Emerald House Rising, page 28
Lady Kestrienne sighed.
Arikan picked up the last Festival cake from the platter and then stopped with it halfway to his mouth. “A person might take off a ring to put on another one.”
Jena sat up straight. “That’s right!” She thought hard for a moment. “Listen: there’s one person who has a reason to approach Kett during the ceremony without making him suspicious.”
“Who?” asked Lady Rhuddlan.
Jena smiled. “You.”
“Me?” Lady Rhuddlan looked stunned.
“No,” said Morgan. “Absolutely not.”
“Wait, Morgan, and listen.” Jena turned back to Lady Rhuddlan. “You’re not a wizard. Kett doesn’t think you have any reason to know about wizardry. As far as he knows, you still don’t have any idea about the true identity of your little dog. Goodness, if you’re right and he’s gloating about the spell he put over Morgan, he might even relish the prospect of getting close and exchanging a word or two with you about how you’re enjoying your pet.”
Lady Rhuddlan nodded doubtfully. “Go on.”
“You’re also the Diamond Heir, and since the Diamond is ill, you’re going to be presiding over the ceremony. We can put wards over you for protection.” She thought for another moment. “Now suppose, just suppose, that at the ceremony itself a special tribute is given to all the captains of the Golden Fleet.” She smiled. “In honor of their faithful service to the Diadem, and in recognition of the special, honored part they have in the ceremony, each is going to receive a golden ring from the hand of the Diamond Heir herself.”
“Ah!” Lady Kestrienne exclaimed.
“You wouldn’t want to let it be known beforehand,” Jena continued, warming more and more toward the idea, “because you want him to arrive at the ceremony still wearing Morgan’s ring.”
Lady Rhuddlan frowned. “Yes, but if I understand you correctly about wizard talismans, I won’t even be able to see it.”
“That’s even better. Since he knows that, he’s not likely to be wary of you.” Jena grinned. “But you’ll be carrying your little dog. You take him with you everywhere, don’t you? Morgan can see the ring, and he can place his paw over the finger on your hand that’s the correct one, and no one will be the wiser.”
“That might work,” said Morgan, sounding a bit surprised.
“Have the captains all lined up in front of you,” Jena continued, “make the announcement, and then go down the line, placing a ring on each finger. When you get to Kett …” she hesitated.
“Well?”
“Hmm. Well, either he’ll take off the ring—”
“In which case I’ll jump up and grab it!” exclaimed Morgan.
Jena gave him a look. “Do you really think you can do that?”
Morgan began panting with excitement. “I can do it. I know I can! And then, well, I suppose I’ll change back as soon as I touch it, won’t I?”
“But what if Kett doesn’t take it off?” Lady Rhuddlan said. “He might think that since I can’t see it, it would be safe to leave it on and let me place the new ring on his finger right on top of Morgan’s.”
“In that case, when he extends his finger toward you so you can put a ring on it, you reach out and grab Morgan’s ring off his hand. You may not be able to see it, but I’ll wager you can feel it.”
“Try touching Jena’s,” Lady Kestrienne suggested.
“It’s here, your grace, on the fourth finger,” Jena said, extending her right hand toward Lady Rhuddlan. “Can you feel it?”
The Ruby hesitantly reached out a finger. “I can,” she said, surprised.
“But his magic!” cried Lady Rinnelle. “What if he sees the possibility of what Lady Rhuddlan intends?”
Jena tapped a finger to her lips. “I might make a point of being there at the ceremony, but over to one side. He would focus his attention on me instead.”
“Possibilities are much more difficult to scry in a crowd,” Arikan said, “simply because there are so many of them. And I think Jena is right: Lady Rhuddlan would be the least likely to arouse his suspicions.”
Lady Rinnelle shook her head. “But once Lady Rhuddlan tries to seize the ring …”
“What can he do?” Jena said. “Try to wrestle it away from her? He’ll have half a dozen Palace guards on him in seconds.”
“But he might attack her magically!”
“That’s why we’ll place the wards over her. Lady Kestrienne and Arikan can help me, to make them especially strong.”
“It still sounds quite risky,” Arikan said, and then slowly began to smile. “But it might just do the job.”
“Are you willing to try it, my child?” Lady Kestrienne asked Lady Rhuddlan. “We’ll do our best to protect you, of course, but you’ll still be assuming most of the danger.”
Lady Rhuddlan looked at Morgan. “Yes, I’ll do it. Anything to change him back.”
For a moment, Morgan looked as though he were going to begin barking again out of sheer exultation. Instead, he took a deep breath and put his paw on Lady Rhuddlan’s shoe. “Thank you, Vianne,” he said. “I hope it works.”
“We all do,” Lady Rhuddlan said, and then frowned. “What can be done about the Diamond?”
“I’ll try again to break the spell on my own,” Lady Rinnelle offered. She sighed. “I have been trying.”
Arikan eyed the empty Festival cake platter with regret and pushed it away. “Why don’t you come to my home now with me, my lady? I’ve some books that might contain an answer to the problem, and we could go through them together.”
“A magician’s house?” Lady Rinnelle fluttered nervously. “Oh, er, that is—I need to be getting home again—”
“Nonsense,” said Lady Kestrienne, waving a hand. “Do go along with him. I assure you, Arikan won’t bite!” She glanced at the dog on the floor. “You can’t say that of everyone, you know.”
Morgan bared his teeth at her. “Aunt—”
“But if my family were to find out!” Lady Rinnelle exclaimed.
“Oh, pish posh,” Lady Kestrienne said. “If they do, simply tell them you went there to get your fortune told. They can hardly hold that against you: all brides-to-be are considered superstitious!”
“What if the two of you can’t break the spell?” Lady Rhuddlan asked.
“Then we try to find some way to force Kett to do so,” Jena said, “although I think we should wait until we see whether we can change Morgan back once we have his ring. If I have to tangle directly with another wizard, I’d rather do so with my partner at my side.”
“You might want to come along with us as well, your grace, my lord,” Arikan offered. “We can do some research on the spell over Lord Morgan, too.”
“Splendid!” said Lady Kestrienne. “Lady Rhuddlan can have her fortune told at the same time.”
After a bit more discussion working out the details of the plan, Arikan took his leave, accompanied by Lady Rinnelle, Lady Rhuddlan, and Morgan.
Left alone with Jena, Lady Kestrienne turned her attention to the remaining refreshments. “How fortunate Arikan departed before ravaging all of the tarts,” she remarked, selecting one dusted with almond slivers and taking a bite. “Mmm. Delicious. I’m so pleased to have the opportunity to see you in your father’s home.” She went to the window to unlatch a shutter and push it open. A burst of cold air made Jena shiver, but Lady Kestrienne breathed it in deeply. “That garden must be charming in the spring.”
“Yes, it is.” Jena came to the window to look, too. The winter silence in the garden was thoughtful and still. A fine rime of frost encrusted the bare twigs of the bushes and trees, lacy patterns of silvery white against the crisp blue of the sky. Jena thought of all the hours she had spent there, walking along the path or sitting on the bench at sunset, looking down toward Lowertown. She and Bram had shared the bench sometimes, talking quietly or just being silent together. She sighed.
“You’re going to miss it, aren’t you?”
“I’m sorry?”
“When you leave, to set up your own household. After all, you’re a bride-to-be, too, aren’t you?” She looked over her shoulder with an expression Jena couldn’t quite decipher. “Perhaps you’d like your fortune told as well?”
“I don’t know if I am a bride-to-be anymore,” Jena said slowly. She shivered again, and with one last look at the garden reached out and closed the shutter. “Bram is traveling. He left to look for me. We last spoke months ago, and since then, everything has changed.”
Lady Kestrienne said nothing.
“I think Lady Rhuddlan may be a little worried, too,” Jena said, giving Lady Kestrienne a sidelong glance. “Lady Rinnelle said Kett told her partners could only marry one another.”
Lady Kestrienne looked genuinely startled. “Did he indeed? Gracious! I certainly hope you told her it’s not true.”
“Well, I did. Still, I wondered. Arikan’s never married, as far as I know, and you—”
“I’m a widow, my dear.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m not.”
“Er—”
“So, you see, your partnership with Morgan isn’t an obstacle. There’s no reason why you and your young man shouldn’t marry.” She cocked her head. “Unless there’s something else?”
For an instant, Jena hated Lady Kestrienne for the questions she was asking, questions Jena had avoided asking herself because she hadn’t been sure whether she could bear the answers. “It took becoming a wizard to make me see I really want to be a gemcutter. It’s strange: when I found out the Guild was making obstacles for me, I was ready to give up. If I hadn’t been cornered into making up that fib that Lord Morgan had commissioned a piece from me, I don’t think I would have challenged their ruling at all.
“Now I’m not just following my father’s path anymore; I’m ready to fight for the right to cut gems. But I’m beginning to think marrying Bram would create even more obstacles.” She shook her head. “It sounds like an awful thing to say. But it’s true.”
Lady Kestrienne pursed her lips. “Why should marrying your young man keep you from doing what you want to do?”
Jena sighed, thinking of her conversation with Bram by the river, the day she partnered with Morgan. “If I’m going to take on the Guild, it would help if my husband was supporting me.” Maybe it’s for the best, he had said. “I’m not sure Bram would.
“And if I marry, there would be children.” She felt a lump begin to rise in her throat. “I want to have them, but how could I raise them and still run a shop? Even if I do manage to wrangle from the Guild the right to cut gems, my license would be hereditary, in trust for a son. If I have a boy, the Guild would use that as an excuse to deny me my trade again.”
“I believe I’ve already expressed my opinion about having to get the Guild’s permission. About anything.”
“It’s not that simple!”
“Besides, Jena, you have the power to decide whether or not to have sons, or whether to have children at all. If it would be easier, you can simply remain childless.”
“What?” Jena stared at Lady Kestrienne. “Of course I’m going to have children if I marry.”
“You are a wizard,” said Lady Kestrienne, enunciating the words slowly, presumably in deference to Jena’s stupidity. “You can see possibilities and learn to manipulate them. That means you can control your own fertility.” She smiled. “I’ll teach you. It takes concentration and care, but the precepts are very simple.”
“I can decide?” The idea stunned Jena.
“Yes, you can. A very useful skill—valuable if you choose to take a lover on the side, for example; you never have to worry about an inconvenient pregnancy.”
“I would never do that!” Jena exclaimed. “I don’t believe in that.”
“Ah, well. That was always one of the chief attractions of wizardry for me, but to each her own. And that’s the point, Jena,” she went on serenely, oblivious to Jena’s shock. “You can choose. You don’t have to let yourself be buffeted around by circumstances beyond your control, like ‘the Guild won’t let me,’ or ‘once I have children I can’t.’ Being able to see and manipulate possibilities clarifies the choices available to you, but you still have to make the decision: do you want to marry your fiancé?” She went back to the table to refill her wine goblet.
Jena hesitated. “I think—”
“No, no; don’t speak. You haven’t had enough time to think about what I’ve told you yet. If you said one way or another, you might change your mind, and that would be embarrassing, wouldn’t it? I do so dislike buying wedding presents and then discovering that they aren’t to be used. And you’d want to speak to your young man again before deciding, hmm? What was his name again?”
“Bram.” Jena wondered whether he would agree to marry knowing he would never have sons, or perhaps children at all. Or would she even tell him? Yes, of course she would.
But what did she want?
She looked at Lady Kestrienne speculatively. “Did you and Arikan ever—” She stopped, and reddened.
Lady Kestrienne twirled her wine in her goblet. “Did Arikan and I ever what, dear?”
“Never mind. I mean, I was just wondering about something, but it’s really too personal to ask.”
“Did we—oh.” Enlightenment appeared in Lady Kestrienne’s eyes. Her lips twitched, and then she began to laugh. “Did we ever? Oh, yes, we did.” She continued laughing, not at all discomfited, unlike Jena, who blushed furiously. “Arikan is one of my dearest friends in the world. But just because you’re friends and partners doesn’t mean everything should go that way. Yes, we tried it, but it didn’t work out. Oh, no, it really didn’t work out at all.” She stopped laughing to take another sip of wine and considered.
“And besides: he snores.”
Chapter
Twenty
Two days later, the morning of the Union of City and Sea Ceremony dawned with reckless splendor, bright and crystalline. The sun touched with fire the roof of the Winter Palace and edged with gold the sails and rigging of the tall ships tacking proudly across the harbor. It reflected off the choppy water of the bay, dazzling the eyes of the throng jamming the wharves and ferryboat rails to watch the flotilla and the swimming races. At the Golden Market Piazza, it caught silken shimmers in the crowd’s Festival finery. And, at the dais set up at the piazza’s edge, overlooking the water, angled rays glinted off a narrow tray of golden rings, casting glimmering lights over Lady Vianne Rhuddlan’s honey-blond hair.
By special arrangement, Jena stood to one side, at the steps leading up to the dais where the Diadem and other notables sat. Kett would be sure to see her there. She couldn’t spot Arikan but knew he stood in the crowd, protective wards ready. The task of safeguarding Lady Rhuddlan had fallen to Lady Kestrienne, who stood with the gathering of nobles ranged on the other side of the dais.
The morning had seen an assortment of swimming and boat races, and Festival speeches and presentations from several city leaders and Council members. The crowd, in a fine holiday mood, jostled around Jena constantly, not always paying very close attention to the orations coming from the dais. With such a shifting mass of people, Jena was hard-put to keep her chosen place, not to mention her temper. Small boys dodged between legs to catch glimpses of the jugglers; young men with their giggling sweethearts vied for the attention of the strolling vendors selling Festival tokens and sweets. A pair of sailors elbowing their way through the press stopped directly behind her, and she winced as they cheered, whistling piercingly in her ear for one of the winning swimmers receiving a medallion up at the dais.
And then, a flourish of trumpets announced the arrival of the small fleet of boats carrying the captains’ cortege. Jena craned her neck to see as eagerly as anyone around her. A ragged cheer rose up, and another mass of people who had been milling about at the boat landing surged back to let the procession pass. As the crowd parted, Jena saw Kett in the midst of the other captains, coming toward the dais.
He wore a pourpoint of cream-colored linen trimmed at the shoulder with a rosette of the Diadem colors. The matching ribbons trimming it trailed down his arm, fluttering in the breeze. All the captains had a rosette like it, she saw, and the rippling streams of color made a brave, festive show. But Kett’s expression was somber; unlike the other men with whom he walked, who smiled and waved to the crowd, the wizard stared straight ahead, seemingly unconscious of the people immediately around him. As the procession came closer, Jena saw that he was scanning the dais with quick, darting glances—looking, no doubt, for Lady Rinnelle.
His searching made the chance that he would see Jena an easy possibility to manage. As the procession reached the head of the piazza and turned so the captains could walk toward the stairs leading up to the dais, she stepped forward and stared at Kett boldly, directing her magic toward him in a mental command: Look at me, Kett. He raised his head and saw her. At first she wasn’t sure whether he knew her, but then his eyes widened in recognition and perhaps even alarm, as Arikan’s power reached out to join her in agreement and warding: Behold your challenger, Kett. She was sure Kett was aware of the warding lines, but she didn’t bother making any explicit threat. Let him expend all his magic trying to scry what she was planning to do.
Now the line of captains was mounting the steps and marching forward. She kept her chin high and smiled a very small smile at Kett, who shot her an inscrutable look as he passed her.
Wondering, eh? She concentrated her stare on the middle of his back, noting with satisfaction the tense set of his shoulders. Go ahead and sweat, Captain.
Lady Rhuddlan rose to her feet and came forward, carrying Morgan. She regarded the line of men ranged before her, and Morgan shifted in her hands. Jena couldn’t see what he was doing with his paws, but whatever it was, it seemed to give the Ruby the required signal. Lady Rhuddlan smiled and placed Morgan on the ground at her side. “Good captains of the Golden Fleet,” she said in a strong, carrying voice. The sounds of the crowd gradually died down as the people fell silent to hear her words. “At the behest of the Diadem Council and the citizens of Piyar, I wish you a joyous Festival and extend to you and your crews our warmest hospitality.
