BENARD CELEBRE
was not known for staying sober at feasts, but that night he was going to need a clear head. Besides, he had to be nice to his long-lost sister.
'This is called the Bull Concourse,' he said, pausing at the mouth of the great passage. The inside was shadowed and apparently deserted. He had escorted plenty of other men's sisters in there in his time, usually persuading them to go all the way to the end. 'There's a lot of old statuary stored in there, so it's a popular place for, um, private cuddling. Your reputation will be absolutely ruined if you're seen going anywhere near...' He laughed clumsily. 'I'm behaving like a jealous husband, am I not?' He must have told her a dozen times to stay in well-lit places. He found himself glowering at every man who came close, especially Werists. 'I have no experience at brothering.'
Fabia chuckled. 'I've had none at being brothered. It's very flattering.'
He enjoyed her smile. It did not appear very often, but it was worth watching for. Flighty she was not. Fabia was an extremely down-to-earth young lady and knew her own mind. He'd loved the determined way she had told Ingeld she would never marry a Werist.
They continued their tour. Fabia was puzzled by Kosordian informality, especially when Benard introduced her simultaneously to honored guests and the flunkies waiting on them, all of them his friends, from High Priest Nrakfin to Nils the carpenter. 'I'm an unusual case,' he admitted. 'Not many palace brats join artists' guilds.'
'More than a guild, though? Only a cultist could create such wonders.'
'I don't create them. Anziel does. I'm just Her Hand.'
They had so much to discuss! He asked about her childhood, of course, but it was no longer relevant to either of them. She asked why he disliked Cutrath Horoldson so much.
He explained, 'Briefly, Cutrath's only redeeming feature is that he is not hypocritical enough to have any redeeming features. He's a lying, thieving, sadistic, tale-telling, lecherous, blasphemous, bullying, foul-mouthed braggart. He also picks his nose.'
Her eyes widened like forest pools brimming over. 'No! Both nostrils? Isn't it your duty to defend me from this unsavory marriage?'
'Don't nag! If your Ucrist foster daddy can't help you, what can a starving sculptor do?'
They went up on the roof near the sacred flame in the tholos and admired the infinity of stars, trading Skjaran and Kosordian names for the constellations. He was to meet Ingeld when Hrada's veil was overhead. It had a long way to go yet.
'Brother,' Fabia said softly, 'I'm eager... I'll understand if this is too painful to talk about, but I would very much like to know what happened at Celebre all those years ago. Why did Stralg kidnap all four of us?'
She was picking scabs off his nightmares.
'Because,' he said, 'he's a Werist and rules by terror. He wiped out any town that defied him, spared any that surrendered. Celebre is a big, rich city and Papa had no way to defend it. He was ordered to come out and bring his family. Stralg made him swear allegiance and said he would take all of us as hostages for his loyalty. Papa quoted divine law about children not yet ten. Stralg said Weru was his god, not Demern. Papa protested that a child at suck could not be separated from its mother. So Stralg took Mama as well. That's not lawful, either.'
He paused to let Fabia comment, but she just waited for more, her face a pale mask in the firelight.
'So you and Mama came with us, but that evening we were separated, leaving Dantio to look after Orlando and me. I never set eyes on Mama again—until I saw you this morning.' He laughed. 'This has been wonderful, Fabia, meeting you after all these years!'
She said, 'Was it me Stralg wanted, or Mother?'
'Her, I suppose. She was a beautiful woman.'
'But she had already borne four children.' Benard shrugged. 'Maybe he just needed to rape the loser's wife to show he was the winner. Werists get sex and violence mixed up.' Like Cutrath and Hiddi.
'How? How did he die?'
'I have no idea. Didn't you ask Saltaja?'
Fabia said, 'She said he met with an accident.'
Benard shivered like a dog shaking off water. 'This is a feast! Let's not talk about it.'
They went back down and he showed her more of the palace.
¦
She stopped to peer at another dark entrance. 'What's down there?'
'Rats and spiders.' He laughed uneasily. 'Don't ask! It's called the Old Ramp, but there's nothing at the bottom except a cellar. It has a grim reputation.'
'Like the Bull Concourse?'
'Worse! Dark rites,' he explained, lowering his voice. 'Definitely not for honest folk.' As a child he'd hidden down there from Cutrath's gang a few times, but only as a last resort.
'Just stories to scare children?'
'More, I think. I've seen ... sort of... shadow-shapes moving. Stay away!' That was where he was to meet Ingeld, the one place in the whole palace where they would certainly not find drunken revelers.
