Lee, Sharon - Liaden 11 - Mouse and Dragon

Arms around each other, they walked slowly up the stairs. She had opened her door, thrilled and a little frightened after all, stepped inside and turned to look at him.

“Daav? Will you—come in?”

“Not, I think, tonight,” he said, with a smile so regretful tears rose to her eyes.

“How if I overwhelm you, and both of us asleep?” he asked.

“Van'chela, we have spoken of this. Surely this evening's pleasures have shown you that we are safe together? I know you now, and will not mistake you for myself!”

“Even asleep?” he asked, and shook his head. “We cannot be certain. I suggest that we stay the course and keep to your plan of unhurried research.” His smile this time was pure mischief. “And we have done prodigious amounts of research this evening, Aelliana.”

She laughed then, and come back to him, claiming one more kiss.

“May a humble copilot suggest a course to his pilot?” he murmured, when they had done and she was once more inside her door.

Aelliana attempted a stern frown. “If you must,” she said haughtily. “Though I may space you, if the suggestion irritates.”

“That seems fair enough,” he answered. “I merely suggest—most gently—that it may be worthwhile to use the Rainbow to anchor what you have learned this day.”

It was only sense to use the tools she had in hand, and so, at last in bed, she had laid in the course, worked her way through the Rainbow—and fallen asleep.

And now, she was awake. Not only awake, but—

“I'm hungry,” she said and opened her eyes, throwing the blanket back with a will.

Breakfast was again laid in the morning room, though Mr. pel'Kana was not in evidence. Doubtless, he had duties elsewhere, and Aelliana could certainly feed herself. She glanced toward the window as she approached the buffet, hoping for a glimpse of orange Relchin.

She was denied that pleasure. However, lying on the window seat, very much at her ease, was a cat with luxuriously long creamy fur, with startling blue eyes blinking inside a mask of sable brown.

“Oh!” Aelliana approached and offered a finger. “You must be Lady Dignity. I am most pleased to meet you.”

Her ladyship graciously touched her nose to the tip of Aelliana's finger, and squeezed her eyes into slits—a cat smile.

“Thank you,” Aelliana said. “I see that there's room on the seat for me, if you will share. Only a moment, while I gather some food.”

The cat had accepted a bit of cheese, then curled 'round with her tail over her nose and closed her eyes. Aelliana ate the rest of her breakfast slowly, savoring the tastes and textures while she looked out over the garden.

So much had changed in the last few days—and not the least of it, herself. This connection with Daav—already so precious to her—complicated the course she had thought laid in and locked. Indeed, the very reason she had chosen so stringent a course—to leave Liad and all she knew—was now gone, vanished by a wave of Mizel's hand.

There was a commotion in the hall—a voice, somewhat familiar, asking in ringing tones for “Korval” and the sound of bootheels being set firmly against the wooden floor.

Lady Dignity's head came up. She listened to the noise for a moment, eyes wide in apparent consternation. Then she was gone, flowing off the window seat, and racing out the open door.

“If your ladyship will consent to wait in the small parlor,” Mr. pel'Kana's voice was no less carrying, “I will fetch his lordship immediately.”

“I will await him in the morning room,” the lady said, above the racket of her progress. “You may tell his lordship that I will remain there until such time as it pleases him to give over playing in the dirt. If he delays himself until nuncheon, he will find me here. If he puts me off until Prime, yet I will await him. My topic will not be denied.”

“I am certain that his lordship will be delighted to see your ladyship.”

“Yes, of course. Do, please, fetch him as best you may.”

A shadow moved at the door, and Daav's sister bore, noisily, in. Aelliana glimpsed Mr. pel'Kana's face over the lady's shoulder. He met her eyes and his widened slightly. Then, he was gone.

Aelliana sat up, juggling plate and cup; her movements drawing the lady's eye.

“Ah, Pilot Caylon,” she said, executing an extremely brief bow in a mode Aelliana did not recognize. “We are well-met.”

“I am pleased to hear you say so,” Aelliana said in the mode of adult-to-adult. She rose and carried her dishes to the tray. When she turned back, she found Kareen yos'Phelium watching her . . . oddly.

She bowed, Guest-to-One-of-the-House. “In what way may I serve you, ma'am?”

“It is I who may serve you, Pilot. Since we last spoke, I have researched yourself and your clan. Allow me to congratulate you for the astuteness with which you have improved your position.”

Aelliana frowned, even as her stomach clenched. She was unskilled in social dueling. Yet, if she were not mistaken, Lady Kareen had drawn steel.

“Improved?” she asked, since one must say something. “I fear that I miss your meaning.”

The other woman smiled, and inclined her sleek head.

“Certainly, to be under Korval's wing is an improvement over standing as the second daughter of an indigent and scarcely coherent clan, the minor children of which are already indentured to another House, and which has recently sustained the loss of its nadelm. I applaud your perspicacity and your call to action. But I wonder, Pilot, if you have thought this plan through?”

No, Aelliana thought suddenly, this game was well-known to her: Ran Eld had played it. He, at least, could often be drawn by a show of bewilderment. Perhaps Lady Kareen was vulnerable to the same ploy. Aelliana tipped her head and made her eyes wide.

“Truly, ma'am,” she said, “I am in uncharted skies. What is this plan which I may not have thought through?”

Another smile, this one edged with perceptible malice.

“Why, I only mean to say, Pilot, that, if you wish to attach my brother more . . . permanently—but hold! Am I correct in supposing that you think of a lifemating? Certainly, I would do so, in your place.”

Kareen did not know! Aelliana took a careful breath, and vowed to conceal the fact of her bond with Daav. There was no reason to place another weapon into her ladyship's hand. Even if one could not entirely see how something so straightforward could be given an edge, it was enough to know that she would use it to harm Daav, if she could.

“I had considered a lifemating, yes,” she admitted.

“I had thought as much,” Lady Kareen said, a note of satisfaction in her voice. “It is no secret that my brother is susceptible. He desires a lifemating, for his cha'leket has made one. It has ever been the case that what one of the pair has the other must have in equal measure. Further, it would seem that you have appealed to his natural inclinations. So far, you have done well—no, I will not stint! You have done brilliantly! However, before you take the next step, I ask you, most urgently, to review your scheme. You stand at a cusp point, Pilot. One wrong throw, here and now, and you lose all.”

“I don't understand,” Aelliana said, and if her voice was shaking, it was only just, for her legs were shaking, too. The emotion—perhaps it was anger, or disbelief. It was not, however, fear.

“Perhaps you do not, after all,” Kareen acknowledged. "Look you, Pilot—Korval moves at the highest levels. As one who has been bred to that melant'i, as my brother has been, I cannot help but notice your lack of . . . polish. While my brother enjoys posing as a Codeless renegade, in fact he is a high stickler. In his way. Also, he is Korval, a melant'i that he carries as well as he is able, given the defects of his character. I will tell you that I know from bitter experience that he has no hesitation in separating close kin, whatever their feelings on the matter.