The Trouble with Kings by Sherwood Smith

Author:Sherwood Smith
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2008-02-11T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“An invitation issued by you, Eleandra? How would it be possible to forget, when you are in my thoughts night and day?” He made an elegant bow and kissed her fingertips.

Her delighted laugh was the first real expression I had ever heard from her.

Behind her his guard dismounted. There had to be fifteen or twenty of them, all armed for war, and behind them servants.

Garian’s gaze swept over the rest of us as he bowed. Jewel and I had gone as stiff as a pair of stalks. Garian’s expression altered. “Is that Flian Elandersi?” He laughed. “And Jewel Szinzar. I don’t believe it!”

“They came to invite me to Lathandra.” Eleandra smiled, her tone teasing.

Jewel gaped with the same mind-numbing astonishment that I was feeling.

“It would, I admit, be strange to see Jason again after so many years,” Eleandra went on, in that same tone: a little laughing, a little challenging.

“Seems a habit with you, meeting your suitors in secret,” Garian retorted.

Eleandra glanced at us. This conversation was not following the oblique pattern that her court friends willingly followed. Siana and Eneflar were also staring in blank amazement. “Courtship is best done without an audience.” Her chin lifted as she threw her beautiful hair back.

“But its completion requires one. Ironic, is it not?” Garian bowed once more, graceful and mocking. He saluted her hand with a lingering kiss. “It seems I shall eventually have to do myself the honor of calling on your sister again, but for now, we can while the time away here in this pastoral setting. What is it, watching the leaves grow? Fall?”

Eleandra laughed, and turned away. “If you’ve no liking for nature, then entertain us with wit.”

“Now that is a challenge, is it not, Flian?” There it was, that nasty derisive tone I loathed so much.

Garian did not wait on my answer. He looked past me dismissively and instead asked questions of the sisters—who they were, how they liked their sojourn among the trees, and suchlike. They answered with court nothings, Eneflar’s edged with sarcasm that made Garian laugh.

And so we stood about until the wind kicked up, blowing smoke into our faces. Eleandra gave the order for the campfire to be put out. It had been a beacon indeed, but not for Jason Szinzar.

Siana said, “I think I’ll retire.”

Eleandra responded with a polite wish for pleasant dreams. And so the party ended perforce. The sisters and Jewel and I returned to our respective tents. And though by then Garian’s staff had set him up a tent in the space Eleandra had designated, he and Eleandra withdrew into hers, and occasional murmurs punctuated by laughter drifted through the cold night air until, at last, they diminished into silence.

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