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.”“But why are these guardsmen posted here?”“You must attend, Anne.You live in the royal city now, not your rustic countryside.The king has returned to Merona.”The earth shifted again.My goodfather.The sole arbiter of my future, assuming any of us had a future.I could be confined to the Spindle in the next hour.“I didn’t think he could be here before night.”“He’s not in residence as yet,” she said.“Prefect Kajetan and Tetrarch Grabian must greet him at the city gates and welcome him home on behalf of the Camarilla and the Temple.I doubt he’ll brook any other delay.We’ll all be called to account then.Keep your wits about you and your tongue still.”As we passed through the gilded doors into the household, I could scarce sort through the day’s possibilities.“Is Her Majesty awake now?”“Fitfully.The fool brother has had a sensible idea for once, suggesting she be moved to the country, where fresh air and happier associations might revive her.The physician approves it.Who knows what the king will say? Many things could change today.”“Indeed.But it sounds an excellent plan.” Especially if Antonia and her schemes and the revenants of dead kings could be left behind.I hadn’t asked Dante about the possibilities of procreation with a revenant.Asked Dante.The idea shivered me to the marrow.along with the thought that I could ask him when I had a moment, out there in our meeting place in the aether.Somehow the prospect of our next such conversation left me breathless.Dante.Impossible.As we climbed the stair into the inner household, Patrice dismissed me to my bedchamber, saying she would roust Eleanor or Arabella to join her in relief of Antonia and Lord Ilario.“Sleep for a few hours, Anne.You’ve given good service these past days.And for the love of Sabria, take the time to dress appropriately.”“Thank you, my lady,” I said.“I do feel a bit frantic.There are more dangers around this palace than illness.I’d not have our mistress harmed in any way.”“Nor I.You’re not the only one who watches.I’ve heard you were a bit clumsy earlier.Very clever.Walk carefully.”“Yes, indeed I will.” I was near stammering with astonishment.I suppose seven decades of palace intrigues could make a sharp-eyed woman used to almost anything.“Divine grace, Marquesa Patrice.”As the bells rang eighth hour of the morning watch, I watched her go, brisk and precise in her movements.Perhaps the natural order of the universe was already reversed.THE BOOK WAS GONE FROM the balcony rubble, and with it my hopes of an hour’s sleep.I could not allow Ilario to do anything drastic—assuming, of course, that Ilario was the one who had taken it.My confidence in my plan seemed suddenly flimsy, with Dante’s life in danger every moment of delay.I’d taken two drops of the potion, hoping to avoid entanglements along the way.Now my state of invisibility did naught but make my search for Ilario more difficult.He was not in the bedchamber, where Patrice and Arabella were bathing the sleeping queen in preparation for her husband’s arrival, nor in the private dining room.I slipped into his apartments in the wake of his wizened, impatient little manservant, John Deune, as unlikely a pairing of servant and master as any I’d seen, but the chevalier was not at home.Neither was he in the queen’s salon.The household ladies and maids of honor were all atwitter about what the king might do when he arrived.Cautious whispers agreed that “executing certain terrifying sorcerers” would be wise, but extremely dangerous, if not impossible.One craggy contessa was convinced the king would set Eugenie aside within the month.The king’s privy council had prepared the order of cerrate vide months ago, she said.This collapse would be the last straw.My name was whispered, too.Most of the women assumed that I would be shipped to the Spindle the moment Philippe found me serving in Eugenie’s bedchamber.“That would be a shame.” Chins dropped when Marie-Claire spoke up.“Anne saved our lady’s life yesterday, and watches out for her carefully.She is very wise.”Rumor spread faster in Castelle Escalon than late-summer fires in the maquis.Marveling at my two unlikely new defenders, I abandoned Marie-Claire at the center of a murmuring group, repeating all she knew, which was very little and mostly wrong.The experience was incredibly strange, the voices of the aether roaring through my head as I flitted unseen among my companions of the court.Hearing myself discussed.Was this what it was like to be dead?Having gleaned nothing of Lord Ilario’s whereabouts, I sped down to the viewing gallery that marked the division between the queen’s household and the public rooms.Increasingly I feared he’d taken my treasures and ridden off to his country house with them.Yet I couldn’t imagine him deserting Eugenie.Debating whether to head for the stables or the kitchens, both known for Lord Ilario’s frequent visits, I hurried down the gallery, past the entrance to the mages’ passage.How differently I saw it after these past hours.Despite his violent temper and unrepentant wickedness, I could summon no fear of Dante.Which was idiocy.He had not changed.Not four hours previous, I’d written Ilario, my faithful chevalier, not to approach him—Father Creator, he wouldn’t!Reversing course, I sped down the passage toward Dante’s door.Ilario stepped briskly from behind a cupboard, hand appallingly near his sword hilt.“Who’s there?”“Lord, hold,” I said, skidding to a stop.“I’m all right.Wholly intact.”He spun in place, every fiber of him on the alert.“Damoselle?”“Right here.” When I touched his arm, he jerked away and backed toward the windows, color draining from his fair complexion.A knife had appeared in his hand as if by the finest magic.“Who’s there? Where are you? Ianne’s breath, are you—?”“Don’t be afraid.I’m right here.He didn’t hurt me.”He took a deep, shaking breath.“Are you sure?”My admiration for Ilario reached new heights.A laugh bubbled up from somewhere.“It’s only a seeing charm diverts your eye.My sister’s work, not his at all.Here”—I took his hand and laid it atop my head—“if I were a ghost I’m sure I would be taller and have lovely silken hair.”“And yet you sound something different.” He removed his hand—not without a press firm enough to ensure I was substantial.“Did you not meet up with the devil after all?”“I’m just relieved,” I said.“He yelled at me a great deal.Tried to frighten me into giving back the book.But he couldn’t explain how I could’ve taken it without his seeing me.Eventually he let me go.He’s nervous about what’s coming.You’d not want to cross him just now.What were you planning on doing here?”“Ending it in the only way I know how,” he said.“This has gone on far too long.” All smiles withered.The hair on my neck prickled.“Lord, you can’t.Not yet.” I kept my voice low and backed into the corner, lest anyone happen by and see me reappear.“Duplais was most insistent that we let things proceed so that we’re not held hostage to the Aspirant’s threat from now on.You surely know his mind better than I do.Do we trust his judgment or not?”He struggled with that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]