S Farrell - A Magic of Nightfall

With that, he was gone. Pauli laughed. “Lost in a glorious infatuation,” he said. “I remember being that way…”

“But not with me,” Allesandra told him.

His smile never wavered; that hurt more than the words. “No,” he said. “Not with you, my dear. With you, I was lost in a glorious transaction.”

He went back to reading the reports.

Allesandra was walking with Semini that afternoon after Second Call, when she saw Elissa’s form flitting through the hallways of the palais, strangely unaccompanied. “Vajica ca’Karina,” she called out. “A moment…”

The young woman looked surprised. She hesitated for a moment, like a rabbit searching for a line of escape from a hound, then came over to them. She bowed to Allesandra and gave the sign of Cenzi to Semini. “A’Hirzg, Archigos,” she said. “It’s so good to see the two of you.” Her face failed to reflect her words.

“I’m sure,” Allesandra told her. “I should tell you that my son came to me this morning regarding you.”

Her eyebrows lifted over her strange, light eyes. “Ah?”

“He asked that I contact your family.”

The eyebrows climbed yet higher, and her hand touched the collar of her tashta as a faint hint of rose colored her neck. “A’Hirzg, I swear I didn’t ask him to speak to you.”

“If I thought you had, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Allesandra told her. “But since he’s made the request, I’ve done as he asked and written a letter to your family; I gave it to my courier not a turn of the glass ago. I thought you should know, so you might contact them as well and tell them that I await their return letter.”

Her response seemed strange to Allesandra. She would have expected a flattering response, or perhaps a blushing smile of pleasure. But Elissa blinked, and she turned her face away for a breath, as if her thoughts were elsewhere. “Why… thank you, A’Hirzg. I’m flattered beyond words, of course. And your son is a most wonderful man. I am truly honored by his attention and his interest.”

Allesandra glanced at Semini. His gaze was puzzled. “But?” Semini asked, his voice a low rumble.

A quick duck of the head, so that Elissa was staring at Allesandra’s feet, not at them. “I have deep feelings for your son, A’Hirzg. I truly do. But contacting my family…” Her tongue flickered over her lips, as if they were suddenly dry. “This is too fast.”

Semini cleared his throat. “Is there something in your past, Vajica, something the A’Hirzg should know?”

“No!” The word came out as an explosion of breath, and the young woman’s head came up again. “There’s… nothing.”

“You sleep with him,” Allesandra said, and the frank comment widened Elissa’s eyes and caused Semini to inhale loudly through his nostrils. “If you don’t intend marriage, Vajica, then how are you different from one of the grandes horizontales?”

The other young women of the court would have recoiled. They would have stammered. This one just stared flatly at Allesandra, her chin lifting slightly, her pale gaze hardening. “I might ask the A’Hirzg-with the Archigos’ pardon-how someone in a loveless marriage is so different from a grande horizontale? One is paid for her name, the other for her…” A brief flicker of a smile. “… attentions. The grande horizontale, at least, has no illusions about her arrangements. Either way, the bedchamber is merely a place of commerce.”

Allesandra laughed, suddenly and loudly. She applauded Elissa, three quick, loud strikes of cupped palm against palm. The exchange reminded her of her time in Nessantico with Archigos Ana, who also had a facile mind and would challenge Allesandra in their discussions in unexpected ways and with bald speech. Semini was gaping, but Allesandra nodded to the young woman. “There aren’t many who would answer me that directly, Vajica,” she told the woman. “You’re lucky I’m someone who appreciates that. But…” She stopped, and the laughter under her voice vanished as quickly as glacier ice in the summer heat. “I love my son fiercely, Vajica, and I will protect him from making a mistake if I see a need to do so. Right now, you are merely a diversion for him, and it remains to be seen whether that interest will last the season. Whatever might eventually happen between the two of you, it will not be your decision to make. Is that clear enough?”

“As the spring rain, A’Hirzg,” Elissa answered. She gave a curt bow of her head. “If the A’Hirzg will excuse me…?”

Allesandra waved a hand, and Elissa bowed again, clasping hands to forehead toward Semini. She hurried off, her tashta swirling around her legs.

“She’s brazen,” Semini muttered as they listened to her footsteps on the tiles of the palais floor. “I begin to wonder about young Jan’s choice.”

Allesandra linked her arm in Semini’s as they began to walk again. A few of the palais staff saw them; Allesandra didn’t care; she enjoyed Semini’s solid warmth at her side. “That was odd,” Semini continued. “It was almost as if the woman was upset that Jan had asked you to speak to her family. Doesn’t she realize what’s being offered?”

“I think she knows exactly what’s offered,” Allesandra answered. She hugged Semini’s arm tightly. She glanced back over her shoulder in the direction Elissa had gone. “That’s what bothers me. I begin to wonder if becoming involved with her was Jan’s choice at all.”

The bitch gave her no time… no time…

Anger almost overcame caution. She had wanted to wait another week, because if the truth were told, she wasn’t sure she wanted to do this-not because of the death that would result, but because it meant that “Elissa” would necessarily have to vanish. She was no longer certain she wanted that to happen; she’d thought maybe, if she had the time, she could arrange to circumvent that. But now…

She had a few days, no more: the time it would take the A’Hirzg’s letter to go from Brezno to Jablunkov and back. Before the response came, she would need to be far from here-for two reasons.

The confrontation with the A’Hirzg and the Archigos had shaken her. She’d gone immediately to Jan, and he’d proudly told her that Allesandra had sent the letter by fast courier. She’d had to pretend to be delighted with the news; it had been far more difficult than she’d expected. Two days, then, for the letter to arrive at the palais in Jablunkov, where an attendant would no doubt open it immediately, read it, and realize something was terribly amiss. There would be quick discussion, a hastily-scrawled response, and a new rider would be hurrying back to Brezno with orders to make all haste. For all she knew, the letter had already reached Jablunkov.

She had to act now.

When the response came, telling the A’Hirzg that Elissa ca’Karina was long dead, she either had to be gone, or she had to have something that she could use as a weapon against that knowledge. The new gossip around the palais was how often the A’Hirzg and the Archigos seemed to be together lately. The looks that she’d seen between the two certainly hinted that they were more than friends, but even if she could prove that, there was nothing there she could use-they were too powerful, and she had no intention of being locked up in Brezno Bastida.

No, she would be the White Stone, as she should be. She would honor her contract and she would vanish, as the Stone always did.

She heard mocking laughter inside her with the decision.

The Moitidi of Fate were with her, at least. Fynn wasn’t particularly a man of deep habits, but there were certain routines he followed. She’d come to the court prepared to do whatever it took to become Fynn’s lover, but she’d found that an impossible task. Jan had been the next best choice, as the Hirzg’s current favorite companion outside his bed.