Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses) (45 page)

BOOK: Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses)

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If this Ryne Coravann had had to fight his way into respectability, as Justin had, would he have turned into one of the most skilled and passionate of the Queen’s Riders?

Impossible to know, of course. And it scarcely mattered who Ryne Coravann was or what he might become. All that mattered was that he not be allowed to put Karryn in danger. Wen was fairly certain she had managed to achieve that for the day at least.

JASPER
found the whole Coravann Affair, as he called it, rather amusing. “You assaulted a serramar of the realm,” he said, as they sat in the library that evening trading their stories of the day. “By my count, you’ve also engaged in battle with a devvaser, and knocked a serlord to the floor. What’s next, a marlord? The queen? Have you no respect for rank or class?”

“Not when there’s danger to the person I’m paid to protect.”

Jasper leaned back in his chair. “You didn’t seriously think Ryne Coravann posed a threat to Karryn, did you?”

“Did I think he was going to spirit her through the streets of Forten City, throw her aboard a rented ship, and carry her off? No. But I wouldn’t have put it past him to take her down to the docks and get her drunk on bad wine.
That
would be bad enough, but if anyone truly wanted to do her harm, that would be the part of the city where she would be most at risk.”

He sighed. “Well, you’re right, of course. All in all, I am not sorry you were so harsh with the young serramar. It does no harm for others to realize how valuable we consider Karryn—and I think it is good for Karryn to realize it as well.”

Wen made a face. “She’s probably angry with me. I think I embarrassed her in front of a man she would like to impress.”

He laughed softly. “In fact, I think Karryn is more worried that
you
are angry with
her.
She may not show it on a daily basis, or indeed, ever,” he added, “but she greatly looks up to you and wants to please you.”

That would make for a nice change,
Wen thought, but didn’t say so aloud. “Then she needs to try a little harder,” was what she actually replied.

“I’m sure she will. Meanwhile, what do we do about Ryne Coravann? Forbid him access to the House? That seems pointless, since she will no doubt run into him at every social event from now until the end of the month.”

“I don’t think we can do anything about him at all,” Wen said. “I would think we should focus on Karryn instead. Make
her
understand why slipping away with Ryne would be so disastrous.”

“I think she has learned that lesson,” he said.

Wen replied, “I thought she had learned it before.”

“And there is to be another challenge to your guards and their defensive abilities,” he said. “For Serephette has decided she must entertain next week. Partially in Ryne Coravann’s honor, of course, but partially because Fortune has been something of a mausoleum these past few years, and it really is time it was opened up to company again. Do you think you can bear it? More truly, I suppose, the question is: Do you feel you can protect Karryn if we invite a fifty or a hundred guests to the House?”

Wen nodded. “It’s unrealistic to expect Karryn to spend her whole life secluded, or restricted to a few locations that I consider safe,” she said. “We can guard her when you entertain—but we might be a little more obtrusive than she likes. By that I mean, some of us will actually be in the dining hall if you have a meal, and in the ballroom if you have a dance.”

“I believe we are planning both a dinner and a dance,” he said. “It will be an abysmal amount of work and trouble, but Karryn is very excited, and even Serephette appears to be intrigued. So little engages her attention, you know, that I am happy to see her getting caught up in the notion of entertaining.”

Wen considered how to frame her next questions. “What was she like, before she married Rayson Fortunalt?” she asked finally. “And why did she marry him?”

Jasper sighed and leaned back in his chair, steepling his hands. “She married him because he was the serramar, and any girl in the region would have accepted him if he’d proposed. Did you ever meet him?” When Wen shook her head, he continued, “He aged badly, but when he was a young man, he was attractive in a sort of bold and energetic way. He used to
storm
into the room, even if he was just coming to ask when dinner would be served. Some girls consider that sort of energy romantic. I suppose Serephette did. At any rate, she was happy enough to marry him, or so I thought at the beginning.”

“And what was
she
like?”

“Much more
present
than she is now, if you understand what I mean. She was never particularly warm, but she was always extremely intelligent—as a young woman, she could offer a spirited argument on any topic that happened to come up. If she’d married someone suited to her, I imagine she might have become quite remarkable. A scholar, perhaps, or a trader in exotic jewels. Someone who specialized in some obscure but fascinating field and threw her whole life into it. Instead, she married Rayson and basically withdrew from the world, bit by bit. What portion of herself she could not shield from Rayson was systematically humiliated or brutalized, or so I’ve often surmised. The face that she shows the world today is the face that was shaped by marriage to Rayson Fortunalt. If there is another side to Serephette anymore, she keeps it deeply hidden. I hope that, the longer he is dead, the more she finds herself willing to emerge from her self-imposed seclusion. But so far we haven’t seen much except the Serephette that Rayson left behind.”

“I think Rayson Fortunalt did some damage to Karryn as well,” Wen remarked.

“Unquestionably. He has left her unsure of herself, extremely self-conscious, and convinced no one will have a reason to love her—but I have always thought he could have done worse to her, and might have if he’d lived longer. I am glad he is dead. And not just because he tried to destroy the kingdom.”

Wen had been on the battlefield the day after Rayson was killed. They had thought his death would signal the end of the war—it hadn’t, but it had been an important step. She had joined with the others in celebrating the good news, but at the time she had viewed him less as a man, and more as an almost formless representation of evil. The more she knew of Karryn and the household Rayson had run, the more she was beginning to understand him as an individual.

None of that new knowledge made
her
sorry he was dead, either.

She pushed herself to her feet. “Well, he has left a mess behind him,” she said. “But maybe everything will heal over in time, as you say. At any rate, Serephette and Karryn cannot be worse off now that he is gone, even if they never get any better.”

After a few more words of conversation, she left him in the library, with his head already bent over a book. She was passing the great central stairwell when she came upon Karryn sitting on the steps, looking woebegone. The girl rose to her feet, standing on the third step, as Wen came to a halt. It was obvious Karryn had been waiting for her.

“Well?” Wen said. Her voice was stern, but not as cold as it should have been; Jasper’s comments about Karryn’s vulnerabilities had touched her heart.

Karryn laced her hands in front of her. “I just wanted to say—again—I’m so sorry, and I won’t ever be stupid again. I promise you.”

Wen nodded. “Apology accepted. But it is not for
my
sake that I wish you to behave with some caution. It is for your own. You are too valuable to take pointless risks.”

Karryn came down the last few steps. “I suppose I’m not used to thinking of myself as valuable,” she said. “Mostly I always just thought I was in everybody’s way.”

Which was as sad a remark as Karryn could have made. Wen said gravely, “Even if you never had a sense of your importance as serramarra, one day to be marlady, there is the value your mere existence has for the people who love you.”

Karryn gave a hollow laugh. “There aren’t too many of those people.”

“Your mother—your uncle—your friends,” Wen said, realizing the roster was shorter than it should have been.
But who has dozens of people on the list of those who love them?
Wen thought.
I have parents and siblings who will mourn my passing, but none of my friends even know if I am still alive.

She closed her mind to the thought of those friends and forced herself to go on. “And someday, if you are a very good marlady, your vassal lords and all the people of Fortunalt will love you.” She offered a smile. “I don’t imagine it will take much effort on your part to do a better job than your father did, so it ought to be easy to win them over.”

Karryn smiled in return, though she looked just a touch anxious. “I’m not sure I know how to be a good marlady,” she said.

“You have time to figure it out,” Wen said. She nodded a farewell and turned toward the door. “Goodnight, Karryn.”

“Goodnight,” Karryn said. And then, when Wen was ten steps away, she called softly, “Willa?”

Wen made a half-turn back to face her. Karryn hadn’t moved a pace from the newel post. “Yes?”

“Would you really kill someone to protect me?”

Wen studied her a moment. Karryn tried to keep a casual expression on her face, but Wen suspected this, and not the apology, was the real reason Karryn had sat here waiting for her.
I’m not used to thinking of myself as valuable,
she had said. Karryn would never make her own safety a priority if she didn’t think she was worth defending.

“Yes,” Wen said. “If your life was at stake, I would take a life—or two, or three.”

“Because I’m the serramarra,” Karryn said, “one day to be marlady. Because it is your job to keep me safe.”

Wen looked at her even longer this time. “Because you’re my friend and I care about you,” she said at last. “Because you are a serramarra, you are exposed to more dangers than an ordinary woman. But I would fight for you if you were just a girl I had found in the streets. As I would fight for Ginny, or Bryce, or your uncle, or your mother. I would not let harm come to any of them. It is you I would defend, and not just your title.”

She had guessed correctly; Karryn’s smile was utterly radiant. “I am surprised you have not left a trail of corpses behind you, if that is how you feel about all your friends!” Karryn said.

You don’t want to ask me about the corpses,
Wen thought. She gave a small smile and said, “I have fewer friends these days, so fewer causes to fight.”

“I think that must be by your own choice,” Karryn said.

“I suppose all of us live lives bound to some extent by choices we have made,” Wen replied.

Karryn took a deep breath. “Well, I’m glad you have chosen to take your place at Fortune,” she said. “I do feel very safe with you to guard me—and I promise to give you no more cause to worry about me.”

Wen nodded. “Then goodnight, serra. I will see you in the morning.”

Chapter 23