goblet-full.
‘There you are, Mother,’ Anasyn said. ‘Father said I should tell you what happened.’
‘Oh did he? It was more than some stupid insult, then.’
‘Truly. Someone proposed a wager, you see, on how soon one of the Queen’s Fellowship would bed the Queen, and which one it would be. Well, they overheard, and –’
‘Oh ye gods! So the gossip’s got as bad as all that? Who started it?’
Anasyn shrugged for an answer. Out in the great hall everyone was sitting back down; a pair of pages were righting the overturned benches and picking up trenchers from the straw while assorted dogs wagged their tails and watched, hoping for another spill and sudden meal.
‘Your father was right to let me know,’ Bevyan said. ‘I’ll have a word with Merodda about this. As far as I can tell, she’s the only one with any influence over the lass.’
‘So I’ve heard.’
‘Which reminds me, dear. The Queen tells me you were offered a place in her fellowship.’
‘I turned it down.’
‘So she said. I was just curious –’
‘I’ve never wanted to be anyone’s lap dog and run with a pack of them. It’s disgusting, watching them fawn over her.’
I see, Bevyan thought. So my lad’s fallen in love! Aloud, she said, ‘And quite right, too. Well, I’d best see how the poor lass fares.’
The Queen’s hall in Dun Deverry occupied an entire floor of the royal broch. Carved chairs, heaped with faded and torn cushions, stood on threadbare Bardek carpets, while sagging tapestries covered the walls between the windows. When Bevyan came in, she expected to find the Queen in tears over this insult to her honour, but instead Abrwnna was pacing back and forth in front of a cold hearth while her maidservants cowered out of her way in the curve of the wall. One of the girls was crying, and her messy hair, pulled every which way in long strands, gave evidence of her royal mistress’s bad temper. Merodda, however, was calmly sitting on one of the wide windowsills as if to take the air. None of the Queen’s other serving women were in evidence.
‘There you are, Lady Bevyan,’ the Queen said. ‘I have need of your counsel.’
‘Indeed, Your Highness?’ Bevyan made a curtsey in her general direction, since she kept pacing.
‘Indeed. Lady Merodda tells me I should disband my fellowship.’
‘Ah. I fear me that I agree with her.’
‘I don’t want to!’ Abrwnna swung round and threw one arm up, as if she were thinking of slapping the older women down. ‘They’re mine and I don’t want to!’
‘No one can force Your Highness,’ Merodda put in. ‘Bevyan, Her Highness asked my opinion, and so I gave it.’
‘As I have given mine,’ Bevyan said. ‘And there we’ll let the matter drop if Her Highness commands.’
‘Well, I cursed well do!’ With a deep breath Abrwnna caught herself and lowered her hand. ‘We do not wish to hear this matter discussed in our presence.’
‘Very well, Your Highness,’ Bevyan said. ‘So be it.’
In years past Dun Deverry had sheltered three times the men who lived there now. In its tangle of wards and towers stood many an empty building – sheds and stables, mostly, but in a small ward far from the King’s residence rose a deserted broch. Its lower floors stored arrows, stones, and poles for pushing siege-ladders off walls, but the top floor stood empty except for a stack of tanned hides, all stiff and crumbling from age. These Lilli and Brour hung over the windows until, after a lot of struggling and cursing, not a crack of sunlight gleamed.
‘Good,’ Brour said. ‘We don’t want anyone seeing our lantern and coming up here.’
‘How did you find this place?’
‘I’ve been searching for the bolthole for weeks, so I’ve been prying into all sorts of deserted places. I remembered this one when I decided to try a ritual.’
‘Do you think anyone else comes up here?’
‘There weren’t any tracks in the dust.’
Lilli looked around the room – an ordinary sort of room for Dun Deverry, yet no one had been up here for years, if the dust and the cobwebs could be trusted.
‘I hope my mother doesn’t want me to scry this evening.’
‘She won’t,’ Brour said. ‘She told me she’d be attending upon the Queen again. Is somewhat wrong with Her Highness, do you know?’
‘I don’t, but I’ll wager it’s that fight in the great hall last night. Everyone is saying that the Queen’s honour was insulted, and no doubt she’s ever so upset.’
‘No doubt. Well, that should keep your mother nicely occupied, then.’
‘Truly.’ Lilli paused for a sneeze. ‘It’s so dusty up here! Will the Lords of Earth like that?’
‘I’ll sweep up a bit before we start. Now you’d best run along before someone misses you. I’ll go back later. We don’t want anyone seeing us come in together.’
When Lilli returned to the royal broch, she found servants standing around gossiping about the insult to the Queen’s Fellowship, if not the Queen herself. During their afternoon of sewing, Bevyan seemed worried about the incident as well.
‘What’s causing the trouble,’ Bevyan said, ‘is having all these young hotheads packed in together, waiting for the summer’s fighting to start. The Regent needs to lead his men out soon.’
‘I don’t understand why he hasn’t already,’ Lilli said. ‘Do you, Bevva?’
‘Well, I don’t truly know, but Peddyc’s shared his guesses with me.’ Bevyan hesitated, thinking something through. ‘I’d say that the Regent doesn’t have enough men to stand against the Usurper, and they’re trying to round up more.’
‘Oh. Oh, that means we’re going to lose, doesn’t it?’
Bevyan and Sarra both looked up from their sewing and stared at her. Lilli felt her face grow hot.
‘I’m sorry,’ Lilli stammered. ‘I shouldn’t have – oh gods! I always say the wrong thing – I’m sorry.’
‘No need to apologize, dear,’ Bevyan said. ‘But it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to lose. The Regent thinks he can find the men we need, and Peddyc seems to agree with him. One good victory, and a lot of the lords who went over to the Usurper will swing back to the King’s side.’
If, Lilli thought, if we can gain the victory in the first place.
‘The waiting’s just so awful,’ she said aloud.
‘Just so, dear, just so.’
Bevyan sighed and bent her head back to her work, but all at once she seemed old, and to Lilli’s sight the streaks of grey in her pale hair suddenly spread and turned dead-white while her skin turned a cold dead grey to match it. Lilli nearly cried out. She’s just weary! she told herself sharply. You’re just seeing things again.
As soon as the evening meal was finished, Merodda and Bevyan went to wait upon the Queen, and Lilli could slip unnoticed from the great hall. In the abandoned tower she found Brour waiting for her. As she climbed the stairs, she saw a broom leaning against the wall on the landing, and the wooden floor inside had been swept clean. Brour himself was sitting in the middle of the circular room, while all around him huge shadows danced on the rough stone walls. He’d lit four lanterns and set them equidistant from one another.
‘They sit at the four directions, as far as I can reckon them anyway.’ Brour rose to greet her. ‘East west, north south. It’s