Fear and respect weren’t the same thing. And respect could be wonmany ways. The words pounded in her brain, but she couldn’t speak them. It hadtaken all her courage to ask if anyone at all was hurt, and she hadn’t evengotten an answer.
When a knock sounded, he called, “Enter.”
His stoic valet slipped inside. “Court rumor paints a pyradistéas a reason for the fire, Your Grace.”
“Of course,” Sylph’s father said with a snort. His look was pureprejudice, even though Sylph knew the rumor was true. “Who else could it havebeen?
“Which one?” It wasn’t until they looked at her that she realizedshe’d spoken aloud. She bit her lip. She only knew one pyradisté, the only onewho counted.
“Does it matter?” her father asked.
The valet cleared his throat, but his eyes remained half-lidded,as if he was a moment from falling asleep. “They say it’s the queen’spyradisté, my lady.”
Ringing filled Sylph’s ears, drowning her father’s scathingresponse. Her legs twitched as if desperate to run. She had to stand, causingher father to glance at her again as she paced behind the couch, clutching herbook. She only hoped he’d put any odd behavior down to illness.
“Oh, Sylph, calm down,” he said with a condescending edge. “We’resafe here. The queen should have her servant on a tighter leash.” He sniffed.“Even if she didn’t cause the fire, she should be put to use snuffing thisother pyradisté nonsense before we’re all burned in our beds.”
So much for keeping calm. She almost chucked her book at him. Thevery idea suggested that the boldness of the morning hadn’t completelyabandoned her.
Her father stood. “Stay here, daughter. Get well. I’ll see what Ican do to straighten this nonsense out.” He smiled, a wan attempt at affectionafter Thana’s open expressions. “If you need anything, I’m sure your maid willbe along shortly. Come along, Hornby.” His valet gave Sylph a more sympatheticlook and followed in her father’s footsteps.
Sylph sagged into a chair, fighting the panic beating inside her.Her father was looking for someone to blame. He could easily turn all thenobles against even the monarch’s pyradisté, just as Sylph had threatened to doearlier.
She would have to apologize for that, too.
And she knew how.
Thana had to be warned.
* * *
Thana lined up arguments in her head as she strode toward thequeen’s apartment. She had to report the fire, had to report that it was anoble who’d started it, but she would stress that Sylph was untrained and notat fault.
She nodded as she passed the guards who were always stationedjust outside the royal quarters, telling herself she had to remain strong inthe face of Queen Earnhilt’s temper. Sylph and her father could be removed tothe countryside so Sylph couldn’t do any more damage to the palace. But what wouldthey tell her father? What if he refused to go or just threw his daughter out?
Thana gnawed her lip. Earnhilt could take care of Sylph, pay forher lodging, her training. Thana would stress that Sylph’s stone-moving powercould prove quite useful if she learned to control it. With her strength, shemight be able to erect buildings by herself. Surely Earnhilt would see thevalue in that.
When Thana answered the call to enter the queen’s chambers, shefound Earnhilt pulling her boots on. “Have you heard of this fire in thepalace?” Earnhilt said.
Thana shut her teeth on that very report. “Yes, Majesty, I wasjust—”
“Rumor has another spirits-cursed pyradisté behind it. Nooffense.” She didn’t look up as she buckled her sword belt around her trimwaist.
“Um, none taken.” Though there was a little and not just for hersake.
“Gunnar is in the city checking on some other tales of pyradistésgone mad. I suppose we’ll add this one to his pile. With me.” She strode outthe door, and Thana had to hurry to catch up.
“It wasa pyradisté,” Thana said quickly. “I was there.” Earnhilt gave her acalculating glance. She held up her hands and added, “It wasn’t me. She’suntrained, and I was trying to help her. She’s a noble, and—”
Earnhilt stopped and ran a hand down her face. “Oh, spirits curseme, a fucking noble?”
“Yes, she—”
“As if we didn’t have enough problems.” She marched on, onlypausing again when she reached the smoke-ravaged hallway near where the firestarted. Thana stayed on her heels, all arguments shattered under the batteringram that was the queen’s personality.
Earnhilt sighed loudly as she looked around the corner and sawthe room itself, the stone and wood blackened by soot. “Dangerous, is she?”
“Very,” Thana said without thinking. “Powerful, that is. Her powercould be very useful if—”
“No help for it, then, if she’s going to keep setting the castlealight and setting off pyramids in the royal quarters.”
“I don’t think that was her,” Thana said, but Earnhilt didn’tappear to be listening. Thana wondered how much trouble she’d get into if sheshook the queen’s muscular arm. Not from the guard. Earnhilt could rip Thana toshreds. “If we can convince her father—”
Earnhilt groaned. “Her parents are still alive? When the spiritscurse us, they don’t do it by halves, do they?” She glared at Thana. “No noblefather is going to stand by while we execute his daughter. The whole lot ofthem would revolt.” She stepped forward as she spoke.
Thana’s heart dropped as ice spread through her veins. Shewinced, trying to meet Earnhilt’s eyes but still not sure if any of her wordsgot through. “Execute? But it’s not her fault.”
“Civil war,” Earnhilt said, rubbing her chin. “We’d be back wherewe were when I first took the throne. We can’t have that, not with Yanchasa.”She took hold of Thana’s cassock. “You are not going to argue with me on this.Farraday needs an Umbriel on the throne.”
“I know.” Thana went up on tiptoe to avoid being dragged off herfeet. Her collar tightened around her neck, and she thought again of how terrifyingit would be to have Earnhilt as an enemy. It was bad enough being her ally.“But things don’t
