“I’m having water, thanks.”
Lord Durward Li decanted some water into Sula’s glass and refreshed his own mig brandy. “It’s a pity we’re in a period of mourning,” he said. “Usually we haveswarms of guests at these affairs, but now it’s only twenty-two, alas.”
“Twenty-two,” Sula mused. “I wonder why. The Shaa usually preferred to play with primes.”
“Oh—you don’t know the story behind that? You see, ages ago, just after the Torminel conquest…”
Sula sipped her water and listened to Lord Durward rattle on.
After the debacle with Martinez, she’d fled the capital to a resort town in the highlands. While other visitors hiked trails or lounged in the communal bath or enjoyed the mountain scenery, Sula rarely left her room and spent her days studying for her lieutenant exams.
When she’d grown so weary of cramming that she couldn’t make her eyes focus on the screen, she closed her eyes and lay on the bed and tried to rest. On the backs of her closed lids she saw Martinez standing in the boat, his hands thrown out in exasperation.
Stupid, stupid.She had to learn how to behave around people.
She remembered the invitations she’d received and thought that perhaps Martinez had been right about them. Her parents’ friends might help, and in any case it was probably a good idea to meet people other than those the service threw in her way. The alternative, after all, was the cadet lounge, with Foote and his clique.
She’d sent her regrets to all invitations to take place before the Great Master’s funeral, which disposed of all the people who only wanted her as an ornament because she’d become a celebrity. Then she’d done a modest amount of research through public databases concerning the remainder, and discovered that the Li clan had been clients of the Sulas, and after the fall of Clan Sula, were assured of the patronage of the Chen clan instead. Lord Durward’s was the first invitation she had accepted.
Apparently the Lis had done well for themselves in the years since the death of Lord Sula. The new Li Palace, built on the site of an older place that had been torn down, occupied a large frontage on the Boulevard of the Praxis. The facade was of some pale, semitranslucent stone veined with pink, and which, when lights were turned on at night, seemed to glow as if the building itself were a living thing.
Inside, the reception hall was draped in what Sula at first assumed were tapestries and lace, but which on closer inspection turned out to be marble, cream and green and pale red, carved into the shape of draped fabric, all the little lace-points and filigree cunningly shaped into the stone. She was stunned by the tens of thousands of man-hours that must have gone into the work.
The parlor was less intimidating, with plush furniture and portraits of horses and country scenes on the walls. Fortunately, the furniture was set with wide lanes between the pieces, so that the three Naxid guests—Lady Kushdai, a convocate come into the city for the Great Master’s funeral, and her kin—could maneuver without knocking things over. Sula admired greatly the crackled surface on the porcelain jars, each taller than a man, that stood in the room’s corners.
“So you see,” Lord Durward finished, “it all has to do with the Twenty-Two Martyrs for the Perfection of the Praxis. One wants to invite them to one’s mourning feasts, to show them that they didn’t die in vain.”
“Fascinating,” Sula said.
“Ah.” Lord Durward’s ginger brows rose as he turned to the parlor door, where a Fleet captain had just entered with an elegant young woman on his arm. “Have you met my son Richard?” And then he smiled. “Well, of course you have. I forgot.”
Sula’s mind whirled as she tried to remember where she might have met Captain Lord Richard Li. He didn’t seem the sort of man one would forget: he was taller than his father, dark-haired, with a smooth, handsome face of the sort that would look youthful well into middle age.
“Caro,” Lord Richard said, taking Sula’s hand. “It’s good to see you after all this time.”
Sula felt herself bristling, and told herself to behave. “Caroline,” she corrected. “I’m not Caro anymore.”
Amusement crinkled the corners of Lord Richard’s eyes. “You don’t remember me at all, do you?”
“I’m afraid not.”Behave , she told herself again.These people are trying to be your friends.
Lord Richard’s smile was very white, his eyes very blue. “I put you on your first pony, in our garden at Meeria.”
“Oh,” Sula said. Her eyes widened. “That wasyou? ”
“I haven’t changedthat much, have I?” he said. “Do you still ride at all?”
“Not in ages.”
Lord Richard looked at his father, then back at Sula. “We still keep stables at Meeria. If you’d like to go down and spend some time riding, I’m sure we’d love having you. We also have excellent fishing.”
Lord Durward nodded agreement.
“Thank you,” Sula said. “I’ll think about it. But it’s been so long…”
Lord Richard turned toward the young woman by his side. She was tall and willowy, with dark almond eyes and a beautiful, shining fall of black hair.
“This is my fiancee, Lady Terza Chen. Terza, this is Caroline, Lady Sula.”
“A pleasure. I saw you on video.” Lady Terza’s voice was low and soothing, and the graceful hand she extended was unhurried but warm and welcoming in its gentle clasp.
Sula knew it was far too early to hate her, to resent the ease and privilege and serenity that oozed from Terza’s every pore, but somehow she managed it.Shove off, sister , she thought.You think you can get between me and the man who put me on my first pony?
“What a beautiful necklace,” Sula said, the first civil thing that popped into her head.
Lord Richard turned adoring eyes to his bride-to-be. “I wish I could say I’d given it to her,” he said. “But she chose it herself—her taste is so much better than mine.”
Sula looked at him. “You’re a lucky man,” she said.
It’s not as if she wouldn’t have bollixed the relationship anyway.
A trim, broad-shouldered man in the uniform of a convocate arrived, along with Lady Amita, Lord Durward’s wife. The newcomer was introduced as Maurice, Lord Chen, Terza’s father. Sula’s knowledge of the status of Peer clans in relationship to each other was hazy, but she understood enough to know that the Chens were on top of the pile. Lords Chen, Richard, and Durward then engaged in a brief contest in who could offer Terza the most compliments, with Sula adding plaudits of her own now and again out of politeness Then Lord Chen turned to Sula and said equally polite things about her parents, and about her rescue ofMidnight Runner .
It was a polite group altogether, Sula thought.
“The problem,” she said, “is I’m not likely to see the end ofMidnight Runner for some time. I’ve had to give a deposition for the court of inquiry, but I’ve been contacted by advocates representing Lord Blitsharts’s insurance company.They want to prove it was suicide.”
“It wasn’t, was it?” Lady Amita asked.
“I found no evidence one way or another.” Sula tried not to shiver at the memory.
“However complicated it gets,” Lady Amita said, “I’m so glad it was you who got the medal, and not that dreadful man.”
“Dreadful man, my lady?” Sula asked, puzzled.
“The one who talked all the time during the rescue. The man with the horrible voice.”
“Oh.” Sula blinked. “That would be Lord Gareth Martinez.”
“That’s what the news kept insisting, that he was a Peer.” Lady Amita made a sour face. “But I don’t see how a Peer could talk like that, not with such a horrid accent. Certainlywe don’t know any such people. He sounded like some kind of criminal fromThe Incorruptible Seven. ”
Lord Durward patted his wife’s arm. “Some of these decayed provincial Peers are worse than criminals, take my word on it.”
Sula felt a compulsion to defend Martinez. “Lord Gareth isn’t like that,” she said quickly. “I think he’s kind of a genius, really.”
Lady Amita’s eyes widened. “Indeed? I hope we never meet any such geniuses.”
Lord Durward gave her an indulgent smile. “I’ll keep you safe, my dear.”
The point of the evening, it turned out, was to demonstrate Lady Terza’s accomplishments before a select group of Lis and their friends. After supper, which was served on modern Gemmelware with a design of fruits and nuts, they all gathered in a small, intimate theater. It was built in the back of the Li Palace in the form of an
