Beneath the Veil Read online

  My throat felt raw, my lungs seared, but I gulped more water and kept my feet. I wiped my streaming eyes with my sleeve. Daelyn frowned at me, and I could only give him an apologetic look.

  "Your fetchencarry doesn't like our decision, I take it." Rosten gave a leering smile.

  "It's not his place to like or not to like." Daelyn sat back down in his chair and motioned for me to stand again at his back.

  "And you, my lord prince?"

  Daelyn turned to Rosten and said nothing for a moment that felt like forever. "Don't ask me what I like or do not like, Rosten, unless you're prepared to hear the answer."

  Rosten bowed his head, though I could still see the quirk of his nasty smile. "As you wish. My prince."

  Daelyn waved toward the women, who had remained silent and still this entire time. "Don't keep them waiting any longer."

  At his words, the smallest woman collapsed into a black puddle. The hem of her kedalya flew up to reveal trim, shapely ankles and feet encased in soft slippers. At the sight, a few of the men on the dais let out cries as full of disgust as if she had vomited on them. Simelbon got to his feet and pointed, shouting, "Cover her, now!"

  Fiesco bent to haul the woman to her feet. She lolled, boneless, in his arms. He slapped at the round form of her head through the fabric of her veil, but she did not respond. His movements made her garment ride up even farther, to the flesh of her thighs.

  "Prince of the Land Above!" Rosten's curse roared through the room. "Get that folly covered, man!"

  The girl began to move. Her arms and legs swam as Fiesco yanked her to her feet. Her small cry sent another wave of shocked disgust rippling through the Council of the Book.

  Daelyn got to his feet. "Take her away, Fiesco."

  He'd given the command in a quiet voice devoid of the frenzied disgust the other members of the Council of the Book used. Fiesco nodded and put his arm around the woman, then led her toward the double doors. The other two followed her.

  "I did not dismiss you!" Rosten's cry made Fiesco pause. "She'll have to be punished further, now!"

  "Why?"

  Rosten turned to stare at Daelyn, and I believe the expression of surprise on his face was genuine. "Because she showed her flesh. Because she spoke in the presence of men who are not of her household. These crimes cannot go unpunished. Instead of losing her dominant hand, she'll have to lose both."

  Daelyn got to his feet again, this time to face Rosten. The Book Monster stood a few inches taller than the prince, but Daelyn still seemed the larger man. Rosten lifted an eyebrow in a look of insincere confusion.

  "My lord prince? Do you disagree?"

  Daelyn did not turn to look at the women, who had paused with Fiesco at one set of double doors. "A folly without hands is of no use to her household."

  Rosten's smug grin made me want to puke. "Perhaps you may be right."

  Daelyn's profile was as hard as stone. He didn't even blink when he said "Put her to death, instead."

  The room fell into silence at his words. Several of the council members exchanged glances of surprise. Simelbon grinned wide enough to crack his face. Adamantane's jaw dropped. Rosten gave the prince a look of shrewd appraisal, then nodded.

  "As you wish, my lord. It shall be so."

  The girl cried out again and was silenced by a cuff to the head from Fiesco. The man's face had paled, and his hand tightened almost protectively around the girl's kedalya-shapeless waist.

  "My lord –"

  "I've given my command." Daelyn left the dais and headed for the entrance through which we had arrived. "Make it so."

  He'd gone out the door and I heard the click of his heels in the hall before I gathered my wits enough to follow him. I had to run to catch up, and when I did, he'd already reached the entryway of the building. He didn't pause, but banged out through the front doors hard enough to slam them against the walls on either side. I followed.

  I had to take two strides for every single one of his. I thought he might head straight for his chambers, but instead he went to the fight field. A straw-stuffed dummy, left there from Lir's earlier lessons, stood sentinel. Without pause, without sound, Daelyn whipped his sword from its sheath and sliced it. His blade caught the dummy's tattered clothes and tore them off. Next, he stabbed the straw figure straight to the heart, pulled out the blade and with a motion so swift and seamless he appeared to be floating, he stabbed the place on the figure's blank face where the eyes should have been.

  "Get a blade," he said in a low voice, still facing away from me.

  I didn't wish to see his face. I did as he asked and returned in moments from the armory. Daelyn hadn't moved. His shoulders heaved. His sword hand trembled. He turned, his face pale beneath the cosmetic and his lips pulled tight in a grimace.

  He raised his sword and I did the same. Then he came at me, slashing and dancing, and it took all my skill to keep away. I might've had the benefit of Lir's tutelage, but something fueled Daelyn that day and made him impossible to beat. In moments his blade was at my throat and I knelt before him, panting, waiting to feel the steel slice my flesh and spill my blood. I thought he meant to kill me.

  At the last moment he blinked and pulled his sword. Breathing hard, he tossed the weapon to the ground and offered me a hand up. I took it, still uncertain about how to react to him.

  I was completely unprepared for him to punch me in the face. I stumbled back with the taste of blood in my mouth and my vision gone momentarily dark from the bright, exquisite pain. My arms flailed, and I kept my feet. My own fury filled me at his abuse. This man to whom I had pledged my loyalty had struck me for no good reason.

  My fists clenched and I swung. I missed, though not because he moved out of the way. Daelyn didn't move at all. Rock-solid on his feet, he didn't even blink when my fist passed within a hair's breadth of his cheek. I'd missed because of the pain doubling my vision. I wouldn't miss again.

  Though it seemed like eternity, only a moment had passed since my hand flashed past his face. Immediately my other hand came up, ready to strike. This time, Daelyn did move. He ducked and punched me in the gut at the same time.

  This wasn't the Art. This was street fighting at its worse, or its best. I doubled over and his knee came up to catch me beneath the chin. My teeth came down on my tongue. I spat. The sight of the dark blood on the crimson of his doublet stopped me.

  "My prince," I managed to say through a mouth full of blood. I lowered my hands. "I plead your mercy."

  "No mercy!" Daelyn shoved my shoulder. "No, Aeris! I'm hitting you! Hit me back."

  I shook my head. "My prince –"

  "Call me by my name!" He ordered. "If I am going to beat the shite out of you, you might as well do that."

  "No." Again, I shook my head. Fury still clenched my fingers against my palm, but I steadied myself. I breathed in, then out, as Lir had taught me. Blood dripped from my nose and my mouth, and I spat again. "I can't fight you."

  "The fuck you can't!"

  All at once, I realized he was weeping. "Daelyn..."

  He put up his hands. Tears made streaks in his cosmetic and pooled in dark puddles at the corners of his eyes. "Hit me, Aeris! I order you to!"

  "I can't do that."

  "Damn you, you sodding little bastard!"

  His insults slapped at me, but the sight of his tears had made me step back. "My prince, tell me what I can do."

  He gritted his teeth. "You can fight me."

  "Are you angry with me?"

  He swiped at his cheeks. "I am angry, Aeris. And I fear if I don't fight, if I can't rid myself of this fury, it will consume me."

  I knew the relief a fist could provide. I knew how physical pain could keep my mind from dwelling on grief or fear. And yet, though his initial attack had made me rise to meet it, the idea of fighting him went against what I'd been raised to do. He was the Prince Regent of Alyria, and I a seller of melons. It wasn't my place to raise a hand to him, even if he should order it, and not only for tha