Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses) (12 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

BOOK: Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses)
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Ginny was silent for a long moment as she sat beside her sleeping brother, watching his face. Wen rested on her own bed across the room, waiting. “I want him to have opportunities,” Ginny said at last. “You might be right that the best place for him is a nobleman’s house. If he grows up as a tavern boy, he’ll be a tavern boy his whole life. If he serves a marlord—well—who knows what he might be?”
 
 
“It’s not just Bryce we need to think about,” Wen pointed out. “You have your life to look forward to.”
 
 
Ginny shook her head. “I don’t care about me. Bryce is the one I worry about.”
 
 
“You’d better care about yourself. No one else is going to. Figure out what you want and go after it, because it’s not going to come looking for you.” Wen was surprised to hear the roughness in her own voice.
 
 
Ginny just regarded her with those big dark eyes. “Then why haven’t
you
gone after what you wanted?” She gestured around the room. “Because surely
this
wasn’t it.”
 
 
Wen closed her eyes and sank back on the bed. To be reduced to explaining herself to a homeless girl! “I did for a while,” she said on a sigh. “And it was exceptional. My own fault that it turned sour.”
 
 
“Well, can’t you fix it?” Ginny asked.
 
 
Wen turned on her side, facing the wall. Let Ginny lock the door and blow out the candle. “No,” she said. “Not ever.”
 
 
There was silence for a moment, and then the rustling sound of Ginny moving around the room. Wen heard the girl settle on the bed again before she spoke once more. “So—tomorrow? Will you go ask the noble if he’s interested in hiring Bryce and me?”
 
 
Wen opened her eyes and stared blankly at the darkness. Go beg a favor of Jasper Paladar. Well, he owed her one. “I will. Go to sleep, Ginny. Tomorrow will be here before you know it.”
 
 
 
 
WEN
waited in Jasper Paladar’s study, feeling a little more nervous than she’d expected. There had only been one soldier at the high, grillwork gate set into the living fence, which she considered inexcusable, and as far as she could tell, no guards were posted near the house itself. If
she’d
been a mercenary, she could have slipped through these halls and corridors within minutes, found Karryn Fortunalt, and abducted her with a minimum of resistance. It seemed some people were slow to learn lessons.
 
 
It might have been hard to pick her way through the house, though, for her brief glimpse of it between the front door and this study had shown it to be very imposing. A broad staircase swept up from the central foyer, and halls branched off both sides. The stairwell itself spiraled overhead into a series of stories, each with its own balcony overlooking the front entry hall. The interior of the house was nearly as severe as the gray-and-black exterior, with white marble floors inlaid with black disks, heavy carved chairs and tables in the rooms Wen could see, and dark drapes outlining every window.
 
 
She pivoted on one foot. This room wasn’t quite as stark, possibly because it was messy. A massive desk was littered with papers, while stacks of books and piles of old letters made precarious columns on the floor behind it. A used wine goblet sat on the desk next to a plate still containing a half-eaten piece of bread and a hard wedge of cheese that looked like it had sat out overnight.
Must not be many mice here,
Wen thought,
or that little feast would be gone by now.
 
 
When she heard footsteps, she straightened her posture and emptied her expression, and she was ready with a little bow when Jasper Paladar stepped in. Stupidly, her first thought was that she’d forgotten how tall he was. She’d remembered the beard, the brown-and-gray hair, the intelligent gray eyes.
 
 
“Willa,” he said, and she found she’d remembered his deep voice as well. “I had not expected to see you again, but I’m pleased to find you here.” He put his head out the door and she heard him ask for refreshments to be sent.
 
 
“I’m not hungry,” she said at once.
 
 
He came back inside, smiled, and shut the door. “Maybe not, but I am, and I can hardly eat without offering you something. Have a seat.”
 
 
He gestured at the grouping of chairs closest to the window, and sat beside her instead of behind the intimidating desk. His legs were so long she thought he could stretch them out and reach the sill. Her own barely touched the floor. She felt a moment’s resentment and quickly checked it.
 
 
“So have you been in Forten City all this time since we saw you last?” he asked.
 
 
She shook her head. “No. I had no plans to come here, but I took a short-term job guarding a shipment coming this way.”
 
 
“And you decided to stop by and inquire whether Karryn made it safely back once she’d left your care,” he said, nodding as if that was perfectly reasonable.
 
 
She couldn’t help a grin. “No, I have a question to ask you. But I do hope the serramarra is home and doing well.”
 
 
“Indeed she is. She’ll be sorry she missed you, however, since she’s out visiting a friend who lives in the city.”
 
 
Wen reviewed Karryn’s artless conversation. “She has a lot of friends.”
 
 
“She has a lot of acquaintances,” Jasper Paladar corrected. “I don’t know how many of them are truly friends.”
 
 
“I hope you sent a guard with her this time,” Wen said before she could stop herself.
 
 
He looked amused. “Is that why you came here? To check our fortifications?”
 
 
“No,” she said—and then, because his neglect really was criminal, “but they’re lousy.”
 
 
“Please. Feel free to give your opinion.”
 
 
She gestured. “
One
guard at the gate? That wouldn’t stop
anyone
! What would happen to you if I decided to run you through? Is there anyone who could stop me? How many soldiers are on the premises? Is there a training yard? Is there a
captain
? Who’s responsible for this place?” She shook her head. “Karryn’s not safe, but neither are you.”
 
 
“You’ve been spying on us, I see,” he said in a level voice.
 
 
“Not spying,” she said shortly. “I walked by, and that’s what I saw.”
 
 
He tilted his head to one side. “The offer is still open,” he said. “I will hire you to be my captain and give you free rein to overhaul the guard as you see fit. I’ll give you enough money to do it, too.”
 
 
She pressed her lips together. “I don’t want a job like that. But you ought to hire
someone
to do it.”
 
 
“Why are you here, then, if not to look for work?”
 
 
“
I
don’t want a position. But I have someone who might. Two someones. They’re young, but one of them at least has skills that might come in handy for a serramarra.”
 
 
His eyebrows rose again. “I’ve only had about ten minutes’ worth of conversation with you over two meetings,” he observed, “and you have never once said what I expected you to say. Who are these young unemployed people with special talents?”
 
 
That almost made her laugh. “A young mystic boy and his sister. I found them alongside the road in a dire situation,” she said. “The boy is a reader. He knew it was safe to ask me for help. I can’t tell how strong his ability is—but that’s an impressive skill. The queen’s consort is a reader, you know.”
 
 
Jasper Paladar pursed his lips. “Indeed, I do know that. I had the opportunity to meet Cammon a couple of years ago when he decided I was the one who should be installed at Karryn’s side.”
 
 
“Did you not want the job, then?” she asked curiously.
 
 
“Let us say, I did not expect the offer,” he replied. “I was happy enough on my own estates following my own pursuits. Seeing Karryn through the tangle that is Fortunalt politics—that has been a challenge I would have been perfectly happy to miss.”
 
 
“You could have refused.”
 
 
“I get the feeling people do not often refuse the royal consort,” Jasper said. He read her look of surprise and smiled. “Oh, no, he offered me no threat. Merely, he presented the situation to me in such a way that I could not turn him down.
I
could not—so precisely had he judged my convictions and my honor. Some other man might have told him no and felt not the slightest guilt.”
 
 
“He’s a good man,” Wen said in a subdued voice. “And Amalie a good queen.” Though both of them were too young to be ruling the country. So much better, for so many reasons, if Baryn still wore the crown.
 
 
“Yet they have inherited a mess in Gillengaria! They do their best, better than I would have expected, but—” Jasper shrugged, then he smiled again. “But that is not what you came here to discuss with me. A mystic boy. You want me to hire him to—what? Be my advisor? Sit in on my discussions with the serlords and merchants and disgruntled landowners? The idea is quaint, my dear Willa, but impractical, don’t you think?”
 
 
She held on to her temper. “I hadn’t really thought about how he might aid you, my lord. Just that he might be useful.” She gave him a sharp look. “Or are you one of those who despises magic?”
 
 
“I wouldn’t stone a mystic in the streets, if that’s what you’re asking.”
 
 
“Well, these days, no one would, since the act has been made a criminal offense,” she replied.
 
 
“And I never condoned such actions in the past. But I’ve never had any dealings with mystics. Frankly, I’m not sure what good it would do me to employ such a boy.”
 
 
She leaned forward. “He’s a weapon. You never know how you’ll employ a weapon until the situation arises.”
 
 
He settled back in his chair and gave her a long look. “Well, now,” he said at last. “What an interesting thing to say. A soldier’s perspective, I must suppose. I have done my share of research, but I always had an end point in mind. I was trying to discover a fact, or understand a culture, or prove a theory. When I came across something that did not materially affect my investigation, no matter how unexpected it might be, I put it aside. I did not want the distraction. Sometimes I went back to it, if it was unusual enough, but then it merited its own review. I did not keep it on hand just because I thought it might be valuable someday.”
 
 
Wen preserved her silence, but privately she thought that was an unforgivably shortsighted way to function. Who
didn’t
pick up the odd bit of leather, the random stone, the sharp scrap of metal that might one day be turned to good use? Who
didn’t
always think about how something or someone might prove helpful or might turn dangerous? How could anyone survive with such narrow focus?
 
 
“So. This boy. What can he do, besides read emotions?”
 
 
“The usual chores that you might have in a kitchen or stable,” she said.
 
 
“And his sister? Her skills? How old are they, by the way?”
 
 
“I haven’t actually asked them, but Bryce looks to be about ten and Ginny three or four years older. She can cook and clean and garden. They’re both farm children. They’re used to farm chores. But they’ll both work hard at any task you put before them.”
 
 
“And they’re important to you why, exactly?”
 
 
She took a deep breath. “Because I found them and they trust me. And because they don’t have anybody else.”
 
 
“And did you approach me because you truly thought I could use this boy’s services, or because you thought I owed you a little charity?”
 
 
Now she was angry, and she came swiftly to her feet. “You owe me a favor, but hiring these two wouldn’t be charity,” she said coldly. “They’ve already had an offer, and anyone who hires them will have a good bargain. I thought to match a skill with a need, but I didn’t expect to be mocked for it. I’ll find them other positions. Thanks for your time.”

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