“Your kindness is as soothing as the warm waters of Lake Celestine,” she said, “and though I fear the birds must depart or die in the winter chill, I know they will grace the skies of Velun come springtime.”
She moved on and caught the eye of Lady Montsimmard, whose mask was set with glowing lyrium crystals on each cheek, a gift from the First Enchanter in the Orlesian Circle. “Cosinne,” she said with friendly familiarity as the other woman gave a deep curtsy. “It has been too long. Tell me, how did you enjoy the duck?”
“The sauce was divine, Your Radiance.” Lady Montsimmard and her husband had entertained Grand Duke Gaspard during the summer, and in past years had held out the family’s proximity to, and control of, the Circle as a bargaining chip. Celene found the husband dangerous and the wife dull, and suspected that Lady Montsimmard did not realize how precarious the situation with the mages had become. Her guess proved true as Lady Montsimmard added, “Though in truth, when we visited the Circle of Magi—”
“Oh, I should have a care when dining with them,” Celene cut in with a light laugh. “It seems that when they try to prepare a meal, everything around them ends up burned.” She moved on as Lady Montsimmard stammered out her farewell with a strained smile. Behind her, Celene knew without looking that Ser Michel had fixed Lady Montsimmard with a disapproving stare, a wordless reminder that Celene could laugh and play the Game, or, if she chose, she could have Lady Montsimmard’s head mounted on a pike. She made a note to speak to Madame de Fer, the Mage of the Imperial Court, about Montsimmard’s familiarity with the mages.
On and on she went through the crowd, trading greetings and kind words laced with poison. Should Orlais push for more advantageous trading terms with Ferelden while the upstart kingdom was still recovering from the Blight? What was to be done to ensure that nothing like Kirkwall could happen here? Was the university where noble sons came to study truly going to start admitting knife-ears? Celene’s jaw ached from smiling—it was the clearest expression visible below the half-mask and under the layers of makeup that covered her face. Beneath the bladed words, Melcendre’s beautiful voice continued.
Then, finally, the pageantry ended with the laughter of Grand Duke Gaspard.
It was a deep, booming bellow that had echoed across battlefields. It silenced the timid and the servants like a death knell, and pulled the other lords and ladies into chuckles with its weight.
The crowd before Celene parted, showing a clear path to the grand duke and the dark-haired bard before him. Melcendre was unmasked, though she wore the heavy makeup commoners donned at noble gatherings, and she had turned away in embarrassment at whatever Gaspard had said.
Celene steeled herself without any outward change of expression. She had played the Game for most of her life. No matter how prepared she was, no matter how much she had considered and planned and determined her strategy, there was always one moment of fear.
Then the moment was over, and she was moving toward the bard who had been surreptitiously added to the guest list at the command of a guard captain loyal to Gaspard. Ser Michel’s steady footsteps moved in time with hers, the large man matching her pace perfectly.
Melcendre was good, Celene noted, but not perfect. The makeup covered the fact that she could not effect the blush that would signal actual embarrassment, but she would have been smarter to add red makeup at the cheeks to give the assembled nobles the impression anyway. Seeing that little imperfection—not even a mistake as such, but a detail that Celene could have done better—somehow made everything seem easier.
“And with what wit has my cousin silenced so sweet a voice?” Celene asked into the expectant silence.
Melcendre paused, uncomfortable, but Gaspard dipped his head, a bow just barely sufficient to avoid undeniable insult. “Your Imperial Majesty,” he said, still chuckling, “I was pointing out that the young lady’s song had a melody similar to ‘King Meghren’s Mabari.’”
The assembled nobles tittered, scandalously amused. Celene kept her smile in place. It was a good first strike. The song had been popular and harmless decades ago, during the Orlesian occupation of Ferelden. It told the story of the unhappy Meghren, sent against his will to Ferelden by Emperor Florian. In the song, the hapless noble was comically frustrated at every turn by rough Fereldan culture, including a slobbering mabari hound that ate his mask.
While never forbidden, the song had lost its popularity after King Maric of Ferelden killed Meghren. Since coming to power, Celene had done her best to strengthen ties between the two countries, and the song mocking the crude Fereldans and their uncultured customs had never come back into fashion.
Until now, it seemed.
“I remember singing this with the men during marches,” Gaspard said. “It took us back to the days when Orlais stood poised to conquer the world. Poor Meghren, trapped far from the Maker’s gaze, trying to make himself at home among the dog-lords.” He was a tall man, broad in shoulder, and his doublet and hose were cut with hard lines and silver trim to give the impression of armor. His mask was gold, set with emeralds to match his family’s heraldry, and a tall yellow feather sprouted from the mask—like Ser Michel, he was a member of the chevaliers.
He was also standing not ten paces from Bann Teagan Guerrin, the Fereldan ambassador. The man’s face, bare of makeup, clearly showed his anger at hearing his people called “dog-lords.”
“It was a sad time for all of us,” Celene said, turning to the ambassador with a smile, “and Orlais is pleased to count Ferelden as a friend in these trying times.”
Teagan smiled gratefully and bowed. “Your Imperial Majesty, Ferelden hopes the same.”
“Of course.” Gaspard strode forward. “What’s past is past, eh, Teagan? And now we’re just two old warriors.” He clapped the Fereldan on the shoulder, and Bann Teagan stiffened at the familiarity.
“Did you bring your dog with you to Orlais, my lord?” Melcendre added, the dark-haired bard the very picture of innocence, even as the crowd chuckled.
Teagan turned to her, fists clenched at his sides. “Yes, though not to this ball. I doubt he’d appreciate the food.”
That got a laugh from the crowd. While not a master of the Game, the Fereldan noble was smart enough to see when he was being set up and to try to get the crowd on his side.
“Someday I’ll have to see your dog, Teagan,” Gaspard said, not to be distracted from his play. “But tonight, in celebration of the friendship between our empire and your, ah, kingdom, I brought something for you.” He snapped his fingers, and a servant rushed up carrying a long bundle wrapped in rich green velvet.
Gaspard took the package and handed it to Teagan with a wide smile. Reluctantly, knowing he was stepping into a trap but unable to find a way to avoid doing so, the ambassador unwrapped the package.
Inside, as Briala had informed Celene earlier in the afternoon, was a sword. It was Fereldan in make, largely functional but with a few hints of ornamentation around the hilt and cross guard to suggest that it was the fighting blade of a noble. It was worse for wear, with nicks along the blade and a few spots of rust.
“Grand Duke Gaspard!” Michel moved to put himself between Celene and the sword. The weapon should never have made it into the hall—guards at the palace entrance checked all packages to prevent an assassin from bringing a weapon inside. Which was, Celene reflected, why Gaspard had gone to so much trouble to get the package smuggled in and hidden in the hedge maze earlier that day.
“At ease, chevalier.” Gaspard eyed the blade. “I’d as soon come at someone with a fireplace poker as I would wield that thing.” He nodded to Bann Teagan. “It was taken off the body of some Fereldan noblewoman who got caught making trouble for poor Meghren. Moira, I believe.” Behind his gold and green mask, his eyes twinkled with good humor. “Our servants had been using it to kill rats in the cellars.”
Teagan had gone still, looking at the sword in his hands as though the rest of the court had vanished. The green velvet bunched around
his white-knuckled fists.
“That was a noble’s sword?” Melcendre asked, adding just the right touch of doubt to lure the crowd into laughing at the battered blade and drive Teagan further toward saying something that Gaspard could construe as an insult.
It was a simple play, but an effective one. Bann Teagan would be goaded until he said something in anger. Then Melcendre would gasp in shock, to ensure that even the dimmest nobles understood that they should take offense. Celene would then get to choose between having Ser Michel challenge Bann Teagan to satisfy Orlais’s honor and saying nothing, allowing Gaspard to brandish his chevalier’s code of honor and deliver the challenge himself. Either result would sour relations between Orlais and Ferelden, moving them closer to another foolish war.
War was where Gaspard shone brightest.
All this crossed Celene’s mind, even as Gaspard twisted the knife. “Well, she called herself the Rebel Queen. Closer to being a bandit or a mercenary captain, really. She thought she could drive us out of Ferelden.”
“And she was right,” Teagan said, still not looking at Gaspard. “Her son Maric drove you all out of our kingdom.”
“Shame Moira didn’t live to see it,” Gaspard said, looking around the room with a grin. “Perhaps if she’d had one of your big dogs…”
A few nobles laughed. It was just enough to drive Teagan over the edge. Celene saw his shoulders tense, saw him open his mouth to say exactly what Gaspard had been waiting for.
“Bann Teagan,” she called out. She had ruled the greatest empire in the world for twenty years, and she knew how to send her voice slicing through a crowd to drive it to silence.
Mouth still half open, the Fereldan noble turned to her.
Because she and Gaspard had played the Game for long enough to be old familiar enemies, she gave her cousin a tiny smile before stepping forward. Excellent try, the smile said, and next time, perhaps you will be clever enough to succeed … but not tonight.
“Your Imperial Majesty.” Bann Teagan stood ready, the veins in his neck taut.
“I see from your expression that this blade has awakened old feelings in you. Has Orlais given you offense in the death of Moira Theirin, Rebel Queen of Ferelden?” As the crowd took a collective breath, she added, “Do you demand satisfaction?”
Teagan looked down at the blade in his hands, and then over at Gaspard. And finally, because he might have been lackluster at the Game, but he was not a fool, he looked at Celene herself, judged her stance, and quietly said, “I do.”
As the crowd erupted into yells, Celene smiled. Gaspard closed his eyes and shook his head, already knowing that he had lost, while his bard, Melcendre, looked to him in confusion, clearly uncertain how she was supposed to pull the crowd now.
Celene looked over at Michel and gave a tiny nod, and her champion drew his blade. The yelling of the crowd of nobles went silent at the sight of bared silverite shining blue in the grand ballroom.
“Then satisfaction you shall have,” Celene said to the Fereldan ambassador. “Ser Michel?”
“Your Radiance?” Michel asked, blade drawn, never taking his eyes off Bann Teagan.
“We have been challenged, and you are my champion. Do you stand ready to defend the honor of Orlais in a duel between men of noble birth?”
Without pause, Ser Michel said, “I do not, Your Radiance. Since we are the challenged party, it falls to us to choose the weapons used in this duel. We may not proceed until we do so.”
“Ah.” Celene paused for a moment, letting it build. “I see. I would be loath to stain the still-mending friendship between our two nations with noble blood shed in defense of past slights.” She turned to Bann Teagan. “Thus, as is my right, for the weapons in this duel, I choose … feathers.”
“Very good, Your Radiance,” Ser Michel said, and without hesitation, he plucked the tall yellow feather from his mask.
The nobles in the crowd were fickle, bloodthirsty, and vain, but above all, they were hers. As much as they would have enjoyed the scandal of a bloody duel, they admired a good display of wit. As Ser Michel brought his feather up with the crisp precision of a master swordsman, the nobles burst into delighted laughter.
Bann Teagan visibly relaxed, dropping the velvet-wrapped bundle to his side and giving Celene a relieved smile. “Your Radiance, I regret that I am unarmed for a duel of this nature. You may note that my nation prefers fur to feathers.” When he raised his fur-trimmed sleeves, he even got a laugh from the crowd.
“Quite so.” Celene looked over at Gaspard, who had assumed the polite smile one used in court to deny one’s enemies the satisfaction of a snarl. “Cousin, you have shown your generosity to our cousins in Ferelden with your first gift tonight.” She raised a hand and gestured in gratitude. “Would you be so kind as to offer a second?”
Gaspard blinked, then bowed. “Nothing could please me more,” he said, and with a quick and controlled gesture, he plucked his own feather from his mask.
Then he handed the yellow feather, the honored symbol of the legendary Orlesian chevaliers, to the Fereldan dog-lord he had just insulted.
As Ser Michel and Bann Teagan thrust and parried with their feathers to the delighted laughter of the crowd, Celene smiled and called for Melcendre to sing something celebratory.
* * *
Briala came to Empress Celene’s bedchamber that night through a secret door hidden behind a full-length mirror on one wall.
The empress had bathed after the ball—she often did—and changed into a satin nightgown of rich violet. The candle at her writing desk was barely enough to illuminate the pages she had been reading, and most of the room was lit only by the light coming in from the window—the pale yellow of the autumn moon above, and the warmer orange of Val Royeaux itself below.
“Has he spoken yet?” Celene asked, not turning around from where she sat at her writing desk.
Briala smiled at her empress, whose long blond hair was still touched with damp, catching the moonlight as it streamed down her back. “Yes, though I did not think it worth interrupting your evening. Your former captain of the guards has already confessed to smuggling in Gaspard’s gift, and has thrown himself upon your mercy.”
“What an optimistic decision on his part.” Celene chuckled, put down her pen, and turned to Briala. Celene’s face was, as it had been since childhood, a finer version of her mask—fine bones, porcelain skin, and red lips that naturally curved sweetly. “And the chatelaine?”
Briala hesitated, and Celene offered her a curious smile. Finally, Briala said, “Foolish and infatuated, but not disloyal.” Thinking of Disirelle and Rilene, who might have been whipped had the duck not been satisfactory, she added, “Though some gentle chastisement might ensure that she accepts her newfound disappointment with grace and dignity.”
Celene stood, still smiling. “Of course,” she said as she came forward. “Given our victory tonight over Grand Duke Gaspard, generosity is only appropriate.” Celene’s fingers traced softly on the side of Briala’s neck, and with a tiny rasp, Briala’s mask slid free. “After all, Bria,” she said softly as she set the mask aside, “one must make allowances for mistakes brought on by infatuation.”
Briala smelled roses and honeysuckle as her naked cheek grazed Celene’s, the gentle scents of an empress’s bath, and the satin of the nightgown was cool between Briala’s fingers as it slid away to bare pale skin. “Whatever you feel best, Your Radiance,” she whispered, and with her free hand, snuffed out the candle.
2
Lemet walked through the torch-lit slums of Halamshiral, keeping an eye out for thieves and humans. He’d heard that in Ferelden, and maybe even in other parts of Orlais, the elves were kept locked up in small sections of the cities called alienages. Here in the Dales, however, there were more elves than humans, and it was the humans who locked themselves away in the High Quarter.
He wondered how the elves in the alienages had it—if being so few in number meant that the humans didn’t bother sen
ding guards into the elven streets for nightly beatings of whomever they caught. Perhaps the elves in the alienages had clean streets all throughout their part of the city, not just on the streets that led from the gates to the High Quarter.
But honestly, Lemet doubted it.
“You were a bit of a fool tonight, my friend,” said Thren, who was swaying as he walked.
“You don’t say.” Lemet sighed and stumbled as a loose cobblestone slid in the mud. They were in a neighborhood filled mostly with elven merchants and craftsmen, and the streets hadn’t been repaired in years.
“You could be passing an enjoyable evening with Jinette instead of walking home with me,” Thren said, “but you had to get her angry.”
“Jinette was talking too much,” Lemet snapped, and looked around again. “Going on about times centuries past. About the Dales.”
“It’s tavern talk, Lemet. Nobody was taking her seriously.” Thren grabbed Lemet’s shoulder, and the two elves stared into an alley, where a trio of youths watched them, hands on their daggers. Thren and Lemet stuck to the far side of the street and didn’t look away until the alley was behind them.
“Jinette thinks too much about history,” Lemet said to break the silence when they were alone again. “It’s going to get her into trouble.”
“How? That tavern was full of elves.” At Lemet’s look, Thren rolled his eyes. “Fine. A few flat-ears, but you know what I mean. You’re going to blame Gestan and Thale because their mothers got friendly with some young noble and popped out a half-blood? It’s not like they get to live in the nice part of town just because they look human. Nobody in there is going to carry tales back to the nobles about the elves talking about back when they ruled this city.”
“I didn’t think they were,” Lemet said, pausing as a young boy ran across the street ahead of them, a shadow in the greasy torchlight. The boy couldn’t have been more than eight. This far past sundown, he had to be working with the thieves. He didn’t look their way. “But talking about it just gets people angry. The young fools hear about the glory of the Dales and the damned shems betraying us, and next thing you know, someone decides to do something stupid.”
Dragon Age: The Masked Empire Page 3
