The Very Best of Kate Elliott (14 page)

Many men lived in the land of Karan, whose territories had been strung together like so many beads into a headdress through the efforts of King Karanadayara. Their father had built upon the wealth and authority that Queen Karan had bestowed on him when she had married him in their youth. Merchants beholden to his fleet for protection from pirates enriched his treasury with the taxes they paid for the privilege of trading. Many were his cousin princes and rival chiefs, and none loved him for he had bound many once independent principalities and baronies into the folds of his royal garment. But they obeyed him and paid tribute, just as the distant Emperor of Saro was now demanding obeisance from him.

After twenty-five years as preeminent king in the Fire Islands, he was not about to bow down before another man. He was still vigorous enough to prosecute any war he pleased and would do so without regard to what it cost the people he ruled.

An scooted closer to the balcony railing and gripped it to push herself up onto her withered legs.“War will bring nothing but ruin on the land. We must prevent it.”

Yara tucked a crutch under her sister’s arm and gave her an arm to lean on.“I think you already have an idea.”

“Perhaps I do. But we cannot proceed without asking for the blessing of the queens who came before us.”

A note written on a scarf of floral silk awaited them in their private rooms. The letters were brushed by a masterful hand in the form a man uses when he gifts poetry and fine cloth to a woman he is courting.

“In the king’s garden, two kiss-of-elegance flowers bloom but there is no sunbird to harvest their nectar.”

Yara laughed so hard that she cried and afterward dabbed tears from her cheeks with one corner of the scarf. “I would be ashamed to write something so baldly obvious. He even wore the mark of the sunbird on his clothing, as if he feared we might miss his meaning. As a marriage proposal, it lacks subtlety and refinement.”

An pulled the silk from her sister’s fingers and examined the brushstrokes.“The man who wrote this is too ambitious, or his opinion of us is too low.”

“Furthermore I would never marry a man who makes such a crude and insulting error,” added Yara. “It is not the king’s garden. It is the queen’s garden.”

“We do not need to marry him to make use of him. We must discover where his ambitions lead him.”

A fleet of devoted women serve the queen’s garden, then as now, some of them kinswomen and some loyal attendants. An called for their chief chatelaine. She was their deceased mother’s much older sister, born without the queen’s mark and thus free to live outside the palace in her youth. In widowhood she had returned to live in the palace. Because of her wisdom and age, it was she who knew if a blade of grass was blown under any door in the palace or if a glance was shared between hopeful lovers or budding rivals.

It took some time for the woman to appear, striding in from outside with her sleeves fluttering. Her decades of travel and diplomacy had given her a brisk, confident manner, although her skin was quite weathered from sun and wind and sea.

“Who brought this, Lady Aunt?” An asked.

Lady Aunt examined the scarf, spoke to several of her own attendants, then nodded.“A courier from the guest wing,Your Excellencies. I had him followed. His master is called Prince Ejenli.”

“One of the sons of our father’s cousin, the Ruby Baron?”

“The eldest son. He has won renown in several sea battles against the sea pirates who plague the North Strait. He lost an eye in battle and replaced it with an ensorceled piece of turquoise. It is said he can see the movements of enemy ships in the stone and thus can never be ambushed or surprised.”

“Prince Ejenli is an ambitious man,” Yara remarked.

Lady Aunt nodded. “A trifle too ambitious, we may surmise. Yet it is known his family’s holdings are poverty stricken and shabby. It is rumored he seeks to restore the family fortunes.”

An smoothed the scarf along the table. The unmarked side of the cloth promised a fallow field for words should she wish to sow them there. Before she wrote, she addressed her aunt again.“Lady Aunt, what do you know of the son of the prince of Golden Hill?”

Lady Aunt gestured for the young attendants to go out to fetch tea and rice balls baked with coconut milk, bean curd in a sweet ginger sauce, and dumplings. She walked a circuit of the spacious chamber where the princesses, their attendants, aunts, cousins, and friends often spent evenings playing chess and reciting poems. One side of the room was open to the queen’s garden where kiss-of-elegance bobbed in a breeze and streamers of purple sky-blaze hung in curtain-like sheets from trellises. When Lady Aunt was sure no one could possibly overhear, she returned to the princesses.

“I was just now hurrying to speak privately with you on this very matter, for I have heard the most unexpected news. The third son of the prince of Golden Hill is called Lord Kini. I have it on good authority that when a boy Lord Kini was betrothed to Lady Nasua. She is the second daughter of the neighboring Seven Falls principality which is the mountain land ruled by the descendants of Lady Snake. The auspicious days for the wedding had been set years ago, but I have just heard the marriage is to be set aside because your father the king has decided to take the young woman to wife instead.”

These tidings reduced both sisters to speechlessness. For a while there was silence but for a hummingbird flitting among the sky-blaze, wings a blur.

“Father means to marry again!” exclaimed Yara at last, grasping An’s hands in hers.“We heard no whisper of his intention here in the queen’s garden. All these years he has properly contented himself with concubines. What can it mean?”

Lady Aunt had a smile that stung more the brighter it got. “Your father saw a portrait of the girl and desired her. He claims it is as simple as that.”

“Nothing with our father is simple,” said An slowly. “Now it seems his desire is enflamed in more than matters of war and trade. Perhaps his cook is spicing his food too heatedly.”

“Do not forget that in my younger years I traveled all over the Fire Islands as ambassador for your mother the queen,” said Lady Aunt, not that anyone could forget it for she still wore her hair in the simple style of fisherwomen and trade widows, never adorned with beads and towering headdresses. “It was I who interviewed and negotiated for a husband for her. Remember that your father comes from an island where the king is succeeded by his favored son.”

“Are two daughters born with the queen’s mark not riches enough for him?”Yara cried.“Can he believe any son could replace us?”

Lady Aunt tapped two fingers to her own lips to remind Yara to keep her voice low. “No daughter can replace you who does not come from the lineage of the Lady Rhinoceros. Yet an ambitious man may forget the proper order of life and the honor of the ancestors in favor of greed and pride. He was a good husband to your mother. But he has changed since she passed into the palace of the ancestors.”

Yara shifted restlessly on her pillow, not knowing what to say.

An’s gaze was fixed on a hazy distance only she could see. “I would like to know what manner of match it was for Lord Kini and Lady Nasua. What have you heard, Lady Aunt? Are they glad to be free of the marriage? Indifferent? Resigned?”

“The match was arranged in the usual manner when both were children. It is in all ways an unexceptional alliance between neighboring principalities: a third son and a daughter who lacks her divine ancestress’s royal mark. Rumor has a sharper tongue, however. She tells me that over the years the two were allowed to spend a great deal of time together and have come to genuinely love each other. My informants whisper that when your father the king’s decision was made known to them, both objected passionately to any suggestion they must dissolve the match. That your father has kept his intentions a secret cannot bode well. Likewise, he is the one who demanded Lord Kini be brought to the palace and sealed into life service in his army. A handy way to be rid of the young man, if you ask me.”

Yara leaped to her feet, taking a turn around the pillows on which she and An sat.“Is it not cruel to ask Lord Kini to serve in the palace guard and watch the woman he loves be paraded as queen in front of him?”

The royal bell rang, announcing their father’s approach.

Yara flung herself back on the pillows, hastily tidying the strings of beads in her headdress that had gotten tangled during her outburst.

Lady Aunt calmly rang her hand bell to summon the servants, but she continued speaking in a low voice. “Lord Kini will be sent on campaign, not kept in the palace. Before this new trouble with the Saroese, your father has been talking of nothing except his desire to expand his influence yet farther.”

“He wants to bring more ports under his sway,” said An.

Lady Aunt nodded. “You can be sure the independent islands are aware of this, and have sent their own informants to court to sniff out his plans.You saw the envoy from the Emerald Islands. His name is Lord Varay, the fifth son of the Emerald Prince. He came in the company of the merchants but I think he is not here to assist them in bargaining for trade rights.”

“The carelessly smiling man?” said Yara with a laugh, for she was not one to dwell on bad news for more than a few breaths. “Hard not to notice him! I described him at great length to An, and I am sure she asked me to repeat myself several times!”

An’s frown made Yara giggle again.“A man who smiles too much may be slow-witted, careless, bored, or too enamored of himself,” An said in a tart voice quite unlike her usual fathomlessly cool demeanor.

“Write Lord Varay a note,” advised Lady Aunt as she craned her neck to see if the king’s attendants had yet appeared on the garden walkway to announce the king.“I believe your father intends to conquer Emerald Island to get control of its red-leaf plantations. Perhaps the Emerald Prince suspects and has sent his son to determine what risk his people face. Or perhaps the young man is here for some other reason, one his father the prince knows nothing about. Now, tuck your secrets away into the folds of your garments and speak of safer topics.”

Footsteps approached along the garden walkway. Lady Aunt rang the hand bell again, and their ladies hurried back into the airy chamber to sort seating pillows and clear tables strewn with books and chess pieces. The doors to the inner walkway were opened. Their father the king strode in, having shed his audience robes and now wearing a lustrous silk robe of wave-churned blue, embroidered with fiery phoenixes burning up out of the white ocean foam. He sat on the pillow reserved for him, which had been placed on a mat by the balcony so he could enjoy a lovely view over the orchids. An quickly settled beside him because he did not like to see her struggle to walk. While everyone else retired to a respectful distance, Yara took charge of the tray of delicacies and poured the tea.

He lifted the cup to inhale the heady scent of ginger and peach. He had great dignity of presence but the disturbing intensity of his manner betrayed a man made restless by a constant storm surging within. At first he had a great deal to say about the Emperor of Saro’s attempt to insult him and why it had required him to react as he did lest he be diminished in the eyes of the men at court and indeed the world at large. He spoke at length and neither of his daughters interrupted him. After a while he paused to eat a dumpling and drink more tea.

“Your Excellency,” said An. “Perhaps you have considered what trouble may be brought down upon a peaceful land.”

He set down his cup quite emphatically.“You are still a child, Daughter. This is the king’s duty. It must be left to the king to act.”

An’s eyes fluttered in a way Yara recognized as the heat of her anger fanning imprudent words that Yara knew must be left unspoken. She slid the platter of aromatic bean curd with its ginger slices directly in front of the king, distracting him while with her other hand she pinched An into silence.

“Is there some news you bring, Your Excellency?” Yara asked in a voice so bright it lightened the chamber.“How eager you look!”

His gaze held a smile that saw not them but a brilliantly feathered dream invisible to all others. When he told them the news they already knew, they clapped their hands and pretended surprise.

Yara plied him with more dumplings, smiling fixedly. “What wonderful news, Your Excellency! I have long harbored the most heartfelt desire to welcome a new woman into the palace for I miss my mother quite sorely.”

“How soon may this longed-for arrangement come to pass?” added An in a tone only half as sour as she felt, but her father did not notice the way she blinked too much and meanwhile crushed a rice ball flat with the bottom of her spoon.

The priests, he informed them, were even now calculating the matter, seeking the most beneficent days to hold the wedding festivities. Because Lady Nasua was born into a different divine lineage than that of Lady Rhinoceros, the temple must show exceptional attention to the phase of the moon and the rising time of certain stars.

Yara poured more tea.

He was not a man inclined to dwell on any matter for long, once it was decided. An had at last recovered enough to be able to delicately direct their conversation down more amicable channels. He wanted to know how the tapestries commemorating his victory three years ago over the Golden Hill principality were coming along in the weaving hall. Had they received the silk thread he had sent them from his recent expedition to the west? Were the colors and patterns acceptable? How did the royal hospital fare?