Reader and Raelynx (24 page)

“I guess this is the reason Valri didn’t think I should spend too much time alone with you,” he said, attempting to speak lightly.

She gave a little shrug. “I think she was more afraid of what you would find out about my magic.” She was completely depressed.

He couldn’t bear it. “Amalie.” When she didn’t look at him, he put his hand under her chin and tilted her face up. “Amalie. You’re wrong in what you’re thinking.”

She jerked her head away. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.”

“Oh, yes, I do.”

And, because it was so much easier not to say the words aloud, he let them reach her silently.
You’re embarrassed. You’re afraid I think you’re silly. You’re afraid I don’t like you. You wish you knew what I was thinking, because maybe I do like you. You wish you weren’t the princess. You wish that I was somebody else.

“No,” she said. The rest of his words had only made her blush, but this last sentence made her speak up. “No. I want you to be exactly who you are.”

He smiled.
Maybe that was me, wishing I was somebody else. Someone who had a right to court a princess.

She turned away, blushing still, but a little less forlorn. “I can’t do that,” she said. “I can hear you, but I can’t put thoughts in your head that clearly.”

Whatever else you take away from this night, you should know at least two things,
he said.
I never, never, never want to hurt you. And I am pretty sure you’re going to break my heart.

Her chin went up at that. “Why would I? And say it out loud.”

He smiled, shrugged, looked away, smiled again. “Because one day pretty soon, you’re going to marry one of those serramar after all.”

That
made her happy. His wretchedness and jealousy chased away her own insecurities, and now she was just another pretty girl who’d been kissed by a man she liked more than she wanted to admit. She smiled, ducked her head, failed to keep another blush at bay, and suddenly whirled around and headed for the door. He didn’t follow. She paused with her hand on the frame and gave him one quick look over her shoulder. Her words came to him, shaky and tentative and not entirely intelligible.

Maybe I won’t.

And then she giggled and swept through the door, into the dark corridor.

Cammon stood there a long moment, wondering exactly what she’d meant.

Maybe she wouldn’t marry? Or maybe she wouldn’t break his heart?

H
E
met Senneth and Tayse on the outskirts of Ghosenhall two days later. He had borrowed a horse and gone riding toward their small party, grinning at the exasperation Senneth was feeling toward her fresh recruits. Tayse exuded far more patience, though Cammon guessed it hadn’t been an easy trip for any of them. He could pick up a motley impression of their varied companions, full of awe and excitement and the sheer love of change that was inherent in every mystic. The city loomed before them, dazzling with promise. All of them were both eager and uneasy at the thought of stepping through the gates.

“A good trip, I take it,” Cammon greeted them as he pulled his horse around to ride alongside Senneth.

She gave him one quick, irascible look and decided not to answer. Tayse said, “We had a few inconveniences along the way.”

Cammon grinned. Just having them nearby was righting his sense of balance, seriously off-center for the past two days. “Why don’t you introduce me to everybody?”

Senneth arched her eyebrows at him, clearly asking why he had called her back to Ghosenhall so urgently if he was just going to engage in small talk when she arrived. “Do you have a few moments?” she asked pointedly.

He nodded. “Yes, of course. Though I have something I need to tell you.”

“I can take this lot to Jerril’s house,” Tayse offered.

“All right,” Senneth said. She turned in her saddle and began motioning people forward. “This is Baxter, he’s a shape-shifter.”

It took about fifteen minutes to go through the roster. Cammon picked up significant reserves of power from three of the mystics and made it a point to memorize their names. The others had a range of talents that would come in useful, but not as much ability as those three.

“Cammon’s a reader,” Senneth finished up. “So only think kind thoughts when he’s around.”

He grinned. “Something she herself never bothers to do.”

Tayse put up his right hand and motioned the others forward. They were nearly at the city gates now, and they were encountering all sorts of traffic. “Come with me. I’ll take you to the house where you’ll be boarding.”

Cammon and Senneth reined their own horses to a walk as the mystics pulled away. “You got a few really good ones,” he said. “That redheaded girl? She’s strong.”

“Really? She was so quiet on the whole journey that I began to wonder if I should even have brought her along.”

“Oh, I think so.”

“Now, what’s going on here? Why did you call me?”

So many parts to this tale. And the parts that would shock her most he wasn’t even going to share. “We were right. Amalie
is
a mystic. And so was her mother.”

Senneth took a deep breath. “How did you find out? Did she confide in you?”

“It gets much worse. So stay calm.”

“Just tell me.”

“Some young lord from Coravann is going to come calling next week, and he sent her a gift in advance. A moonstone necklace. She put it on and—”

“And it burned her skin? Bright Mother strike me blind. She’s going to be in all sorts of situations where people wearing moonstones will approach her and take her hand—”

“That’s not what happened,” he said quietly. “It burned
me.
”

She pulled her horse to a stop. “I don’t understand.”

“You remember that little lioness charm that Kirra carries around with her? I could take it in my hand and I could use it to pour some of my power into her. You remember that?”

Senneth was clearly bewildered. “Yes, but—”

“The moonstone is like that, I think. It can channel power. Or, more truly, it can steal power. Take it from a mystic and give it to whoever is wearing the charm.”

Now she was frowning. “But that can’t be true. I’ve been around plenty of people who were wearing moonstones and they didn’t seem to pull any power from me.”

“Well, you’re different anyway. You can
wear
a moonstone and it scarcely bothers you. But the real reason those people couldn’t pull power from you, I think, was because they weren’t mystics, too.”

“That makes even less sense! Kirra and Donnal can’t touch a moonstone, let alone use it to—”

Her voice trailed off. She was staring at him. He nodded. “It only works for a certain kind of mystic. A
true
Daughter of the Pale Mother.”

“Coralinda Gisseltess,” Senneth whispered.

“A thief mystic,” Cammon said. “Just like Amalie.”

“By all the forgotten gods.” She took a moment to absorb the information, turn it over in her mind, seek out the logical implications. She urged her horse forward again and Cammon rode beside her in silence while she worked it out. “Does Coralinda know she’s a mystic? Has this whole persecution been a sham?”

“Only she could tell us that. But I think she’s a sincere fanatic. You remember, I met her when we were in Coravann. She’s awfully powerful, so she could have been shielding, but I didn’t pick up anything from her but blazing righteousness.”

“Well, you didn’t pick up magic, either, so obviously you weren’t reading her entirely right.”

He gave her a hurt look. “It doesn’t read like other kinds of magic. It’s the
opposite
of magic.”

“Wait a minute,” Senneth said. “When we were in Coravann. You escorted Coralinda across the room. She took your arm. She was dripping with moonstones. And that didn’t bother you? That didn’t burn your skin?”

He shook his head. “No. But when she touched Kirra, Kirra was desperately in pain.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s easier for thief mystics to steal from some than from others. Maybe Amalie’s stronger than Coralinda and can pull power from farther away.”
Maybe I am more attuned to Amalie and thus she finds it easier to rifle through the pockets of my soul.

“Oh, I don’t even want to
think
about what this means!” Senneth groaned. “It was too complicated before!”

He smiled briefly. “And it might be even more complicated.”

She gave him a suspicious look. “Why’s that?”

“I keep wondering. If the moonstones feed the energy of other mystics to Coralinda, why does she want them dead? That just eliminates her source of power.”

“But if she doesn’t realize she’s a mystic, she doesn’t understand what she’s doing to herself,” Senneth pointed out.

“I guess that could be the reason.”

“You have a different theory.”

“Well. She hates us so much. She believes so passionately that she’s right to hate us. I have to assume that every time a mystic dies, she feels an intense sense of satisfaction—a validation of what she’s done. A sense of well-being…”

He let his voice trail off as he watched understanding come to her face. Understanding and horror. “You think she feeds off death?
That’s
what boosts her power?”

“I think it’s possible. She might feed off of torture as well.”

“Bright Mother burn me,” Senneth said. “I think I’m going to be sick. And
this
is the power that Amalie carries? This dreadful kind of magic?”

“Don’t say that!” he cried.

Senneth looked surprised. “Well, I wouldn’t. Not to her. But—”

“She had that very thought herself, and she was so upset, but it’s
not
the same! Magic responds to the will of the man—Jerril taught me that, and I have to guess he taught you, too. Coralinda has chosen to twist and misuse her power, but Amalie won’t. Amalie will make something good and useful out of it. But not if people—especially other mystics, who ought to know better!—treat her like she’s corrupt and evil!”

Senneth’s eyes had widened at this impassioned defense. “Of course I don’t believe Amalie is evil. But to learn that the heir to the realm is another Daughter of the Pale Mother—Cammon, I have to admit that gives me pause. That gives me
nightmares.
”

“The Pale Mother is not evil, either,” he said stiffly.

“She rejoices when she sees mystics burned to death!”

He shook his head. “No. Coralinda does. Not the goddess.”

“You can’t possibly know that! You might be a powerful reader, but I don’t think you can scan the minds of the
gods.
”

“Ask Ellynor,” he said. “She knows more of the Silver Lady than any of us do. Except—well, you can’t ask Ellynor because Valri made me swear to tell no one about Amalie.”

“I’m glad you didn’t keep
that
promise!”

“I told her there was no way I could try to keep the secret from you. And that you wouldn’t keep it from Tayse, but that we would tell no one else. At least right now.”

Senneth sighed and slumped in her saddle. “And I thought the trip was the hard part. I thought life would get easier once I was back in Ghosenhall. Though I have bad news of my own.”

“I could tell something went wrong,” he said, “but I couldn’t tell what.”

“Old mystic from Carrebos. Couldn’t travel with us but he came in to show off his magic. He has some control over water, it appears. He said the ocean revealed to him that there is a fleet of ships gathering off the coast of Fortunalt. Sounded like warships, full of foreign soldiers.”

Cammon felt alarm register separately in his skull, his stomach, his elbows, and his knees. “Come to war on Gillengaria?”

“That’s what it looks like. Imported by our rebel southern Houses.”

“Then—why haven’t they landed and come to attack us?”

“Tayse says they’re waiting for spring.” She held a hand up as if to test for reprieve in the air. “And it’s not that far off. A month, maybe less, and this hard weather will be over.”

Cammon swallowed against a lump of fear. “Senneth—what do we do?”

She gave him a grim smile. “We prepare for war.”

O
VERNIGHT
the city was transformed. Soldiers who had been in training in the more rural districts outside of Ghosenhall were brought in and deployed in a ring all around the city. Reserve soldiers, housed for months on property in Merrenstow and Storian, were sent for, and accommodations for them were hastily built on the outskirts of town. Shopkeepers and tavern owners suddenly had to truncate their hours of operation; residents were ordered to adhere to an early curfew. The number of night watchmen tripled, but they roamed streets that were practically empty.

“I can’t go to Danalustrous,” Senneth said to the king. “My brother will just have to get married without me. I got married without him, after all.”

“Go,” Baryn said. He looked oddly relaxed for a man who believed his home could be attacked at any minute. “When our customs and civilities are most under siege is the time we most need to observe them.”

“Sire, I’m not sure I can persuade Tayse to stay behind. He knows his first duty is to you, but he—”

“I am the one who commanded him to protect you, and he obeys me very well,” the king said, his eyes crinkling up with laughter. “I require you to defend the realm, and therefore I require him to keep you safe. There is no conflict here.”

“I am not comfortable leaving you behind without either of us in your arsenal.”

“I believe that my safety can be reasonably assured by forty-nine Riders, several thousand soldiers, and this highly unusual troop of mystics you have assembled for my protection.”

That made her groan. “Oh, those mystics from Carrebos! Two of the shape-shifters have proved to be quite talented, and they prowl around the palace grounds all day, sniffing for trouble, but the rest of them are a very mixed blessing. Jerril and Areel have rented another house and turned it into a dormitory of sorts, and I believe Jerril is actually enjoying himself, but training a mystic is like trying to train a raelynx. It pretty much does what it wants to, no matter what you tell it—and it’s dangerous even when you think it’s tame.”

“I quite like having them here. Amalie tells me she has met them all. She has become most interested in magic, you know.”

He looked at her over the tops of his spectacles, and she was forced to laugh. “You know I have learned Amalie’s secret.”

“And you are very shocked.”

“Yes.”

He picked up a quill pen in his right hand and lightly brushed the feathers across the back of his left hand. “Pella’s magic was a true gift to her,” he said quietly. “It enabled her to analyze any situation, fit into any group, put anyone at ease. It was as if she could almost instantly become anyone else for just as long as she needed to. It made her very popular—everyone loved her.”

“I think Amalie’s gift is a little different. But since I’m not sure even she knows the extent of it yet, it is hard to gauge.”

“I have spent her whole life concealing it from others,” the king said. “This does not seem to be the time to announce to the world that she is a mystic.”

“No! But I would want your permission to tell a select few—those I trust the most—those of us
you
trusted to guard her last summer.”

“I will tell Tayse he may inform the Riders. I assume you wish to give the news to Kirra.”

“And Donnal. And Ellynor. No one else.”

He regarded her a moment, his face grown sad. “And do you think even such a small group will be able to keep the secret?”

“The mystics won’t tell. Only you can gauge the loyalty of the other Riders, but Tayse and Justin are safe.”

He sighed. “Any one of the fifty would defend me to the death if
I
suddenly claimed to have sorcerous blood. They are bound to me—their loyalty is more important to them than their own lives. But they are not so bound to Amalie. Their oaths were not made to
her.
They will defend her because she is mine, and as such, she represents the throne. If they know that she is a mystic, I do not know if that fealty will extend to her after I am dead.”

“Which we hope will not be for a very long time.”

He looked suddenly tired. “I pray the gods at least let me survive this war. At least let me give her that much—a kingdom that is whole, if wounded.”

“I think I should stay in Ghosenhall,” Senneth said.

“And I say you should go to Danan Hall,” Baryn replied. “Attend your brother’s wedding. Your king commands you.”

A
CCORDINGLY
, five days after they had returned from Carrebos, Senneth and Tayse were traveling again. A much different journey this time, she thought. With just two of them to consider, they moved speedily and with utter efficiency. They were accustomed to each other’s strengths by now, so they never had to discuss where to make camp (Tayse always chose some easily defended site) or who would make the fire (Senneth merely had to glance at a pile of kindling). They could, if they needed to, communicate merely with glances and gestures, and whenever they came upon other travelers on the road, they always agreed by some wordless communion whether to pause and share information or simply ride on by.

Both of them were capable of long stretches of utter silence. Senneth found it easy to lose herself in her thoughts, and Tayse was always so interested in the terrain around them that he never seemed to lack for occupation. So they could have passed the entire journey without exchanging a word—but instead, they talked for almost every mile.

Tayse wanted to know if she was nervous about seeing her brothers again.
Oh, I think I got past both nervousness and rage sometime last summer. But I wouldn’t say I’m excited at the prospect. Except, of course, for seeing Will
. She asked how the Riders had taken the news of Amalie’s magical heritage.
Quietly. I think some of them don’t care and some of them are still deciding how they feel, but not one of them would desert the king at this hour because of it.
He wanted an update on Jerril’s success with the recruits from Carrebos; she asked if he thought the regent would be the commanding officer on the field when war finally swept into Ghosenhall.

They talked about Ellynor. “She seems cautiously happy to be here,” Tayse remarked. “As if she still thinks she might be dreaming the whole thing, or there might be a monster lurking somewhere in one of the shadows, but otherwise mighty pleased with her new life.”

They talked about Valri. “I’ve guarded some pretty dangerous secrets in my time, but I couldn’t have kept this one for so long,” Senneth confessed. “It makes me respect her more but also fear her a little. What strength of will she has! Anyone with that kind of determination is dangerous.”

They talked about Amalie. “She’s too young to bear the burdens that will be thrust on her if war comes,” Tayse said. “But there’s something unbreakable about her. I would be the first Rider to swear fealty to her if Baryn died.”

They talked about Cammon. “Something happened to him while we were gone,” Senneth said. “And I don’t know what.”

They were on Danalustrous land by now, having survived a very thorough inspection at the border, and needed only half a day to arrive at the Hall.
Which is good,
Senneth thought,
since the wedding is tomorrow.

Tayse gave her a questioning look. “You think Cammon was physically hurt?”

“No. Something struck him to the heart.”

“Something more than the startling revelation about his princess and his enemy?” Tayse said in an ironic voice.

She laughed. “Something more.”

“Why do you think it?”

“Because he avoided me the whole time we were there—once he’d told me his great news, of course. You know Cammon. Usually he’s always underfoot, and even more so if any of us have been absent for any length of time. But we were gone more than two weeks and preparing to ride out again, and we only saw him for a few minutes now and then.”

Tayse reviewed his own recent history. “I hadn’t realized it, but you’re right.”

“And Justin said Cammon avoided
him
those last few days before you and I got back. And you can always find Cammon somewhere in Justin’s vicinity.”

“Do you think he’s hiding something that he doesn’t want you to discover? That he did something you would condemn?”

In a very soft voice she replied, “I think he’s falling in love with Amalie, and he can’t help it, and he doesn’t want me to know.”

Tayse shrugged. “So a mystic becomes devoted to the princess. That’s not such a terrible thing. If he loves her, he will serve her with all his heart.”

She gave him a wide-eyed stare. “I’m even more afraid that Amalie is falling in love with him. And he knows that, too.”

Tayse’s eyes narrowed. “Do you seriously think she would take him as her lover?”

“I think that both Amalie and Cammon have led such unconventional lives that something that seems impossible to us does not seem particularly consequential to them.”

He smiled. “Many men have dared to love women whom they had no reasonable hope of winning.”

She laughed, but grew instantly grave. “This is a little more outrageous than a serramarra and a King’s Rider! She will be queen, and he is
nobody.
You hold a respectable position that my brothers can admire, but Cammon can’t even claim that distinction.”

Tayse didn’t seem nearly as concerned as she was, which she found both calming and exasperating. “Say it happens. She takes him to her bed. What are you afraid of? That she will bear his child?”

“Sweet gods, I hadn’t even gotten that far in my calculations! No, I’m afraid that a number of her noble-born suitors might decline to marry her if it was discovered she had taken a lover.”

“You’re strangely moralistic for a woman who has defied every law of her own society,” he commented.

She exhaled a breath of laughter. “I am, am I not? Does that make me hypocritical? It is just that the laws I disregarded myself seem to have been
designed
to apply to Amalie.”

“And I would say she can contravene them with even more impunity. So she has a lover. So she has a dozen. Does that truly ruin her marriage prospects? A man who loved her, or a man who wished to be king, wouldn’t care at all.”

Senneth had never thought of it that way. “I suppose you’re right. But there are plenty of serramar who might care less about virginity and more about her choice of bedmates. If Cammon were of noble blood, they might not cavil so much. And if she has fewer candidates to choose from, I think it will be harder for her to find the right husband.”

He turned his head to give her a long, half-smiling appraisal. “And tell me again, please, why it is so critical that Amalie marries?”

She practically stared at him. “Because the whole kingdom is watching her and wondering if she is suitable to be queen! Because a stable alliance with a strong House will mollify the marlords—we hope—and help us stave off the possibility of war.”

“We are already going to war,” he pointed out. “There is a navy collecting outside of Forten City. Marry her off tomorrow, and Ghosenhall will still be under attack.
Why
does she need to wed?”

She absolutely had no answer for that. It had seemed to make such perfect sense, back when she and Valri and Baryn were talking strategy. Find Amalie a husband, show the marlords that she was a fit and fertile princess, strengthen the alliances, avert war. But if war were to come anyway…

“If you are so determined to get her a bridegroom, wait till the war is over,” Tayse recommended. “Reward some House that shows exemplary service to the crown. But I see no need for Amalie to marry where she has no inclination. At this stage, a husband could divide her loyalties and scheme to influence her in ways that you do not desire. She is young, yes, but she is already surrounded by advisors who are utterly faithful and united in their views. Why bring in another voice? Why bother with a husband at all?”

“There is still the matter of heirs,” Senneth said faintly. “Eventually, she must produce a few of those.”

His smile was even broader. “She wouldn’t need a husband for that, either.”

She couldn’t bite back a laugh. “But this is too amusing!” she exclaimed. “You have always been far stricter than I have about the boundaries of class! And now you would upend everything! Just for the pleasure of the debate? Or is this how you truly feel?”

“I never understood why Amalie was being rushed toward a wedding. I
do
understand why you want her to marry within her own rank and station, but I am not worried that a liaison with Cammon will harm her.” He shrugged. “In fact, the opposite.”

“You think it would be a
good
idea for her to fall in love with Cammon?” Senneth demanded. “Oh, no, surely not!”

“If he is lying in bed beside her at night, no assassin will be able to reach her in stealth,” Tayse said deliberately. “My first goal is to keep her alive. Everything else bends to that imperative.”

Senneth caught her breath. Yes, Tayse always saw life in the starkest and most absolute terms. It was something she had had the skill for at one point—when her own life had been simplified to the most drastic choices of survival or death. She had lost her way a little in these past months, as she had reentered the social circles she had scorned for so long. She had gotten muddled. She had lost her focus.

“I am
not
going to encourage him, even on those grounds,” she said. “In fact, I still want to wring his neck for being so heedless and—and
stupid.
But you might be right. Perhaps. Some small part of your argument might have merit. I will think it over.”

His lurking smile was back. He placed his right fist against his left shoulder and bowed from the saddle. “Serra, that is all I ask.”

D
ANAN
Hall was festive with bridal decorations, but they had to work their way through a half dozen checkpoints to get a glimpse of the bouquets and garlands. Senneth could tell that Tayse approved of the soldiers massed around the city that surrounded the Hall; more guards patrolled the grounds of the manor itself. Trust Malcolm Danalustrous to protect his own.