Magic Casement (19 page)

She
sat as straight as her crumbling bones permitted in a high-back chair on a
small dais at one end of the great ballroom. From this vantage she oversaw the
splendor with both pleasure and the unwinking stare of a snake. Should she
notice any maiden whose decolletage fell below her standards, or any young
cockerel dipping too deep in the wine bowl, then would she thump the parquet
with her gold-topped cane to summon a messenger from a small army of pages that
stood near to hand. The offender would be requested to attend her Grace
forthwith.

From
time to time her friends and guests would pause in their progress to wish her
merry Winterfest, or thank her for the hospitality, or merely to reminisce.
Persons of especial interest she would permit to perch briefly on the chairs
beside her to exchange a few fleeting words, but that was an honor sparingly
granted. Now the band was playing a reel. The ballroom flashed and surged with
color as the dancers pranced and leaped through the intricate patterns. Ekka
watched the pairings form and reform, all the permutations and combinations
flickering together in her mind, for Kinvale was both a finishing school and a
marriage bureau. Matchmaking was Ekka’s lifelong skill and recreation. To
Kinvale came the eligible young ladies of half the Impire, with mothers or
aunts or grandmothers in attendance, and few indeed were those who did not find
themselves betrothed to their elders’ satisfaction when they departed.
Rank and wealth and looks and breeding-the possibilities and requirements were
innumerable. It took a rare touch to blend them all in satisfying coalescence,
and a diplomacy and knack bordering on sorcery to see that the young persons
involved believed that they had followed nothing but their own wishes when they
united in the pairings Ekka had selected.

Now
the couples she had paired in her youth were sending their children or even
grandchildren. At times she felt like godmother to the Impire.

The
frenetic whirling reached its climax in the final chord, then an instant of
silence. The men bowed to their partners, the partners curtsied. And all over
the hall they each took a deep breath, for the tempo had been fiery. The
ballroom seemed to gasp, then the tableau disintegrated in smiles and laughter
and conversation, men moving to lead ladies back to their seats. Close by Ekka,

Legate
Ooniola was escorting Princess Kadolan of Krasnegar through the crowd with the
same single-minded dedication he would have applied to maneuvering his legion.
Ekka lifted her cane and caught Kade’s eye. The legate obediently
right-turned and delivered the princess to Ekka’s dais. He bowed. Kade
thanked him. He departed.

Puffing
mightily, she sank down beside the duchess. Fans were in vogue again this year
and Kade took advantage of the fact vigorously.

“Good!”
she said. “I allow my ambitions to exceed my abilities! I feared I was
going to have an apoplexy halfway through that one.”

“I
am sure you would never do anything so gauche, my dear. It is going well, I
think?”

“Marvelous!”
Kade sighed contentedly. “Winterfest is a dry crust anywhere but Kinvale.
It is wonderful to be back again.” Her eyes were raking the hall.

“Over
by the far buffet,” Ekka said. “With the legionary, the tall one.”

Kade
nodded and relaxed. “A great experience for her. She will never forget
Winterfest at Kinvale. No one ever does. “

“Kind
of you to say so.” Ekka frowned at the sight of the Astilo girl talking
with the weedy Enninafia youth. His family did not need her money, and it could
use an infusion of brains that her bloodlines would not supply. “Your
niece does you great credit, ma’am.”

Kade
simpered and they both chuckled. They had been-and indeed must still
be-sisters-in-law. Their acquaintanceship dated back for almost half a century.
They needed very few words to convey meanings to each other.

“She
benefits more from the current fashion than I do,” Kade said wistfully.
Ekka was too kind to smile. Only short weeks before Winterfest the dramatic
news had come from Hub-trumpets were out, bustles were back in. Dress plans had
been changed at very short notice, but the last thing Kadolan needed was a
bustle. She had done the best she could, staying with dark-blue satin and a
single strand of pearls, borrowing Ekka’s own pearl tiara, but even in
such simplicity she was still dumpy, and the bustle mocked her.

“At
the back she benefits perhaps,” Ekka remarked. “She is a little
young yet for the necklines. “ She disapproved of the present style in
necklines. They took the men’s minds off conversation.

“Well,
in necklines I am qualified. “ Kade raised her fan to conceal her mouth. “My
niece had the audacity to tell me that my figure was altogether two things of a
good much.”

Ekka’s
thin dry lips sketched a smile. “Of course you chided her for unladylike
thoughts and unseemly vulgarity?” The orchestra was striking up a
gallopade, and the floor began to swirl again with eager couples.

“Of
course! But Kinvale has been wonderful for her! Six months ago she would have
said it in public.”

“That
was what I wanted to ask you, dear. How is our young hussar faring?”

Kade
sighed again. “She suspects that he may have left his helmet out in the
sun too long. With his head in it. “

“It
is not unlikely,” Ekka agreed. “I fear that I am running out of
candidates, Kade. If you are still intent on leaving in early summer, we are
facing a shortage of time. Shall we review the requirements? “

The
gallopade was in full romp, and Inosolan was being passed down a line of men,
laughing and smiling. Her dancing had improved beyond all recognition. The
ladies continued their conversation while watching the dancers.

“Character,
I fear, comes first,” Kade said sadly.

“That
is a problem. Anything else is easy. And character is not merely rare, it is
hard to detect soon enough. Although nothing brings it out like matrimony. “

“Too
late then, of course.” Kade accepted a sparkling goblet from a footman’s
tray. “Holindam insists that she make a free choice, as I told you.”
She paused. “Even if her happiness requires her to remain in the Impire,
he said. “

Ekka
was startled and said, “Indeed?” noncommitally, while she mulled
this interesting complication. She could think of several families that would
be gratified to pick up a meaningless royal title, so long as their son did not
have to go and dwell in the barren north for it. Her own, for example-and there
were other interesting implications.

“That
certainly widens the field, then. He would allow her to relinquish the throne,
you mean?”

Her
sister-in-law hesitated again. “It may not be hers to relinquish, dear. “

Silence
was the best lubricant for confidences...

Kade
frowned, as if she had not meant to go so far. “In the Impire you have
had several imperesses. “

“Mostly
very competent!”

“History
is not my strong point.” Kadolan was still watching as Inos drew closer
in the intricacies of the dance. “But in Nordland there is no doubt-only
men can rule. Krasnegar has no precedents in the matter.”

“So
who makes the decision?” Ekka asked, nodding to some passing ladies.

“He
does,” Kade said confidently. “He will name his heir.” Ekka
waited for more, then prompted. “But can he make it stick after his
death?”

Kade
smiled unwillingly. “Time has not blunted you, dear.”

That
will depend on a lot of things. Will the people accept her?

“Will
Nordland? Will the Impire?”

Mmm...
obviously something more topical was bothering her. Something had provoked this
confidence, or it would have come out months ago.

“And
his decision, and all the others’ decisions, will depend on her choice of
husband?”

Kade
nodded absently, acknowledging friends whirling past.

“Very
much so, I think. Certainly Nordland’s.” More silence and then she
said, “And the timing.”

Ah!
“Timing, dear?”

Inos
came dancing by. She noticed her aunt and smiled radiantly, then was swept away
into the pattern. She was almost the only woman in the room who could wear a
green like that. It set off her eyes beautifully-and almost as much as her
golden hair, it let Kade pick her out in the crowd.

“Holindarn
can train a successor,” Kade said, “whether Inos herself or her
husband. Ruling a kingdom, even a single-bed-size kingdom like Krasnegar, does
take a certain knack.” This time silence was not enough lubrication. “He
is a relatively young man yet,” Ekka suggested.

“Of
course.”

But
there had been a hesitation. Travel between Krasnegar and Kinvale was not
impossible in winter. Trappers and other rough men could do it. Such men would
do it for money. If Kade had been concerned about her brother’s health,
then she would certainly have arranged for someone in the palace hierarchy to
keep her informed-she was not nearly as scatterbrained as she pretended.

“You
have had no word lately, have you? No news is good news. “

“So
they say,” Kade agreed, with a tranquility that did not deceive the
dowager duchess for a moment.

For
if Holindarn did not want his sister to hear, then he was quite capable of
learning whom she had recruited and then derecruiting them. Had any message
arrived at Kinvale, Ekka would surely have heard of it. No news, then, was bad
news, and that was what was rankling.

And
if Inos did not succeed, who was next in line?

“So
the hussar we send back to his horse, “ Ekka said, “or we may aim
him elsewhere-the Astlio girl, perhaps... Have any of his predecessors dropped
sparks on the tinder?”

“Yes
indeed. I wanted to ask you about him. You built a blaze with your first
attempt, dear, and left no fuel for the others.”

Ekka
was surprised. “That merchant youth? What was his name? The one from Jini
Fanda?”

“Good
Gods, no!” Kade spluttered in a very unusual display of emotion. “Even
I couldn’t stand him. No, the Andor boy.”

“Ardor?
Oh, that one! Still?”

Ekka
frowned. “He wasn’t one of mine, Kade. You gave me no warning,
remember. It took a little time to call them in from the pasture. Angilki
invited that one. “ At that moment she noticed her son, dancing with the
Yyloringy woman, his face as blank as a well-polished table.

“Perhaps
a fortunate chance, then, “ Kade remarked sanguinely.

“Perhaps.
“

This
time it was Kadolan who detected the hesitation. She turned to her hostess with
an inquiring glance.

“It
is his house, after all,” Ekka said. “I can hardly stop him from
inviting his own friends to stay. “

“Of
course not, my dear.”

But
this would not be the first time Angilki had unwittingly thrown complications
into his mother’s plans. She had told him more than once that he could
invite anyone he liked except men--or women. The joke had escaped him. Jokes
usually did.

“Well,
Sir Andor undoubtedly had character,” Kade said, “or at least
charm. If diplomacy is a requirement for ruling Krasne-, gar-and it certainly
is-then he would qualify on that. What else do we know about him?” Inos
was coming around again. A very good question! Ekka did not think her memory
was failing her yet. She was rather proud of her memory. But on the spur of the
moment, she could recall nothing at all about that Andor boy. She had engaged
him in conversation several times, of course. She had begun a careful probing.
Curiously, though, it seemed that the subject of Sir Andor’s background
had always slipped out of play. All she could remember was laughing very hard
at some of his jests.

“Why
don’t we check the files in the morning?” she suggested. “He
brought letters, of course... and my notes. Just look at that wretched Ithinoy
girl! How could her grandmother ever dream of allowing her to wear puce, with
her coloring?”

“Ekka?”
Kadolan said sharply.

Ekka
sighed. “You should have suggested him sooner. We could have invited him
to the ball.”

“He
is probably not available. He told Inos that he was leaving on some romantic
mission of honor and danger. He has not written. She does not write to him.”

The
two ladies exchanged puzzled glances.

“But
why leave?” Ekka said. “If that’s what he was? If that was
what he wanted?”

“If
that was what he wanted, then he succeeded. She has not looked seriously at
anyone else. “

“He
did not...” Ekka paused. Even with a very old friend, there are some
questions...

“No!
I’m quite sure. One can always tell. But he certainly could have done,
had he wanted. She was very innocent, remember. Now she is perhaps a little
wiser, but he knew every trick in the box. I fancy I know most of them, but
that young man could have sidestepped me with no trouble, had he wished.”

From
Kade that was an astonishing confession. In her years at Kinvale, even before
their respective husbands had died, she had been Ekka’s pupil and partner
in matrimonial machinations. Anything the Princess Kadolan did not know about
chaperoning and the wiles of swains should not be worth knowing.

Still,
Ekka was relieved. Three juvenile domestics had been dismissed soon after Sir
Andor’s departure, and probably several others had been more fortunate in
their follies.

“So
what was he after, I wonder? The crown?”

“Then
why leave?” It was very unlike Kade to let worry show on her face. “What
business could possibly be more important?”

“Perhaps
he went off to take a look at Krasnegar?”

That
remark provoked loud, unladylike guffaws from both of them.

The
gallopade had ended. Angilki went by, leading the Yyloringy woman, breathing
much too heavily and still half asleep with boredom.