“ I beg your forgiveness, my lord,” he stammered. “I must be alone now. I should… I should like to speak to you again, about my brother and your time with him.”
“ You can find me at the House of the Sixth Order, sir. I would be glad to answer any questions you have.”
Alucius nodded, turned to press a brief kiss against the princess’s cheek and walked back to the house, still weeping.
“ Poor Alucius,” the princess sighed. “He does feel things so, ever since we were children. You realise he intends to ask for a commission in your regiment?”
Vaelin turned to her, finding her smile gone, her flawless face serious and intent. “I had not.”
“ There are rumours of war. He has visions of following you to the Cumbraelin capital where together you will visit justice upon the Fief Lord. It would please me greatly if you were to refuse him. He is just a boy, and even as a man I doubt he would ever be much of a soldier, just a pretty corpse.”
“ There are no pretty corpses. If he asks I will refuse him.”
Her face softened, rosebud lips curving in a soft smile. “Thank you.”
“ I couldn’t accept if I wanted to. My Aspect has decided all the officers in the regiment will be brothers of the Order.”
“ I see.” Her smile became rueful, acknowledging his refusal to engage with her game of favours. “Will there be war do you think? With the Cumbraelins?”
“ The King thinks not.”
“ What do you think, brother?”
“ I think we should trust the King’s judgement.” He bowed stiffly and turned to go.
“ Recently I had the good fortune to meet a friend of yours,” she went on, making him pause. “Sister Sherin is it not? She runs a healing house for the Fifth Order in Warnsclave. I went to make a gift of alms on behalf my father. Sweet girl, though terribly dedicated. I mentioned that we had become friends and she asked to be remembered to you. Although, she seemed to think you may have forgotten her.”
Say nothing, he told himself. Tell her nothing. Knowledge is her weapon.
“ Do you have no reply for her?” she pressed. “I could have the King’s Messenger carry it. I do so hate to see friendships end needlessly.”
Her smile was bright now, the same smile he remembered from their talk in her private garden, the smile that told of an unassailable confidence and knowledge far beyond her years. The smile that told him she thought she knew his mind.
“ I’m glad fate has brought us together once more,” she continued when he didn’t answer. “I’ve been thinking recently, pondering a problem which may interest you.”
He said nothing, meeting her gaze and refusing to play whatever game she had in mind.
“ Puzzles are a hobby of mine,” she went on, “I once solved a mathematical riddle which had confounded the Third Order for over a century. I never told anyone of course, it doesn’t do for a princess to outshine brilliant men.” Her voice had changed again, taking on a bitter edge.
“ Your keenness of mind does you credit, Highness,” he said.
She inclined her head, apparently deaf to the emptiness of the compliment. “But what has puzzled me lately is an event in which you were closely involved; the Aspect massacre, although why it’s called that when only two of them died I can’t imagine.”
“ Why should such an unpleasant event concern you, Highness?”
“ It’s the mystery of course. The enigma. Why would the assassins attack the Aspects on that particular night, a night when novice brothers from the Sixth Order are present in three of the Order Houses? It seems a singularly poor strategy.”
Despite himself his interest was piqued. She has something to share. Why? What advantage does she gain by this? “And what conclusions have you drawn, Highness?”
“ There’s an Alpiran game called Keschet, which means cunning in our language. It’s highly complex, twenty- five different pieces played on a board of one hundred squares. The Alpirans have a great love of strategy, in business and in war. Something I hope my father remembers in times to come.”
“ Highness?”
She waved a hand. “No matter. Games of Keschet can last for days and wise men have been known to devote their whole lives to mastering its intricacies.”
“ A task I’m sure you’ve already accomplished, Highness.”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t so hard, it’s all in the opening. There are only about two hundred variations, the most successful being the Liar’s Attack, a series of moves designed to appear essentially defensive but which in fact conceal an offensive sequence bringing victory in only ten moves, if done right. The success of the attack is dependent on fixing the opponent’s attention on a separate overt move in another region of the board. The key is in the narrow focus of the hidden offensive, it has but one objective, to remove the Scholar, not the most powerful piece on the board but crucial to a successful defence. The opponent, however, has been convinced that he’s facing a varied attack on a broad front.”
“ Attacking all the Aspects was a diversion,” he said. “They only intended to kill one of them.”
“ Perhaps, or perhaps two. In fact if you apply the theory more widely it could be that you were the intended victim and the Aspects merely incidental.”
“ Is that your conclusion?”
She shook her head. “All theories require an assumption, in this case I assume that whoever orchestrated this attack was seeking to damage the Orders and the Faith. Simply killing the Aspects would of course meet this end, but new Aspects can be appointed to replace them, like Aspect Tendris Al Forne, and it is not unreasonable to conclude that his ascension has driven a wedge between the Orders. Damage has been done.”
“ You’re saying the whole attack was aimed at elevating Al Forne to Aspect of the Fourth Order?”
She raised her face to the sky, closing her eyes as the sun warmed her skin. “I am.”
“ You speak dangerous words, Highness.”
She smiled, her eyes still closed. “Only to you, and I do wish you’d call me Lyrna.”
The promise of power wasn’t enough, he thought. So now she tempts me with knowledge. “What did Linden call you?”
There was only the smallest pause before she turned away from the sun to meet his gaze. “He called me Lyrna, when we were alone. We had been friends since childhood. He sent me many letters from the forest so I know how much he admired you. My heart ached to hear…”
“ Love must risk all or perish.” He was aware that his voice was hard with anger and his face set in a fierce glower. He was also aware that she had stopped smiling. “Isn’t that what you told him?”
It was only for a moment, but he was sure something like regret passed across her face, and for the first time there was uncertainty in her voice. “Did he suffer?”
“ The poison in his veins made him scream in agony and sweat blood. He said he loved you. He said he had gone to the Martishe to win your father’s approval so you could wed. Before I slit his throat he asked me to give you a letter. When we gave him to the fire I burnt it.”
She closed her eyes for a second, a picture of beauty and grief, but when she opened them again it was gone and there was no emotion in her answer: “I follow my father’s wishes in all things, brother. As do you.”
The truth of it lashed at him. They were complicit. Murder entangled them both. He may have resisted loosing the bowstring but he had placed Linden in the path of the fatal arrow, just as she had set him on the road to the Martishe. It occurred to him this may have been the King’s plan all along, sordid murder binding them together in guilt.
He knew now his enmity for her was a deceit, an attempt to avoid his own share of blame, but even so found himself holding to it. She is cold, she is scheming, she is untrustworthy. But more than that, he hated the lingering hold she had over him, her effortless ability to engage his interest.
There was the faintest glimmer of something behind her eyes then as he realised the intensity of the gaze he had turned on her. Fear, he decided. The only man who can make her afraid.
He bowed again, guilt mingling with satisfaction in his breast. “By your leave, Highness.”
Sister Gilma was plump and friendly with a quick smile and bright blue eyes that seemed to sparkle continually with mirth. “In the name of the Faith, cheer up brother!” she had said when they first met, tweaking
