David Coe - Bonds of Vengeance

“Clearly,” the younger duke said, sounding as brusque with her as he had with Edamo. “I fail to see the point, however. She can send messages to all of us when word comes from the other realms. But if we leave now, we can be ready to march to battle immediately, and we can be certain that we’ll be leading our own men to war.”

“And what if some of the kings refuse to march with us?” she asked. “What if Eibithar and Caerisse choose to ally themselves with us, but Wethyrn and Aneira don’t?”

Edamo’s eyebrows went up. “Surely you don’t expect that to happen.”

“I believe it’s possible. Some are less willing than others to believe that the Qirsi would challenge the might of the courts.”

If the two men knew that she spoke of her father, they had the good sense to remain silent.

“The queen might need us here,” she went on, “so that we can decide upon a response when word arrives from those who would be our allies.”

“So you won’t support us,” Alao said, his voice flat.

“No, Lord Norinde, I won’t. Please understand, I-”

He started to walk away. “Good day, Lady Curlinte.”

Edamo stared at her another moment before following the younger man.

“Why are you in such a rush to begin this war?” she called after them.

Alao stopped, faced her. “You of all people have to ask?”

“Yes, I do. We don’t know yet where this war will be fought, or how. There is no Qirsi army, at least none of which we know. You speak of marching to war as quickly as possible, but I see no battle plain. What is it you really want?”

“I won’t listen to this.”

“You’re still worried about the queen strengthening her hold on the throne, aren’t you?”

Norinde said nothing, but after a moment, Edamo gave a harsh grin.

“Shouldn’t we be?”

“No. Sanbira faces an enemy more dangerous than any we’ve faced in nine centuries. You should be concerned only with guarding the realm and defeating those who would destroy us.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Duchess. You lead a house that has been allied with the throne for centuries. You have nothing to fear from this power Olesya is accumulating. We do.”

“But the Qirsi-”

The duke opened his arms wide. “Where are the Qirsi, Duchess? As you yourself just said, there is no Qirsi army, there is no battle plain.”

“But there will be.”

He let his arms drop to his side once more. “Yes. I’m sure you’re right. And while we wait for the enemy to show himself, we cede all authority to the queen. Well, there are limits to just how much Alao and I are willing to give her. We’ll pay her tribute, and we’ll send men to the royal army. But we will not allow Olesya to command all of our soldiers as if they were hers to do with as she pleases. Without an army of its own, Brugaosa would have been destroyed by the Matriarchy long ago. You see the Qirsi as the only threat, but I know better, and even with the white-hairs massing on our borders, I will not give my forces over to Yserne.”

With that they left her, their footsteps echoing through the corridor. Diani still wished to find her father, but after this encounter with the dukes, she thought it best to speak first with the queen.

When she reached Olesya’s presence chamber, however, she heard voices from within. She knocked on the door and after a moment, the queen called for her to enter. Olesya sat on her throne, looking toward the door. And there at the window, his lean frame shadowed against the light, stood Diani’s father.

The duchess barely managed to bow to the queen before whirling toward him. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her conversation with Edamo and Alao forgotten for the moment.

“We were speaking of the Qirsi,” Olesya answered. “Sertio is concerned that we’ve been too quick to dismiss all of our ministers, that perhaps some of them can be of help in this fight. He also fears that we’ve been wrong to assume that Kreazur was a traitor”

“Forgive me for saying so, Your Highness, but my father does not speak for House Curlinte. I do.”

“He doesn’t claim to speak for your house, Lady Curlinte. He came to me as a friend and that is the spirit in which I’ve considered his words.”

Diani glanced at her father, not bothering to mask her anger. But then she nodded to the queen. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Olesya was eyeing the duke as well. “Perhaps you’d like to tell her what you’ve told me.”

The duke shifted uncomfortably, saying nothing.

“She has a right to know, Sertio.”

“Know what?” Diani narrowed her eyes, glaring at her father. “What is this about?”

He cleared his throat, casting a quick glance at the queen. “You know that I’ve had my doubts about Kreazur’s guilt all along. Shortly after his death, I sent word to Curlinte that his quarters were to be searched.”

“You what?”

“I reasoned that if he was with the conspiracy, there would be gold hidden somewhere in his chamber. That’s the one thing we know about the Qirsi who lead this movement: they have a good deal of gold and they pay those who serve them quite well.”

“How dare you do such a thing!” Diani said, her voice quavering with rage. “I lead our house, not you! You should have discussed it with me first! You should have asked my permission!”

“Would you have let me do it?”

She started to reply, then closed her mouth again, looking away.

“That’s why I didn’t discuss it with you.”

Diani felt her face redden. She didn’t want to have this conversation in front of the queen. “You had no right,” she muttered.

“I received word from Curlinte today. Don’t you want to know what they found?”

She looked at him. Of course she wanted to know, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask.

“Nothing,” he said. “Nothing at all. Kreazur had twenty qinde to his name, about what you’d expect for a man living on a minister’s wage.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. He might have spent it all.”

“On what? He had no jewelry, no riches of any sort. He wore simple clothes beneath his ministerial robes. He carried a blade with a wooden hilt.”

“Maybe he gave his gold to someone else. Perhaps he had a woman in Curlinte. Or maybe he brought all his gold with him to Yserne and it was taken by the brigands who killed him. This tells us nothing.”

“I’m afraid I must disagree, Diani,” the queen said. “It may not establish his innocence, but in my mind it certainly casts some doubt on his guilt.”

“Who was it searched his chamber?” the duchess demanded, glowering at Sertio again. “Another white-hair?”

“Actually it was your master of arms.”

She felt her mouth twitch.

“Isn’t it possible that we were wrong about him, Diani? Isn’t it possible that there’s some other explanation for the way he died?”

“Like what? If he wasn’t a traitor, what was he doing in the city? Why did he come to Yserne at all? There’s no other explanation that makes any sense.”

Sertio looked at the queen, abruptly seeming unsure of himself. “Perhaps we were intended to think that he was a traitor.”

“To what end?” the queen asked. “His death certainly didn’t help the Qirsi in this castle. It’s only served to deepen our suspicions.”

“Maybe whoever was responsible didn’t have any choice. Maybe Kreazur had learned that this person was the traitor, but he died before he could tell anyone else.”

“I don’t believe any of this,” Diani said, shaking her head. “We found Kreazur in the city, not someone else. It was his body that was covering those gold pieces and lying next to an empty money pouch. What you learned from the master of arms changes nothing.” Even as she spoke the words, however, Diani felt doubt seeping into her mind. She couldn’t countenance what her father had done-certainly he never would have sent instructions to anyone in Castle Curlinte while her mother was duchess-but neither could she ignore what he had learned. There should have been gold in the man’s chamber, or failing that, some evidence of the riches that would have accrued from his service to the movement. What if she had been wrong about Kreazur? What if his denials had been true, his devotion to Curlinte genuine? Wasn’t this one instance where it was preferable to be mistaken?