When Karon and I were announced and directed into the music room, we found over two hundred guests already seated on red velvet and gold-leaf chairs. Intermingled with the scent of expensive perfumes were traces of the pine, laurel, and balsam boughs that were stuffed into great jars and vases and set in every corner, crack, and crevice. The house blazed with candlelight. While gold-liveried servants scurried about with wine and extra chairs, the ladies’ diamonds and the gentlemen’s swords scattered glittering reflections.
More guests streamed through the side doors. A young woman in a white gown took her place in an island of red carpet at one end of the music room, twisting her fingers and glancing anxiously toward the opposite end of the room where the wide main doors remained closed. As we were seated, she was joined by a hollow-eyed young man with a harp and an enormously large man with a flute, who settled his bulk on a precariously fragile chair. The ensemble did not look promising.
The entertainment could not proceed until the king arrived. Sir Geoffrey circulated among the guests, joking about the wait. “Worth it, as you’ll hear,” he said. “I picked up this one in Valleor. Such a find! She was the favorite of a Vallorean merchant until his palace fell in on him in the earthquake last summer.”
Karon shifted in his chair, peering between the heads in front of us. I felt his arm stiffen, but before I could question him, the double doors were thrown open and a royal herald stepped into the room. Everyone rose.
“His Most Gracious Majesty Evard, King of Leire and Valleor, and Protector of Kerotea.”
Evard strode into the room. An ermine-lined red velvet short cloak was removed by one of his attendants to reveal a tight, gold-encrusted doublet, its exaggerated point dipping all the way to his groin over puffed breeches of gold brocade. A shirt of red and gold patterned silk poked out at his wrists and at his neck in great ruffles, above a wide, flat collar studded with sapphires and rubies. As did the rest of the ladies, I dipped my head and curtsied as he passed. Karon and the other gentlemen bowed. Evard’s fair hair drooped rakishly across his brow as always, but the hard gray eyes underneath peered about uneasily, as a fluttering Sir Geoffrey guided him to a seat on the front row.
The queen did not accompany him. Tomas and Darzid followed just behind him, however, as did at least twenty aides and serving gentlemen.
I had not seen Tomas since Evard’s wedding, though I’d heard the news of his marriage to the seventeen-year-old daughter of Evard’s chancellor. Though as stiff and wary as his royal master, he looked well, apparently none the worse for the Kerotean disaster.
Darzid alone seemed relaxed. He strolled through the aisles greeting every high-ranking noble as if he were himself a duke, whispering in ladies’ ears, sharing a laugh or a word with the gentlemen. His behavior brought to mind a recent comment of Martin’s. “It seems as if, nowadays, when you turn over any slime-covered stone in Leiran society, Darzid slithers away. And I don’t believe it’s your brother that sets him to it.” I wished we had not come.
The performance began, and, for a while, royalty, politics, Darzid, and the unnerving reference to the Vallorean earthquake were easily forgotten. The music was glorious. A find, indeed. The girl’s fidgeting evaporated with the first silvery note of the flute, and when she answered the ringing note with her own clear tone, I thought it might be difficult to tell which was which. But as she began to weave her voice about the music, it became clear that the instrument could not rival the purity of her voice. She wrapped this loveliness about a song of love undying, a song not out of the ordinary way, but when she was done, few eyes in the room were dry. For the next hour the anxieties of the past weeks were forgotten, as if the noble assembly had heaved a great sigh. As Karon’s mentor had taught him, nature bestowed many gifts that magic could not surpass.
Karon was entranced, his rapt expression telling me that he was storing up the beauty against the day when he could use his power again. But when the music ended, and the guests rose and began to crowd their way toward the supper rooms, he whispered in my ear. “The girl will know me.”
Dread wrapped cold arms about my heart. “Then we must go,” I said.
Karon nodded. His face was calm, but his grip on my arm was tight as he guided me against the flow of the crowd toward the outer doors. Acquaintances attempted to turn our course, but I pleaded an unsettled stomach as the reason for an early departure. A quarter of an hour and we were almost clear, but just as we reached the doors that led to the foyer, Sir Geoffrey waved his hand above the crowd and called after us with a hearty voice. “Karon, my lad, where are you going? His Majesty has asked for you.” The old gentleman forged through his milling guests and clamped his hand on Karon’s shoulder. “I inquired how he liked the Dorian monolith standing at the entrance to the Crown Vault, and he asked was it the new commissioner’s choice? I said it was either his or his lady’s, and he said he would like an opportunity to express his appreciation.”
“I was just going to take Seri home,” said Karon. “She feels a bit ill tonight.”
“But of course you can’t refuse His Majesty’s summons. Perhaps your lady would like to lie down in a guest chamber. Or I could supply an escort to take her home.”
Karon looked at me, questioning.
Only one answer was possible. “I’ll wait with Karon, Sir Geoffrey. Perhaps it will shorten the formalities. The evening has been exceptional.”
“It has, has it not? Misara will be the most brilliant star of our musical firmament for a generation.” He laid one arm across Karon’s shoulders and crooked his other arm for my hand. “Now come. This could be excellent for our plans. I’ve been worried that the discouraging military news might preclude our proceeding with the expansion, but if His Majesty himself is taking an interest…”
Evard was holding court in the drawing room beside a pink marble mantelpiece carved with dolphins. Above the mantel was a gigantic mural of a naked Jerrat holding a lightning bolt, surrounded by crashing waves, sea monsters, and storm-wracked vessels. As Sir Geoffrey forged our way through the glittering company like one of the brave ships in the painting, Karon gave me his most reassuring smile. All will be well, it told me.
I didn’t believe it.
The king was tapping one foot, looking anywhere but at his companion, a beribboned matron pontificating on the virtues of her gangly son, who looked, conveniently, just old enough to be knighted. Evard himself appeared older than the last time I had been near him, his gray eyes harder, his face more angular, even his blond beard more wiry and pointed. Perhaps life was not going as he had planned.
My brother stood next to Evard and took no notice of me. One would think he was seven years old again, trying to show his displeasure at some slight. He, too, looked older than when I’d seen him last. Regret at our estrangement still bubbled its way to the surface of my heart. Karon stood close and squeezed my hand.
Sir Geoffrey quickly swept the fond mother and her goggle-eyed progeny to the side. “Your Majesty, may I present the Royal Commissioner of Antiquities—”
“I’m sure your lady has told you of our long and… intimate… acquaintance.” Evard scarcely glanced at Karon and did not acknowledge Sir Geoffrey’s presence at all. The full weight of his attention fell on me.
“An honor, Your Majesty”—Evard twitched a finger and Karon rose from his genuflection—“and my wife has indeed told me of her privilege to be a friend of your youth.” Despite my apprehension, I had to smile. Was this meeting just curiosity or did Evard hope to plant some seed of discord by his implications?
“You’ve likely not been introduced to her brother, the Duke of Comigor. Tomas, have you met your sister’s chosen lord and master?”
“No, sire.” Tomas raked Karon with a glance. His lip curled slightly. Karon bowed, but the courtesy was not returned. Tomas jerked his head at his lieutenant. “My aide, Captain Darzid.”