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hoping it wouldn t last.
Still, they brushed through the lessons pretty well, even the long drill on
court Roknari grammatical modes. His prickly demeanor did not invite
consolation. The ladies, bless their steadfast wits, did not attempt to
inflict any on him. By the end the two young women were treating him almost
normally again, as he plainly desired, though around Betriz s grave mouth no
dimples solaced him.
Iselle rose to shake out her knots by pacing about the chamber; she stopped to
stare out the window at the chill winter mist that filled the ravine below the
Zangre s walls. She rubbed absently at her sleeve, and remarked querulously,
 Lavender is not my color. It s like wearing a bruise. There is too much death
in Cardegoss. I wish we d never come here.
Considering it impolitic to agree, Cazaril merely bowed, and withdrew to make
himself ready to go down to dinner.
* * *
THE FIRST FLAKES OF WINTER SNOW POWDERED THEstreets and walls of Cardegoss
that week, but melted off in the afternoons. Palli kept Cazaril informed of
the arrival of his fellow lord dedicats, filtering in to the capital one by
one, and in turn decanted Zangre gossip from his friend. Mutual aid and trust,
Cazaril reflected, but also a dual breach of the walls that each of them, in
theory, helped to man. Yet if it ever came down to choosing sides between the
Temple and the Zangre, Chalion would already have lost.
Dy Jironal, Royse Teidez in tow, returned as if blown in by the cold southeast
wind that also dumped an unwelcome gift of sleet on the town in passing. To
Cazaril s relief, the chancellor was empty-handed, balked of quarry in his
quest for justice and revenge. No telling from dy Jironal s set face if he had
despaired of his hunt, or had just been drawn back by spies, riding hard and
fast, to tell him of the forces gathering in Cardegoss that were not of his
own summoning.
Teidez dragged back to his quarters in the castle looking tired, sullen, and
unhappy. Cazaril was not surprised. Chasing down every death for three
provinces around that had occurred during the night of
Dondo s taking-off had surely been gruesome enough even without the vile
weather.
During his bedazzlement by Dondo s practiced sycophancy, Teidez had neglected
his elder sister s company. When he came to visit Iselle s chambers that
afternoon, he both accepted and returned a sisterly embrace, seeming more
eager to talk to her than he had for a long time. Cazaril withdrew discreetly
to his antechamber and sat with his account books open, fiddling with his
drying quill. Since
Orico had for a betrothal gift assigned the rents of six towns to the support
of his sister s household, and not taken them back when funeral had replaced
wedding, Cazaril s accounts and correspondence had grown more complex.
He listened meditatively through the open door to the rise and fall of the
young voices. Teidez detailed his trip to his sister s eager ears: the muddy
roads and floundering horses, the tense and cranky men, indifferent food and
chilly quarters. Iselle, in a voice that betrayed more envy than sympathy,
pointed out how good a practice it was for his future winter campaigns. The
cause of the journey was scarcely touched upon between them, Teidez still
baffled and offended by his sister s rejection of his late hero, and Iselle
apparently unwilling to burden him with knowledge of the more grotesque causes
of her antipathy.
Besides being shocked by the sudden and dreadful nature of Lord Dondo s
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murder, Teidez must be one of the few who d known the man who genuinely
mourned him. And why not? Dondo had flattered and cajoled and made much of
Teidez. He d showered the boy with gifts and treats, some
toxically inappropriate for his age, and how was Teidez to grasp that grown
men s vices were not the same as grown men s honors?
The elder dy Jironal must seem a cold and unresponsive companion by
comparison. The expedition had apparently left a trail of disruption behind as
its inquiries grew rough and ready in dy Jironal s frustration. Worse, dy
Jironal, who needed Teidez desperately, was insufficiently adept at concealing
how little he liked him, and had left him to his handlers secretary-tutor,
guards, and servants treating him as tailpiece rather than lieutenant. But if, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]