by M. J. Scott
"Wove? I thought the tscherov was a rite?"
"It is. But it involves the ladies weaving...well, bracelets braided from thread is the simplest explanation. There are different colors and patterns. It's all connected to houses and families and balance, of course. Each one slightly different."
"And Lady Cela's had Elannon colors?"
He hadn't missed the connection. "Yes. Irina said her grandmother was an Elannon. She's Sejerin Silya's cousin."
"Silya is Elannon?"
"Perhaps. It would depend on who her mother married." She rubbed her forehead. Genealogy had never been her favorite part of court life, and she hadn't been studying Andalyssia long enough to even begin to scratch the surface of how their houses connected. "But Cela can't be considered to belong to House Elannon, can she? Katiya wouldn't be friendly with her if that were the case."
"The disgraced part of the house is trying to redeem itself. Being nice to the future queen would be part of that. Not to mention Mikvel needs to keep both sides happy for now."
"The tscherov is supposed to be for closer friends and family though. I got the feeling Katiya got to choose who was there. Sejerin Silya wasn't there. Just Sejerin Neni."
"Neni? I don't think I've met her."
"She was nice. Nothing like Silya. Didn't call me daughter of ravens for a start." She still had no idea what the seer had meant.
Lucien didn't smile. In fact he went still. "Silya was at the same meeting as me."
"With House Elannon?"
"Yes." He stared at her, face twisting as though considering what to say.
"And the king didn’t tell you that she was related to them?"
"No."
"Perhaps the sejerin and svasyas are like the temple back home. Giving up allegiance to anyone but the goddess."
"You know as well as I that it doesn’t really work like that in the bigger temples. Religion goes hand in hand with power. There are always those who look for advantage. I doubt it’s any different here. A person’s house and family are all part of the balance, after all." He blew out a breath. "Which makes me wonder why Mikvel didn't tell me about the relationship. Damn. I thought he was being genuine in his desire for me to find the truth."
"Perhaps he is. Perhaps it didn't occur to him that you wouldn't know. You investigated House Elannon last time, after all."
"Perhaps," he agreed. "And maybe I did know once. She wouldn't have been a seer back then, maybe. Or not such a powerful one. Just a name on the list of women of the house." He rubbed his forehead. "This damn country is enough to addle anyone's brain."
"Some of them seem nice."
"I'm sure some of them are. But some of them are jostling for position. You're right to be wary of Lady Cela if she has a connection. House Elannon has a lot riding on my decision. Being reinstated to the council early would make life a lot easier for many of them. You should try to avoid Elannons if you can. Uli Elannon especially. He's the potential Ashmeister's uncle. He mentioned you today."
"Me?" Why was her name coming up in a discussion of an Andalyssian house?
"Yes. He was trying to make a point about treason. He used you to do it. Silya seemed on his side. And she mentioned that ‘daughter of ravens’ thing again. Said trouble followed you."
She shivered. The last thing she wanted was a seer weighing in on her fate. "I’m sure she was just being difficult."
"Maybe. But I don’t like coincidence."
"You think Elannon was connected to what Charl did?"
"I don't know. But the trail out of Illvya cut off too neatly. We always suspected that meant another country was involved, but we had no proof. I still don't. But I want you to be careful. Don't go wandering around on your own."
"I hardly have time to bathe alone, let alone roam the corridors. And I'm not an idiot." His advice might be well-intentioned, but it still irritated her.
"I'm not suggesting you are. But this situation just became more complicated. So please, be careful."
"What if my mysterious stranger reappears?"
"Then you string him along, get away from him as soon as possible, and come find me."
"Just you? Not the colonel or the captain."
He rubbed a hand across his chin, which was starting to show a shadow of a beard. Testament to how late it was. "No. I'd rather not involve them. Not just yet. Until we know more, we can’t approach Mikvel about it without risking making the situation worse. The more people we tell about this, the more chance whoever this is—whoever they are—will decide it's too risky and not approach you again. Or do something stupid. Let's keep this between you and me until after the wedding, at least. If they don’t make contact again by then, we’ll tell Honore and let her decide."
Chapter 20
"Chloe, you'll go with Major de Roche this morning," Honore said.
Chloe almost choked on her last bite of toast. Assigned to Lucien?
She looked to the top of the table. Lucien didn't look surprised. Had he requested her? Not something she could ask. Junior lieutenants went where sent.
She nodded at Honore, trying to look unconcerned.
As everyone was leaving the dining room, she worked her way to Lucien’s side. "I thought you wanted me to avoid House Elannon?"
"I want you to avoid random encounters with them. This isn't a random encounter. You'll be with me."
Was he being protective of her or using her as bait? There wasn't time to ask any more questions. Lieutenant Plesse and one of the ensigns joined them, cutting off any chance of further discussion. Theo walked with her behind Lucien. If he was surprised at her inclusion, he was too professional to show it and just gave her a quick summary of the discussions the day before. He didn't mention that her name had come up, leaving her unsure if he was being discreet or whether Lucien had already told him she knew.
Based on Theo's briefing, she’d expected the meeting to be crowded. Instead, only Mikvel, Andrej Elannon, who wasn’t much older than the king, and Niel Elannon, Andrej's Wardmeister, waited for them.
"My lord Truth Seeker," Andrej said as Lucien pulled out his chair. "Is there no way to make this process faster? I am willing to submit myself to your magic, if that would help."
Lucien took a moment to reply. "Thank you, my lord. But proving your own intent doesn’t clear your house. It is, of course, a welcome step."
Andrej looked at the king. "Your Majesty, I would like to do this regardless. I don’t want you to doubt me."
Mikvel nodded. "Lord Castaigne, would you indulge us in this? We appreciate that you still need to continue your investigation as agreed, but this would put our mind at ease."
Lucien stilled. For a moment, Chloe thought he would refuse. But then he nodded. "Very well, Your Majesty." He turned to face Andrej, took a breath. His magic swelled around her, the song of it near deafening. Yet still, somehow, calling her in.
Goddess. She’d forgotten what it was like to see him use his true power. It was awe inspiring and somewhat frightening, elevating her pulse even though she wasn’t his target. He’d used it on her once to question her about Charl. She hoped he never had reason to turn it on her again. Everyone in the room was watching him as though an ice-wolf had suddenly appeared in their midst.
"My lord Elannon," he said, his voice rumbling with a power that felt impossible to resist. "Are you loyal to His Imperial Majesty Aristides Delmar de Lucien and your king, Mikvel Surayov?"
Andrej swallowed, as though his mouth was dry. But he met Lucien’s gaze. "Yes. I am."
"Thank you, my lord," Lucien said. His magic disappeared, the absence of it like the silence after a thunderclap.
"Well?" the king asked.
"He is telling the truth, Your Majesty." Lucien smiled. "Which means we should proceed."
The rest of the meeting moved quickly. Andrej and Niel helped Lucien compile a list of their family members, and Mikvel added other suggestions which Chloe and Theo dutifully noted down. Less than an hour had passed before the list
was complete and King Mikvel concluded the meeting.
"What happens if you don't allow House Elannon to return?" she asked Lucien as they walked back across the palace.
"Hopefully, sanity prevails and they continue their work to deal with whatever lingering problems they have in their house, as they have for the last thirteen years, and wait another three years to try again."
"And if sanity doesn't prevail?"
"Then the king may have a fight on his hands if the other Ashmeisters or the church presses the point. That's harder to judge. I need to spend some time with the patrarch and the sejerin council to understand whether they are genuine in their religious objections or if it’s all just politics. If they were truly devoted to balance, they would have elevated another house when Elannon was barred from the council."
She didn’t envy him that task. She couldn’t see Silya agreeing to him using his powers on her. "Is that a possibility?"
Lucien shrugged. "The patrarch at the time argued against it. Establishing a new house is a process of some length and expense, not to mention endless rituals. But my understanding is that it has happened a few times in their history. Not all their kings have been as lenient at the end of a rebellion as Aristides was."
"Why was he?" Aristides hadn’t spared Charl. And the Ashmeister Elannon had come close to killing the empress and their unborn child. Charl had been discovered before he’d put anyone in danger. So why spare House Elannon?
Lucien half shrugged. "It wasn't the king who led the Elannon plot. He was trying not to punish the whole country for the crimes of a few. He has an empire to hold together, unlike a king who only has to manage one country. It’s understandable."
"Did you agree with him?"
"It wasn't my place to agree or not," Lucien said. "It is my place to find the truth. But yes, I believe mercy is best, when it can be used. The Ashmeister was executed, as were his conspirators, but the damage after that was contained as much as possible."
She wondered if that was true. Supposedly she’d been spared any direct consequence from Charl’s' crimes, but they had still thrown her life into chaos. How might a whole noble house react to their world being upended? And what might they do to regain that life?
Theo and the ensign had peeled off toward another meeting, leaving the two of them alone as they walked. "Why did you ask for me today?"
"I wanted to see if you recognized anybody in the meeting."
Neither Andrej nor Niel had been the man who'd spoken to her. Not unless they were master illusioners. They were both too tall—though a strong illusion might mask that. But nothing about them had reminded her of the man she’d spoken to. "No. I didn't."
He looked disappointed, though he should be relieved. So he was being protective. Which only confused her. "Perhaps we can shed some light as we meet with others from the house."
"You do think House Elannon are involved in this," she said.
"I don’t know what to think. But I have learned to look for the most obvious answer first. Rule that out before proceeding to more complicated theories.” He shook his head, as though trying to decide something, then came to a stop. “Regardless, that took less time than I expected. So you should take some time for yourself. I don't need you for the rest of the morning."
Chloe left Lucien near the dining room, trying to ignore the fact that his dismissal had stung, and returned to her room, intending to read or maybe even snatch a nap. There would be another ball that evening, and a chance to catch an extra hour’s sleep—or just some time alone—was an unexpected luxury. But she'd barely settled into a chair with one of her novels when Allita arrived.
"A message from the Lady Irina, Lieutenant," she said, handing an envelope to Chloe. "She asked me to wait to show you the way if you accept."
Chloe opened the note, curiosity warring with irritation at losing her free time. Another invitation. Just not one to yet another wedding ceremony. Instead, Irina was offering a tour of the palace's stillrooms. As tempting as the thought of two hours alone was, curiosity about how the Andalyssians used herbs and other medicinal elements with their magic won. She followed Allita into one of the servants’ passages and then down quite a few flights of stairs, trying to ignore the curious looks of the servants they passed.
The games of politics and pageantry played out in the grander parts of the palace were where most people focused, but Chloe had always found the working parts of such places more interesting. As a child, she'd wandered the halls of the Academe, making friends with the cooks, the cleaning staff, the gardeners, and the Master of Ravens, of course. Far more interesting places for a child than libraries and classrooms.
Her fascination with those had grown, too, over the years, but her interest in how grand buildings were run had stood her in good stead when she'd taken over running the Matin household when her mother's illness had been at its worst, and when it came to managing the modest house she and Charl shared.
They'd only had a cook and a few servants, but it still took work to keep such a small household running. Her experience had come in useful again when she'd first won her job with Ginevra and then taken over the store entirely. She'd slanted the business slightly more to magical supplies, but supplies for earth witches, her primary customers, still leaned heavily toward the healing arts. She'd spent plenty of time with mostly herbs and other plants and ingredients to keep her company on long nights when she couldn't sleep or settle to reading.
When Allita opened a sturdy wooden door at the far end of a cool stone corridor and green-scented steam-tinged air wafted out, her heart twinged with sudden nostalgia. She had missed this. Herbcraft was as close to using her power as she’d been permitted in Kingswell. Maybe it was part of what she had been missing back in Lumia. But she'd chosen the corps.
But still, her earth magic sparked as she stepped into the long high-ceilinged room. Four long wooden tables—plain well-scrubbed wood—marched in a line down the center of the room. Rows of metal racks and wood shelves filled with neatly labeled jars and boxes lined the walls, along with several deep marble basins and counters and two small stoves. Empty containers nestled on shelves beneath the tables and racks of drying herbs hung from wood racks above them. Though Chloe suspected there would be other drying rooms somewhere. This room was too cool and the air too damp from whatever was bubbling on the stove to be truly useful to dry herbs, and there were other ingredients that didn't like damp. There'd be a cool room, too. Though warmth was probably the harder thing to supply than cold in Andalyssia.
Irina stood at the second table, a practical dark gray linen apron tied over an equally sensible-looking dark blue gown. Katiya stood opposite her in a similar outfit.
Neither of them noticed Chloe, intent as they were on a complicated-looking setup of glass tubes and beakers connected to a hissing copper boiler. Some sort of distillation. Those were tricky things. She hung back by the door, not wanting to interrupt and potentially destroy hours or days of work. She was surprised to see Katiya. With only two days before the wedding, she would have expected the soon-to-be queen's days to be scheduled from dawn to dusk. But perhaps she had had an unexpected break in her schedule, too.
The sisters worked well together, obviously used to the task. But Irina took the lead. She mixed and sniffed and managed the brazier under the copper boiler with a confidence that reminded Chloe of Ginevra. Which suggested she had been underplaying her interests in the healing arts somewhat during their previous conversation.
Eventually Irina noticed her. "Chloe. You're here." She gestured with her free hand. "We'll be done shortly. Then I’ll give you the tour."
"Don't rush. I'll just watch."
"Or come and help," Irina said. "You can assist Katya while I fetch more bottles."
Chloe didn't need a second invitation. She joined the sisters. Katiya bent down and pulled another apron from beneath the table and passed it over. As Chloe slipped it on and tied it around her waist, Irina peered at the pale yellow liqu
id beginning to drip into the second to last of a series of beakers.
"What are you making?" Chloe asked. She didn't recognize the precise shade of yellow, and the smell wasn't distinctive enough for her to identify.
"Sunwort and arnica," Irina said. "Good for bruises and aches. We distill it, then make it into a salve. Though small amounts can be taken in tea or water for a headache. The kind that makes people sick with light or noise."
"Migraine," Chloe said. "Yes. I've not heard of sunwort though. The Anglions have something called redwort, but it's a stimulant. The Red Guard use it when they need to stay awake in battle." And others used it to ward off sleep as well. Though it only worked for a few days, and the crash that followed was swift, resulting in sleep that lasted as long as the waking period. Which limited its usefulness.
Katiya nodded. "That one is from the same family of plants. But it doesn't thrive in the mountains, so we don't grow it here. There's firewort, too. Which is rarer still."
"We don't mess with that one," Irina said. "Or if we did, Royve Ava would be supervising—she's the head healer here. The seers use firewort sometimes to aid their visions, but get the distillation or the dosage wrong and that will be the last vision you ever have." She adjusted the burner carefully.
"Poison?" Chloe asked. The Ashmeister Elannon had used poison against the empress. Not such a common weapon in Illvya—or Anglion—but not unheard of.
"Many things are poisons if used the wrong way," Katiya said.
Irina shrugged, grinning. "Poisons used to be something of a pastime here," she said. "Our ancestors had too much time on their hands during the long dark winters, or maybe just too much time in close quarters. Stabbing someone is not very subtle when you can't run away afterward. Poison is sneakier. But firewort was never a common one. It is deadly in small doses, and it is accessible because the seers use it, but it tends to tint things red. Harder to hide than some of the other common poisons. But these days we're very civilized." She glanced at her sister. "It's really only the king and his family who still have food tasters."
