Shrouded Sky (The Veils of Lore Book 1) (27 page)

“Do not worry about Ren!” Jhon said, exasperated. He drew a calming breath. “Listen, I’ll think of something to tell him, all right? Meanwhile you must go with your mother.”

Tiersa nodded, biting her lip, and did not argue further.

“I’ll be home soon,” Jhon said, turning to Mayra.

“I know you will,” she replied, then to Chandra, “You take care.”

“If I don’t see you again,” Chandra said, “thanks for everything you did for me.”

“I pray we’ll see you again,” Mayra said. “Contrary to what Orryn says about where Imelas are allowed to live, we can petition for you to stay with us if you’re granted citizenship. You’d have to work for your keep no matter where you stay, but at least you would be with us.”

For the first time, Chandra felt a glimmer of hope. “I—I’d like that, very much.”

“Then you must trust Jhon when you are brought before the Sovereign, for he’ll not steer you wrong.”

“Thank you. I will.”

“Go,” Jhon said to Mayra. “Chandra and I must not appear late before the Sovereign.”

“Of course. Come, Tiersa,” Mayra said, and together they turned and headed toward the crowd and to the carriages that waited on the other side of it.

The Receiving room was very different from the Council chamber where Chandra had first met the Sovereign. While the Council chamber had been black and white and polished, this room seemed more like a large parlor than a place to conduct business. The walls were draped in tapestries of gold and sienna, and throughout the space cushioned chairs and pillows were arranged, as if inviting guests to relax rather than plead for their lives. Tall candelabras gleamed throughout the room, but strangely not all were lit, leaving some areas draped in darkness. Along the far wall was a dais elevated by several steps, and upon it the Sovereign was seated in a gilded, throne-like chair. Her gown was the same deep red she had worn at the game, and Chandra wondered if her face was the same ashen shade. But Chandra could barely make out the woman’s features, much less any emotions they might convey. It was as if a veil of shadow had been draped across the Lady’s face, hiding all but a few subtle shapes of it.

Several guards flanked the throne, including Pey, still armed and bloody from the game, and several red-robed attendants. On either side of the Sovereign, the raven-haired twins stood, their hands clasped in front of them. But this time their faces were not bowed and hidden, but in full view, their delicate features displayed for all to see. They were breathtakingly beautiful, Chandra thought, with their shiny, cascading hair and porcelain skin, and eyes so large it made them look like dolls. They were almost too perfect, as if they had been painted by an artist’s hand. Chandra glanced to her right, wondering if Orryn, who stood next to her, thought the same thing, but he gave no indication that he was even aware of the girls, much less curious about them. His eyes were fully on the Sovereign, as were those of his father who was standing on the other side of him. As to where the emissaries’ attentions were focused, Chandra did not know. They were assembled on the other side of Jhon, and she dared not lean around to find out.

Chandra drew a deep breath, trying to calm her stuttering heart. Any minute now the Sovereign would question her, and when she did, how should she answer? And if the Sovereign ordered her to step near? What then?
“Jhon,”
she said, concentrating hard. Perhaps if she communicated silently with him, he could help her get through this.
“Jhon,”
she repeated. He did not reply.

One of the twins spoke, breaking the silence. She aimed her eyes at those who stood before the dais and ran her gaze along them. “My Lady commands you to kneel,” she said in a strangely masculine voice.

Chandra glanced at Orryn, then Jhon, who threw a subtle look at the emissaries on the other side of him. No one moved.

The twin cocked her head, the other doing the same. “Do you refuse?” the second asked, her voice as sweet a child’s.

Chandra detected a shift in the room.

“We mean no disrespect,” Edrea said. “But we will be addressed by the Sovereign alone.”

“Alas, Our Lady is very weary,” the first said. “She commands that we speak for her.”

“Again, we mean no disrespect to the Sovereign, but we kneel before no one.”

Dar and Gage folded their arms and squared their shoulders. Clearly it would take more than orders from two handmaidens to get them on their knees.

“Perhaps you need to revisit the definition of respect,” the first twin said. “For you stand before the Sovereign, who has the power to remove your feet if she wishes.”

“If she intends to do so, then let her get on with it,” Dar said, no fear in his voice. “For we’ll not kneel to her, nor will we leave this room, on our feet or otherwise, until the message of the Three realms has been given.”

“Then you had best speak it,” the second twin said, “for you
will
be leaving this room.” She and her sister smiled strange, alarming smiles. “On your feet or otherwise.”

“Aye, we’ll speak it,” Gage said, his voice bristling. “Just as soon as the Sovereign herself tells us why the Treaty of Pax has been broken.”

“We wish only to offer diplomacy,” Edrea added, trying to diffuse the situation. “To find a peaceful means of ending your dispute with the Taubastets.”

“As if the Three could ever hope to end it,” the first twin said. The second one laughed. “Speaking of Taubastets,” the first continued. The girls gestured their hands in unison toward a door near the dais.

Ren and a second Shield man dragged Tygg, his arms bound at his back, into the room and deposited him to his knees at the foot of the dais.

“You see,” the first twin said.

“Even a cat knows his place,” the second one added.

Oh, Tygg
, Chandra thought. Her heart nearly wrenched from her chest.

Ren and the other soldier stood at attention, facing the Sovereign.

“As commanded, my Lady,” Ren said. “Perhaps there is more to be gotten out of him.”

“There is always more,” the twins said, their combined voices blending almost to that of a third. They descended the steps of the dais, then moved in opposite directions as they slowly circled Tygg, eyeing him like vultures. Ren and the other man stepped aside.

Chandra felt her insides rope into a murderous knot. How could Ren, who had shared drinks with the Seth family but days ago, be a party to such cruelty? And who were these vile creatures, looking down their noses at Tygg?

The girlish twin fingered Tygg’s hair, then giggled as he jerked his head from her touch.

“Get your filthy hands off him!” Chandra hissed through her teeth.

The twins’ heads snapped in her direction.

Orryn grabbed Chandra by the arm and jerked her toward him. “You will watch your words,” he said, then lifted his eyes to the Sovereign. “Forgive her insolence, my Lady. Clearly the girl was raised in a Sister World barn.” He shoved Chandra back.

The first twin walked toward him, forcing his attention to her. “And you, Orryn?” she said in her oddly masculine voice. “Where were
you
raised?”

The second twin followed the lead of her sister, and together they stopped in front of him, running their eyes over him. “Pretty pretty Orryn,” the second girl said. “So different from the others. Yes, where could you be from?”

“Does the Sovereign ask me this,” he said, “or do you?”

“Our Lady asks, of course,” the twins said.

“I was raised in the house of Seth,” he said, lifting his chin, “in the great city-state of Syddia, the supreme realm of Aredyrah and promised land of Daghadar, Maker of this world and the next.” He narrowed his eyes at the twins. “Did you expect me to answer differently?”

Chandra felt a twinge of nervousness thread though her limbs. There had been a tone of defiance to Orryn’s voice when he’d addressed them, as if he resented their question, or perhaps it was the twins themselves he resented. Had the Sovereign noticed? Chandra looked at her, expecting to see her straightening in her seat, but the Sovereign did not move, just as she hadn’t since they’d first entered the room.

“My son is pure to the House of Seth,” Jhon said, interrupting, “proven thus when he was tested at age eight by the Sovereign herself.”

“It just seems odd,” the second twin said, “that he should have such power over her.”

“Over who?” Orryn asked, clearly confused.

“You do not know?” the twin said. “She whose heart you stole, of course.”

Orryn stiffened and turned his eyes to the throne. “My Sovereign Lady,” he said, “I am a Pedant, and as such am loyal to you and to my oaths. I assure you, I have stolen nothing, especially someone’s heart.”

“Perhaps it was merely given to you then,” the twin said, drawing his attention back to her. “That makes it so much less valuable, don’t you think?”

Chandra’s mind raced. What did they mean, Orryn had stolen someone’s heart? Did they mean her? But how could they know?

“I tire of your games,” Orryn said. “Say what you have to say or take your place with the other servants where you belong.”

The twins’ eyes flickered with anger. “A lie lurks inside you, Orryn of the House of Seth,” the first one said, “for that is what betrayed you to her.”

“Indeed, and we will show you,” the second twin said, and seemed quite excited to do so. She motioned him closer to the dais, then ordered him to stand next to Tygg who was still on his knees in front of the steps. Orryn complied.

The sisters turned and ascended the dais until they were once again on either side of the Sovereign. They took her hands in theirs and helped her up, then guided her slowly down the steps toward Orryn and Tygg.

Chandra gasped as the Sovereign came more into the light, for though she was still as beautiful as when Chandra had first seen her, there was now something fragile about her. Her hair, still in wild golden ringlets around her head, looked as if she had raked her fingers through it many times, and her lips were swollen, as if she had bitten them in worry. But it was her eyes that were the most startling, filled with an anguish that seemed very out of place for someone as powerful as she.

The twins guided her toward Orryn and stopped.

“My Lady,” Orryn said, falling to one knee. He bowed his head, while Tygg kept his eyes aimed at the Sovereign, his hands clenching and unclenching at his back. But the twins and the Sovereign seemed to have little interest in Tygg, or any fear of him. Their attentions were fully on Orryn.

“Do not lower your eyes, Orryn,” the first twin said gently. “Our Lady commands that you face her.”

Orryn slowly rose and lifted his gaze to the Sovereign.

“You see?” the second twin said. “You see what you have done?”

“I assure you, my Lady, I have done nothing,” Orryn said.

“Oh but you did,” the first twin said. “You existed, in all your beauty and strength, you existed.”

“How does that make me a traitor? How does that make me a thief?” he asked.

The twins let go their hold of the Sovereign, and she crumpled to the floor at Orryn’s feet. He reached to assist her, but the first twin shoved him away with so much strength he nearly toppled to the tiles. “You dare to touch her?” the twin bellowed. “Is that your desire? To lay your hands on her, to know what it is like?”

“No!” he said, sounding startled by the words. “I only wished to—”

The twins laughed a weird and hideous laugh, a sound so cruel it made Chandra’s flesh crawl. She glanced at Pey and the other men standing guard in the room. Strangely no one attempted to intervene or even to assist the Sovereign who was now lying, gasping, on the floor. It was then that Chandra realized the glazed look in the men’s eyes. Only Ren and the guard who had brought Tygg into the room seemed to be lucid, but even they made no move toward the scene playing out in front of the dais. And it was then that Chandra knew.

One of the twins reached a hand to Orryn, and fear for him overrode all of Chandra’s instincts for self-preservation. “Don’t you dare touch him!” she cried and rushed forward.

“Why, she is jealous,” the twin said, her hand still suspended.

“No,” the other replied. “She fears we will claim him.”

“Stay away from them, Orryn,” Chandra said, stopping near, but out of reach of the girls. She grabbed Orryn by the sleeve and yanked him back.

“What are you doing?” he asked, indignant.

“The Sovereign is inside them, controlling them,” Chandra said. “Don’t you see?”

“Indeed she is,” the first twin said. She looked down at the Sovereign. “For her pitiful host grew to love, and that she could not have. At first it was amusing, to feel how she felt as she looked upon him, the longing of her body as she imagined Orryn in her arms. But it made the Sovereign weak, and for that she punished her.”

“Yes, she did,” the second said, “by punishing
him
.” She laughed. “My, but her frailties did twist in the wind over it. But it was only a short while before the Sovereign knew what had to be done. And so we were awakened, as we knew we would be, and for that we are grateful.” She grinned. “For there is so much more fun to be had.”

“Orryn,” the Sovereign said, her eyes pleading.

He looked down at her, but made no further move to assist.

Chandra felt Jhon step to her side. “Are you saying the Sovereign is within you now?” he asked the twins. “That the Council now answers to you also, rather than her alone?”

“What are you suggesting, Master Seth?” Edrea asked, interrupting his question.

“It appears the Sovereign has transferred her powers,” Jhon replied. His eyes remained on the twins. “Am I correct?”

The twins nodded. “She still retains,” the first said, gesturing to the Sovereign. “But now they are shared. To add our strength to her weakness.”

“So to whom are we to address in the matter of the Pax?” Edrea asked, glancing between Jhon and the other emissaries.

“I say none of them,” Dar replied. “How do we know the Sovereign has not been poisoned, that this isn’t a coup?”

“Aye. For all we know, these here girls are in cahoots with the Commander.” Gage eyed Pey and lowered his voice. “An’ ye know what I think o’ the likes o’ him.”