Beneath the Veil Read online

  He took my hand. "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be. There are more important things."

  He gave me a familiar grin. "More important than dreams? Bite your tongue."

  Lir came in without knocking, the only one of Daelyn's comrades who could do so. His eyes took in our entwined fingers, and Daelyn's smudged lips. Did I imagine a shadow cross his face? A slight tightening of his lips?

  "Dae, love, I've had word from Barnabus. He's found three more."

  Daelyn gave me a significant look I couldn't interpret. "Aeris has a proposal for you."

  Lir laughed out loud when Daelyn told him of my plan. "Train the follies to fight? What an absurd idea."

  I bristled, but remembered he didn't know I was female. Or didn't acknowledge that fact. "Daelyn can fight."

  "Daelyn's been bred from a long line of monarchs. And he's been raised as a male. Put a sword in his hand, and he's got the innate courage and learned skill to use it. Put a dagger in the hand of a common kitchen female, and how clumsily will she wield it? They're not even allowed to carry needles on their persons, lest they stab somebody with the point!"

  "Which is exactly why we need to train them," I repeated stubbornly. "Daelyn agrees that Rosten needs to be taken out of power, and Adamantane and Simelbon with him. Without them, the rest of their followers can be wooed or at least subdued and outvoted."

  "This is more than a matter of casual assassination," Lir told me. "You do understand that Rosten's enemies are many but those who follow him are greater. He's also the most well-protected man in the country right now. Even better protected than the Prince Regent himself."

  "Through sheer numbers, not from the skill of his guards." Daelyn gave Lir a fond look. "You know you could beat them all, my sweet."

  "Individually, yes. Together? He's never attended by fewer than seven armed men, all of whom, I might add, have received some if not all of their training beneath my hand." Lir took out his sword and tilted the blade until it shone in the light of Daelyn's expensive oil lanterns. "And yet I can count on the loyalty of none of them. Indeed, should any one of them learn of my activities and proclivities, I've no doubt they'd not hesitate to slaughter me and feel themselves justified in doing so."

  Daelyn got up, a pretty pout on the mouth he knew how to use so well, and put his arms around Lir's shoulders. "Poor Lir. So underappreciated."

  Daelyn put his fingertips to Lir's chin and tried to kiss him. As Lir's eyes met mine over the top of Daelyn's head, Lir sidestepped the kiss. He did it neatly, and he did it subtly, but there was no mistaking that he'd done it. He strode to the tray of cacao and biscuits, crammed the last one into his mouth without finesse and gulped a cup of now-tepid drink.

  Daelyn gave me a brief glance but didn't comment on Lir's action. Instead, he dusted his hands together, then went back to the vanity and picked up the hat I'd brought him. He looked at his reflection, this way and that, but the feathers blocked my view of his face so that whatever he saw was for his gaze alone.

  "So when do we start?" Daelyn said at last, without turning. "When do we set ourselves to battle?"

  I thought Lir would answer, but he sat down in one of the comfortable chairs and put his feet up while he finished his refreshment. I'd been training beneath him for months, but all I knew was how to fight. I knew nothing of strategy or battle planning.

  Still, my tongue moved faster than my thoughts as it had a tendency to do, and I began to pace the floor while I spoke. "We need to unseat Rosten. If he falls, Adamantane and Simelbon will try to take up his seat, but they'll be easier to take care of. They're not nearly as powerful as Rosten is, and they're not as good at getting followers. Without him, they'll founder at first. Not for long, but long enough to kill them, too."

  "Listen to the laddie," Daelyn murmured, still facing the mirror. "Hear him speak of killing as though he were discussing having a picnic."

  Lir said nothing, merely stared at me. Under the weight of his gaze, I felt my cheeks flush, but my nipples peaked too and I was thankful for the extra layer of binding cloth I wore beneath my clothes to hide them. I paced some more, ticking off lists of ideas on my fingers.

  "They've killed plenty of people in their time, my prince. Women, children, even men who opposed them. I don't have pity for them."

  Daelyn turned now, his eyebrow cocked below the hat's curved brim. "Without pity, you are no better than they are."

  That made me pause. "If they're not stopped –"

  "Even if they are stopped, Aeris, do you really think removing one man from power will change the way the rest of the country feels and behaves?" His tone was cold.

  I thought of the many young men I'd passed on the street that day. The whispered comments. The eagerness, instead of disgust. "It won't change all of them. There will always be people who choose to hate. But yes, Daelyn, I do believe getting rid of Rosten will allow you to change this country. To make new laws and break some old ones. To allow those who wish to live in harmony do so, without fear of reprisal. Not every man will change. But if we don't take this chance, make this stand, then none will."

  Daelyn smoothed his fingers along the hat's brim and curled the feather on his finger. "Listen to him speak, Lir. He really believes what he's saying."

  "Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" I cried, frustrated and no longer caring if I tempted his anger. "I am here! I am speaking to you! Don't treat me like your fetchencarry any more, Daelyn, because I've grown out of that role, and you're the one who forced me to do it!"

  Lir's gaze flickered from Daelyn and then to me. He crossed his arms over his chest. "The lad's right, Dae."

  "Are you taking his side?" Daelyn sounded incredulous and petulant, too. He slapped the hat from his head, then kicked it across the floor. "You, my love, turning on me in favor of that...that..."

  "He's your friend, I believe," Lir said mildly. "And he's right. You might not like to admit it."

  "I am afraid to admit it!" Daelyn's shout echoed throughout the chamber. He took a step forward, and his knees buckled. He grabbed the back of a chair to hold himself upright. His face contorted. "I am terrified of this, Lir! This is not a game. This is not running merry through the streets wearing black clothes and risking little to gain much. This is...this is madness. This is murder. And what if we do accomplish our goals? Then the fate of Alyria lies fully in my hands, on my shoulders, it bends my back and throttles me! Me, Lir Akean. Not you. Not him, either." He jerked a thumb toward me. "I've spent my entire life playing at being a flirt, a fashionable fool! How do you think I will stand up to that sort of pressure?"

  "I think you'll stand up very well, my prince." Lir got up and put his arms around Daelyn, and after a moment, I did too.

  We both held him as he shook and wept, and when at last his tears had ceased, he raised his head and said, "Then we'll start tonight."

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  "Hold it like this?" Galya closed her fingers lightly around the dagger's handle. She giggled, and I paused in my demonstration, enchanted at the trill, merry and bright and sparkling. It made me think of springtime, brooks burbling, flowers beginning to show their heads after a long winter.

  "Aeris?" She looked puzzled, and I had to blink away my reverie.

  "Like this." I took hold of her hand and closed the fingers harder on the dagger's handle. "You must keep a firm grip on it, so it doesn't slip."

  "Like on a man's prick," she said so matter-of-factly I was surprised.

  "Um. Perhaps a little harder than that."

  "You don't know how the man of my house likes to be stroked," she said darkly. Then she gave another delicious giggle. "Tell you truly, I'd rather hold this than that."

  "Now I'll show you how to thrust...."

  She bent over in more peals of laughter. It took me a moment before I realized why she was laughing this time. My cheeks heated, but I grinned.

  "Maybe you already know all about that, too."

  She nodded and pretended to put on