In response, Elega’s eyes widened with pain and anger. “That is unfair, my lord.” Almost instantly, however, she seemed to catch the implications of what he said. In a rush, she asked, “Geraden, have you seen—?”
So suddenly, so loudly that the sound made Terisa’s heart lurch, Prince Kragen slapped his hands together, interrupting Elega; stopping her.
“My lady,” he articulated, “I have said that I do not wish to trade stories with them. When they have told us what they know, I will decide what they may hear.”
Elega held her tongue; yet her face showed the difficulty of restraint. Abruptly, Terisa became aware that she wanted to hear Elega’s story: the Elega she remembered wouldn’t have suffered a command to shut up so compliantly. What had happened to change the lady, to make her acquiescent? What kind of contest was going on between her and the Prince? Was it just a question of blame because her attack on the reservoir had misfired? Or had she done something else to earn Kragen’s distrust?
Because her heart was still racing and she wanted to be calm, Terisa went to get some more wine.
As if they were being polite, the other people in the fore-tent waited until she had seated herself again. She had the impression that they were all watching her.
“You serve a heady wine, my lord Prince,” Geraden murmured softly. “I haven’t tasted anything like it for a long time.”
In Terisa’s opinion, that was an odd thing to say at a time like this.
Apparently, Prince Kragen agreed with her. He ignored Geraden’s comment. Still speaking to Elega as if she were the true subject of his scrutiny, he said, “In any case, my lady, I have not yet told you everything you must hear. When Geraden and the lady Terisa demanded to speak to you, they gave a most interesting explanation. They said that they had messages for you from Queen Madin, your mother.”
At once, Elega was on her feet. “The Queen?” She didn’t appear to realize that she was standing. “You have spoken with the Queen? She sent messages for me?” Her eyes shone with excitement and anguish; her voice held a visceral tremor. “Doubtless you told her of my part in the siege. What does my mother wish to say to me now?”
Terisa was bemused to find that she had slipped down in her chair. The wine seemed to have made her top-heavy.
Pushing herself upright, she said, “We can tell you who the traitors are inside Orison. Who the renegade Imagers are. We can tell you how they planned all this with Cadwal. Together, we might be able to guess what kind of trap they plan to spring.”
Prince Kragen’s gaze burned darkly at her. For no particular reason, she added, “If you want to trade, we can even tell you what Domne and Termigan and Fayle are going to do about it.”
As far as she could tell, Geraden and Elega and Kragen were all speaking at once. Geraden asked, “Do you know what you’re doing? You look like you’ve had too much wine.” He sounded like a man who had lost his sense of humor.
At the same time, Elega protested, “No! I will hear my mother’s messages!”
Prince Kragen was saying, “Continue, my lady Terisa.” Despite his self-control, he looked eager. “I am sure that we will be able to achieve an equitable exchange when you are done.”
Grinning, Terisa wagged her finger at him. “Oh, no, my lord Prince.” She actually wagged her finger at him. “Be fair. That isn’t the way the game is played.”
Geraden stood facing Elega; his voice was pitched to cover Terisa’s. His tone didn’t hold any authority, however. It didn’t even convey confidence. Instead, it hinted at hysteria.
“The fact is,” he said, “we don’t have any messages from the Queen. She didn’t have time to give us any. She was planning to come here herself. She wanted to stand beside the King. But she didn’t get the chance.”
In spite of the pressure to speak, he faltered. Elega’s gaze was fastened to his face; her whole body concentrated toward him.
“Go on,” she said with her throat clenched.
“Continue, my lady!” Prince Kragen snapped, apparently trying to startle words out of Terisa.
Just in time, Terisa put her finger to her lips and made a shushing noise.
“Elega, I’m sorry,” Geraden said miserably. “While we were there, the Queen was taken. Ambushed. Imagery and soldiers. She was abducted.”
Slowly, as if she could barely lift them, Elega raised her hands to her mouth.
“We know who the Imager was.”
Her breath came hard, straining between her teeth.
“The soldiers were Alends.”
Prince Kragen was so startled that he sprang to his feet and barked, “You lie!” before he could stop himself.
Terisa studied the three of them. “No.” It was wonderful how clearly she could speak, despite the weight in her head. “He’s not lying. We were there. That’s why we want to go into Orison. That’s what we want to tell King Joyse. Your men kidnapped Queen Madin.”
From Terisa’s perspective, the lady Elega went up like a candle flame. Without moving, she seemed to burst into passion; it swept through her toward the ceiling, hot enough to scorch. Confronting the Prince as if Terisa and Geraden were forgotten, she whispered like a cry, “What have you done?”
Kragen’s face twisted; his teeth showed under his moustache. “They lie. I tell you, it is a lie.”
She didn’t flicker. “Geraden has never told a lie in his life – never one of such hurt. What have you done?”
“Nothing!” he shouted at her, trying to drive back her fury. “Geraden does not lie? Perhaps not. I do not lift my hand against lonely and harmless women! Never in my life.”
Perhaps she didn’t hear him: perhaps she couldn’t. Her hands clenched into fists against her cheeks; blazing, she lifted her voice into a wail.
“Where is my mother? What have you done to my mother?”
In that outcry, she burned up too brightly to sustain herself. She was too vulnerable: her strength failed, and she fainted. Delicately, like heated wax, she slumped toward the floor.
Geraden caught her.
Holding her in his arms, he faced the Prince. Now he was the one breathing hard, panting for air as if he had caught fire from her. Her distress made him savage, heedless. Prince Kragen came to him in dismay, tried to take her from him. He wrenched her away as if he didn’t care that the Prince could have him killed.
“There are only two possibilities. My lord Prince. Isn’t that right? Either you did it. So you’re going to tie me and Terisa up and start torturing us. Or it was done to you. So you’re going to let us go see the King.
“Which is it?”
But Prince Kragen wasn’t listening. “Release her, Geraden,” he murmured, almost pleading. “She is only your friend. I love her. If all of Cadwal and the wide sea itself come between us, I will wed her before I die. Give her to me.”
He held out his arms.
Terisa saw Geraden burning the way Elega had burned; she saw him on the verge of hurling something he wouldn’t be able to retract into the teeth of the Prince’s regret. Fortunately, she was already on her feet, pulled erect by his fury. Otherwise she couldn’t have reached him in time. She put a hand on his shoulder, then slipped her arm around his neck and hugged him.
“I believe him,” she said softly. “You called him an honorable enemy. He wouldn’t do something like that. And if he did, he would have done it long ago.
“He’s going to let us into Orison.”
She felt Geraden’s muscles pull tight, as rigid as Elega’s cry.
After a moment, she felt them relax.
Gently, he shifted Elega into Prince Kragen’s embrace.