S. Farrell - A Magic of Twilight

As to love. .” He reached out as if to touch Ana’s hand; she drew back. The Archigos shrugged. “Well, that’s never been a necessity in a political marriage, has it?”

He paused, and Ana remained silent, still seated on the other side of the table and staring past the Archigos to the windows of her apartment without seeing any of the day outside. The Archigos pushed himself off his chair, giving her the sign of Cenzi. “You know I’m right,” he said. “And you know your place, I trust.”

“I know where you have placed me, yes, Archigos.” She could not move. She felt bound to the chair in which she sat, caught in cords she could not see.

He gave her a strange, twisted smile, and nodded.

Jan ca’Vorl

“We found her in the baggage train, my Hirzg, raiding the stores.” The offizier standing before Jan looked embarrassed by his tale. He stood well back, obviously uncertain how Jan would react. Markell, seated at the traveling desk with a sheaf of reports before him, stifled a chuckle as Jan frowned.

Allesandra stood trembling before Jan, hands clasped behind her back, her head bowed. “What do have to say for yourself?” he barked at his daughter. “You disobeyed me. What is your matarh thinking now?

She must be frantic.”

“I left Matarh a note,” Allesandra said to the floor. “And I told Naniaj that she had to pretend as long as she could. Maybe Matarh thinks I’m still with them-she never comes to my carriage unless she has to.”

Markell snorted. Jan glanced at him, shaking his head. “How long have you been gone?”

“Two days, Vatarh. I left the first night, so that I could find the army again.”

“You rode back alone in the night, unprotected? You snuck through our rear guards?”

She gave him the ghost of a nod. “I climbed into one of the wagons.

There was plenty of food there, Vatarh.”

“Those are the army’s supplies, food for our soldiers. Do you know what the punishment is for someone who steals from those wagons?”

She shook her head. He could see her shoulders beginning to shake with subdued tears. “We cut off their hands,” he told her harshly, “for they are no better than our enemies.”

Allesandra clutched her hands tightly to her stomach, but she did not cry. She lifted her face to Jan, and he had to force himself not to take her in his arms and hug her. “I wanted to be with you, Vatarh,” she said. “I wanted to learn to command an army. I wanted to learn to be a Hirzgin you would be proud of. I didn’t. . I didn’t eat very much.”

Her face was so penitent and sorrowful that he could not keep up the pretense any longer. He knelt down and opened his arms, and she ran to him. She broke into heaving sobs against his shoulder. “It’s a good thing you are the A’Hirzg,” he whispered to her, “because that means everything here also belongs to you.”

“You can’t send me back now, Vatarh,” she said fiercely, sniffing. “I won’t go. I won’t.”

Jan looked at Markell over her shoulder. Markell shook his head.

“This isn’t a place for a child, Allesandra.”

“I’m not a child. I’m the A’Hirzg. This is where I should be, with my vatarh the Hirzg, and besides, Matarh is days away and you will protect me and I will learn ever so much from you, and Georgi could continue to teach me. .”

Behind her, Markell busied himself with the reports.

“It will be dangerous,” Jan said. “There may be fighting, Allesandra.”

“Then teach me how to use a sword as you do, Vatarh, or have Georgi do it. I’ll learn fast. I will.”

Jan hugged her again. He sighed. “Markell,” Jan said. “Take a note to send to the Hirzgin with our fastest rider. Tell her that Allesandra is with her vatarh and safe, and that she will remain with me for the time being.”

Allesandra squealed happily. “Thank you, Vatarh. I’ll be good, I promise. Where is my sword? You promised.”

“No sword,” he told her. He unlaced the belt around his waist and and pulled from it a soiled leather scabbard holding a double-bladed knife with a jeweled hilt. He displayed it to her. “This is a knife Hirzg Karin, your great-vatarh, gave me when I was about your age.” He didn’t tell her that it was one of the few things the Hirzg ever gave Jan, or that the same day he’d given Ludwig, little more than a year older, a full suit of armor and a sword. “I give it to you now, and I’ll show you how to use it. For now, though, keep it in a pocket of your tashta.”

Allesandra took the knife and clutched it as if it were the most precious gift he could have given her. “Thank you, Vatarh,” she said.

“Thank you so much. I will learn. I will learn everything you have to teach me.”

“You will,” Jan said, almost sadly, “whether it’s what you want to learn or not. Markell, summon O’Offizier ci’Arndt. We have an additional assignment for him.”

Karl ci’Vliomani

“I didn’t expect to see you so soon, Ana,” he said. “In fact, I wondered. . well, no matter. I’m truly glad for the chance to speak with you again.” He smiled at her, taking her hands in his.

He thought she would pull away immediately; she did not, and he let his hands linger. He enjoyed the touch, enjoyed looking at her face, at the eyes that stared into his. You can’t, Karl. You can’t. There’s Kaitlin, waiting for you back in Paeti. . He released her hand with a quick, uncertain smile and went to the window, glancing down at the teni-driven carriage waiting in the street below. “I’m surprised you’d be so open about meeting me, Ana, I have to admit. But I’m glad you came.”

He saw her face relax slightly at that, but the determination in her face remained. “I’m tired of everything being hidden. I don’t want to hide anything,” she told him, and there was heat and anger in her voice that seemed to emanate from somewhere else. “But you need to know that I’ve kept my promise to you from the other night, and I’ll continue to keep it.”

“I know you will,” he told her, “or I wouldn’t have made the invitation in the first place. I knew when I saw you. .” He stopped, shaking his head. He gestured to a chair without saying more. “Would you sit?

I could have someone bring up refreshments. .” She shook her head, and he could see the agitation in her: in the way she paced the room, in the shine that touched her eyes, in her quick breath. She went to the fire and held her hands out to the flames. He could see her trembling, and he came to her, touching her gently on the shoulder. “Ana, what’s troubling you? What’s happened?”

She gave an odd bark of a laugh that turned into a choked sob, turning to him. “Everything.” She spread her arms wide, her teni’s robes flaring with the motion as if she were giving Cenzi’s Blessing. A single tear tracked its way down her cheek, and she brushed at it. “I’ve lost my ability,” she told him. “The Gift I had. Since you showed me what the Numetodo do. . I can’t. .”

She began to cry fully then. He watched her, wanting to go to her but not daring to, until the pain and sorrow in her made him take a step, then another. She made no resistance when he folded her into his arms. She leaned into his embrace, burying her face into his shoulder. He held her silently, one hand stroking her hair. He pressed his lips into the fragrance of her hair, touching his lips to the strands. She felt. .

She felt as if she belonged there. Guilt tore through him for the thought.

After a few moments, she sniffed and pushed away; he released her as she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I. . we. . I shouldn’t have. This isn’t what I came here for.”