The Shadow Matrix (29 page)

quite casts Valenta into the shade
—
though this does not seem to be a problem between

them, for they are quite devoted to one another.

"Mother is very upset that you came here," Valenta announced. "Why is that? Are you

going to take us away from her?" I
hope so
—
because I hate this place.

"No one is going to take you away from your mother." Liriel sounded reassuring, but

not as if she was certain she spoke the truth. "I am sorry she is upset."

Valenta shrugged, with the indifference of the young. "Mother is almost always upset

about something, so I don't mind. But I wish you would take me away from here.

Soon. Before Midwinter comes."

"Why is that?"

Valenta's eyes filled with tears, and she shook her small head until the curls danced

around her brow. She began to tremble all over. "I must not tell you," she whispered,

biting her little lips. Then she turned and bolted into the hall, and they could hear the

patter of her footsteps, hurrying away.

Liriel and Mikhail stared at each other. Liriel was more startled than he was at

Valenta's behavior. Her eyes goggled slightly and one of her pale red eyebrows lifted.

It was a comical enough expression to bring a small bubble of merriment into his

chest, a feeling of relief and gladness for the solid presence of his unflappable sister.

Liriel asked, "Is this how she is, or is she being peculiar?"

The question, posed quite seriously, was too much and Mikhail laughed heartily, while

Liriel looked annoyed. "Around here, that was fairly ordinary. Valenta is a good

girl, quite intelligent, and the least troubled of the bunch. In fact, she and her sister,

Miralys, seem to be very normal young women. If I were permitted to choose a woman

rather than a man for the throne, either of them might be fine. Until now, I have never

completely understood what Marguerida meant when she rails against our customs.

"Really?" Liriel gave him a penetrating glance, and something like a grin began to play

across her mouth.

"Yes. I started out assuming that she was just being Ter-ran, that she was thinking of

things as they are on other worlds, not that she was actually being sensible. When she

tells me that the best person for the job should have it, regardless of sex, my brain feels

as if it is starting to fracture. And that is despite all the time I have spent with Lady

Marilla, watching her nurture her pottery industry from one kiln to a dozen, and

knowing full well that this was a rather remarkable thing. At the same time, I realize, I

just thought she was keeping busy, not that she was doing something ... real."

"At least you can recognize that, which is more than we can say for Father. He is

raging, cursing Lew Alton and Marguerida, as if they were put on Darkover just to

irritate him. His latest plan is to go to the Cortes and demand that Gabe be made the

heir to the Alton Domain, and that they force Marguerida to marry him. Mother told

him not to be a fool, and to let her handle it, which led to an argument you could hear

all over Arilinn, even if you had no
laran.
Father has not consulted our brother, or he

would know that Gabe has taken the measure of our cousin, and now would not have

her if she were the last woman on Darkover. He is properly frightened of her—ever

since she used the Voice to send Donal off into the overworld."

"How did he find out about that? I thought we had managed to keep it a secret. I did

warn Gabe that Marguerida was no one to make angry, but I don't think I told him

about the Voice, or the rest of our strange adventure." Mikhail paused, remembering

the night at Armida when Donal had tried to scare Margaret Alton by dressing up in a

sheet and making spooky noises. He had awakened her suddenly, even though the little

boy knew better, and she had spoken without either thought or any awareness that her

voice alone might have powers. The command voice

was, like many other aspects of
laran,
impossible to predict. But Marguerida had it in

full.

"Gabe is not stupid, even if he is not as clever as you are, and it finally penetrated his

thick skull that Marguerida will never be the sort of woman he can manage to his own

satisfaction."

"I can't imagine anyone managing her, not even me. No matter how hard she tries, she

is always going to be very headstrong and independent."

"Of course you cannot!" Liriel gave a little snort of amusement. "She did not grow up

here, and expecting her to behave according to our ways is ridiculous. At least you

understand it. If only Father could be as realistic. I cannot imagine he will come to his

senses. He resents Lew so much that he can hardly eat. And he wants to keep Armida,

at whatever cost. It has become an obsession with him."

"If only he were not so stubborn!"

"If only the wind were not so chill. Now get out of here. I want to bathe and put on

some fresh clothing. This robe is so foul it is ready to take on a life of its own. And

with what little I have seen so far of Halyn House, it might just do that."

"Of course. The bathroom is two doors down the corridor on the left, and you will find

it perhaps the most luxurious place in the entire house. But the towels are a little worn

and thin. I sent for more from Thendara, but they have not yet arrived."

Liriel chuckled. "I'll wager you never gave a thought to towels in your life before you

came here." Then her face became serious again. "There is something familiar about

that Emelda creature—I just can't quite bring it to mind. I am sure I have seen her

before." She sounded troubled as she spoke.

"Have you now? Interesting. I have not managed to find out anything about her, except

she has been here with Priscilla and the children for about a year, and has a lot of

influence that I mistrust. And I won't bet with you," he added. "I hate to lose."

He turned then and left the room. In the hall he discovered Miralys, looking curious,

and Valenta as well. "What are you girls doing out here?"

"Waiting for you," Valenta informed him. "Tell us all about your sister!"

"Yes, do! Val says she is as tall as you, and very large." Miralys was a contrast to her

younger sister, not only in her fairer coloring, but in her mannerisms. Where Valenta

was pert and almost forward, Mira was serene and more retiring. She moved with

complete if unconscious grace, and possessed a remarkable assurance. Mikhail had

seen her stand up to Vincent, and she had even bloodied his nose on one occasion. This

was remarkable, for Vincent was tall and strong, and Miralys at fourteen was not more

than five foot three, and looked as fragile as a lily. But she was fast, and her hands

were remarkably strong for her size.

"My sister Liriel is, indeed, large of body, but she cannot help that. She was always so,

even when she was a child. She is younger than I am, by a year, and she has a twin, my

sister Ariel. So, you see, my family is very like yours— I have two brothers and two

sisters."

"Yes, yes. But what is she? She is not a
leronis,
is she?"

"No, she is not. Liriel is a technician. For the most part she lives at Tramontana Tower,

but recently she has been at Arilinn instead, helping our cousin Marguerida Alton

begin her studies, and also caring for our sister, who is not so strong."

"Why is she here?" Miralys demanded. "Mother says she has come to take us away

from Halyn House, but Val says that isn't so!"
If someone doesn't get me out of here

soon, Vincent will hurt me!

Mikhail rocked at the thought that came from Miralys, for he sensed that the girl meant

something which had not occurred to him until that moment. There was a sense of peril

in her mind, as if she feared she would be ravished against her will. He was so stunned

it was several moments before he answered. "She has come to test the two of you for

laran,
certainly."

"Oh. And if we have a lot of it, can we go away and become
leroni?"

"Would you like that? It isn't easy, you know. You have to study a great many things.

"I would rather be on a moon than stay here another winter," Miralys interrupted him.

She was quite calm as she spoke, but her mind was aflutter with unease, and there

was definitely a sexual component to it, one he had missed due to his own

scrupulousness. Mikhail had been very careful with the girls, aware that his presence in

the house had a quality of impropriety that could be misinterpreted by gossips.

Mikhail cursed himself for a fool. He should have guessed that as isolated as the

Elhalyn children were, Vincent would present a potential threat to any likely female,

including his own sisters. Alain was not a problem, his complete inability to make any

decision preventing him from doing harm to another, and Emun was still too young.

But Vincent, the bully, was another matter altogether. He realized it was his own

upbringing which had prevented him from even imagining such a thing, for as much as

he loved his sisters, it had never, as far as he could recall, crossed his mind to find

them in the least desirable. When Mikhail had been an adolescent, he thought them

both a terrible nuisance, and it was not until the past few years that he had come to

realize that Liriel was a fascinating person in her own right. But he still tended to

dismiss them from his mind, which made his asking Liri for help all the more amazing.

Incest was not unknown in the long history of the Domains, and for that reason there

were very strong strictures concerning the relations between the sexes. Mikhail had

been trained not to think of his sisters as women, and, he discovered to his dismay, he

still regarded them as little girls, as children, even Liriel, who was as adult as he was

himself. He likewise did not look upon women of his mother's generation as desirable,

because that was also considered inappropriate. Those partners he had chosen, and

they were few, were always girls near his own age, but not closer to him in blood than

cousin, and usually not even that.

But here, so far from the centers of Darkovan civilization, there were not a great many

women from which to choose. The village which stood between Elhalyn Castle and

Halyn House was small, supporting perhaps two hundred folk, most of whom worked

the fields in summer, growing the hearty wheat that flourished there. Now the refusal

of the local girls to work at Halyn House began to take on a sinister shape that had

nothing to do with either Emelda or any ghosts.

It was one thing, he knew, for a member of the Comyn to father a
nedestro
child on a

peasant girl with her compliance, and quite another if she was taken against her will.

The young women around Armida had been accepting the favors of various Altons for

generations—Gabe had at least one son that Mikhail knew of, and Rafael a daughter—

but there was a tacit agreement between the two groups that such activity was

conducted with respect for the woman involved. The children of such unions were

provided for, and in some cases, even reared by the Domain family.
Dom
Gabriel had

never, as far as he knew, strayed from his marriage to Javanne, and Mikhail was

reasonably certain he did not have any unknown siblings.
Dom
Gabriel was unusual in

his restraint.

Did Priscilla guess that Vincent was a threat to his sisters, and was that why she kept

telling Mikhail to take him . away? And if this was the case, why hadn't the foolish

female sent Vincent to Thendara or Arilinn long since. Then he remembered the

séance, and the tone of
Domna
Elhalyn's voice when she spoke to her brother's ghost.

What if ... It made him uncomfortable. He wrenched his mind away from these

speculations, feeling uneasy and almost dirty. No, he must be wrong! Priscilla would

never do something so unseemly.

He faced the two young women. Both of them had asked for his protection during the

weeks he had been there, but he had failed to understand the source of their fear.

Mikhail wanted to kick himself. That he had forgotten the cries for help almost as soon

as he heard them did not make him feel any better.

Mikhail had a sick feeling in his belly. As Elhalyn Regent, he was sworn to protect

these little girls, and he knew he was not doing a good job of it. He had kept trying to

manage things in such a way as not to offend Priscilla Elhalyn, nor to go against her

wishes not to be separated from her children. He was an idiot. He had to take the

children away—and soon.

But what would Regis Hastur say? He had not told Mikhail to bring the youngsters to

Thendara. On the contrary, he had been fairly insistent that Mikhail should do nothing

to disturb Priscilla's arrangements, that he should abide by her wishes, and do nothing

more than see that the children

were well, and find an appropriate son to sit on the Elhalyn throne. He had, in short,

tied Mikhail's hands. He had not mistaken the implication that he should not return to

the city until he had tested the boys and found a candidate for the throne, nor the