Dismissed. As casually as that, she was being dismissed.
Alexandra left the workroom, relieved to be away from Jaenelle. She found one of the inner gardens and settled on a bench. Maybe the sun would take away the chill that had seeped into her bones. Maybe then she could believe she was shaking from cold and not because Jaenelle had mentioned something she had never told anyone.
Her paternal grandmother had been a natural Black Widow. That's what had drawn Alexandra to the Hourglass in the first place. But by then, the aristo Blood in Chaillot were already starting to whisper about Black Widows being "unnatural" women, and the other Queens and the Warlord Princes wouldnever have chosen a Queen who was also a witch of the Hourglass covens.
So she left her apprenticeship and, a few years later when her maternal grandmother stepped down, became the Queen of Chaillot. But during her first few years as Queen, shehad secretly woven those simple tangled webs. Shehad dreamed that something or someone would appear in her life that would help her fight against Hayll's undermining of Chaillot society. At the time, she had thought it would be a Consort—a strong male who would support and help her. But no man like that had ever appeared in her life.
Then, when her Black Widow grandmother had been dying, Alexandra had been given what she came to think of as the riddle.What you dream for will come, but if you're not careful, you'll be blind until it's too late.
So she had waited. She had watched. The dream hadn't come. And she would not,could not, believe that a disturbed, eccentric child had been the answer to the riddle.
4 / Kaeleer
As he stared out the window, he reached inside his shirt and fingered the slim glass vial that hung from a chain around his neck. The High Priestess of Hayll had assured him that she and the Dark Priestess had woven the strongest spells they knew to keep him undetected. So far, they had worked. No one sensed he was anything more than another escort Alexandra Angelline had brought with her. He was just a bland man, almost invisible. That suited him perfectly.
It had sounded so easy when he'd been given the assignment. Find the target, drug her so that she would be complacent, and then slip her out of the Hall to the men who would be waiting just beyond the boundaries of the estate. When he'd seen the size of the place, he'd thought it would be even easier.
But, despite its size, the Hall was crawling with aggressive males, from the lowest male servant right up to the High Lord. And the bitchesnever seemed to be alone. He'd lingered in corridors for hours without so much as a sniff of either one of them.
He shuddered as he remembered his one glimpse of the golden-haired bitch. He'd been told, repeatedly, that she was his primary target, but he had no intention of getting anywhere nearher because something about her spooked him, and he wasn't sure the spells would hold up under that sapphire stare. So he would snatch the other one, the sister. But he would have to do it soon. He could only dodge just so long around so many bristling, suspicious males.
Maybe he would escort Wilhelmina Benedict all the way back to Hayll. Once he got her out, what difference did it make if he was found to be missing?
And it would make no difference to him if Alexandra was left behind to explain her granddaughter's disappearance—or was the one who ended up paying whatever price the High Lord chose to extract.
5 / Terreille
The rage twisted inside Dorothea like a choking vine. The brief report dangled from one hand.
"You're distressed, Sister," Hekatah said as she shuffled into the room and took a seat.
"Kartane was gone to Kaeleer." She couldn't draw a deep enough breath to give her voice any strength.
"Gone to see if any of their Healers can cure him?" Hekatah thought about that for a moment. "But why now? He could have gone anytime in the last few years."
"Perhaps because he thinks he has something to barter now that would be worth more than gold marks."
Hekatah hissed, immediately understanding. "How much does he know?"
"He was at my 'confession' the other day, but that's not much to tell someone."
"It's enough to put Saetan on his guard," Hekatah said ominously. "It's enough to make him start asking questions."
"Then perhaps something should be arranged before Kartane has a chance to talk to anyone outside of Little Terreille," Dorothea said softly, almost absently. She could think of a number of interesting "arrangements" that could be made for a son who wanted to woo her enemy.
Hekatah stood up and paced around the room for a minute. "No. Let's see if we can use Kartane as bait to lure a specific Healer to Little Terreille."
Dorothea snorted. "Do you really think Jaenelle Angelline is going to helpKartane ?"
"I'll go to Little Terreille tonight and speak to Lord Jorval. He'll know how to phrase a discreet request." When Hekatah reached the door, she paused. "When your little Warlord comes home, perhaps you should give him a lesson in loyalty."
Dorothea waited until Hekatah left before going over to the fire. She dropped the report into it, watched the flames devour the paper.
When the war they were going to start was over, she would build a bonfire and watch the flames devour that desiccated walking corpse. And while she watched Hekatah burn, she would give her son that lesson in loyalty.
6 / Kaeleer
"I need a favor," Karla said abruptly after ten minutes of small talk and discussion about the Eyriens whom Lucivar had brought in.
Jaenelle glanced up from the piece of needlepoint she was working on, her eyes filled with wary amusement. "All right."
"I want a Ring of Honor like you gave the boyos in the First Circle."
"Darling, they wear the Ring of Honor on their cocks. You may be ballsy, but you don't have one ofthose."
"The kindred males don't wear them there. You had small Rings made that attach to the chain holding their Jewels."
"So you want a Ring of Honor," Jaenelle said, still sounding amused, still adding stitches to the needlepoint design.
Karla nodded solemnly. "For everyone in the coven."
Jaenelle looked up, no longer amused.
Karla met that look, recognizing by the subtle change in the sapphire eyes that she was no longer talking to Jaenelle, her friend and Sister. She was talking to Witch, the Queen of Ebon Askavi.Her Queen.
"You have a reason," Jaenelle said in her midnight voice. It wasn't a question.
"Yes." How much would she need to say to convince Jaenelle? And how much of what she'd seen in the tangled web could be left unsaid?
A few minutes passed in silence.