“Grinsa is a wise man, Your Highness, as I’m sure Lord Tavis will attest. I’ve no doubt that he’ll serve the king well.”
“I’m not questioning his worth, my dear. I’m merely asking you to tell me more about him. And I sense your reluctance.”
“I’m not-”
“Don’t dissemble with me.” Leilia glanced at her again, as if gauging Cresennne’s reaction. “Is he a traitor? Is that it? Have you both contrived this elaborate farce to gain Kearney’s trust?”
“No, Your Highness! I swear it! Grinsa’s no traitor!”
Again, the queen smiled. “I believe you. You love him very much.”
Cresenne nodded, afraid to speak. She had come close to losing him so many times, all of them her own fault. She had betrayed him, sent assassins for him, and nearly driven him away with her stubborn, foolish devotion to the Weaver and his movement. And she knew that she might lose him still. Or he her. Who could say whether he would survive the fighting between the Eandi armies, much less his inevitable encounter with Dusaan? Who knew how many more of the Weaver’s servants had been sent to kill her?
“You fear for him.”
“I fear for all of us, Your Highness. I’ve seen how wicked this Weaver is, though I was blind to it for too long.”
“Kearney will find a way to prevail.” The corners of her mouth twitched. “He always does.” When Cresenne didn’t respond, the queen looked at her again. “War is hardest on the women, you know. It’s always been so, though men will deny it. Remaining behind, awaiting the outcome, fearing that the next messenger will bear word that your husband or lover or brother has fallen.” She gazed up at the sky, as if to judge the time. “I envy the women of Sanbira, who fight their own battles alongside the men. Their way strikes me as being far more just.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“You’re humoring me.” She wore a smirk on her fleshy face.
“No, Your Highness! I was just-”
“It’s all right, my dear. I suppose I deserve it. I find it easy to complain here, safe behind Audun’s walls. But given the opportunity to ride to war, I’m not at all certain that I would.” She frowned. “Does that make me a coward?”
“I believe it makes you honest, Your Highness.”
Leilia laughed. “Well said, my dear! I’ll take that as a compliment!”
Bryntelle started at the sound of the queen’s laughter, but then let out a squeal and offered a grin of her own.
“What’s the child’s name?”
“Her name is Bryntelle, Your Highness.”
“Bryntelle. That’s lovely.” She regarded the baby for a time, looking as if she wished to hold her. But the queen never asked, and Cresenne thought it presumptuous to offer.
“Is she the reason you did it?” the queen finally asked, meeting Cresenne’s gaze.
“Your Highness?”
“Is she the reason you turned away from the conspiracy?”
Cresenne didn’t want to talk about this, not with Grinsa, or Keziah, or the king, and certainly not with this odd woman standing before her. But how did one refuse a queen?
The truth was, everything she had done, both on behalf of the Weaver and to thwart him, she had believed she was doing for this child, or at the very least, for the promise of her. She joined the movement to create a better world, not only for herself, but also for the child she knew she would someday bear. After Bryntelle’s birth, Grinsa threatened to take the child from her in order to compel Cresenne to confess her crimes to Kearney. He knew as well as did Cresenne that she would do anything to keep her child. And in the days since, she had come to see that the future once promised to her by the Weaver-a future in which Qirsi ruled the Forelands through torture and murder and deception-was not the one she wanted for her daughter. More than anything, she wished to see Dusaan’s movement defeated, and she had resolved long ago that she would not allow herself to be killed, not merely because she wished to live, not merely because by surviving she defied the Weaver, but because she would not allow her child to grow up without a mother’s love. Bryntelle had been the most powerful force in her life for as long as she could remember, going back far beyond the consummation of her love affair with Grinsa.
“Yes, Your Highness, I did it for Bryntelle, at first because I feared having her taken from me, and more recently because I’ve come to realize that I don’t want the Weaver’s tyranny to be my legacy to her and her children.”
“That’s more of an answer than I expected.”
Cresenne looked down at Bryntelle, whose pale yellow eyes shone in the lateday sun like torch fire. “It’s merely the truth.”
“I’ve never had much use for your kind, and I never thought I’d go looking to a Qirsi for any kind of truth. But you impress me.”
Cresenne couldn’t help the small noise that escaped her.
“You find that amusing?”
She knew that she should just deny it and end their conversation, but she had been honest up to this point, and pride would not allow her to be anything less now.
“Not amusing, Your Highness. But I have to wonder if you truly think I should be flattered by what you just said.”
Leilia’s face shaded to scarlet and Cresenne felt certain that she had pushed the queen too far. The woman surprised her, though.
“No,” the queen said, the smirk returning. “I don’t suppose I do. You’ll have to forgive me. My past … encounters with Qirsi women have been rather unpleasant.”
Now she was certain about Keziah and the king, although she knew better than to reveal as much to the queen.
“There’s nothing to forgive, Your Highness. Our peoples have struggled with such misunderstandings for centuries. Perhaps if more of us simply spoke our minds, we’d find a way past these conflicts.”
“Perhaps.” A faint smile touched her lips and was gone. “I should return to my ladies before they send the guards out to search for us.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Shall I accompany you back to them?”
Leilia waved the suggestion away. “No need, my dear. I daresay I know the way.” She started to turn, then paused, eyeing Cresenne once more. “Is there anything you need?”
“Anything I need?” she repeated, knowing how foolish she sounded.
“Yes. Are you comfortable? Are you and your child getting enough food, enough blankets? Would you feel better with more guards outside your door?”
On more than one occasion in the past several turns, Cresenne had been surprised by the kindnesses shown to her by Eandi men and women, be they wandering merchants in the Glyndwr Highlands or lords and sovereigns in the noble courts. But nothing that any of them had done surprised her more than this question from Eibithar’s peculiar queen.
“Thank you, Your Highness. We’re just fine.”
“Very well. If you think of anything, you only need ask.”
“Again, Your Highness, my thanks.”
Cresenne curtsied once more, then straightened and watched the queen walk away. Only when Leilia had disappeared into the small courtyard did Cresenne leave the gardens and make her way to the castle kitchen. It would soon be dark, and the kitchenmaster had made it clear to her long ago that she was to be out of his way before it came time to feed the queen and the ladies of her court.
Besides, after dusk the courtyards and corridors emptied, leaving Cresenne and her daughter free to wander in solitude. It was her favorite part of the day.
