Dragon Prince 01 - Dragon Prince (24 page)

She shifted in her chair, the cushion beneath her doing little to ease the soreness of too many hours in the saddle. The rest of the company was growing nervous, eyeing the main doors. Andrade took mental inventory, matching each vassal to his battle flag draped high above the torches, which were themselves set high enough to give off light but not too much heat in this perpetually warm room. At the end of the Hall huge double doors stood wide open, as did the windows on either side of them and along the outer wall, to admit any breeze that might stray in to cool the diners. But the banners moved only fitfully and the torchflames were steady and smokeless. Andrade licked her dry lips and pushed a lock of hair from her neck, cursing her nephew’s lateness.

All at once her eyes popped as Rohan strode through into the Hall. He walked the long aisle between the tables with the ease and authority of absolute ownership, dressed in black and silver, his golden hair gleaming as if it had been polished. Andrade choked on a giggle completely unsuited to her age and rank. The entrance was pure Zehava, son of the dragon, and she forgave him her discomfort for the amusement of seeing him dazzle everyone in the room.

An open-necked shirt that clung to his body was tucked into snug black trousers. Silver embroidery winked from his throat, wrists, and the tops of his high black boots. Two rings—one topaz, one emerald—shone from his fingers, and a single fat onyx swung near the angle of his jaw from a silver clasp that circled his ear. The effect was perfect—and not intended solely to impress his vassals.

Rohan paused to make his bow to his mother. The two halves of the high table had been pushed apart so that Milar sat on one side of the division and Rohan on the other. He took his seat next to Andrade, and as Walvis came forward to pour his wine the feast began at last. Andrade looked him over and murmured. “Now, what is all this in aid of, I wonder?”

Tobin was frankly staring. “You look wonderful!”

“Thank you,” he said airily. “But Tobin, I’m surprised at you! Your hands aren’t red from spanking your two hellions.”

“Chay did it for me—and they won’t be able to sit down for two days. But where’s Sioned? I want to thank her.”

“Isn’t she here yet?” he asked with a casual glance around the Hall.

“She will be,” Milar said. “Now, don’t embarrass her, Rohan. She’s really rather shy, you know. How handsome you look, darling! I’m glad I haven’t been sewing my eyes blind to no avail.”

“You should’ve had your women do it,” he scolded fondly.

“Don’t be silly. It gave me something to do while Andrade bored me with her stories. Besides, my women are planning how to change the prince’s suite for you when you get back.”

“It sounds as if you’re not coming with us,” Chay said.

“I’ve too much to do here.” She dipped delicate fingers into a bowl of scented water held by her squire. “Rohan will want to bring his bride home to rooms suitable for her. And that reminds me—go upstairs and find her, Jary.”

The squire hurried off. Conversation stopped for a few moments while everyone pretended not to notice Rohan’s blush. Andrade crooked a finger at Walvis. “Set a place at the high table for Lady Sioned, and don’t be subtle about it.”

The boy bowed, his usual wariness of her dissolving into a pert grin. “My lord ordered it earlier, my lady.”

Andrade winked at him. “Very thoughtful. I approve.” She turned to her nephew. “She’ll murder you for it, you know.”

“She should have thought of the official consequences before she saved Jahni and Maarken today.” His eyes lit with wicked anticipation. “It wouldn’t be princely of me not to thank her in public.”

“I still say she’ll murder you.”

“That egg hasn’t hatched yet. But what do you think of my first portrayal of ruling prince?” He picked up his goblet and struck a pose.

She laughed. “Very impressive. I like the jewelry. Don’t ever wear more than that, Rohan. Your hair and eyes do it all. There’s not a woman in this room who’s not drooling over you. But I suspect it’s the woman who’s not here yet whose eye you want to catch.”

“Dearest aunt,
that
egg hasn’t even been cracked, so don’t anticipate its dragon’s flight.”

Her brows arched. “My, how poetical we’ve become with our phrasing, my lord prince! Practicing for Roelstra—or for Sioned?”

“The former, of course. Better high-flying phrases than what I’d really like to say to him.”

“Spent days thinking them up, have you?”

“Years.” He grimaced, lifted his winecup to his lips, and stopped in mid-motion. Andrade followed the direction of his gaze and in the abrupt hush heard Chay give a low whistle of admiration. There was much to admire as Sioned made her way across the flag-stones to the high table.

Quietly attired, without jewels, and with her hair in a simple braid threaded with thin gold ribbons, still she was as regal as a princess dressed in dark green silk just the color of mossberries in shadow. She looked neither to right nor left and her movements were a little rigid as she paced up the center aisle, all eyes on her. Walvis started forward to her rescue, but Rohan put a restraining hand on the boy’s arm. Andrade nodded to herself; Sioned would have to get used to being stared at, for once she was Rohan’s wife she would often be on public display.

The prince got to his feet as the Sunrunner made her bow to him. As she bent her head and her knees, gaze stubbornly directed on the floor, Rohan stepped between the tables and stood at the dais before her.

“A moment, my lady,” he said as she rose, his voice carrying admirably to the far ends of the Hall. The girl’s cheeks were crimson as she glanced up wildly, eyes like a startled bird’s. Rohan continued, “We wish to thank you formally for your courage today on the hunt. For our sister and her lord, for our lady mother and our aunt, but most especially for ourselves we thank you. You have kept safe the two young lords who are our heirs—until we can get one of our own.”

Andrade settled back to enjoy the show, fully approving Rohan’s words and the furious flash in Sioned’s green eyes. Naughty boy, to use the royal “we” to imply their mutual children!

Rohan held out one hand to her. Helplessly, she put her fingers in his, and a moment later was wearing the emerald ring. Andrade nearly choked. He had placed it on her left third finger, the one reserved for a tenth Sunrunner’s ring and which for a
faradhi
was never circled by any other.

“It is our desire that you wear this as a reminder of the debt we owe you,” he said. Pulling Sioned firmly up beside him on the dais, he gave her over to Walvis’ escort and as the squire took her to her place at the high table, Rohan lifted his winecup. “The Lady Sioned,” he called out.

The assembly roared out her name and drank to her health. Sioned looked like someone whose health was in need of a few toasts. Andrade grinned behind her goblet and mused on what methods the girl would use to make Rohan pay for this.

He waited until the Hall was quiet, then spoke again. “My lords, I’ve listened carefully to your wants and needs for the lands you hold of me. Your desires are many and varied. But I have never negotiated at a
Rialla
before, and I am reluctant to commit myself to promises I may not be able to keep. Therefore I ask that before I leave for Waes in three days’ time, you choose from among yourselves three to accompany and advise me.”

Andrade stared. Chay would be going to the
Rialla
as usual, of course, but for lesser lords to accompany their prince was not done. What scheme was the boy hatching now?

“My father Prince Zehava once told me that the promises of a prince die with him. I do not intend that this shall be the case with me. The vows he made to you in former years are unknown to me, but I do know that he concerned himself first and foremost with the wealth and happiness of his lands. If we are to keep the Desert strong and prosperous, we must work together. But it has occurred to me that—” He paused and took a deep breath, not entirely for effect, Andrade saw with narrowed eyes. “You and your families have served me and mine long and well. Yet with the exception of my lord of Radzyn Keep, who received the grant on his marriage to my sister, none of you truly own the lands and keeps you administer. Upon my return from the
Rialla
, what I propose is this. In autumn I will travel to each of my holdings, inspect it, allow you to show me its strengths and weaknesses. If all is to satisfaction, I will invest those who show themselves worthy with the privilege Lord Chaynal alone now enjoys.”

Pandemonium.

“I hope you know what you’re doing!” Chay shouted to Rohan over the racket.

“Darling,” Milar said worriedly, “do you think this is wise? Zehava broke all precedent by gifting Chay with Radzyn, and it was for the best, of course, but—”

“You’re out of your mind!” Tobin exclaimed.

But Andrade understood. The vassals would be kept busy readying their keeps for Rohan’s inspection—and when he returned with whatever he decided they deserved from the
Rialla
negotiations, they would agree to anything in order to have true ownership of their lands. Moreover, Sioned would be accompanying Rohan on this progress, which would afford everyone the chance to get to know her. Lastly—if she read him right, which she believed she did—a war with the Merida was in the offing next spring. People who fought loyally for the prince who ruled them would fight ferociously to protect lands deeded to them by written law in a promise that would not die with this prince.

She touched Rohan’s arm, and he turned to look at her. “Make them pay for it,” she advised.

“With enough to support Stronghold every year from now on,” he agreed.

Andrade nodded her approval. “You give them what they already have, and they pay for the privilege. Very economical, Rohan.”

He sat down and took a long swallow of wine. “Being a prince is thirsty work,” he commented.

As the moons rose, wine flowed in torrents and conversation in the Hall never let up for an instant. Andrade relaxed happily into the tumult, appreciating the quality of the entertainment Rohan had given her. It had been years since she’d been in the midst of doings like these, and if he was capable of a show like this at Stronghold, his performance at the
Rialla
would be something prodigious. She could hardly wait.

The night was not yet finished with surprises, however. Andrade kept an eye on Sioned, noting that the girl ate and drank almost nothing. Rigidly controlled, she sat with her hands folded in her lap, her lips compressed, her whole demeanor ice in contrast to the fire of her hair. As the dishes were cleared away and steaming pitchers of taze were placed along the tables, Andrade saw that Sioned no longer stared at her hands, but down the long aisle between tables to the main doors. Curious, Andrade glanced that way. Moonlight made hazy rectangles of the tall windows on either side of the entry, cool silvery light competing with the warmer glow of the torches. But Sioned was not watching the light. Her attention was on someone down at the bottom of the Hall. She rose slowly to her feet and glided along the outer aisle next to the window wall behind the diners’ backs. Andrade anticipated her course and stiffened as she saw the object of Sioned’s stare.

The wine steward Andrade had warned Milar about stood in one of the patches of moonlight beside the doors. His pale eyes were glazed over, his face blank, his body frozen in place. She recognized the look of someone being used by a Sunrunner as distant eyes and ears.

Sioned stood now before the second window, her slender body limned in quicksilver shadows. Andrade got to her feet, but knew it was too late to stop the
faradhi.
Coldly, politically, she knew there was no better time for Sioned to demonstrate her usefulness as Rohan’s princess.

Silence flowed in a slow wave up the Hall as people noticed Sioned. She lifted both hands; the emerald spat fire from her finger and her other rings took on a strange glow. As light gathered between her hands, Andrade shared a gasp with the rest of the Hall. But only she and the other
faradh’im
knew that this was a skill Sioned should not have had. In the unlit space before the open doors a form coalesced, called up by the Fire Sioned had woven into the moonlight. The image wavered, steadied, became recognizable. Andrade’s fists clenched as she recognized Roelstra. Someone screamed.

“Who are you?” Sioned raged at the wine steward, speaking not to him but to the unknown
faradhi
who controlled him. “What else have you seen for your master, the High Prince? Tell me what you plot against my lord, or I’ll follow you all the way back to Castle Crag and wrap you in your own shadows?”

The High Prince’s specter moved. His lips formed words unheard, his hands coming up to grip invisible shoulders. The steward’s head lolled back and forth in time to Roelstra’s movements as he shook the distant
faradhi.

“Tell me!”

The steward’s face was a mask of terror now. “I swear on my soul—”

“You have none! Were you planning to kill him? Tell me!”

“No! No, I swear to you—”

“Hear me, Roelstra! Tell him my words, traitor! Tell him I’ll see him and his dead if he harms my lord!”

Andrade grabbed Rohan’s arm to prevent him from running to Sioned. He swung on her in a black rage. “No!” she hissed. “Let her be!”

Sioned’s eyes were wild as she proved herself worthy of her rings—and more—by tangling the other
faradhi
in light, threatening him with limitless shadows. But it had gone on too long; Andrade sensed the strain of the conjure and the moonweave drag at her own perceptions, and knew Sioned had not the strength to continue much longer. With the skills possessed only by a Lady or Lord of Goddess Keep, Andrade quickly gathered strands of light; sorting, separating. It was as if she unraveled a fine silk veil made of a thousand colors, each painted in silver and Fire, then rewove them into the unique pattern that was Sioned. Yet the girl fought her off, her strength still formidable as she struggled to keep the link between herself and the
faradhi
at Castle Crag. It took almost everything Andrade could call up to bend Sioned to her will.