Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

“Then I can’t explain it.” The only other explanation he had come up with was too unsettling to say aloud.

“Are you sure Valri wasn’t the one handling the raelynx?” Senneth asked.

“She wasn’t with us.”

Senneth’s chin came up. “You were alone with the princess? How did that happen?”

“Like you said. Valri met Ellynor and suddenly they were talking about family and friends. It was obvious they had a lot to discuss. So, Amalie and I left the room and then-we just-ended up spending the rest of the day together.”

“I think perhaps I should be filled with foreboding. What else happened?”

“Well, the bit with the raelynx made me forget it for a while, but before that there was something else that seemed strange. I was thinking something, and she heard me.”

“We can all do that,” Senneth said.

“I wasn’t trying to send her a message. She just picked it up out of my head.”

From what he could see in the dark, Senneth’s face looked exceptionally grave. “What are you saying?”

“She could hear my thoughts-”

“What’s the conclusion you’ve reached based on these two separate events?” Senneth interrupted. Her mind was a swirl of confusion and dread-and a certain sense of bitter fatalism. I have feared this for so long. …“Are you saying you think she’s a reader? A mystic ?”

They were absolutely alone on an unwatched pathway under the hard stars, and yet both of them glanced around uneasily as if to search out eavesdroppers. Then they drew closer together so they could lower their voices even more.

“Senneth-I don’t know. But I’ve never seen anyone who wasn’t a mystic even attempt to control a raelynx. And I’ve never had anyone go into my mind and look around without my knowledge. Jerril can step inside, but he has to knock, and I always know he’s there.”

“Bright Mother burn me in ashes to the ground,” Senneth whispered and shut her eyes. Although she stood absolutely motionless, Cammon felt her regroup, readjust, brace her shoulders for the acquisition of this new burden. “I have hoped so hard that this wasn’t true.”

“You mean, you suspected it?” he demanded. “You never let on! Ever!”

She shrugged. “It’s the one thing that makes all the pieces fit-particularly once it became clear that Valri is from the Lirrens. If Amalie’s a mystic, Baryn has had every reason to keep her secluded in the palace all her life. If she’s a mystic, Pella had a strong incentive to travel to the Lirrens when she knew she was dying. The queen wasn’t looking for a healer to save her own life, but for someone like Valri who would be willing to wrap Amalie in darkness and keep her safe.”

“Was Pella a mystic, too?”

Senneth started pacing forward, and Cammon followed her. “I never heard such a rumor. But magic follows bloodlines, so it had to come from the Merrenstow side-since no one has ever called Baryn a mystic, and surely after sixty-five years someone would have mentioned it.”

“Then, if it’s true, the regent knows of it,” Cammon said. “Amalie said she spent a lot of time at Romar Brendyn’s estate when she was growing up.”

Senneth nodded. “But that makes sense, too. That’s just another reason Romar was an excellent choice to name as regent. He would know what else to protect her from. Such as accusations of sorcery.”

“It might not be true.”

She glanced at him but kept striding forward. “So. You spent the day with her, and Valri was nowhere in sight. Could you read the princess without the Lirren magic to blind you?”

He was silent a moment. “I could have,” he said quietly. “I could tell her mind was open and full of wonder. But I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to look inside. It just seemed-unfair. Wrong.”

Senneth snorted. “So now you can’t answer the question we are both dying to know! A mighty inconvenient time to have scruples, wouldn’t you say?”

“Senneth, I didn’t sense magic on her, if that’s what you want to know. Maybe that’s why I was so surprised when she could read my mind. Every mystic I’ve ever met has just been caked in magic-it’s like a glow or a scent-I can instantly tell it’s there. But I didn’t pick that up from Amalie. If she has sorcery, it’s buried.”

Senneth walked on a few more moments in silence. By now they were almost to the wall that surrounded the compound; soon they would be intersecting with the nightly patrol of guards. Senneth angled her direction a little so that they followed a path parallel to the wall but a few yards away. “You can’t read magic on Ellynor or Valri, either.”

“Right. Which is why I wondered if Amalie had Lirren blood.”

“It just seems impossible. You know how rarely the Lirrenfolk breed with outsiders.”

“There’s Ellynor. There’s Valri. There’s Heffel Coravann’s wife,” he reminded her. “We know of three marriages between Lirren women and men from Gillengaria. So it’s not like it’s never happened. Maybe Pella’s mother crossed the Lireth Mountains when she was a girl. Maybe she fell in love with a Lirren boy and came back carrying his child. Maybe not even Romar or the king know how Amalie got her magic-they just know she has it. If she has it.”

“If she has it,” Senneth echoed. “Maybe we’re wrong.”

“I don’t think I can just ask her.”

“No, and I can’t ask the king, much as I’d like to. But, Cammon, you can’t repeat this to a soul.”

“Not even the others?” he said. It was unnecessary to list them. She knew who he meant.

She looked troubled. “I don’t know. I’ll have to tell Tayse, and he’ll surely tell Justin. And I can’t not tell Kirra. And what Kirra knows-well, I suppose all of us will know it by sunrise tomorrow.” She gave him a serious look, which, in the darkness, he felt more than saw. “But no one else, Cammon. No one. If this secret comes out-”

“I know,” he said, feeling somber and afraid as he never had in all his existence. “Amalie could be in the greatest danger of her life.”

HEmade his way slowly back across the palace grounds, lost in thought. At this hour, every door was guarded, so even at the kitchen he had to pass a sentry. But that was a good thing, he thought. Let there be soldiers at every door, mystics at every window, dogs and even raelynxes loose in the yard, prowling around, patrolling for interlopers. Let the king invoke every possible measure to keep the princess safe. Cammon was starting to lose the confidence that it was a task he could accomplish on his own.

He could tell, as he made his way up the great stairway to his room, that there were still a couple dozen people scattered throughout the large building who were not yet sleeping. Some were servants, some were soldiers, some were restless souls unable to close their eyes. It gave him a vague sense of comfort to know that part of the world was awake around him. They might all be strangers, but he was not alone.

He pushed open the door to his room and realized with a shock that he still was not alone.

“Valri,” he said, for the little queen stood in the middle of the room like a marble statue intended, one day, for the royal sculpture garden. She had not bothered to light a candle. Child of the night goddess, she clearly did not need aid to see in the dark. Only a wavering sconce in the hallway provided enough light for him to identify her.

His own magic had failed him; he had had utterly no idea of her presence.

When she spoke, her voice was hard and angry. “Stay away from the princess when I am not there to chaperone you.”

He was instantly antagonized and made no attempt to hide it. “I would never do anything to harm her. You don’t need to worry.”