand, slimy with blood, slipped from his.
“I love you,” he said, and leaned down and kissed her. Her mouth was hot and had a sharp, metallic tang, but she opened her eyes and took a shuddering breath. She touched his face with her undamaged hand.
“Yes. Loving you is…the second-best thing…I ever did.”
“Only the second? Shani, only the second? What was the first?”
Lelet smiled drowsily. “There was a time, I saved the life of a great king.”
As the light faded from her eyes, it seemed to grow brighter in the air around them. This is what it looks like when she’s leaving.
But finally it was so bright he looked away from her, over his shoulder, to find the source.
“You’re here,” he said. “I never doubted.”