Ariele stared, her mouth open, unable to name the feelings inside her, since disbelief was not permitted to be one of them. “But how could she know my mother would become the new Summer Queen?”
He shrugged. “She had become Queen. How could your mother not?”
“How do you know about this?” Ariele said. “Does everyone know—?” Except me.
“Of course not, dear child. Most of the Summers don’t really know what Arienrhod looked like. Capella Goodventure saw her up close before she died, of course—saw them both together. It’s one small reason why she and your mother don’t get along… . Most of the Winters still think your mother actually is Arienrhod— in the flesh, that is—that somehow she cheated death and the offworlders, and lived on and is still Queen. But a few—a very few—people know the real truth. Arienrhod and I were old, old friends. I was … an intimate in all her most personal affairs.” He raised his eyebrows, and Elco Teel sniggered, lying on the floor.
“Does … does Da know about this?” Tammis asked, his voice sounding odd.
Kirard Set chuckled and took another sip of wine. “Oh, he certainly does. Most of it never would have come to pass without him. He and your mother were childhood sweethearts, you know. When she became a sibyl he thought she had rejected him, and he ran away to Carbuncle.”
“What’s that got to do with Arienrhod?” Tammis said.
Kirard Set waved his impatience aside. “When Arienrhod learned Sparks was in the City, she had him brought to her, thinking she could use him to lure your mother to her, to get her to leave the islands and come to the city… . She sent a message to your mother, supposedly from him, saying he was in trouble. Your mother did come after him, because of course she still loved him very much. But she had the misfortune to be abducted offworld by technmners on her way here—or perhaps the good fortune, depending on your point of view; since she learned the power of her sibylhood, which even Arienrhod never dreamed of. But it took five years for her to get back, and in the meantime Arienrhod thought she was lost forever.”
“My mother has been offworld? With pirates—?” Ariele murmured, astonished by the secret lives her parents had led when they were hardly older than she was herself. She had scarcely even wondered what their lives had been like before she was born, imagining they had always been the way they were in her earliest memories: old, weary, obsessed with work and not each other. To picture her mother young, passionate, daring anything for her father’s sake … and not even her own mother’s child. Arienrhod’s. Ariele blinked and shook her head, feeling giddy, tantalized, excited … frightened.
“What about Da?” Tammis said again. “Did he think our mother was dead too?”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.” Kirard Set smiled again, with a rueful sympathy in his voice that was not reflected in his eyes. “Arienrhod made certain he did. He was almost inconsolable. …”
Ariele half frowned, not sure what he was saying, but only that something lay between the words that she did not understand.
Elco Teel laughed. “But Arienrhod consoled him, for five years, right, Da—?”
Ariele saw Tammis and Merovy turn to stare at him; realized she was staring at him too, with sudden comprehension. She looked back at Kirard Set. “You mean, my father … and the Snow Queen … were lovers?”
Kirard Set’s smile widened with what she almost thought was approval, as he saw that she understood. “Oh yes, Ariele … it was inevitable. That they would both be Queen—that they would both fall in love with the same man. Arienrhod had fallen in love with him, just as your mother had—he was her favorite for five years She gave him everything he wanted … even the water of life.”
“Da … drank the water of life?” Ariele whispered. “But I thought . . ‘ thought … he was a Summer.” She remembered how the sight of mers always seemed to trouble her father, wondering suddenly if that was why. “And he was pledged … with my mother, for life.”
“But he thought she was gone.” Kirard Set shrugged. “And Arienrhod was there, and so much like her … and Arienrhod was very good at getting what she wanted, just as your mother is. Come now, children—” he glanced away from the look on her face, to Tammis’s, “surely you can understand, and forgive him, under the circumstances. Even in Summer a marriage—pledging—rarely lasts a lifetime. Everyone has the right to choose. Many Summers never pledge themselves to a single mate at all; they like variety. So do Winters. Arienrhod liked considerable variety, and your father learned to share her tastes. He developed quite a sophisticated palate, for a Summer. You have to understand, it was very difficult not to become intimately acquainted—not only with Arienrhod, but with her other favorites as well, when you were one of them. We were all so close—she encouraged it … But of course she was always his first love, and he was hers. Perhaps it would even have been ‘only,’ under other circumstances.”
Ariele took a deep breath, realizing that her mouth had fallen open. She shut it, trying to hide the foolish, gaping incredulity of her expression before Kirard Set, or even Elco Teel, began to laugh at her. “What happened when Mama came back—?” Her voice was almost inaudible; she almost wished that she had never asked the first question, never heard any of this, at all, ever. Almost. “When she found out? What did they say?”
“Only she and your father, and perhaps Arienrhod, know that.” He took another drink, and held the decanter out to her. She took it from him, and took a large swallow, almost choking. The hot burn of the wine going down her throat felt punishingly good. “But of course your mother was not really in a position to pass judgment on your father. She had only just learned herself that Arienrhod was her real mother … and her exact double. How could she blame Sparks for falling in love with her, all over again, when he’d lost her once … And besides, they say there was a Kharemoughi Police inspector who turned renegade to help your mother here in the city. You have to wonder what there was between him and her, what kind of hold she had over him, to make an offworlder turn against his own people. Don’t you—?”
Ariele nodded, although she did not want to, biting her lip. She looked down, unable to meet anyone’s eyes.
“But you haven’t asked me what happened between your mother and Arienrhod, when they finally met. That’s the best part.”
Ariele looked up at him again. “What happened?” she asked faintly.
“Arienrhod had made her new plans while Moon was away; she decided she would live on herself, after all. She’d planned to spread a plague that would kill all the Summers who’d come to Carbuncle for the last Festival—throw the world into chaos, so the offworlders would flee and she could keep her power.” Ariele grimaced, but he only smiled and went on. “She didn’t need your mother anymore … but of course she wanted her. How could she not—? She asked Moon to reign with her, share everything with her … even Sparks.”