The Gods of Amyrantha (26 page)

'What do you need me to do?' she asked, lifting the shroud so she could see the Crasii without obstruction.

'Stay in the doorway long enough for me to slip in behind you before they close it,' Tiji replied. 'And if you could keep their attention from the door, that'd be good too. It's hard to stay camouflaged when I'm on the move.'

'And after we're inside?'

'Forget about me, your grace.'

Arkady frowned, acutely aware that she was leading this strange young Crasii into terrible danger and feeling a responsibility for seeing she made it out again in one piece. 'Is there nothing else I can do to help?'

Tiji shook her head, as she lifted her thin linen shift over her shoulders unselfconsciously, and laid it on the

seat beside her. Arkady tried not to stare. It wasn't easy. The naked chameleon was humanoid in form, but her silver-scaled skin and complete lack of hair marked her as something quite alien.

Tiji seemed to know what Arkady was thinking. 'This is what I do, your grace. And I mean it when I say you have to forget I'm there. You'll give the game away if you're constantly looking around the room trying to find me.'

'Won't Kinta be able to sense you?'

'We're not even sure it
is
Kinta, your grace.'

Arkady smiled. 'Won't Lady
Chintara
be able to sense you?'

'No more than she can sense any other Crash.'

'And if she really is who Declan fears she is?'

'Then we'll get a message back to Glaeba, your grace, and wait until we see what the Cabal has to say about it, before doing anything else.'

That made sense. Arkady was relieved. She wasn't sure how she'd deal with orders to confront another immortal, not matter how friendly she seemed. 'How will you get back to the embassy?'

Til find a way.'

'I could send a carriage ...'

Tiji seemed amused by the suggestion, 'I think a carriage parked outside the royal palace emblazoned with the Glaeban coat of arms would kind of give the game away, don't you?'

'I could send a
hired
cab,' Arkady said.

The Crasii smiled in appreciation, but she clearly didn't seem to think she needed help, 'I'm grateful for the offer, really I am, your grace, but I've done this sort of thing before. Truly, I can find my own way home.'

Arkady studied the Crasii for a moment, wondering where she found her confidence. She seemed so small, so fragile, her long slender limbs so naturally graceful, yet so delicate. 'Does Declan have you doing this sort of thing often?'

'It's what I
am,
your grace. And when you think about it, there's not a lot of other useful occupations for a chameleon Crasii.'

'Isn't it dangerous?'

'Not unless I do something stupid. And I do have an unfair advantage over humans when it comes to sneaking in and out of places I don't belong, you know.'

Arkady shook her head in bewilderment at the Crasii's blase attitude. 'I'm not going to rest until I know you're safe.'

'Which is very nice of you, your grace, but unnecessary.'

'I can see why Declan is so fond of you,' Arkady told her with a smile.

'Funny, I could say the same about you,' Tiji replied with a grin, but before Arkady could ask what she meant, the carriage rocked to a halt inside the entrance to the royal seraglium.

Arkady dropped the shroud back into place and turned her attention to the door, which opened before she could stop the doorman outside from doing his duty, but when she turned to warn Tiji to hide, the little Crasii had vanished, leaving only the slightest warping in the upholstery. At least Arkady imagined she could see where the Crasii had been sitting only few moments before, but it was impossible to be certain, so she took a deep breath, offered her shrouded hand to the doorman, and stepped out of the carriage.

'Ah! Arkady! You're here at last. What do you think of these?'

After shedding her shroud and handing it to Nitta, Arkady crossed the main hall to where Chintara was standing by the central couches, studying several bolts of cloth spread out over the sofas for her examination. There must have been a score of them, all thin,

expensive, almost transparent silks, exquisitely dyed, some in geometrical patterns and some worked with gold thread in delicate floral sprays.

'They're lovely,' Arkady said, as she stopped to examine them. 'What are they for?'

'I'm having a dress made for a very special occasion. I like the gold, but the blue might suit my colouring better, don't you think. Or the burgundy?'

Arkady hesitated before she replied, recalling Cayal once describing Kinta as someone who favoured leather over cloth. The delicate fabrics laid out before them seemed a far cry from the tastes of that woman. Maybe Declan was wrong about Chintara. Maybe she wasn't an immortal at all. Maybe she was just someone who happened to be blonde and statuesque with an interest in the history of the immortals.

It could be argued that, except for her hair colour, Arkady fitted the same description.

'What's the occasion?' Arkady asked, resisting the temptation to glance around to see if Tiji had followed them inside.

'I'm meeting an old ...
acquaintance.
I want to make a good impression.'

'I'm sure you will, my lady,' she assured the consort.

Chintara didn't seem nearly so certain. 'We haven't seen each other for a very long time and we didn't part friends. I want to make sure everything is perfect when we renew our acquaintance.'

'What were you wearing the last time you saw him?'

Chintara was silent for a moment, and then she looked at Arkady, shaking her head, 'I'm not sure I was wearing anything at all.'

Arkady smiled. 'Your last meeting wasn't here in Torlenia, then?'

The consort frowned. 'Why do you say that?'

Torlenian dress codes would make such a circumstance virtually impossible, wouldn't they?'

'You really are a sharp little thing, aren't you?'

'It's a logical enough conclusion, my lady.'

'And one most women would have been too busy judging me to come to. But you're right. It wasn't here. It was ... somewhere else.'

'With less rigid dress codes?'

Chintara allowed herself a small smile. 'Yes, with much less rigid dress codes.'

'I'm guessing this friend is someone you knew before your marriage to the Imperator, then,' Arkady prompted, wondering if she could coax an admission out of Chintara about her true identity.

Are you really an immortal, my lady?

Why yes, Arkady, I
am
an immortal hiding here in the royal palace, waiting until my lord and master returns ...

'Oh, Tides ...'

'I
beg
your pardon?' Chintara gasped, a little shocked by Arkady's uncharacteristic curse.

'I'm so sorry, my lady,' she hurriedly replied, trying to think up a reason for her outburst. 'I just thought of something I should have done before I left home this morning.'

'Really?'

Arkady shrugged, which gave her the short time she needed to concoct her excuse. It wasn't difficult. She was a practised liar. 'I had a new Crasii arrive from home the other day and I'd arranged to meet her this morning so I could organise for her to start her duties. I forgot all about her. She'll be still be waiting for me in my sitting room, I suppose.'

'Then you have nothing to be concerned about. It is the nature of Crasii to wait on their masters. Literally
and
figuratively.'

'You don't have many Crasii servants here, I notice.'

'They have their place, I suppose,' Chintara shrugged, refusing to be drawn on the subject. 'Which one?'

'My
lady?'

'Which fabric? Before you decided your Crasii was the most important thing in the world, we were discussing which fabric I should choose.'

Arkady dutifully turned her attention to the bolts of cloth. 'To be honest, my lady, I'm not sure what difference it would make.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Well, if you're not meeting with your husband, then you'll be wearing your shroud, won't you? You could be dressed in a hair shirt and hobnailed boots and your friend will never know.'

Chintara was silent for a moment and then she shrugged. 'This will be a special occasion. I won't be wearing a shroud.'

in that case,' Arkady replied with a great deal of caution. 'Shouldn't you ask yourself what he remembers about you most? And if you want to remind him of that? Or did you want to turn his mind from something that is — quite possibly — a
painful
memory, perhaps?'

For a moment, Chintara let a wistful smile flicker over her face. 'You're a very insightful woman, Arkady. And you make a valid observation. I shall have to think on this some more, before I decide.'

'Well, if it comes down to it, my favourite is the green,' she said, pointing to a bolt of emerald green cloth worked with delicate gold flowers, instead of asking:
is the dress being made for you to greet your immortal lord and master when he returns?
which is what she really wanted to know.

Surreptitiously, Arkady glanced around the room, but of course, she could see no sign of Tiji. And she needed to find the Crasii; needed to speak with her. She had to know for certain if Chintara really
was
Kinta.

Because it occurred to Arkady at that moment that if this woman truly was the legendary immortal warrior, Kinta, then the pieces were rapidly falling into place. Chintara's lord and master wasn't the callow boy Stellan had described. She was preparing for her Tide Lord lover to return.

All that remained for Arkady to discover was
which
Tide Lord lover.

Brynden, the Lord of Reckoning?

Or Cayal, the Immortal Prince?

CHAPTER 25

Once Warlock and Jaxyn reached Prince Mathu's suite of rooms in the Glaeban Royal Palace, Lord Aranville showed little interest in getting the prince out of bed. He went through the motions, shaking Mathu awake with a less-than-enthusiastic suggestion that he'd better get up because the king was angry with him. Then he ordered Warlock to find the prince something to wear. But the Tide Lord didn't bother to stay in the prince's bedroom. Instead, he strode back to the sitting room and threw open the double doors that led onto the balcony overlooking the lake.

Warlock tried to keep an eye on Jaxyn as he hurriedly assembled the prince's clothes for his outing on the lake. The day was bright, the wind blowing scudding clouds across the face of the sun, making the light brighten and dim erratically.

The immortal stood on the balcony for a long time, still as a mill pond. In the other room, Prince Mathu, rubbing his eyes and cursing, finally dragged himself from his bed and staggered to the wash bowl, where he splashed cold water on his face.

That revived the young prince enough, apparently, for him to notice what was going on around him. Wearing nothing but the braes he'd slept in, he stumbled into the sitting room, squinting in the bright sunlight at Jaxyn's still figure on the balcony.

'What's going on?' he asked, as Warlock followed the prince into the sitting room, carrying the shirt,

trousers and boots he'd selected from the prince's wardrobe.

'There's a storm coming,' Jaxyn replied, his gaze fixed on the sky.

The clouds seemed to be moving faster. Warlock wondered if he was imagining things, because it looked as if they were deliberately colliding with each other.

'Tides, weren't we supposed to go out on the lake, or something, this morning?' Mathu mumbled, snatching the shirt Warlock was holding for him. Clumsily, he managed to get the shirt on. 'I'll bet mother is furious.'

'She wasn't happy,' Jaxyn agreed. 'But I'd not worry too much, if I were you. I have a feeling they'll be heading back sooner than they planned.'

'How can you tell?' Mathu asked, buttoning up his shirt.

'Can't you feel it?'

The prince pulled a face. 'My head feels like there's military band practising on the inside of my skull, Jaxyn,' he complained, accepting the trousers Warlock offered him with barely a glance in the Crasii's direction. 'I can't feel much of anything beyond that.'

Jaxyn glanced over his shoulder, smiling briefly. 'There's a storm on the way. A big one.'

Mathu didn't notice his companion's smile. He was too busy fighting his way into his trousers. 'How can you tell?' he asked, hopping on one foot.

Warlock was wondering the same thing, but then he glanced at the sky again, in time to see the sun blotted out by the rapidly gathering clouds that were now amassing at an unnatural rate. The sense of foreboding he felt on the way here deepened to a palpable fear. The light was dimming rapidly, enough even for Mathu to notice.

Buttoning up his trousers he padded barefoot to the balcony. 'Tides! Look at that sky.'

'It's going to be a bad one,' Jaxyn remarked in a bland voice.