Closer to the Chest by Mercedes Lackey

Author:Mercedes Lackey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2016-09-06T19:59:01+00:00

A day. Three. A sennight. A fortnight. And still nothing had happened up on the Hill, except that the weather had grown hotter, and courtiers had settled into new configurations of trust, or rather, lack of it. But people were minding their manners, at least to the extent of not fighting openly, possibly because it was too hot to fight openly. Instead, they were figuratively walking on eggshells around each other, and gathering in tight little cliques.

This had not discouraged the female Trainees from river-bathing; if anything, it made them more defiant, and their bathing-costumes more abbreviated. The ladies of the Court, however, were more mixed in their reactions. Some had decided to shy away from river-bathing altogether, some only did so at dusk, when the near-dark preserved some of their modesty, and some had joined the female Trainees in their defiance, concocting similar “bathing outfits” of lightweight breeches and shirts.

Down in Haven, Mags had investigated three more shop break-ins, to no end. All three had been accomplished in the dead of night, there were no witnesses, of course, and no reports of any disturbance in the night. As with the first six, the owners of the shops turned up to open them, and discovered the destruction.

By this point the reports of the vandalism of the shops had come to the attention of the Lesser Council, and Mags was asked to report on it all. It felt very odd indeed, to be standing in front of a table full of important people and giving a report, when one of those people happened to be his own wife.

It was the first time he’d ever been before either of the Councils; he wouldn’t have known this was the Lesser Council had not half the seats at this horseshoe-shaped table been empty. And he would not have known who was missing had Nikolas not told him beforehand.

The Lord Martial was not here; this sort of business internal to Haven was not in his purview. The same held for the Seneschal. Several of the Guildmasters were not here either, though if it had been Mags, he would have been, and he considered them very foolish for thinking that this sort of thing could not happen to one of the members of their Guilds. None of the heads of the Bardic, Heraldic, or Healers’ Circles were here; Bardic didn’t care, Healers’ was not involved, and the Heralds were already represented well enough by Amily and her father. The Lord Mayor of Haven was not here either; things had not yet gotten to the point where he felt he needed to make an appearance at the table; he was trusting to the Watch, the Heralds, and the King to see that he didn’t.

So although some of the owners of the vandalized shops were in other Guilds entirely, everyone had agreed to have their interests represented by the heads of the Mercantile Guilds.

The Council Chamber was a bit dim, as white curtains had been drawn over the windows to reflect as much heat outward as possible.

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