Beneath the Veil Read online

  My clothes must have stunned him as much as they had everyone else, because he stared at me for a long time without moving toward me. His gaze took me in from the top of my head to the tips of my velvet slippers peeking out from beneath my skirts. Despite myself, I looked for a sign he was pleased by what he saw. I couldn't read his expression. He didn't look enticed, as Madame Zillah had promised. I imagined a flash of disappointment in his eyes, and bit down on my lip hard enough to make my eyes water. It was one thing to appear a fool in front of the court of Elitan. Quite another to look that way in front of Lir.

  At last he took a step toward me but was blocked by a quartet of men who appeared to be asking him some complicated question about swordsmanship. Lir gave me another look before bending his head to their discussion. I stood, uncertain of what to do next.

  "He'll be there all night, if I know him," said a soft female voice from beside me.

  I hadn't noticed the woman Mara gliding up next to me like a swan on still water. She simpered and cast a coquettish look in Lir's direction. I turned to face her.

  "Your pardon?" My words were more slurred than I'd expected them to be.

  She gave me a look of studied innocence. "Ah, I'd forgotten you know him well too. Then you know that he'll spend most of his time discussing fighting with those gentleman until Her Majesty calls everyone into the music room to listen to her niece Fortuna play the pianoforte. Then he'll either fall asleep listening or trying to convince someone to..." She giggled, her gloved hand over her mouth in a false attempt to hold in the laughter. "To provide him some other amusement."

  I tightened my jaw. "Your pardon, my lord, but it's never been my pleasure to attend a function like this with Lord Akean before."

  She blinked, her mouth spread into a smile she no longer tried to hide. I'd addressed her with the right level of respect but the wrong title. I wasn't used to using the word lady in any context.

  "Surely you jest," she said at last with a wrinkle of her nose. "I am the least mannish woman in here. I believe that honor would go to you, Mistress Delaya."

  She emphasized my title, which was as incorrect as the one I'd given her. She looked down at my gown and raised her eyebrows. "What a charming ensemble you've put together. Tell me something, Mistress. Do you piss standing up like a man, too? And do you take it in your back hole, like I've heard the men of Alyria do?"

  The venom in her words was coated with sugar but fatally poisonous nonetheless. I swallowed. She couldn't know anything about me, and I wasn't about to give her the pleasure.

  She gave a pretty pout. "No answer? Rat got your tongue? Pity. I'd heard you were quite bright, and attractive too. Too bad that's wrong on both accounts."

  I took a step back. I didn't ask her who had been telling tales about me, as it didn't matter and I didn't care. I looked again at Lir, but he was still immersed in his conversation.

  She gripped my elbow suddenly and fiercely. Her nails dug into my skin through the material of my sleeve, but the grasp was covered by the fall of lace covering her hand. She squeezed, harder, until pain shot up my arm. "I've had him before, and I'll have him again. He might have taken pity on you because of your ordeal, but that's over now. You're in Elitan, not Alyria, in case you hadn't noticed, and most men fuck women here. Find yourself a woman who's not so particular and go back to being the man you obviously still are. I intend to have Lir Akean for my own!"

  Her grip was easy to throw off. It was even easier to twist her offending hand around her back and force her face down into a puddle of silk and lace on the floor. I didn't have to drop and place my knee between her shoulders to keep her down...but it felt blessedly wonderful to do so.

  She flailed but couldn't move. Her scream, thin and desperate, rose from beneath the layers of clothing between us. I'd moved so silently I don't think anyone in the room would have even noticed me taking her down, had she not screamed, but unlike a man who would have taken his defeat with dignity, Mara squealed and squirmed like a kitten plucked from its mother's teat.

  "What happened?"

  "Did she fall?"

  "Is she ill?"

  The lords and ladies flocked to us immediately. I got up, but left Mara to struggle to her feet on her own. She stood, her face flushed and her cosmetic smeared, and her gown in complete disarray. I laughed even though my stomach swam sickly from the drink and conflict, and she turned on me with a shriek.

  "She...she struck me down!" Her cry echoed through the crowded room and brought an even greater crowd to gawk. She shook her finger her face going even darker red with rage. "That monster hit me! A lady! Without provocation!"

  All eyes turned to me, and I felt my own cheeks heating. Worst of all, I saw Lir looking at me, then at Mara. I stepped away, ashamed I had fought such an unworthy opponent. There was no pride in taking down a defenseless foe.

  I heard murmurs of concern all around me, and I stepped further back. I only wanted to escape the crowd before I lost my stomach, or began to cry. Mara wasn't content to let me slip away. She advanced on me. Maybe she gathered courage from the crowd. More probable she underestimated me.

  She slapped my cheek so hard my entire body twisted and dipped to the side. By the time I turned myself upright, I was already focusing the Art and moving toward her. I grabbed both her hands, which had been upraised to slap at me again. I pulled them down so her body bent at the waist. Then I pulled them out, forced her body to turn, and I put her down again. This time I didn't pull the force of my hands, and she hit the floor without my arm beneath her chest to cushion the landing. This time, her scream was real.

  I got off her immediately and moved away. The crowd parted around me like I had the plague. I guess to them, I did. I didn't bother looking for Lir, and I didn't wait to see what damage had been done by the floor to Mara's smooth skin and formerly unbent nose. I left the parlor, and I left the palace, and I ran until I found the street outside.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  It didn't escape my attention that I'd been doing a lot of running. The cold air outside did wonders for my hot cheeks, though, and cleared my head. I slowed to a walk after several blocks and looked around. The area around Elitan's palace wasn't much like Regent's Square in Alyria. Instead of poetry houses and merchant stores, the buildings were smaller and interspersed with empty plots of land. These were cottages and some larger houses, surrounded by land that in the springtime would probably be planted with produce and flowers. Some shops stood here and there, their windows dark now, but this seemed more a residential district.

  I paused at the gate of one small house made of stone, with a thatched roof. Flickering firelight lit the windows. Without thinking, I moved to peer in the window. Three women sat in front of a blazing fire. A table held the remains of a meal. Two small boys and a bigger girl played with a spinning top on the floor near the women, and a fourth woman entered the room with a bundle in her arms as I watched. She took a seat in the rocking chair and lifted her baby to her breast. The sight of it, the mother nursing her child, knocked the breath from me with its poignant beauty. Here in Elitan, these women didn't have to fear for their daughters.

  One of the children looked up and pointed at the window, an expression of surprise on his small face. I moved back, aware I'd been spying on them. I'd been seen. As I moved toward the street, the door opened and one of the women called out:

  "Mistress? Are you well?"

  They had opened the door to a stranger. I marveled at the trust they had. I was even more surprised by her next words.

  "Master Delaya? Is that you?"

  She'd addressed me as master, despite my shorn head and women's clothes. I looked at her. "I am Aeris Delaya."

  She let out a gasp and flew through the cold night to greet me. "Your face and eyes, I thought I knew them, but the rest...come in! You must come in!"

  She took my hands and pulled me inside the warmth of her house. The children goggled. The other women rose to their feet, their expressions welcoming.