Rule continued to lean forward, looking at the floor, not his father. “I don’t know. I’m in control, but…not comfortable.”
Lily wanted to shake answers out of one or both of them, but Rule’s distress was too vivid. He wasn’t avoiding answering. He was consumed by something going on inside him, something that Isen didn’t need named. Maybe something that wasn’t Lily’s business…no, not that. If Rule had a problem, she needed to know. But maybe she wasn’t the one who could help. “This is a Rho thing?”
Rule turned his head to look at her, straightened slowly, and took her hand. “I’ve been Leidolf Rho for months now. I’ve gone back and forth between Rho to Leidolf and Lu Nuncio to Nokolai with no real difficulty. That’s no longer the case.”
“You must have noticed,” Isen said, “that Rhos do not enter the clanhome of another clan often. If they must visit for some reason, they don’t linger.”
“I thought that was a security thing. Or status. Or both.”
“Certainly those are part of it. But neither the Vochi Rho nor the Laban Rho would have any security or status concerns about guesting here, at the Clanhome of their dominant. And yet they aren’t here.” He stopped and looked at her, waiting for her to work out what he meant.
Isen could be annoying that way. Just like Grandmother. “Friar can’t eavesdrop here,” she said slowly, “for the same reason the Great Bitch can’t use her super-duper clairvoyance to watch what’s going on at Clanhome. Friar’s clairaudience Gift comes from her, and her magic doesn’t work here because clanhomes have some kind of connection to the mantles.” She considered that a moment. “Is it anything like a sidhe lord’s land-tie?”
He smiled to congratulate her, but it was a weary thing, bereft of his usual mischief. “I don’t know enough about the land-tie to say for sure, but the differences seem to outweigh the similarities. Sidhe lords draw power from their land; I don’t. They are said to sense the lives contained on their lands. I don’t. But Nokolai claims this land. The mantle is part of that claiming. It reacts to certain kinds of power, which is how I would know if someone touched by her entered Clanhome.” He paused, looked at Rule, and finished softly, “Just as I know if the Rho of another clan is here.”
“But we’ve been here since October!” Trouble pulled Lily’s shoulder muscles taut, as if she might need to punch someone. As if that could help. “What changed? Is it just because Rule used the Leidolf mantle to keep his heartbeat separate?”
“That’s part of it.” Rule said that much, then stopped. He seemed to be hunting words, so she stayed quiet, giving him room. “You know about the agreement I made with Isen after the Leidolf mantle was forced on me.”
She nodded. “Here at Clanhome you’re Lu Nuncio to Nokolai, not Rho to Leidolf.”
“I haven’t had a problem holding to that agreement—until now.” His shoulders lifted in a small shrug. “Now the genie is out of the bottle, and I can’t get it to go back in.”
“He means,” Isen said softly, “that he can no longer step outside of his role as Rho to Leidolf. Not because he used the mantle. Because it’s no longer a role.”
A role happened in your head, not your heart, didn’t it? Somehow, tonight Rule became Leidolf in his heart or his gut or wherever identity is born. Somehow, that meant he was Rho all the time. She looked at him. “Does that mean that when you were out on the field and you ducked your head and said you were answering your Rho, you were only pretending to submit?”
Rule snorted, but he didn’t look amused. “Pretense is the wrong word. I can no more pretend to submit than I can pretend to walk. Either I do it or I don’t. I’m still Nokolai, still Lu Nuncio, so I still submit to my Rho, but it was…I can no longer stop being Rho.”
“And that’s a problem because of your agreement with Isen.”
“Yes, though agreements can be renegotiated if both parties are willing. The real problem arises from one of the reasons for that agreement.” He ran both hands through his hair, then glanced at his father. “I don’t know what it feels like to you, but I feel as if I’m surrounded by a repeller field.”
“Rather like having something lodged in my teeth that I can’t, for all sorts of excellent reasons, even try to dislodge.”
Lily took a sip of her coffee, puzzling through what they’d said. “The Nokolai and Leidolf mantles don’t like each other.”
Isen gave her that tired smile that wasn’t like him. “Nothing so personal, nor is it proximity that’s the problem. The Nokolai and Leidolf mantles exist in very tight proximity in Rule, after all. But something about the link between mantle and clanhome makes it uncomfortable for one Rho to be in another’s demesne. Some believe the Lady did this on purpose, to discourage clans from settling too near each other, which would lead to fighting. Others think it’s an accidental byproduct. I lean toward the latter opinion. Had the Lady meant to discourage fighting in this way, the discomfort would be more general. As it is, only a Rho experiences it.”
A brief silence fell. Lily sipped her cooling coffee and followed the logic until she arrived at…“Do we move back into your apartment, or will it take too long to break the sublease?”
His brows flew up, then drew down in a scowl. “The apartment isn’t safe.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“I’m not going to—” He broke off, looking toward the front of the house.
“Ah, Seabourne is back,” Isen said. “I wonder why?”
Lily didn’t know what they’d heard that she hadn’t, but she was used to that. A moment later a perfunctory knock landed on the front door. She heard it open. Quick footsteps pattered down the hall, then Cullen stood in the entry, scowling. He looked directly at Isen. “I figured it out. I don’t know if you want me to say anything in front of them.” A graceful wave identified Rule and Lily as “them.”
Isen sighed and took a sip of coffee. “Indeed, I’m far from at my best. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know why the second ward didn’t activate.” Cullen paused for a long, significant moment…then sighed. “I was hoping this was one of your convoluted schemes. I guess not. There was only one possibility, really. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s the only thing that does make sense.”
“Which you aren’t yet doing, I’m afraid.”
Cullen walked into the room and plopped down on the hassock near the window. He spoke directly to Isen. “I told you when I was setting the wards I’d make sure you were exempt. I can’t lock out my Rho or my Lu Nuncio. Or Cynna, for that matter, and I didn’t want to be bothered putting the wards up and taking them down every time I went in and out. So when I created them I built in permissions. You, Rule, Cynna, and I are permitted to cross without triggering the wards.”
Lily sat up straight. “Wait a minute. Are you saying Rule or Isen stole your thingee? Or Cynna?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Isen would’ve stopped me if he’d been behind this, and there’s no way Rule would run a deal behind Isen’s back. The thing is, there’s only two ways to build permissions into wards. You can set patterns into them that represent the people who are permitted to cross, but that’s harder than it sounds. Cynna could do it,” he added. “She’s fantastic at patterns. But it would be a big job, and at the time she was absorbing so many of the memories of the clan…I didn’t want to bother her, so I used the second option. I asked Rule and Isen for a bit of their blood.”
“Yes,” Isen said. “I remember.”
“So do I,” Rule said. “But I don’t see what this has to do with the thief, since you’ve graciously stricken us from your list of suspects.”