Hearts in Cups (30 page)

"You have been
well cared for?" His inquiry was polite, emotionally uncoloured.

"Yes," she
replied in an equally neutral tone.

He leaned forward and
poured the fragrant tea into two earthenware cups. Graciously, he presented one
of the cups to her and waited until she had taken a sip before tasting his own.
Setting his cup down, he turned his attention to her.

"Let me begin by
asking, what is it that you intend to do if I do not return to the Pentarchy
with you?" His face continued to express nothing and she was uncertain
whether this was his own oblique answer couched as a question.

Carefully placing her
cup before her, she looked at him squarely. "Whatever decision you make, I
will return to the Pentarchy. My place is there and it is there that my duty
lies.

"Your
return," she continued, "is the best solution for ending the strife
that is, or will soon be, bringing civil war to the land. However, there are
other alternatives for myself and those who are attempting to heal the breach.
We shall follow whatever course we must to preserve the Pentarchy and to
resolve the situation. At the worst, I will hold and protect Langstraad against
the dissolution of the Pentarchy."

When he forbore an
immediate response, she was rankled enough to add, somewhat stiffly, "If
this is to be your final reply then I must express my disappointment in both
you and your answer."

"Why do say
that?" His tone remained casual and his eyes were fixed noncommittally on
his cup.

"You are the only
direct heir to House of Sandovar. To be born as you were, with wealth, titles
and power, grants you great privileges. In exchange, you are charged with great
responsibilities." She spoke in a voice weighted with passion and
conviction. Having lived by these principles all her life, she was willing to
proclaim them even to unwilling ears.

Lifting his eyes to
meet hers, the prince nodded. "What you say has much merit and, to a
degree, I accept what you say as true." Reaching forward to pour more tea
into each of their cups, he continued. "Please understand that I brought
myself here. I placed myself in exile, if you will, while you, my lady, have
lived under the yoke of duty."

"Are you trying to
tell me that your personal rights and wishes supersede the obligations laid on
you by your birth and heritage? I think that what you expound is the selfishness
of a child who thinks that his own wants are more important and outweigh the
wants and needs of those entrusted to his care!" She spoke sharply and
there was a corresponding flash in his eyes that lit up his face in a way she
had not observed before.

"One can only be
responsible for one's own soul, none other," he replied with equal heat.
"If I have been selfish, as you term it, it is only from the point of view
of those who wish me to do other than I have. If I had not been born to the
parents I was, with the titles and wealth that were thrust on me, would what I
have done matter that much? I think not. I don't really think it matters all
that much now."

"If you do not
return, much blood will be shed."

"From what you have
told me, if I do return there is apt to be much bloodshed anyway. I do not want
lives wasted over me and I cannot see that my return will end this strife. Do
you really believe that the insurgents will lay down their weapons and sue for
peace if I appear?"

"Death has already
taken place. Men have been betrayed and slaughtered in this cause. What I am
arguing against is the breaking apart of the just and lawful system of the
Pentarchy to have in its stead a collection of small warring kingdoms at the mercy
of any invasion of substance to be launched from abroad or the subjugation of
the Pentarchy to the will of a tyrant! You are not responsible for actions
other than your own, but you should be willing to consider the effects of those
actions on others." She paused to catch her breath and temper.

The prince also seemed
to be trying to collect himself before he spoke again. "Could you not
return and marry as the council has bid you, to end the fighting? It seems that
what they want is someone of their own choosing on the throne, and you seem
willing to sacrifice yourself to your idea of 'duty'." The sarcastic edge
was not missing, but it was not the thrust of his comment.

Hollin bit back the
first words that came into her mind. There was a bitter quality to his voice
that she tried to analyze before replying. "I agreed to the council's
proposal in order to expedite the issue of searching for you. I do not think
that their solution will stop the fighting. Those who have begun the war have
already committed themselves to a violent takeover."

She took a sip of the
cooled tea. "There is one more aspect that you should take into account
before rejecting your heritage: the House Gifts." At the mention of the
Gifts, the prince's expression became even more guarded. "One of the
cornerstones of the Pentarchy has been the House Gifts of its rulers. It has
largely been the knowledge of the existence of these Gifts that has kept our
borders free of molestation. There are others with arcane powers in the world
who avoid contending with the House Gifts and so leave us in peace. Outside of
each House, the Gifts are little talked about and almost never used, but I know
that all of our Gifts are somehow linked together. I wonder what the effect of
a break-up of the Pentarchy or the eradication of those holding the Gifts might
be?"

His wary expression
relaxed slightly as he contemplated this facet of the situation. While he sat
absorbed in his own thoughts Hollin took the time to really look at the man and
tried to detect what was going on behind that stern and forbidding countenance.
She was not completely discouraged by their conversation thus far, though she
did feel taxed and somewhat resentful of having to argue with him in order to
convince him. After their first interview, when she had discovered that he was
unenthusiastic, she had prepared herself for a simple yes or no, but he was
proving much more complicated. She abruptly noticed that she was being
subjected to the same intense scrutiny with which she had been favouring him.
The look of speculation in his eyes caught her off-guard and she felt her
cheeks grow hot for no reason.

"And what will you
do if I return with you?" he asked evenly.

Confusion mingled with
embarrassment coloured her over-quick response. "Use whatever power and
influence I possess to aid your cause and put down the rebellion."

His light eyes
continued to study her very closely. "And our betrothal? You wear my ring
openly."

This was a question
whose answer she had decided on long ago. With a certain sense of relief, she
saw that he was worried by it as well. Part of her willingness to go in search
of the prince was to ensure that this betrothal of her childhood be broken at
the source. To allay any fears of encumbrance he might have, she rushed to tell
him, "You need have no anxiety on my account. I do not consider pledges
made for me by others to be binding. The handfasting ceremony between us was
performed when my sister Gwyneira was heir to House Langstraad and I was but a
second sister. Now that I hold the title of Duchess of Langstraad, by the laws
of the Pentarchy our ties are severed. You are free from any claim made in my
name by my family." Removing the ring, she placed it in her palm and
offered it to him.

Extending his hand, he
took the ring and the faintest of smiles touched his lips as he looked from her
face to the ring and back. "I believe that you over-anticipate me. Let me
make plain my situation. I have been many years away from my land, and a longer
time away from the intrigue and politics of court life. I have had little
interest or inclination in those responsibilities that you have championed to
me. In truth, when I came to this place, it was with the hope that I might be
lost forever to House Sandovar and the Pentarchy. I thought that perhaps my
father might wed again and beget another heir, or that I had hidden myself away
so well that I might never be found again. Those delusions have proved untrue
and here you sit, a living symbol of my own fate.

"I will admit
freely that this betrothal between us was forced on me by my father when I was
a young man. I argued actively against it and only acquiesced because I was
young and the actual wedding would not be for many years and in the end might
well be forgotten or come to naught. And so the ring was sent, the parents
placated and I thought no more about it.

"Several years
later I led a warband into the northern lands and fell into enemy hands. I will
not burden you with that tale but I spent long and difficult years in their
custody." An expression of remembered pain and deep unhappiness passed
through his eyes and Hollin felt an involuntary surge of sympathy for him.
 "When I returned home I realized that not only was there no healing
to be found at my father's courts, but that I did not wish to take upon myself
the responsibilities of being my father's son. So I went in search of this
place of refuge where I hoped to live forgotten, as I wished to forget. A vain
wish."

He fixed her with
piercingly intelligent eyes and a faint, half-mocking smile twisted his lips as
he read the compassion in her face. "You are not the messenger I feared
would break into my chosen world with the summons from my past. In many ways
you are much more difficult to refuse or reject. I know that I am not the man you
expected to find." At her start, his smile deepened into genuine amusement
at having said what she would have been far too well-bred to evince. The effect
was to lift the heaviness of his face, making him at once much more attractive.
Having been caught out once, Hollin forbore allowing him to read her so easily
again. He accepted her reticence and continued.

"The ring brought
you here, where you could never have made your way alone. However, the ring cannot
lead you back to the Pentarchy by itself. In many ways the decision has not
been wholly mine, but," and here his voice became firm and assertive,
"the final acceptance or rejection is made by me alone. I will come with
you, Hollin of Langstraad, and I will do what I must. The call shall be
answered, and I will not stint myself in the performance of what is required of
me. However, I require something of you as well." The intensity of his
gaze and his unspoken question bore down upon her.

Lifting her chin to
return his stare unflinchingly, she replied proudly, "You are my
liege-lord and I will do as you command."

"I am not
commanding; I am asking." The voice was smooth, the eyes unrelenting.
"If I return, I will need someone at my side, someone who knows the
personalities and the motivations of the principle players in the current
situation, to advise me. I would ask that you play this role for me."

In truth, she had
planned that when she returned to the Pentarchy she would go immediately to
Langstraad. Feelings of homesickness had been overtaking her the last few days
and she wanted to return to the place that she knew and loved, to feel again
the familiarity and the security of Castle Lir's walls around her. But if the
prince, whose reasons for staying here she now began to understand, was willing
to accept the yoke of duty she had presented to him, she knew that she could
not reject his request. "If you wish it, then I will do my best to be a
such a counselor to you." Hollin took a deep breath. "And the
betrothal?"

"Do you not
recall? You have unbound me from that pledge. I have lived celibate for many
years, but should I desire a wife, I shall do the courting myself!" There
was a lightness to his tone of voice that did not diminish the conviction in his
face as he slid the great ruby ring onto his own hand.

Hollin simply nodded
and asked him, in an unruffled voice, when they should prepare to depart.

"Since I have
vowed to leave this place, I wish for no delay. Will tomorrow morning suit
you?"

With one agile
movement, the prince uncoiled himself and stood offering his hand to help
Hollin rise. With her hand still in his possession, he bent his head over it in
an unexpectedly courtly manner and straightened to look down into her face. The
lightness had left his voice and his face had taken on that harsh aspect he
normally wore, but she thought she saw a contraindicating friendliness in his
eyes. No more was said as he led her to the gate, and she returned to her
anxious paxman.

Relieved by her news,
and eager to begin packing and planning, Daffyd talked for both of them,
ignoring, or pretending to ignore, Hollin's distant and not always relevant
comments. After Daffyd retired to his own room for the evening, a pensive
Hollin sat in the embrasure of her window looking sightlessly into the depths
of the night, deeply immersed in her own thoughts. The prince had sent word
after she returned to her rooms that provisions would be supplied to them for
the journey and that he would meet them at the gate through which they had
entered the city the next morning at dawn. In her few remaining solitary hours,
Hollin found herself dwelling on her interview with the prince, trying to
assess and understand all of the nuances of what had been said, as well as
those that had remained unspoken. His ambiguous attitude towards her and her
own estimation of him preoccupied her for a long time, until at last she sought
the solace of her bed. Even there, sleep came very late.