Midwinter

them.'

'And you believe Her Majesty bows before their influence?'

Silverdun shrugged. 'I believe She wishes to avoid a conflict, that is all.'

'Through all this, I remain a servant of my Queen, Silverdun.' Mauritane scowled. 'It does us no good to speculate. Large enough numbers of the nobility, especially in this region, despise the Arcadians. And, as Kallmer implied, they have a great deal of leeway at such a distance from the capital.'

Raieve, pressed tight against the baron's daughter, brushed a strand of the girl's golden hair from her mouth and said, 'Pardon me for interrupting, but what's going on here? And who is she?' She nodded in Elice's direction.

'They are of the Beleriand rebels,' said Mauritane, indicating the men squeezed into the cart. 'Apparently, the Seelie Army is preparing another offensive against them.'

Raieve nodded. 'And why have they rescued us from Geracy?'

'While I was Captain of the Queen's Guard I made no secret of my distaste for these offensives. Even to the point of slaying a man I should perhaps not have slain.'

'The butcher Purane-La?' barked Eloquet. 'If ever a man deserved to die it was he. He burned the town of Stilbel to the ground. He… he trapped the townspeople in their homes and laughed as they were consumed. They say it was you, Mauritane, who gave the order and that he was only following you, but we know that it is not true.'

Mauritane's face fell. 'The Aeropagus determined otherwise.'

'But you did not give the order!' shouted Eloquet.

'No,' said Mauritane. 'I did not.'

'But if you did not give the order,' said Raieve, 'who did?'

'You've met him,' said Mauritane. 'He was the man I tried to kill that evening at Crete Sulace.'

'Purane-Es.'

Mauritane nodded. 'The very same. It was he who sent the order, forging my name on the documents. He was one of my personal lieutenants. PuraneLa was his elder brother. Whether Purane-Es was out to ruin me or only his brother, I do not know. He got both for the price of one.'

'Were there ever harsh words between you and Purane-Es?' said Raieve. Now that the subject had finally been broached, she was ready for an explanation, regardless of its poor timing.

'Many,' said Mauritane, sighing. He peered out the wagon's flap. 'Are we near our destination?' he asked Eloquet.

'A few more minutes,' Eloquet said.

'Purane-Es was fervently opposed to my policies regarding the Beleriand rebels and to Arcadianism in general. He often insisted that we ought to bring to bear all of our forces against them and wipe them out entirely.'

Eloquet laughed ruefully. 'He is, unfortunately, not alone in that sentiment.'

'It appears he got his wish, at least partially,' said Mauritane. 'By causing Stilbel to be destroyed, tensions soared to their highest since the days of the original Gossamer Rebellion. And by putting my name on such dangerous documents, by bringing me to Stilbel just as Purane-La finished his work, knowing how I might respond, Purane-Es guaranteed my tribunal and subsequent replacement by his father. The order, on its own, might have caused nothing more than a scandal. But taking the life of Lord Purane's heir was unforgivable in the eyes of the nobility.'

Raieve was shocked. 'Surely there were witnesses? Did no one speak in your defense?'

'No one who ranked as high as Purane-Es,' said Mauritane.

'So,' said Satterly. 'What's everyone so upset at the Arcadians for, anyway? After being in this country for two years I still haven't figured it out.'

'It is a matter of the Fae Gifts,' said Silverdun. 'The Arcadians believe that the Gifts are from Aba and should be used in his service alone.'

'And that brought all this about?'

'Not by itself,' continued Silverdun. 'The Western Valley, where Beleriand is located, lies within the mountains to the west of here. Its people are vastly different from the majority of the Fae you have met. They don't use glamours; they are against illusion in all its forms.

'The original Gossamer Rebellion was an abortive attempt by Beleriand to secede from the Seelie Kingdom altogether. In those days, Beleriand was ruled by a baron named Pellings, a truly brutal fellow who was almost universally loathed, both in and out of the Western Valley. Once the baron was removed, the problem subsided for a while, but it was only a matter of time before the trouble started again.

'Now, of course, the Arcadian faith has swept outward and there are many in the nobility who see the Arcadians as a threat to the Seelie way of life.' He chuckled. 'Whatever that is supposed to mean.'

'But that's not enough of a reason to send armed forces into a region. There must be more to it than that,' Satterly said.

Eloquet answered him. 'It was not enough to decry us in public. Some of the more reactionary lords here in the west, Geracy among them, believed that it was necessary to stem the tide of Arcadianism at its source. They began targeted assassinations…'

'That has not been proven,' interrupted Mauritane.

'Please, Mauritane!' said Eloquet. 'You disappoint me. Shall I list the names for you, the causes of death?'

'I speak as an official of the Seelie Court.'

'Look around you,' said Eloquet. 'You are no longer in the Seelie Court. The assassinations took place, and we retaliated.'

Mauritane said nothing in response. An uncomfortable silence reigned for a few breaths.

It was Elice, the baron's daughter, who broke the silence. 'I hate to be the voice of dissent,' she said, uncertainly. 'But my father does have a point about the Arcadians. They've done awful things, caused millions in property damage, defacing public glamours and things, and they've hurt people, too.'

Eloquet laughed out loud. 'What wonders from the mouth of a child!' he said. 'Young lady, an agent of your father murdered my wife in front of me, garroted her with a harp string. And you speak of defacing property as though it matters!'

Elice sat up straight. 'My father would never do such a thing.'

'No, you're right about that,' said Eloquet. 'He'd hire someone else to do it.'

'Would someone please tell me what she's doing here?' said Raieve, looking ready to slap the girl in the face.

Mauritane looked at the girl, for some reason his opinion of her softening. 'She is the object of our quest. She is what we have come here for.'

'What?' said Silverdun, Satterly, and Raieve, in unison.

The wagon came to a sudden stop.

'There's trouble ahead,' said the driver. 'Roadblocks.'

'Stay here,' said Eloquet. He leapt from the wagon.

'What's going on?' said Satterly.

Eloquet returned. 'The Royal Guard has set up roadblocks at the City Center entrances. They must be looking for us. Come on.'

'I'm not going anywhere,' said Elice. 'I think I made a mistake.'

'Quiet, girl,' Raieve said, a knife instantly at the girl's throat. 'If you whine your regrets too loudly, you could get us all killed.'

'Come on!' whispered Eloquet.

They climbed from the rear of the wagon, Raieve holding Elice at knifepoint. Their wagon was in a line of similar conveyances on a wide cobblestone road. The road passed through tall housing blocks as it descended to the City Center district. At an archway ahead, eight or ten soldiers of the Seelie Army were stopping and inspecting each cart. Mounted cavalrymen passed through the archway and peered down into the vehicles in line.

Eloquet led them silently through an alley and into a side street. They clung to doorways and dark alleyways as much as possible, Eloquet and his men consulting at each corner.