Emerald House Rising, page 26
“And you think Kett didn’t understand this, either?”
Lady Rinnelle considered in silence for a few moments. “Maybe he did,” she admitted finally. “Maybe he learned about it on his journeying, when he was trying to find out all he could about magic, but he didn’t completely explain it to me for some reason. He told me about Lord Morgan—” She stopped herself.
“What about Morgan?” Lady Rhuddlan said, her voice cold again.
Lady Rinnelle stared at the terrier on the Ruby’s lap. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I’ve been such a fool.” She took a deep breath. “Kett came to me and told me that the Ruby had become betrothed to a sorcerer.”
“How did he learn that?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. He just … knew things. I trusted him when he told me things like that. And he told me …” her gaze dropped to her lap and she turned red.
“What, for pity’s sake?” Lady Rhuddlan exclaimed impatiently.
“I—you have to understand: I told you, my loyalty is to the Diamond. You’re the Diamond Heir, and Kett told me Lord Morgan would use his sorcery to … to kill the Diamond. So you would become the Diamond instead, and he would be your Consort.”
“And you believed him?” Lady Rhuddlan said, her voice rising. “You would believe such an accusation of me, when you’ve known me all my life?”
“No! Not of you! I didn’t believe it of you. But I don’t know Lord Morgan, and what would prevent him from doing it, even without your knowledge? I believed Kett, and if Morgan is a sorcerer—”
“You couldn’t trust a sorcerer, obviously,” Jena murmured, shaking her head. She was raised to hate and fear magic so blindly—how she must hate and fear the magic in herself!
“And so you put this spell on me?” Morgan said, showing his teeth.
“No! I wouldn’t have done any such thing, Lord Morgan. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you, but to protect the Diamond. Kett had a way, he said.” She fell silent for a moment, apparently gathering her courage to say what came next. “Together, the two of us put a spell on the Diamond. We bound him to live safely through the end of the year, until the danger that he might be murdered so that the Ruby House could inherit was past.” She looked up, her eyes pleading. “You see now, don’t you, that I did it because I wanted to help? Because of my oath to the Council, not in spite of it?”
“She’s telling the truth, Vianne,” Morgan said in a low voice.
“Yes. Yes, I do see, Rinnelle.” Lady Rhuddlan looked down at Morgan, who was lying quietly in her lap, and then her face hardened. “Then what happened?”
Lady Rinnelle couldn’t meet her eyes. “My next message from Kett was urgent. He told me Lord Morgan might be close to gaining a new kind of power soon. And if he did, he would be able to detect the spell we put over the Diamond. He might be able to break it or expose me as a sorceress. We had to be ready to act in case that happened. We set up the spells and then, two days later, Kett and I felt the surge of power that tripped them.” She looked at Morgan again. “My spell snatched you away to Kett’s ship. And then Kett was responsible for … for taking care of things from there.”
Jena gave Morgan a glance. And take care of it he did.
“He must have known about partnering, then,” Morgan said thoughtfully.
“I … I think you’re right.”
“But how could he have known I was so-close to doing it?”
“Perhaps he perceived the potential when, uh, your partner looked into your ring the first time,” Jena ventured. “That must have convinced him you were about to forge the bond.”
“Yes, but why? If he’s so skillful at scrying, how could he believe I might murder the Diamond? Why was he watching me so closely, anyway?”
“Wizards can be misled by false possibilities,” Jena said, remembering her run through the streets of Piyar. I was.
“No, that’s not it,” Lady Rinnelle said bitterly. “I found out the real reason at Equinox, when the Emerald died. They brought the news to the Diamond, and his heart failed, too. I … I felt it.” Her eyes welled up with tears again. “It was horrible! He longed to die, but he couldn’t. Our spell now bound him past the point he was meant to live.
“It almost drove me mad. I contacted Kett and told him we had to break the spell now to let him go. But he refused.” She gave an ironic laugh. “I hadn’t thought it all the way through, you see. The Ruby is the Diamond Heir this year …”
“But the Topaz is the Diamond Heir next year,” Lady Rhuddlan exclaimed softly. “And so Kett wanted you to wait until next year to let the Diamond die, so your brother would become the Diamond, and you the Diamond Heir?”
“Worse than that.” Lady Rinnelle’s lips trembled. “Kett came to my rooms late at night when he received my message. He told me he loved me. All we had to do was wait until next year. Except for one little thing.” She closed her eyes, and the tears began slipping down her cheeks. “We would have to kill my brother, Guilford, so I would become the Topaz. Kett wanted me to murder him. And then after the new year, once the Diamond was released from the spell, he would die, too, and I would ascend the Adamant Throne.
“And Kett would become my Diamond Consort.”
“By all the Founders …” Lady Rhuddlan whispered. The three of them stared as Lady Rinnelle groped in her sleeve for her handkerchief and mopped her eyes with shaking hands. No wonder she doesn’t trust wizards, Jena thought.
After a moment, Lady Rhuddlan roused herself from her thoughts with an effort. “So what did you tell him?”
“I told him I would never agree to such a thing, of course!” Lady Rinnelle gasped. She looked down at the handkerchief twisted in her hand. “It … it had never crossed my mind we should marry.” She sounded as if she were trying to convince herself, but the catch in her voice gave her words the lie. “Then—well, he was talking so wildly. And the Diamond’s pain pressed me so hard, it made it difficult to think and … I made a mistake. I … I laughed at Kett. Oh, what could you expect? The idea was so insane, so bizarre! I tried to turn him aside as if it were all some kind of gruesome joke. Woric and I were betrothed, I told him; we loved each other. He had to be mad if he thought I would marry him instead. Kett wouldn’t believe me. Not at first. And then … he became so angry … so angry.” Her voice trailed off into a whisper, and pressing the handkerchief to her lips, she got up and paced to the window. “He told me I had no choice but to carry out the plan.” She laughed, a grating sound that made Jena wince. “Our plan, he called it. If I didn’t arrange to have Guilford murdered somehow, Kett swore he would expose me to my brother as a sorceress.”
“Is that such a terrible fate?” Jena asked dryly.
Lady Rinnelle shook her head. “You don’t know Guilford, or the Oselare family. If I was lucky, I would simply be disinherited. But Guilford is the head of the family, and he loathes magic so much … I’m afraid he would try to kill me.”
“Surely not!” Lady Rhuddlan exclaimed.
Lady Rinnelle looked at her solemnly. “There were stories whispered when I was little, about an aunt who died before I was born. It was the coughing sickness, everyone said. But once, my nurse secretly swore to me the real reason she died was because my father caught her with a spell book. He had her smothered.” She leaned against the window bars wearily, like a prisoner. “Anyway … I haven’t seen Kett since that night. But that’s why he’s been sending those anonymous reports to my brother about magical threats to the Diamond.”
“Kett’s been sending them?” said Morgan.
“Yes, don’t you see? That’s why the hints to Guilford are getting stronger and stronger all the time: Kett’s drawing in the net, trying to force me to kill Guilford and marry him before Guilford’s suspicions turn toward me.” She shuddered violently. “And Kett says he’s doing it because he loves me!”
“No,” Lady Rhuddlan said. “Don’t torment yourself like that. These aren’t the acts of a lover, but a monster.”
“A monster … then what does that make me? His studies of magic have shown him we must marry. The bond we share means we have no choice at all, because our souls are one.” She began to cry again. “Because I’m just like him. I am him. What does that make me but a monster, just like him?”
Lady Rhuddlan looked down at the dog in her lap, and then at Jena, her apprehension plain in her eyes. Could it be true? Jena wondered, feeling a cold finger of fear. Could it be that partners really have no choice but to marry each other? Lady Rinnelle continued weeping, and Jena found herself thinking, with some irritation, that as dangerous wizards went, the Topaz Heir was certainly a sodden sponge.
“You’ve been letting yourself get tied up into knots over nonsense,” she said crisply. “You don’t have to marry him.”
Lady Rinnelle peered at Jena above the edge of her handkerchief, and Jena noted that Lady Rhuddlan, too, looked almost as hopeful. “Truly?” said Lady Rinnelle. “You don’t think so?”
“Of course not,” Jena said, thinking of Arikan and Lady Kestrienne. “A poor kind of magic this is, telling you that you have no choice! Why, the most powerful wizardry is meant to multiply choices, not eliminate them. And as for being somehow obligated to marry him because you ‘share the same soul,’ well, that’s nonsense. Wizard partners are attracted and bound to one another precisely because of their differences, not their similarities.
“And anyway, Lady Rinnelle,” she went on impatiently, “if partners can only marry each other, why was Kett treating Lady Rhuddlan’s engagement as such a threat? After all, Lord Morgan is going to marry the Ruby, but he’s my partner, not hers!”
“I told you,” Lady Rinnelle faltered, “I didn’t know about wizard pairs.” She looked bewildered. “So you and Lord Morgan … uh …”
“Now you’ve done it, Jena,” Morgan said in disgust.
“What? Oh.” Jena stared at the Topaz Heir, her mind in a cold whirl as she realized her mistake. She didn’t know about wizard pairs. She didn’t know Morgan and I are partners—until I told her just now.
Lady Rinnelle looked at them in confusion and then lifted her chin. “You said wizards keep their partners secret to protect themselves, didn’t you? I’ve told you, I never meant to hurt anyone, if that’s what you fear.”
“Will you swear to that before me?” Lady Rhuddlan asked, adding pointedly, “By your loyalty to the Diamond?”
Lady Rinnelle winced. “I will. And I do.”
Jena tried to swallow her chagrin. After all, that’s the one oath that will probably hold her. I hope.
Lady Rhuddlan looked at Jena, the question Can we trust her? in her eyes.
Do we have a choice? Jena’s own look answered in kind. “So you understand now that Kett has been lying to you,” she said, “don’t you, my lady?”
“I suppose.” Lady Rinnelle sighed, her expression a complex mixture of fear, yearning, and even a little dawning hope. “I just haven’t known what I should do. You don’t know what it’s like to feel so trapped, so helpless!”
“Oh, yes, I do,” said Morgan bitterly. “Lady Rinnelle, can you break this transformation spell over me?”
The Topaz Heir shook her head. “I don’t think I can. It’s Kett’s spell.”
“Try,” Morgan urged. He hopped down from Lady Rhuddlan’s lap and sat on the floor, looking up at the Topaz Heir hopefully.
Lady Rinnelle shut her eyes and whispered some words under her breath. The air felt thick and heavy for a moment, and then a sweet breeze, smelling like cinnamon, stirred the room’s air. It lifted the tendrils of hair over Jena’s forehead and ruffled Morgan’s fur. His outline shimmered for a moment—and then solidified again. Lady Rinnelle gave a little gasp and then opened her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she said, looking at Morgan with regret “But I can’t.”
Morgan’s ears drooped with disappointment. Lady Rhuddlan’s hand crept down, as if to tousle the fur on the top of his head consolingly, but she pulled back without touching him.
“We were wondering whether retrieving Morgan’s talisman ring might help us break the spell,” Jena suggested. “Do you think that could work?”
“I wouldn’t know, but … maybe.”
“Can you help us get the ring back?”
Lady Rinnelle bit her lip. “I don’t know. Kett won’t answer any of my messages now. But perhaps I can help you think of something.…”
“What about the spell over the Diamond?” Lady Rhuddlan demanded.
Lady Rinnelle sighed. “Don’t you think I’ve tried? That took magic from both of us, and Kett won’t lift a finger to help me break it. It’s not something I can do by myself.”
A discouraged silence fell. “I have to be getting back to the banquet,” Lady Rhuddlan said, stirring restlessly. “It wouldn’t be wise for me to stay away much longer.”
“Oh, yes!” Lady Rinnelle said, starting and turning pale. “Guilford and Woric will wonder where I’ve been, too.”
“We have to meet again and talk some more tomorrow,” Morgan said.
“Not tomorrow, I’m afraid,” Lady Rhuddlan said, shaking her head. “I will have Council business all day, and I’m afraid I couldn’t extricate myself without prompting a lot of questions.”
“The day after tomorrow, then,” Morgan said. “But where?”
“Not at my house,” Lady Rinnelle said quickly.
“I know,” Jena said. “You two ladies both need to order some jewelry.”
“We do?” Lady Rinnelle said.
“Yes.” Jena smiled. “At … let’s say two days’ time, at midafternoon, at my father Collas Gemcutter’s shop. I think I can have someone there who might be able to offer us some advice.”
Chapter
Nineteen
“I’m not accusing you of luring me here under false pretenses, mind,” Arikan said, reaching for a platter of delicate Festival cakes. “But you’ll have to admit the distinguished company you promised me is rather tardy in arriving. Luckily, I have the generous contents of your father’s larder with which to console myself.”
“They were supposed to arrive by now,” Jena said. “They will—they must come.” The two sat in the front room of Jena’s house with the brazier pulled up close to drive away the winter chill. When Jena had reported the Diamond Heir and Topaz Heir were expected to call, Collas, although surprised by the singular honor, had ordered refreshment worthy of the expected company, and her father’s cook had risen to the occasion admirably. Besides the platter of cakes (Arikan was making rapid inroads through these), the table boasted an assortment of candied oranges and ginger, meringue piped into the shape of swans, dainty quince tarts, and hot mulled wine.
“Must come, you say? Is it your magic telling you that, or simply your wishes speaking? If the Ruby is like most nobles, she may have fears—”
“You’re the one who told me not to generalize about people, Arikan,” Jena said a trifle sharply. “I trust Lady Rhuddlan. She’ll be here.” She hesitated. “But I’m not at all sure about Lady Rinnelle.”
“Excuse me, miss.” The new servant girl, Terza, stood at the doorway. “The guests you’ve been expecting have arrived, and the master’s greeting them now.”
“Oh. Er, thank you.” As Terza left, Jena turned to Arikan with some alarm. “I didn’t think—oh, but of course Father would assume they came to see him.”
“Don’t worry, Jena,” Arikan said. “I’ve already spoken to Collas. He knows your visitors have a purpose other than spending appalling amounts of money on the fruits of his labors. He’ll extend the courtesies of the house and then bring them here. Be easy,” he added, raising a hand to forestall her shocked objection. “I haven’t told him anything about Court politics, or magic, for that matter, which isn’t his business to know.”
Jena tried to draw comfort from that assurance. “Thank you, Arikan. I think.”
Within a few moments Jena heard footsteps in the hallway and Collas’ voice coming toward them. She and Arikan stood. “… here to receive you. Jena,” Collas said, coming through the doorway first and then stepping aside so Lady Rhuddlan and Lady Rinnelle could enter, “if you will attend? It’s my understanding, your grace, my lady, that you’ve both already met my daughter Jena?”
“We have indeed.” Lady Rhuddlan, who was carrying Morgan, smiled at Jena with perfect self-possession. She stooped to place him carefully on the floor. Morgan sat down at her feet and looked up at Jena and Arikan with an innocently doggy expression. Lady Rinnelle appeared subdued; she raised her eyes fleetingly to meet Jena’s and then her gaze dropped to the floor again as she nodded slightly.
Jena curtsied. “Your grace, Lady Rinnelle,” Jena said, “allow me to present to you Arikan, my former teacher and very good friend. Arikan, her grace Lady Vianne Rhuddlan, and Lady Rinnelle.”
“A very great honor and pleasure,” Arikan replied, bowing.
As the ladies settled into their seats and busied themselves removing gloves and veils, Collas took his leave. “Your grace, my lady, thank you again for honoring my house.” He inclined his head as they murmured the proper things and then left the room, quietly closing the door behind him.
“Did you have difficulty finding my home, your grace?” Jena asked.
“No,” Lady Rhuddlan replied. “Morgan knew the way. That is,” she added, looking at Arikan, “my friend, Lord Morgan, er—provided directions.”
“It’s all right,” Jena said quickly. “He knows about Morgan.”
“Oh. I see,” said Lady Rhuddlan. She looked a little distressed.
“Lord Morgan,” Jena said, “may I present Arikan? Arikan, Lord Morgan.” And that’s undoubtedly the first time I’ve ever introduced anyone to a terrier.
“Delighted, my lord,” Arikan said, inclining his head gravely.
With dignity, Morgan stood up and “bowed,” bending one foreleg as he extended the other out before him. Jena caught Lady Rhuddlan’s eye, and at the exchange of glances, both hastily turned their faces away to hide their smiles. Then Morgan approached the table and lay down at Lady Rhuddlan’s feet. “There was another problem that made us late,” he said, glaring up at Lady Rinnelle.
