Spiritwalker 3: Cold Steel (56 page)

An eddy of cold air pooled around us. “Do you suppose I am too uneducated and common-born
to have thought of exactly these sorts of complications?”

“Of course I don’t! I will thank you not to pretend that I do so you can wallow in
your wounded feelings! You have just bested the rivals who tormented you for so long.
You have raised your mother to a position of honor beyond anything she can ever have
thought to expect. And you have been proven in the starkest way possible as exactly
the rare and uncommonly potent cold mage you have always known you are. All laudable
things. I want to know if you have forgotten your promise to Kofi.”

Ice crackled as frost across the surface of the cream as he pushed back his chair
and rose with a curl of his lip. “I think that is enough! Do not believe you understand
my promise to Kofi.”

“I’ve just gotten started!” I shoved back my own chair and stood. “Either you want
a wife who respects you enough to challenge you when she thinks you may be wrong,
or you want a wife like the gracious Serena, whose manners are beyond impeccable,
and whose desire and purpose is solely to serve the wishes and needs of a husband
who chose her for her beauty.”

“How do you know she doesn’t challenge him in private? How do you know she didn’t
desire and even seek the marriage? It may not seem so to you, but marriage to the
mansa of Four Moons House gives a woman’s lineage significant prestige and valuable
connections. For that matter, how do you know she isn’t a magister herself, married
for her magical potency and not just her signal beauty?”

“How would you know what she is like in private?” I demanded.

He blinked. With a shake of his head the contemptuous mage
vanished, and the Vai I loved returned. “Why, Catherine. Here is an unexpected sting
of jealousy!”

How I hated that particular smirk of his. I fumed, not wanting to admit he was right
or that I had simply assumed a dazzling beauty could not also be an accomplished magister.

“In fact, as the mansa’s heir, I am allowed to sit in his private parlor in the most
casual manner imaginable. I may even converse easily, like a son, with his charming
wife.” He slid into a light Expedition cant. “I reckon that gal’s a little lonely
and like me company.”

“Peradventure some maku is going to find he own self a little lonely sleeping on the
floor!”

He glided so quickly around the little table that I did not have time to step away
before he pulled me to him. “Is he, now?” he murmured caressingly.

“Do you want to provoke me, Andevai?”

“Now that you mention it, I rather find that I do. You have no idea how attractive
I find you when you get like this.” Given that he held me against him and his dressing
robe had fallen half open, I had some idea. “I have been promised this whole day is
mine to do as I wish.”

“To argue with me?”

“We can argue as much as we need to, love, as long as it is understood that we trust
each other. I know this is unexpected and that it may seem like the wrong path that
goes against everything we have discussed at such length. I admit I have some reasons
that are not the right ones and that I just… to do this, to receive this… heir to
the mansa…”

He kissed me in a tumult of emotion that he had no other way to express. I struggled
not to give way to the intense desire I felt for him, to think with my mind instead
of my body, but the two were woven too intimately together.

I eased the dressing robe off his shoulders. “I shall need more of that ambrosial
sweetened and whipped cream when I am done with you.”

“Not yet, not yet,” he whispered in a hoarse murmur that made me wild.

All entangled and kissing him, I nudged him toward the bed.

“Announce me.”

The mansa’s voice fell like the stroke of a sword. Vai would have
leaped back as if cut from me, but modesty made me cling to him. The mansa had in
fact already announced himself, standing on the upper step with the entry curtain
held away in his left hand and his thick eyebrows raised interrogatively. I thought
he looked amused or, perhaps, relieved that the young man he had chosen as his heir
was capable of the deed. He stepped back and dropped the curtain to give us privacy
in which to straighten and retie our dressing robes.

“Thank Tanit we hadn’t made it to the bed,” I muttered, my face aflame.

But after recovering from his surprise, Vai did not look displeased. He lifted the
curtain. “Mansa, please. Come in.” To a servant beyond, he said, “Bring more coffee
and a fresh cup. Another bowl of berries and cream.”

The mansa sat in my chair and Vai opposite him, leaving me to accept the new pot and
cup when it was expeditiously brought. I squelched an urge to pour coffee over both
their heads and instead poured for them and afterward for myself. I heaped my cup
with two spoonfuls of the cream, after which I retreated to stand off to the side.

“There is news,” said the mansa, careful not to look at me, for although I was covered
from neck to ankles in the dressing robe, his presence in the gazebo felt strangely
intimate. “Camjiata’s skirmishers have been sighted in Cena. He may intend an assault
on Lutetia.”

“He proclaimed his legal code here in Lutetia in the year 1818,” I said. “Twenty-two
years ago. That must mean something to him.”

The mansa sipped thoughtfully at his coffee. “Indeed. Handbills and broadsheets and
seditious pamphlets circulate in the streets. They claim to be the text of a declaration
of rights. By this means he has deluded gullible villagers and illiterate laborers
with an idea they will be better off with his imperial rule than with the rule of
local lords and mages who know their people and are concerned for the health of their
lands. Can you imagine?” He paused to give Vai a long look.

Vai would never stare down an elder, but his respectful manner was not meek. “I would
not call them gullible, Mansa.”

“I suppose you would not. Yet should the general succeed, he will need governors to
oversee provinces. Such people will skim off bribes for themselves and hand the right
to collect taxes and tithes to their
cronies and favored underlings. A great deal of petty and grand corruption will ensue.
Meanwhile, there is the problem of fire mages. You are sure he is using fire mages,
Andevai? The mansa of Gold Cup House was an old man. His heart might simply have given
out.”

“You saw what happened. You know I am right. Furthermore, I know exactly what manner
of unscrupulous and callous man is being allowed to have his way by the general.”

With a faintly mocking half smile, the mansa examined Vai. “One thing you have never
lacked is certainty that you are right. I will be sending Serena back to Four Moons
House immediately with an escort. See that your mother and sisters are ready to depart
with her at midday.”

“Will my wife accompany them?”

“No,” said the mansa, at the same time as I said, “No!”

Vai’s rigid posture did not ease. “Mansa, I have some concern over how my mother and
sisters will be received at Four Moons House if there is no one there to see to their
comfort, nurse my mother properly, and protect them from disrespect.”

“Be sure I recognize your concern, Andevai. At my request and command, Serena will
take charge of ensuring they be received in all ways appropriate to my heir. Understand
that disrespect shown to them is now the same as disrespect shown to me.”

“The girls should be allowed to take lessons,” I said. “Even if they have no cold
magic—and of course that is not yet determined—they should be educated as any girl
in the House would be. Wasa should be treated no differently just because she’s undersized
and her legs don’t work well. She’s a very intelligent girl, and it would be a mistake
to allow her to languish. Forcing her to study will also keep her out of mischief.
Also, the crutch she has been using is too short and heavy. I asked several times
if it might be replaced with something better, but the attendants said they had no
authority to replace it. If she had one made to fit her frame she would be able to
get around more easily and that would allow her to gain strength.”

The mansa lifted his cup to indicate that I had not anticipated that he needed more
coffee. “It has come to my notice, Andevai,” he said, ignoring me as I poured, “that
your wife has a mouth on her, as I would have crudely said when I was a lad.”

“Yes, Mansa.”

“Are you going to teach her to curb her tongue?”

“Mansa, it is her place to determine whether and when she speaks, not mine.”

“Are you going to continue talking about me as if I am not here?” I demanded.

“Curbing her tongue would surely be a difficult task for anyone,” said the mansa.
“Some of that cream, if you will, Catherine. As you put on yours. I want to try it.
Andevai, you have not touched your cup.”

“No, Mansa.” He picked up the cup, looked at it, and set it down without drinking.

“You don’t eat enough,” added the mansa, “as I have had cause to observe.”

“I tell him the same thing,” I said promptly. “Would you prefer tea, Husband?”

He shot me an accusing look, and the mansa actually chuckled.

Blessed Tanit protect me! A few more steps down this road and I might start believing
it was possible to like him, the cunning architect of our prison! Perhaps it was only
coincidence or perhaps Noble Ba’al saw fit to remind me that I stood garbed in false
clothes in the palace of my enemy, for a rumble like thunder drifted in the distance.

Vai leaped to his feet.

The mansa rose. “See to your family, Andevai. I want them on the road within the hour.”

As I held away the curtain for him to leave, I puzzled at the blue sky, where I saw
not a trace of storm cloud.

“How can it be thundering?” I said to Vai.

“It’s not thunder. It’s cannon.”

Servants hurried in. They stripped the table bare with the speed of locusts. A manservant
appeared with a fresh set of clothing, including a brown-and-gold dash jacket I hadn’t
seen since we’d had to abandon most of Vai’s garments in Adurnam.

“Gracious Melqart, Vai! How did you get your clothes back?”

Vai stepped behind a screen to dress. “The mansa had them delivered to me one day.
I admit, I was surprised. I had riding clothes made for you, love, so we can go out
today.”

A woman helped me into a split skirt cut in an exceedingly practical
and flattering style with buttons down the front, and a long jacket in an amber-brown
challis. Expensive calfskin gloves and a saucy hussar’s shako crowned by a jaunty
feather completed the ensemble, although it was Vai’s smiling admiration that made
me preen.

We traversed the garden on a path of white gravel through a stand of ornamental fruit
trees. Bintou and Wasa sat on a bench by a fountain, playing with an adorable puppy
that licked their faces as they giggled. They were wearing new clothes, neatly made
and brightly colored.

“Vai! Cat!” they shrieked, seeing us. Bintou leaped up and ran to him while Wasa bounced
on the bench in excitement. Vai released Bintou to pick up Wasa’s crutch and give
it a frowning examination. Then he carried Wasa into the breakfast room, where his
mother sat on a couch, watching our arrival through the glass. She, too, wore new
clothing. When he knelt before her in greeting, she did not effuse over him but merely
laid a hand on his head. Excluded, the girls swarmed me. I held one in the curve of
each arm and watched as he raised his head to address her.

“Mama, I have news.” The rumble of a distant cannonade stirred the air, then faded.
“You will return to Four Moons House with the girls.”

“To Four Moons House? You cannot think of taking us to live in the House.”

“It is appropriate for you to live on the estate in a suite of rooms like this one,
suitable to your consequence.”

Her slender frame tensed. “How will the girls be comfortable in that place?”

“You must be shown the honor and respect that is due to you,” he said, a little exasperated.
“If you don’t live in Four Moons House, it looks as if I am ashamed of you. You never
liked the village anyway.”

“To live in a prosperous village was my greatest dream! I was satisfied.”

“After Father died, I don’t think you were happy.” He glanced at the carpet and muttered,
“I certainly couldn’t make you happy.”

Her thin shoulders trembled.

He drew in a breath as if he had been struck. “If it does not please you, Mama, if
you prefer to return to Haranwy, then you shall do so.”

Her chin lifted. “With your father’s passing, there is nothing in Haranwy I shall
miss. We will do what suits you, now you have been raised so high.”

If I hadn’t been looking at her I would have missed the shine of pride that brightened
her face, quickly limned and quickly gone.

Vai saw it, too. His smile blended relief and satisfaction. “That’s settled, then.
The girls will receive schooling, and they will not be bullied as I was.” He glanced
toward us, without a trace of teasing smile. “They will work hard and comport themselves
with good manners.”

“No child of mine will embarrass our family with poor manners.” Vai’s mother spoke
the words in such a stern tone that I would have feared to disgrace her.

Bintou nudged me. “The girls in the House won’t want to be our friends.”

Vai rose. “Your trouble will be that the girls in the House will want to be your friends,
and some of them will want it for the wrong reasons. You two shall have to discover
which are honest and which false. As for your friends in Haranwy, it can be arranged
that they visit you. In fact…” He looked at me, radiant with triumph. “I see no reason
I cannot ask the mansa to consider expanding the school to include the village children.
It is not too far for them to walk. It would not tax the resources of the House to
admit thirty more children to the school during the day.”

“That is a fine idea in principle, Husband,” I said, “but what about the House’s other
client villages? Will they languish, while you favor Haranwy?”