Troubled Waters (46 page)

Crystal shattered to the floor as Alys leapt to her feet. “You miserable bitch!” she cried. “How dare you say such a thing about me? I didn’t try to hurt Josetta—I wouldn’t try to
kill
anyone! How could you—”

“Shut up,” Zoe said fiercely. She heard chairs scrape back, dishes rattle, anxious voices lift all around them, but she had attention only for Alys. She raised her hand, palm upward, half-cupped as if to catch rain-drops. “I don’t care if you admit it,” she said, her voice low. “I don’t care if you destroy anyone else in the palace—or the city—or the kingdom. But don’t you
ever
. Don’t you
ever
try to harm me, or anyone close to me, again. And don’t try to harm the princess—
any
of the princesses. Do your scheming, I don’t care. But not against me. Or I will hurt you.”

She clenched her fingers into a fist and Alys gasped in real pain, shuddering unsteadily on her feet. From the corners of her eyes, Zoe could see the other women staring in stupefaction, their gazes swinging between Zoe and the queen. But Zoe kept her eyes on Alys.

Whose face began to redden, as if with a blush, and then with a sunburn, and then with a bruise. “Zoe,” Alys whispered, lurching forward a pace. Under her smooth cheeks pooled a slowly spreading stain of purple; dark half-moons gradually became visible beneath her eyes.

“Stop it!” Elidon shouted. “Zoe, stop what you’re doing! Release her!”

She didn’t want to obey. She wanted to call up a lesion on Alys’s face, open the skin so that the blood drained out, running down her cheeks like tears. She wanted to draw all the blood to Alys’s head, leaving her knees weak and her feet unreliable. She wanted to make the queen stagger and fall, from dizziness or from fear.

But she didn’t. She took a deep breath and splayed her fingers. Instantly she felt the abrupt cessation of pressure, the snapping of the invisible conduit that had sucked Alys’s blood up through her body as it yearned toward Zoe. Alys gasped for air and collapsed gracelessly into her chair.

“An excellent decision,” a voice murmured in Zoe’s ear. Suddenly she was aware of a presence at her side, a pressure on her own arm—Mirti Serlast, her fingers laced around Zoe’s wrist. Mirti’s gray eyes burned into hers. “What you can do to Alys, I can do to you, or something very like it. You can call blood, but I can shatter bone. And I will do it if you ever try such a trick again.”

For a moment Zoe stared back at her, her mind somewhere between rebellion and rage. She could hear Elidon and Seterre fussing over Alys, shushing her, assuring her she would be just fine, her face showed only the slightest bruising. She was only just beginning to realize how much power she truly had in her hands. How much power Mirti had. Any prime.

Then she jerked free of Mirti’s hold and shot back, “Then
she
can’t do all the dreadful things
she
does.”

“We will see to it that she doesn’t,” Mirti said.

It was clearly a dismissal from the room—possibly from the palace. Zoe gave one quick nod, paused to glance at the scene of chaos around the breakfast table, then stalked toward the door without another word. She slammed the door behind her.

Romelle caught up with her before Zoe had taken three steps. The fourth wife looked horrified, excited, worried, and sick, all at the same time. Zoe was surprised she’d been able to overcome nausea long enough to go chasing down the hall. “Thank you for speaking up in such a way,” Romelle said. “I have often wondered if Alys would try to harm me or Natalie. Sometimes I’ve thought—but there was never any proof—and the things were always so subtle—”

“She’s a greedy, wretched, selfish, ambitious—woman,” Zoe said, ending lamely on the last word because she couldn’t think of anything bad enough to call Alys. “I don’t think you can ever be too careful where she’s concerned. Watch her. And watch out for Natalie.”

“I will,” Romelle promised. “And you—watch out for yourself.”

There was no doubt that was a goodbye. Obviously Romelle believed Zoe couldn’t stay at the palace after today’s display. Zoe nodded. “I certainly will.”

She turned to go, but Romelle surprised her again by putting a hand on Zoe’s shoulder to hold her in place. “I’ve never met anyone like you,” Romelle said. “I’ll miss seeing you every day.”

Zoe only nodded again, dumbstruck by one more revelation coursing merrily through the queen’s blood. Romelle smiled, dropped her hand, and slipped back into Elidon’s suite, where the rising sound of feminine voices portended one tempestuous argument.

Zoe closed her eyes and leaned briefly against the wall. She didn’t sense poison in Romelle’s veins, oh no, but there was definitely an interloper aboard. There was an alien presence, a tiny entity feeding on the queen’s blood and struggling to manufacture its own. Romelle was pregnant.

Feeling buffeted by so much knowledge and so much rage, Zoe made her way carefully down the halls, up the broad staircase, and into her suites. Calvin and Annova were sitting together companionably over their own breakfast, though from the array of bland foodstuffs laid out, they were eating gingerly after the previous night’s discomforts.

“You’re back early,” Calvin said.

Annova was already on her feet. “What’s wrong?”

“I hope you feel well enough to help me pack,” Zoe said. “Good thing I haven’t accumulated too many new clothes.”

“You’re leaving again?” Annova asked.

“
We’re
leaving. All of us. This time for good.”

T
he manager of the expensive hotel was happy to provide a suite for Zoe Lalindar this time, to accommodate her servants as well as the prime. She toyed with asking him to deny access to anyone who might come looking for her, but she knew it was pointless. One of Darien’s spies had probably followed her down into the city; if she truly wanted to hide, she would have to be far more clever than she had been so far.

Calvin liked the new quarters, but Annova was restless. “This isn’t a place for
staying
,” she said. “You need someplace you can feel more settled.”

“A
coru
woman never feels settled,” Zoe said.

Calvin shrugged. “Maybe it’s time to go back to the river,” he said.

“You can’t abandon me now!” Zoe exclaimed.

“I mean, all of us,” he said. “You, too. It’s only a few ninedays until Quinncoru. A fine time to be living on the flats.”

Annova spared him one scandalized look. “The Lalindar prime does not live down on the river!”

Zoe sighed and flopped into a chair. “Oh, this Lalindar prime remembers those days on the river as some of the happiest in her life,” she said with a sigh. “But, no, I don’t suppose I can try for such a refuge again.” She sighed a second time. “Anyway, that’s the first place Darien Serlast would come looking for me if I disappeared.”

Annova bent her gaze to Zoe. “Is Darien Serlast likely to come looking for you soon, since you left the palace so abruptly?”

Zoe nodded. “I think he’s afraid I will cause some kind of trouble if I’m not under his watchful eye.”

Calvin cackled. “Seems like he’s right about that.”

“Then you ought to have something nice to wear when he arrives,” Annova said. “Let’s go to the Plaza of Women. We still have a lot of shopping to do.”

Z
oe found it more enjoyable to buy clothes when she didn’t have to think about trying to impress four queens and a foreign delegation. The excursion made her so cheerful that she sent Annova back to the hotel with the packages while she made a detour by Sarone’s house to see if there was any fresh gossip.

“Zoe!” Keeli squealed when she was ushered inside. “What have you done
now
?”

Before Zoe could answer, Sarone hurried into the room, arms out-flung. “Zoe!
What
is happening up at the palace?”

“What do you know already?”

“Nothing! Josetta came looking for you, very upset, and we had to tell her we had no idea where you were.”

“I’ll send her a note,” Zoe said.

“But Zoe, what
happened
?” Keeli demanded. “Josetta said you just left? Moved out of your rooms?”

“No other news has filtered down the mountain?” she asked. Impressive if Elidon had managed to keep the details of the altercation a secret—but then, she would have plenty of motivation to do so. Accusations of murder and threats of retaliation put everyone in a bad light.

And raised hard questions.

And made everyone afraid.

“Josetta said you had an argument with Alys,” Sarone said. “But no one knew what it was about.”

“What happened?” Keeli begged.

How much to tell? Zoe was not secretive by nature, but this was pretty incendiary material. She settled on the portion of the story she was certain was true. “I think Alys sent tainted candy to my room—just enough to make me sick,” Zoe said. “I didn’t eat any, but both my servants did, and they were throwing up all night. I was so angry! I brought the candy in and told everyone what she’d done, and then I accused her of tearing up my wardrobe as well.”

“Did she admit it?” Keeli asked.

“No—and I don’t know if anyone else believed me. But I was furious. I—well—I should probably be ashamed of this. I caused her blood to rise to her face and bruise her skin.”

Keeli and Sarone both stared at her mutely. When the silence had gone on for a while, Zoe added in a faint voice, “I was hoping that was something Christara had done a time or two, but by the expressions on your faces, I suppose not.”

“I think my mother
could
do it, but she never did,” Sarone said quietly. “She was very aware of the fact that she commanded power, and she didn’t want to abuse it.”

“Mirti said something of the sort,” Zoe replied.

“Mirti was there?”

Zoe nodded and didn’t give specifics. “So, I think it’s possible I’ve behaved unforgivably,” she said. “Maybe I’ll be exiled again—this time for my own crimes, not my father’s.”

Sarone looked even more apprehensive. “How badly did you hurt the queen?”

“Not as badly as I wanted to.”
Not as badly as I could have,
she thought. “But her face will probably show bruises for a couple of days. Elidon was very angry with me, and rightfully so, I suppose. I’m sure she’ll tell the king, and perhaps he’ll forbid me to return to the palace.”

“Or Darien Serlast will,” Sarone said quietly, “since he sometimes makes decisions for the king.”

Zoe thought about that kiss in the boat under the painted sky. Could that have been only last night? It seemed like it had happened a year ago, or not at all. As if Zoe had dreamed it, or wished for it so hard that imagination had supplied her with all the details of sound and sight and touch.

“He likes you, I think,” Keeli said. “Doesn’t he? Maybe he’ll tell Vernon your behavior was justified.”

“Maybe,” said Zoe. Or maybe he would cast her out altogether. What was a kiss, after all? “I can’t guess what to expect next.”

“Well, one thing that
won’t
happen, even if you’re banished,” Sarone said briskly. “We won’t lose track of you again. Promise me, Zoe. Even if you disappear, you will not disappear from
us
.”

Zoe put her hand out, palm raised, and Sarone flattened her own hand against it. For a moment, she felt it again, the reassurance of blood to blood, the markers of family, of belonging. “Promise,” Zoe said. “I am used to leaving things behind. But you will not be one of them.”

S
he didn’t want to go back to the hotel—either because she didn’t want to face Darien Serlast or she didn’t want to learn he had not come looking for her. Zoe couldn’t decide. So instead, upon leaving Sarone’s house, she simply wandered, tracing a meandering path through the wealthy neighborhoods where she had lived as a child. As Calvin had noted, it was nearly Quinncoru; soon the world would remake itself. The thin, naked shrubberies would dress themselves in greenery and blossoms. Nervous, impatient birds would peck at the dirt, hoping to surprise unwary beetles lumbering between stalks of early grass. Even today, despite the chilly air, the sunshine was extravagant, the breeze gentle. It was no hardship to walk another block, another mile.

She found herself, not planning it, in front of the house her parents had owned, the place where Darien’s mother and sisters now lived. A few ninedays ago, Zoe might have been able to convince the king that the property should be hers again, but she doubted Vernon would believe such courtesies were owed to her now. She could probably afford to buy it outright, however. If she wanted it.

She stood in the street for about ten minutes, staring up at the facade. The house was four stories high with three or four rooms on every floor. She had spent many days running up and down those stairs when she was a child, mostly because the adults were too fatigued by the exercise to chase her for long. She had begged to be given the small room on the top floor as her very own, because she loved the view and the sense of freedom, but her parents had thought her too young to sleep so far away from them at night. “When you’re older,” her mother had promised. “When you’re fourteen.”

Of course, Zoe had celebrated her fourteenth birthday in the village with her father, and her mother had been dead nearly three years.

She doubted she would have much interest in that high, isolated room these days. And the memories inside the house were more likely to be painful than comforting. She turned away, blundered on down the road, surprised to find her way blurred by tears.

Not looking for one, she came upon a temple, set back from the road and surrounded by a thicket of bare shrubbery just waiting for spring to muscle into full bloom. She followed the curving stone path to the low door and felt a certain peace settle over her as soon as she stepped inside.

She did not have the patience to move from bench to bench, meditating herself back into a state of balance, but she did make one slow circuit around the small room, acknowledging all the elements. Then she crossed to the deep, handsome basket set on a central podium and stirred the coins before she pulled out a blessing.