Royal Airs (45 page)

Josetta sighed and gave Rafe a look of resignation. “We’d better start gathering our things.”

Rafe nodded over at Steff, who was still sitting on the sofa, but looking a little anxious as the conversation progressed. “I need a day to get Steff settled. I can’t just abandon him in a strange place.”

“I’ll be fine,” Steff said, but he didn’t sound convinced.

Zoe was smiling. “Bring him along. We have a big house. Plenty of room.”

“I’m not sure Darien Serlast will—”

“Darien Serlast will be happy to have him. Come on. Everyone start packing.”

 • • • 

B
efore long, they were all piling back into the elaymotives again. Rafe had thought it might be brotherly of him to sit beside Steff in the back of Zoe’s big vehicle so he could point out the sights of Chialto.
Here’s the Cinque. There’s the Plaza of Women. If you follow that road halfway up the mountain, you’ll arrive at the palace—can you see it? Splendid, isn’t it, with the river making that spectacular fall right beside it.
But when he offered, Corene said, “I don’t mind sitting back here with him. I’ll tell him what everything is. You’d probably just get stuff wrong, anyway.”

He’d glanced at Josetta with lifted eyebrows, and she’d smiled. “Well, you probably would,” she said softly. But he could tell she was having the same thought that was uppermost in his mind:
Corene rather likes Steff.
The princess was indulging in a mild flirtation with the country boy. Who would have expected that?

Rafe tried to judge his brother with dispassionate eyes. Steff was good-looking enough, he supposed—taller and thinner than Rafe, but more muscled from a lifetime of hard physical labor. Rafe always thought of him as a little sulky and dissatisfied, but he’d been the complete opposite during these past few days. He’d been good-natured, hardworking, deeply interested in the events unfolding around him, and generally agreeable. Well. Maybe the princess was enjoying his company after all.

As before, they made good time in the royal elaymotives, but there was still a fair amount of ground to cover. It was almost the dinner hour by the time they pulled up in front of the tall, gracious Serlast manor and everyone began spilling out of the elaymotives. Foley organized the guards and hustled them off to some post in the back of the house, while silent, efficient servants unloaded the cars and made their luggage vanish.

Darien was awaiting them inside the
kierten
, his arms crossed and his expression sardonic. Zoe didn’t wait for him to speak first.

“Darien, have you heard?” she demanded. “The empress of Malinqua is at the harbor, at least a nineday before we expected her!”

“Yes, I sent for her, hoping her presence would goad you into returning home. Since nothing else appeared likely to,” Darien replied.

He didn’t sound angry, and Zoe didn’t look remotely contrite. “Well, you would have stayed, too, if you’d had a chance to see all the wonders
I
saw,” she said. “But what are we going to do about the empress?”

“Welcome her, of course, but with perhaps a little more
presence
than I had planned,” Darien responded. “I’ve called up some of our naval fleet to sail down to the harbor, and I’m bringing more troops into the city. Just to be safe. I can’t think she’s planning an assault, but she’s obviously trying to make a point. So we must make one of our own.”

“Will you call Romelle and—and Mally in?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “I had originally considered the presence of the heir to be essential, but with that situation in so much turmoil, Romelle’s attendance might be more trouble than benefit. If the empress seems offended, I can use her own tactics against her and say her unexpected show of force made me reluctant to put our smallest princess at risk. I think it is an argument that will carry some weight with her.”

They were all still standing in the
kierten
, but Zoe made brushing motions to urge them deeper into the house. “Let’s get everyone settled into rooms, and then, I hope, find something to eat. We only had travel rations on the road, and I’m starving. How’s Celia?”

“As she always is—alternately delightful and temperamental, and unfailingly vocal,” Darien said. He nodded over toward Steff, who was standing in Rafe’s shadow and trying not to gawk at the understated luxury of the house. “I don’t think I know this young man.”

“He’s Rafe’s brother,” Corene explained. “He came to Chialto to visit Rafe, and he’s been having adventures with us.”

“‘Adventures’?” Darien repeated, glancing at Zoe.

She grinned and tugged Steff forward. “Steff, this is my husband, and Corene’s father, and the regent of Welce, Darien Serlast. He tries to be intimidating, but don’t let him alarm you. He’s not as hostile as he seems.”

“Sometimes I am,” Darien said in a pleasant voice as he eyed the boy critically. “But I didn’t realize there was a brother! Are you very much like Rafe?”

He glanced at Zoe when he posed the question, and Rafe realized he was really asking her about Steff’s bloodline.
Is this another Berringese prince we will have to protect? And does he know his heritage?

“I guess we’re a little alike,” Steff said nervously.

But Zoe was smiling and shaking her head. “I’ve only spent a couple of days with Steff but I feel certain he’s very different,” she said.

Rafe thought the regent relaxed at the words. “Welcome to the house in any case,” Darien said.

“Enough talking in hallways!” Zoe exclaimed. “All of you follow me upstairs while Darien makes sure dinner is served as soon as humanly possible. Then we can talk and talk and
talk
until we run out of things to say.”

 • • • 

R
afe reflected later that this particular clan probably never
did
run out of things to say. The meal wasn’t exactly boisterous, but Josetta and her family members all vied with each other to fill what moments of silence inexplicably occurred. They had no end of topics to discuss, from what to do about Romelle and Mally to what kind of tone to take with the newly arrived empress of Malinqua. Darien wanted to hear specifics on their “adventures,” which led to talk of Josetta’s shelter and Rafe’s aeromotive exploits. Then they all wanted to catch up on any gossip Darien had heard while they had been gone. Even Celia, sitting in Zoe’s lap for the meal, expressed herself frequently and vociferously, though not particularly intelligibly. Rafe figured it was only a matter of time.

Rafe found his opinion of Darien rising as he viewed the man in this setting, surrounded by the women who loved him. He was still autocratic, peremptory, and overconfident, but he was also warm, humorous, and affectionate. It began to make more sense to him that the wayward and generous Zoe might want to be married to him.

“Well, I expect the next few days to be chaotic in the extreme, and all of you look like you’re ready to fall asleep in your chairs,” Darien said as the meal drew to a close. “Except Celia—I imagine she’ll be awake till midnight. But the rest of you might as well seek your beds.”

“Gladly,” Corene said through a yawn. “Oh, but—wait. Steff, I want to show you Zoe’s favorite room in the house. You’re coru, so you’ll like it—it’s got a river.”

“A river? Inside? I have to see that,” Steff answered, and the two of them jumped to their feet and disappeared out the door.

Darien turned to Zoe. “I have asked the other primes to join me in the morning. I expect only Taro to be missing, since he has some distance to travel. But the rest of us can debate some of our many,
many
concerns in what time we have before the empress arrives on our doorstep.”

“Does she have a name?” Zoe asked. “It seems so odd to just call her ‘the empress.’”

Darien nodded. “She does indeed have a name. Filomara Marita Subriella. Which sounds much gentler than I believe she is.”

Rafe felt shock go through him with the force of a crash landing. Years of card-playing enabled him to keep his face impassive, show none of his astonishment or confusion. But he was more than familiar with some of those soft syllables. Subriella had been his mother’s name.

TWENTY-FOUR

J
osetta didn’t like the empress of Malinqua any more than she had liked the prince of Berringey. She remembered how intensely she had hated the viceroy of Soeche-Tas and wondered if perhaps she just despised royalty. Or people who wielded power. During the past five years, her sympathies had become much more allied with the poor and powerless. It made it harder to sit at state dinners and play the part of princess.

The empress had arrived in Chialto in the morning, escorted by a hundred of her own men and fifty of Darien’s, who had been on hand to greet her when she disembarked. The Welchin soldiers had brought her directly to the palace, where she was welcomed by a hastily assembled cast of queens, princesses, and primes.

“Sorry to arrive before I was scheduled,” she said to Darien, speaking in Coziquela and not sounding particularly sorry. “The winds were so favorable we could hardly hold back the sails.”

“We’re delighted to have you, no matter when you appear,” he replied, not sounding particularly delighted, either. He gestured at the men behind her, filling the courtyard with their red-and-white uniforms and their prominently displayed weaponry. “You must have been forced to leave some of your guard behind! Surely there were more men than these on the many ships you brought to harbor.”

Her eyes gleamed with understanding and malice. She was a tall, solid woman with iron-gray hair and a square, unsmiling face. Unlike Ghyaneth, she hadn’t bothered to array herself in resplendent dress for this final leg of her journey. She was wearing black trousers and—even in the heat of Quinnahunti—a long black jacket embroidered with red and white flowers. The clothes were well-made but hardly luxurious. She had dispensed with a crown or any other distinguishing headpiece, but across her chest and shoulders she wore a heavy chain of interlinked metal plates, each as big as a hand and studded with rubies. It was substantial enough to make Josetta think of armor, which she had to believe was the intent.

“I admit, I am a cautious woman, and I have been treated poorly by other heads of state,” the empress said. “I have no reason to think you mean me ill, but I assume you are more likely to treat me well if you know my archers could burn down your city in a matter of hours.”

“And yet other heads of state have shown you disrespect,” Darien marveled.

She gave a sharp bark of laughter. “There are many who believe a woman on the throne must be weaker than a man,” she said. “I would not want you to make that mistake.”

“I never underestimate women,” Darien replied. “I think it is my greatest source of strength.”

One of those women sailed forward almost upon the words. “Let me welcome you into our capital,” said Elidon. “We have prepared rooms for you and thirty attendants. We must discuss where you would like us to billet your remaining soldiers.”

Filomara glanced around the courtyard. “This will do.”

“It will not,” Elidon said with great courtesy and utter inflexibility. “But there are several barracks outside the city, and you may take your pick.”

“If I cannot have my troops around me, I cannot stay,” said Filomara.

Elidon didn’t even hesitate. “Then you may return to the port so that you can have them on your ships nearby. We will happily join you there while we conduct negotiations.”

There was a long silence while Filomara appeared to be weighing Elidon’s words, testing them for any hint of bluff. “Thirty of my soldiers with me in the palace, twenty in the courtyard, and the rest at a city barracks,” she said finally.

Elidon turned her head to speak to an attendant hovering at her elbow. “We will be relocating to the port this afternoon. Can you begin gathering my wardrobe?” She glanced at the elay prime, standing a few feet away from her, his pensive expression making Josetta believe he was thinking about some problem with an aeromotive and not about the current confrontation. “Kayle, I assume you can house the members of the royal party for a few days?”

Kayle turned to her, his blue eyes rapidly blinking. “Well, I
can
, but I don’t want to. All of you? You and the princesses, maybe. And Darien, of course. But I can find you rooms somewhere else.”

It was so typical of Kayle that Josetta had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud. And she couldn’t risk a look at Zoe. Elidon seemed neither amused nor offended. “Good enough,” she said, and returned her attention to Filomara. “Would you like to stay for some refreshments before we leave?”

Again, Filomara’s face showed both comprehension and malice. Josetta wondered if the empress had expected this little game to play out differently—if she was pleased or exasperated to find her hosts adept at maneuvering for power.
Ghyaneth thought we were provincial, so she probably does, too,
Josetta thought.
It makes me wonder what their cities are like.

“We will stay,” Filomara replied. “The barracks will suit after all.”

 • • • 

D
inner that night was as full of pomp and excess as the first dinner with Ghyaneth but, as far as Josetta was concerned, with two major improvements. First, she hadn’t been singled out by visiting royalty, so she didn’t have to sit next to the empress on the main dais; and second, Rafe accompanied her to the meal.

“One more person among two hundred will hardly be noticeable, and we’ve brought him here to keep him safe, so let’s keep him safe,” Darien had said that morning as they made their preparations to move to the palace. “I don’t suppose he has anything suitable to wear.”

He didn’t, of course, but Darien either lent him clothes from his own wardrobe or tasked one of his extremely efficient servants with outfitting Rafe for the night, because the next time Josetta saw Rafe he was very properly attired. The finely made tunic and trousers were both an unrelieved black, and the dark color added interesting contours to his face. One of the servants had also found a couple of rings to slip on his fingers and a silk ribbon he could use to tie back his hair. Josetta could not help staring when he joined her in the
kierten
of the palace, where they had all been assigned rooms for the next few days.