Beneath the Veil Read online

  Here in the night, there was only me, Aeris Delaya, born my mother's daughter but raised as no one's son. I parried and feinted in the darkness. My imaginary foe wore Rosten's face. Sweat ran from my brow and I imagined his blood spattering me.

  I knew Lir was behind me, though he didn't speak. The night air carried his scent to me, and I breathed it deep. I hated it and adored it...but I did not fear it.

  Without a word, I dropped my sword into the frost-crunching grass and turned to face Lir with empty hands. Though there was dim light from the windows overlooking the field and from beyond the walls ringing it, he was naught but a shape a bit darker than the night surrounding him. I heard the noise of his feet on the ground, one being placed in front of the other, and I smiled. He was moving into the first position of the Art.

  I matched it. My left hand, the strong one, went to shoulder height, palm up. My other hand stayed near my waist, palm facing inward. One foot in front of the other. Body angled. I was ready.

  Silent but for the breath of his exertion, he came for me, and I met him. Fist to fist and foot to foot, we sparred. I closed my eyes so as not to let even the dim light distract me. I felt him, sensed him, knew when he was going to move the moment he began. We moved as though in a dance. We formed the patterns, did the moves, created the rituals.

  It hurt like bloody hell. His hand caught my cheek and made me stumble. My foot hit him someplace soft. This dance was brutal, yet there was an element of sensuality about it as well. Defense and offense, a subtle give and take of power and a struggle for victory tempered with the fluid grace of the Art.

  Heat rose to my face. Behind my closed eyes, I saw Lir's face as it had looked painted with ecstasy. My heart thudded. His hand passed in front of my face and I blocked it with mine. His foot came out and snaked around my ankle. He'd caught me. I fell, cradled in his grip upon my wrist, and though I hit the ground the impact was softer because of his interference.

  I was on my feet in an instant and whirling to complete the last pattern. Again, Lir caught me. I was tired, and he was simply more skilled. And perhaps I wanted him to catch me, to pull my back to his chest. Perhaps I wanted to feel his breath hot on my neck and in my ear, and to hear him whisper my name.

  "Let me go." I didn't sound convincing.

  "Daelyn wants you."

  "He doesn't." I couldn't ask Lir if he wanted me, too.

  "I told him I thought you should be allowed to join the cause."

  Lir let me go, and I turned to face him. My eyes, open now, had adjusted to the dark and I could see the outline of his features. "You did?"

  "You've improved this past sixmonth, Aeris. You've honed your skills. I think you'd do well."

  "Even after what I said upstairs?"

  "Even after that. I told Dae we needed another man who could fight." Lir's voice sounded like a smile. "Sometimes I can get him to agree with me. Besides, there's no keeping you away. You're less dangerous as a part of our group than not."

  I couldn't find it in myself to be offended. I wanted to tell him why I was so adamant about this cause. I thought the truth would be easer to tell him in the dark. But in the end, despite that Daelyn had said he thought Lir might already have guessed, I couldn't get the thought of the burning woman out of my mind. Daelyn trusted Lir...but he had also said if betraying me meant a greater purpose was achieved, Lir would do it. For that matter, I didn't doubt Daelyn would do the same.

  "Rosten's face must be purple with rage by now." Lir sounded pleased. "He'll be calling together a council meeting, I guarantee it."

  "And he'll be looking for someone to blame." I bent and retrieved the rapier I'd thrown down, and hung it on its peg. "Who will pay for it?"

  Lir helped me push the rolling rack toward the gate. "The same ones who've paid for a hundred years, unless we can stop him. A hundred years is a long enough time for people to forget life was ever any different."

  "But it must have been, once," I said. "Those posters, those drawings. They're copied from a book in Daelyn's library."

  "I know that." Why did I always amuse him so? "I drew them."

  We went through the gate and along the cobblestone path toward the armory. The sweat had dried, and I was cold. I welcomed the shelter from the weapons room as Lir and I ducked inside. We worked together to clean and hang the weapons.

  "Why?" I finally asked quietly.

  "Because I do not believe any person should own another," came his equally soft reply.

  "But why do you believe that when so many of your peers don't?" I concentrated on hanging the bucklers and arm braces in their proper places, though they could have stayed on the rack until morning.

  Lir shrugged. "Rosten would say I am a pervert. A miscreant."

  "Because you like to make love to women?"

  He gave me a sideways glance. "There is more to sex than where you put your prick. Rosten would say I am an aberration of society because I enjoy the pleasures of the flesh with females, yes. But more so because I enjoy speaking with them. Because I believe they are as lovely and bright and individual as any man can be, and because when I have children, I believe I'd like to share the raising of them with their mother."

  "But why do you think all those things?"

  "I don't know." He looked at the ceiling. "The Prince of the Land Above made me what I am, as he made you. It's the way we were made. The way we were born."

  It was the way I was born, I knew that. I nodded and felt the truth rise to my lips again, but again let it pass without speaking it. I'd lived too long this way to give it up so easily.

  "Remind me to beat Ichabod in the morning."

  I thought of the small boy who had slacked in his duties. "I won't."

  Lir gave a mock sigh. "Then what will I do with my anger? I'll just have to beat you on the fight field."

  I finally felt like smiling. "You can try."

  He clapped a hand to my shoulder. "Come. I'm sure Daelyn has spread a feast in his chambers. I for one could use a pint or two of ale and something to eat."

  He'd touched me like a friend, a comrade, but my shoulder tingled from a different emotion. I moved carefully away from him so my body could not betray me again. If Lir noticed, he said nothing.

  "Let's go," I said and followed him out of the armory.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The news of what had happened filled the streets of Alyria and the halls of the White Palace. Lords mingling in the public areas paid me no heed as I passed by on the way to the haberdashery on an errand for Daelyn. They were all too busy postulating who had committed the latest crimes.

  Posters and newsletters littered the streets like dirty snow. The sky was gray enough to have dropped them. I stooped to pick one up, careless of being seen. Most men in the streets were doing the same, despite Rosten's decree that anyone found possessing the inflammatory writings would be arrested and given five lashes for every piece. I didn't much care what Rosten had threatened. Today, at least, he'd have to arrest the entire city.

  "Outrageous," muttered one merchant as I passed his shop. He tapped the parchment with one twisted hand. "This here says women and men used to live together, one to each other! For their whole lives!"

  "Disgusting," agreed the second merchant, but I saw him slip a newsletter into his pocket. "Filthy!"

  Not everyone was so vocal with their disapproval. I saw many young men gathered on the corners, faces rapt as one of their group read aloud the treatise. The one I overheard was the story of Sinder and Kedalya, and how their love populated Alyria and the world. The lads read it like it was an epic poem in one of the poetry houses, and in a way, I guess it was as full of romance and adventure.

  I made my way through the streets and glanced over the several pieces I'd rescued from the gutter. The sheer cost alone of this venture staggered me. This parchment wasn't highest grade, but even so, the amount of it had cost more than I could imagine. I hadn't asked Lir or Daelyn how they made so many copies and distributed them wit