The Prize in the Game (24 page)

"I see you have gone very far away from me," Maga said coldly. "I thought my daughters had come home, but

I see I have been rearing snakes to betray me."

"I am your daughter, yes, but not your property," Emer said, taking a step toward the door. "It might be as well for you to leave me out of your schemes from now on, Mother."

"Where are you going?" Maga asked, her voice like ice.

"Back into the hall," Emer said.

"Oh, don't be such a fool," Maga said. "Do you think your father will take your part against mine?"

"If I tell him you wanted me to betray my foster-father? If I tell him I have a marriage alliance arranged with

Conal and that Conal will be king of Oriel? He might."

Elenn looked at her sister with horror. Could Emer really be proposing to start another war between their parents? War between Connat and Oriel would be nothing in comparison.

"With Conal, not with his parents and his uncle?" Maga's tone ridiculed the notion.

"Sometimes, when I am away from you, I almost forget how impossible you are," Emer said. "If I have to run away with Conal and live in a ditch, then I will."

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"His parents and his uncle will just adore that," Maga said, her voice dripping scorn. "If you are anything to him, it is as princess of Connat, as you would soon find out if you tried that. But you are my daughter, my blood. I bore you and suckled you and named you." Maga's voice softened.

"If you truly want to marry Conal this much, if that's what all this is about, then just tell me what weakness you saw in Oriel and I will see what can be done."

"You should have said that before," Emer said. "What sort of fool and traitor do you think me?" Then she grabbed her torn hair from where Maga still clutched it and threw it into the fire, where it flared up quickly, filling the room with the harsh funeral smell of burned hair.

Maga did nothing, just watched the hairs shrivel and burn until Emer left the room. Then she sang her charm to make the fire stop burning. The room was very dark suddenly, with only the flickering candlelight. She reached down into the cold gray embers and took up what was left of the hairs. She shook her head over them.

"Ashes. But I'm her mother. Doesn't she realize I have enough of her hair and blood for anything I might want?" Then she looked at Elenn for the first time in a long time. The look made Elenn feel cold inside, made her wish she had stayed in Ardmachan even though she had been so lonely. "Go after her. And try to do better than you have for the last year at stopping her doing stupid things," she said. Elenn stood, her legs shaking a little. Then she stooped to gather up Beauty. "No, leave the puppy here," Maga said.

Elenn tried to speak and swallowed, finding her throat too dry. "But she's scared of the cat," she said. The cat's eyes shone very green in the dim light.

"Nothing but defiance on all sides," Maga said, shaking her head.

"Take her, then. But I take it you haven't told my secrets to anyone, or contracted any alliances, and aren't keeping any secrets from me?"

"Oh, no, Mother," Elenn said, hugging Beauty. It was true, she hadn't any alliance, only a hope.

As for telling

Maga's secrets, she'd have thought Emer's refusal to tell Oriel's secret, whatever it was, would have made

Maga realize how unlikely that was.

"And you at least will do as I tell you?"

"Oh, yes, Mother," Elenn said fervently. Beauty was getting heavy and trying to lick her face, but Elenn held her tight.

"Then get after her," Maga said. "Find out what she knows about Oriel, if you can. Stop her going straight to

Conal and pouring out my secrets along with her silly infatuation."

Elenn raised her chin and made for the door. She didn't have any idea how she was going to do it, but at least she'd be away from Maga and the chances were good that by tomorrow, Maga would be back to being sweet to her.

"Come back afterwards," Maga added as Elenn opened the door. "I want you to tell me all about this silly contest, how it was declared and what everyone thinks about it."

"Yes, Mother," Elenn said and went out after Emer, shutting the door quietly behind her and not sighing at all, not on the outside where anyone might see.

19

(EMER)

Emer was shaking. She had been through a battle and it hadn't made her shake the way she did after a quarrel with Maga. She stood and forced herself still, taking deep breaths. Her father would, as always, be drinking in the hall. She couldn't go to him like this. There was nobody around. These rooms belonged to the

Royal Kin. She didn't know if one of them was still hers and Elenn's. She didn't want it to be.

It was dark and shadowed, the only light coming from the fires in the open part of the
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hall. Emer put her hands up to her head and loosened her hair. She shook it out around her head for a moment. She almost wished she could keep it like that, mourning her hopes. But she had known Maga would not be easy. Maga always got her way by being impossible. When you thought you knew how impossible she could be, she surprised you by seeming to be sweet and reasonable, only to twist around and be more impossible than ever. She made you lose your temper, or she co-opted you. The only way Emer could deal with her was to get right away from her. Emer pulled her hair back hard, ignoring the pain. Elenn said it was possible to learn a lot from Maga, and so it was. It was possible to learn by bad examples. She would be a mother and a ruler and never act like that, never.

She was old enough to fight back. She was a warrior. She wouldn't strike Maga unless she had to, but she wouldn't let her pull her hair and slap her face anymore either.

Deep, calming breaths made her feel more like herself. The horrible things Maga had said were still going around in her head. There was just enough truth in them for them to sting.

Conal didn't only want her because she was a princess of Connat, but she had known her threat of running off to live in a ditch was hollow even as she made it. Conal wanted to be king of Oriel, and that meant everyone would have to agree. Why did Maga have to be so impossible? It was a good alliance, or it could be. Could have been.

Emer gritted her teeth. She had lost a battle, but not the war yet. She would stand up to her.

She would win. A year, Conal had said. A year! She had only been home an hour so far.

She wiped a last few angry tears from her face and took a few steps toward the hall.

Maga's door opened, and Emer spun around, expecting her mother. She would be cooing now, making any opposition sound like the sulks of a baby. But it was only Elenn, saying "Yes, Mother" as she closed the door. She was doing what Maga wanted, like always. She had a hound puppy in her arms. Emer had half noticed it in her mother's room but paid it no attention.

"I'm here," Emer said, not wanting her sister to fall over her in the shadows.

"Why do you have to be such a complete idiot?" Elenn burst out angrily.

Emer blinked. This wasn't the perfect princess act Elenn usually showed the world. "What do you mean?"

she asked.

"Deliberately tightening all Maga's threads to breaking point like that. You're as bad as she is, worse, because she does use diplomacy and you just go head-on like a bull. If you want to marry Conal, you've gone exactly the wrong way about it, antagonizing her like that. You need to make her think things are her idea, or a good idea at least, or you need to get her so tangled up in the complications of several ideas that she loses sight of where the whole thing is going."

"But that's so dangerous," Emer said.

"Oh, and getting her furious so she loses control is safe?" Elenn must have been squeezing the puppy too hard, it gave a little whine of protest and Elenn set it down at her feet. "Or sensible?"

she went on. "Or good strategy? Because when she gets furious, it makes her more and more set on what she wants to do, when otherwise she might change her mind."

"What got her so furious is my refusing to betray my honor," Emer said stiffly.

"You should have told her whatever it is. It's probably nothing, anyway," Elenn said scornfully.

"What could you have found out that would really make a difference?"

Emer thought of Beastmother rearing up and her terrifying curse, and said nothing.

"All right, maybe you do have something," Elenn said after a moment's silence. "But whose side are you on?"

"Oh, stop trying to do Maga's work for her," Emer said. "It's disgusting. She may have no honor, but you do.

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They treated us well at Ardmachan, and you know how sacred the laws of fostering are.

You know the

Hawthorn Knowledge as well as I do, that breaking them is under the Ban."

"That's harming a fosterling," Elenn said uncertainly.

Maybe she didn't know the Hawthorn Knowledge as well as Emer. Emer had always found a certain fascination with the idea of cursing, and of the Ban in particular. There was something quite horrible about the thought of putting someone under a curse that stopped them reaching the gods at all, so that they could not even light a fire or clean their wounds or keep food fresh. It had always seemed worse than killing someone.

And the things that could bring it on had a gruesome fascination as well, or they had when she had been a child. Maybe Elenn had shut her delicate ears to them.

"Yes, harming a fosterling, but also using anything you learned when fostered against your foster family,"

Emer said. "Think about it. It has to work like that or fosterlings couldn't be sacred guests, because they'd be little spies. Nobody could trust them."

"Harm, yes, but remembering what you've seen, whatever it is, and telling your mother can't possibly count,"

Elenn said. "What is it, anyway?"

"I'm not going to tell you," Emer said straight out. "And you ask anyone about the Hawthorn Knowledge. I'm not making it up. You ask ap Roth. Ask your friend ap Ringabur."

"Orlam's in Rathadun," Elenn said, sounding desolate. "Talking about the decision she made and whether she can be Conary's lawspeaker. Everyone was gone except me."

"Ask her when you see her," Emer said, feeling a little sorry for her sister despite everything.

"I will. But even so, you ruined everything defying her head-on like that. She won't let you marry Conal now, you know."

"Not right now, no, but it might seem like a better idea in a little while," Emer said as positively as she could.

"When Conary sends to her about it. When Conal has won."

"You're the one of us who's supposed to be grown up," Elenn said. "Don't be so silly. You heard what Maga said, as if you didn't know already. Conary wants Darag to be his heir. This contest will only change anything if it goes the way Conary wants."

"It isn't up to Conary, it's up to the Royal Kin of Oriel once Conary's dead," Emer insisted.

"While he's alive, it's up to him, and he's not an old man. How long were you thinking of waiting?" Elenn asked. "I want to get married when I'm still young enough to have children."

"I didn't say anything about you." Emer was confused. The puppy came pushing against her legs; she put her hand down and petted it.

"If you were married to Conal, that gives her one daughter less to play alliances with."

"Who do you want to marry, then?" Emer had no idea. Elenn flirted with everyone.

But Elenn just sniffed. "If I told you, you'd do something to mess it up, and right now, your saying a word about it for or against would mess it up with Maga. She won't rest until she finds out whatever it is you're keeping from her."

"She won't," Emer said. Nobody who knew was likely to tell Maga. But if she crossed the border in arms, she would find it out soon enough.

"Whose side are you on?" Elenn asked. "You wouldn't fight Conal, would you? Would you fight Oriel?"

"I'm Conal's charioteer," Emer said, very sure. "I don't think I could, unless Oriel invaded us.

When I marry

Conal, I'll fight for Oriel against Connat if Connat invades."

"If mother finds that out, she'll never let you marry him," Elenn said, hardly above a
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whisper. "That's like saying you'd not make her alliance. If you had a choice of where to live, you'd pick Oriel, then?"

"Muin," Emer said and laughed. She wished she could see Elenn's expression. "Look, I'm going into the hall.

I'm still absolutely furious with Maga, but you can feel sure I'm not about to kill anyone. I'm also never going to tell Maga or you or anyone what it would be dishonorable for me to tell, so you may as well stop trying."

"What are you going to tell Allel?" Elenn asked.

"Right now, in front of everyone? Nothing. But when I get the chance to talk to him properly, probably tomorrow outside somewhere, I'm going to tell him what Maga asked, and I'm going to tell him about my arrangement with Conal. He'll be on my side when he sees it, I know he will."

"You'd start a war between them?" Elenn asked.

"It's Maga who wants a war," Emer said, puzzled.

"Not between Oriel and Connat, between All el and Maga!"

"They're always fighting," Emer said dismissively. "If Maga is going to be utterly unreasonable, then of course

I'm going to go to father. Wouldn't you?"

"Life is completely impossible when they're really feuding, as opposed to just normal bickering, and you know it," Elenn said.

"Well, sorry if my desire to marry the man I love is getting in the way of your comfort," Emer said, entirely out of patience with her sister. "I'm going to the hall now. I want a drink."

"I'll come with you," Elenn said, ignoring everything else.

They had to greet a number of old friends on their way to their father. Many of them Emer was genuinely glad to see. Everyone said how much they'd grown, and most commented on Elenn's beauty and Emer's height.