Beneath the Veil Read online

  "I meant no offense." I gazed back at him as blankly as I could.

  He dropped my hand. "Get you gone, fetchencarry. Back to your master. Be assured I'll tell him of the part you played in this."

  I nodded and backed away. "As you see fit."

  Rosten narrowed his eyes at me. "You have no respect for me, do you?"

  "I respect you, my lord Rosten. Of course I do."

  "I think you'll come to realize I am to be more than respected." Rosten's hideous smile spread across his face. "I think you will find I am also to be feared."

  I didn't doubt he was right.

  Chapter Twenty

  I'd found my place in the White Palace. I rose before Daelyn in the morn, and spent several chimes on the fight field being beaten to a pulp by Lir. I spent the rest of my time helping Daelyn dress and prepare for whatever function he might be attending that day. He wasn't easy to tend. He was fractious and demanding and expected me to read his mind. He made me feel either like the most brilliant of comrades or the most bumbling of fools, often within the same breath.

  I adored him.

  I wasn't as fond of Lir. Though I gave him a grudging respect because he taught me well, there were too many times his comments set my teeth on edge. He could look right through me in a way Daelyn didn't bother. Lir always knew when I was angry, and he used that to taunt me to work harder. Daelyn never cared.

  "You look like you're going to cry," Daelyn remarked one day, after he'd told me I had the fashion sense of a toad.

  His words stung, but my tears were from pain, not hurt feelings. I'd just returned from the fight field, where a misstep twisted my ankle. The mud on my clothes and face, which had prompted his comment, flaked onto the fine marble floor of his chambers when I walked.

  "What's the matter with you?" He asked suspiciously. "What's wrong with your leg?"

  "I twisted my ankle. I'll bind it up. It'll be fine." I took another step.

  "Come here." His imperious command made me sigh, but of course I didn't dare show any reluctance to obey. "Sit down."

  "I'll get your chair filthy," I protested, but his look stopped me. I sat. Daelyn motioned for me to lift my leg toward him. He cradled my ankle in his supple-fingered hands, and his touch was far gentler than I'd imagined.

  "Think you I can't get a stupid chair cleaned? Or buy another if I wish? What do you think is more important to me, Aeris? The chair? Or my fetchencarry?"

  I'd have said the chair, easily, but his expression kept me from replying. I winced again when he pressed the sore spots. Daelyn clucked his tongue and reached for a pot from his vanity. "This will help the swelling. I do have the capacity for compassion, Aeris."

  "I wouldn't suggest otherwise, my prince." I stood and tested my weight. The ankle still hurt, but not as much.

  Daelyn laughed. "You would if you had any balls. Lir would tell me to my face I was being a self-absorbed twit."

  "Lir would be the only one." I met his eyes without wavering.

  "I daresay you are correct." Daelyn's smile thinned. "Go bathe. You stink."

  I ducked my head and did as he bade. When I came out of the privy chamber, I found him already seated at his vanity. He'd opened his cosmetic case and toyed now with the brushes and pots of color, but hadn't put any on. His face, clean of the paint, looked pale.

  "My prince?"

  His eyes met mine in the mirror. "I'm not going to be a parent this month."

  I came to stand beside him, but didn't quite dare to touch his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

  His laugh scorched my ears. "Don't be sorry for me. I'll get to try again. Every day, if that's what it takes, and the women are ready. Be sorry for the girls they sent me who didn't catch my seed. They'll be punished today."

  A chill crawled down my spine. I took up a brush and dipped it into the pot of lip color. Daelyn turned so I could begin to paint his lips. His hand came up to clasp my wrist and hold my hand steady. His eyes met mine more intensely face to face than when the mirror had been between us.

  "Rosten's been meeting with the Priests of Sinder. He's been reinventing the Law of the Book. What do you suppose that portends?"

  I bit my lip before I answered. "His reputation is great, my prince. He's..."

  "He's a monster," Daelyn said flatly. "He's a beast. He delights in torture. The women of his house cower before him. His friends pander to his every whim and ride so far up his ass they must eat his breakfast almost before he does."

  His words were crude, but true. "He's an important man in Alyria."

  "And I didn't elect him." Daelyn waved toward the cosmetic to show me to continue. "I inherited him. He was my father's comrade. Some say he was more than that. You would imagine a man who fucked the father on occasion would have more sympathy for the son. Yet I have the impression Lord Rosten does not like me. What say you?"

  "No, my prince. I don't think Lord Rosten cares for you at all."

  "I'd say he would rather have taken my father's seat than see me have it."

  "It's not my place to say."

  Again, Daelyn arrested my hand when it shook. "We both know it's the truth. If I don't spawn a boy child, I'll never be King. I could be Prince Regent forever. If the citizens of Alyria don't care, I don't either. But Lord Rosten cares, Aeris, and that makes me very nervous."

  I steadied my hand and applied the glittering powder to his eyelids. "What would he have to do to declare himself King?"

  "He'd have to declare me incompetent. Or unpopular." Daelyn didn't seem so nervous when he grinned. "And while he can prove I don't have any sons, the people of Alyria love me."

  "They fear him."

  He nodded, then turned to look in the mirror. "Sometimes fear can be more powerful than love."

  I didn't know how to offer him comfort. Instead, I took up the. Daelyn sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, then leaned back against me. The contact startled me and made it impossible to continue brushing.

  "I don't want to go to the House of the Book. But I have to."

  I nodded, unable to say anything else. He sighed again, then reached for my hand. To my utter shock, he pulled it down and put it to his cheek. I froze at the intimate contact, uncertain how to react.

  "Are you afraid of me?" Daelyn murmured. "Or do you love me?"

  I didn't hesitate to answer. "I love you, my prince."

  He opened his eyes. "Fear and love, Aeris. They can change the world."

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Daelyn rarely went anywhere by himself. His core group of lordlings followed him to Court, to places of entertainment, to wherever he might wish them to go. Yet they didn't go with him to the House of the Book.

  He did take me, without an explanation other than he told me to accompany him and I did. I'd never been inside the round, white stone building, though I'd been past it many times. When we crossed the threshold, my heart stuttered in my chest and chills swept through me from more than just the dank coldness inside its walls.

  I thought it might be dark inside, but the interior was bright and light. The walls were white, like the stone outside. High windows just beneath the roofline brought in sunlight that lost its golden tone immediately and became as cold and white as moonlight. The entry was empty, without furniture or decoration. A set of double doors, white-painted wood, led to a long, white hallway also without decoration. Not even tapestries adorned the walls. At the end of the hall, we paused.

  Daelyn had dressed for this occasion as magnificently as any other. Against the pure white background, his crimson tunic and trousers seemed even brighter. I'd braided his hair in a simple style set off by the intricately feathered and beaded hat. Even his shoes were covered with glittering gems and embroidery. His sword, decorative as well as functional, hung at his side in a scabbard of intricately etched leather. He looked devastatingly handsome, but as he stopped in front of the doors, he looked at his outfit with dismay.

  "Too much," he said.

  I'd never heard him say anythin