The Thirteenth House (Twelve Houses) (56 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

BOOK: The Thirteenth House (Twelve Houses)
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She laughed and instantly had to fight to put a vivid memory out of her mind. “Leave your window open tonight,” she said. “I will come to you in another guise.”
 
Again his grip tightened; his eyes were momentarily intense. “As long as you take your true shape for a little while.”
 
“I would not deny myself that privilege,” she said softly.
 
The music ended. They exchanged elaborate bows and curtseys. “I don’t think I have any more dances to spare for you tonight, my lord,” Kirra said in a shaky voice. “I find you a curiously unsettling partner.”
 
“Then we will not dance,” he said. “We will look for other ways to communicate.”
 
She could only be glad Seth Stowfer appeared at that moment to ask for the favor of a dance. She absolutely had no reply.
 
The evening progressed in a tolerably enjoyable fashion. More than one of her partners commented on Casserah’s unnaturally buoyant mood, but Kirra found it hard to repress her high spirits. She felt giddy, actually, silly as a girl, and all at the thought of what might come after the ball. How could Senneth contrive to look so staid? How could she contain a love that was anywhere near this monumental? Perhaps she had just settled in to her happiness, that was all. Perhaps, during that leisurely return to Brassenthwaite, Tayse by her side, she had been just as joyous, just as dizzy, as Kirra felt now. Kirra would have to ask her.
 
Although. Better not. The fewer people who knew about this affair, the better. Senneth’s discretion could be trusted unconditionally, but talking became a habit. Next Kirra would be discussing her love life with Cammon, with Justin, with Donnal.
 
No. Never that.
 
Some of her exhilaration left her, and she was more subdued as she whirled around the room with Darryn Rappengrass. Yes, she told him, she and all her friends would be at his mother’s party next week. No, she did not believe she had ever attended such an event in Rappengrass. Yes, she was quite looking forward to it. No, she had not heard from Kirra lately.
 
“Well, I have sent her an invitation, express to Danalustrous,” he said, smiling. “Perhaps she will change her mind and come join us.”
 
“You never know,” Kirra replied.
 
Once that dance had ended, she searched the ballroom till she found Senneth, doing her best to disappear. In fact, Kirra had to locate Valri first and then stare at the surrounding stone-work until she was able to pick Senneth out from the walls.
 
“How does Amalie ever find you?” she demanded when she finally tracked down her quarry. “Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing, if Amalie was looking for you and you’d melted away?”
 
Senneth laughed. “Amalie never seems to lose sight of me. I think she just remembers where she left me and always comes back to that spot.”
 
“Maybe she’s like Cammon, and she’s impervious to magic.”
 
Senneth snorted. “No one’s like Cammon.”
 
Amalie herself waltzed up a few minutes later, golden and glowing. Toland Storian, still trying to make up to her for past transgressions, was the partner depositing her back beside her chaperones. He bowed very low, kissed her hand, and turned with some reluctance back to the throng.
 
“Has our Amalie made a conquest?” Kirra marveled. “And of such a sulky boy?”
 
“He seems very devoted,” Senneth said.
 
“I can’t stand him,” Amalie said. “But I try not to show that. He’ll be marlord some day.”
 
“More and worse marlords in the other eleven Houses,” Kirra said cheerfully. “You probably won’t be able to stand any of them.”
 
They talked in much the same vein for the next few minutes. Kirra had her back to the dance floor, so she couldn’t see if anyone approached them, but suddenly Senneth’s face went cold and her whole body stiffened. Kirra spun around to find Halchon Gisseltess right behind her, bowing low to the floor.
 
“Serras,” he said in his beautiful voice. “Majesties.”
 
Valri quickly moved up a step to stand on one side of Amalie; Senneth was on the other. Kirra positioned herself between Senneth and the marlord. “Ah, you decided to stay another day,” she drawled in Casserah’s bored voice. “I thought you might have gone home by now.”
 
“Home, when I feel so welcome here?” he asked.
 
“What do you want?” Senneth asked flatly.
 
He bowed again in Amalie’s direction. “What every man wants this night,” he said. “A dance with the beautiful princess.”
 
“No,” Valri, Senneth, and Kirra said in unison.
 
“I’ll be happy to take a turn with you,” Amalie said.
 
They all stared at her. “Amalie, he cannot be trusted to even touch your palm,” Senneth said in a low voice. “He is not one of the marlords you need to flatter and placate. He is dangerous.”
 
“I’m not afraid,” Amalie said, and held out her hand.
 
Halchon closed his fingers over hers and led her onto the floor. The three of them were left gaping as Halchon and Amalie dipped gracefully into the cotillion. The marlord appeared to hold her in an avuncular grip, though his smile was a little sinister. Amalie seemed perfectly relaxed and her own smile was unforced and genuine.
 
“The day I get that girl safely back to Ghosenhall is the day I allow myself to lie down and die,” Valri said.
 
The day
you
get her back safely?
Kirra wanted to ask, but she had to admit to general sympathy with the sentiment. Senneth asked, “Is this why the king has kept her locked up so long? Because she is so fearless as to seem almost foolhardy?”
 
Valri shook her head. “She’s not foolhardy. She is—I don’t know what she is. She’s dancing with Halchon Gisseltess.”
 
“I say you set him on fire,” Kirra suggested. “Just on general principle.”
 
“I don’t think he’ll succumb to my flames,” Senneth said regretfully. “Or I would.”
 
“I need a drink,” Valri said. “Anyone else want some wine?”
 
Even Casserah bent her usual rules under these circumstances and accepted a glass of rich red liquid. Valri was on her second goblet by the time the music ended and Halchon returned his charge.
 
“I enjoyed that immensely,” he told Amalie, bowing once more. “Perhaps we can dance again at some other event.”
 
“I doubt it,” Amalie said in a sunny voice. “I don’t like you. Oh, Valri, could I have some of your wine?” As she spoke to the queen, she turned her shoulder on Halchon, ignoring him as effectively as if he had learned Senneth’s spells of invisibility. After a moment of stunned silence, he stalked away.
 
Kirra and Senneth were left staring at each other, Kirra summoning all her strength to keep from giggling. “It just gets more entertaining by the moment,” she managed to say.
 
“I think I need a second glass of wine myself,” Senneth said.
 
But Kirra didn’t think Casserah would fall so far, so she made her excuses and wandered away. Another dance with Darryn, a light and shallow conversation with Mayva, and the evening slowly progressed toward midnight.
 
She had taken an empty seat in a shadowy alcove between two back pillars when another woman joined her in a puff of silken skirts. “Oh, my feet are already sore,” the woman exclaimed. “And you know the dancing will go on another two hours at least. I just have to sit awhile and rest my toes.”
 
Kirra was trying not to stare, but she could not think of any reason Sabina Gisseltess would have for seeking out Casserah Danalustrous.
 
CHAPTER
29
 
I
T took her a moment, but Kirra finally found her voice. “Yes, I find that both the dancing and the conversation get wearisome after the first hour has passed,” she said.
 
A look of distress came to Sabina’s face. Her cheeks paled and her tremulous lips turned down. “I’m sorry—did you want to sit by yourself for a while? I’ll go somewhere else.”
 
“No. Of course not. Your conversation has to be more entertaining than Toland Storian’s.”
 
Sabina looked uncertain. “I suppose it depends on what you would wish to talk about. Many people think I have very little to say.”
 
Kirra laughed. “You have teenage sons, do you not? Most parents are happy to talk about their children.”
 
“Yes, but not so many people are interested in
hearing
those stories,” Sabina retorted.
 
“Well, you can pick the topic, if you like,” Kirra replied, actually amused. “Land improvements. Ballgowns. Trade routes. Taxes. What courses you preferred at dinner. I will strive to appear fascinated by anything you say.”
 
“I wanted to ask you a favor,” Sabina blurted out.
 
Kirra kept her face impassive. “Certainly, if it is in my power.”
 
“I want a chance to talk to your friend Senneth.”
 
It was harder to appear nonchalant at that. “I can take her a message.”
 
Sabina shook her head. She looked both purposeful and desperate, a bad combination. “Now. Tonight. I need to talk to her. I need to tell her—it’s important.”
 
Kirra glanced out at the dance floor. Halchon was partnered with Mayva, and both of them looked bored. “I assume your husband mustn’t know you’re speaking with her.”
 
Sabina’s face registered fleeting terror. “No. He—no.”
 
Kirra nodded. “All right. Let me think.” The ballroom was connected to the dining room by a short hallway lined with four other doors. Kirra knew, because she was curious and had investigated, that one of them was a small pantry where the servants stored extra linens and wineglasses should these items be instantly needed on the dance floor. “There’s a little room right off the ballroom where you can talk in private. I’ll make sure Senneth is there—in an hour. That will be enough time from now so that even if your husband is witnessing our conversation he won’t think your actions have anything to do with what we’ve discussed.”
 
“Where is this room? How do I find it?”
 
Kirra grinned. “I shall send someone to your side to guide you there. A handsome young man in Danalustrous colors. No one will be surprised if you slip away with him for a little flirtation.”
 
Sabina laughed softly but somewhat wildly. “
Everyone
would be surprised. It would not be the sort of thing I do.”
 
Kirra turned to give the woman a good hard look of appraisal. None of this seemed like the sort of thing Sabina would do. She looked like the tiniest, most helpless thing, and Kirra couldn’t imagine that she wasn’t completely dominated by her husband. Was this a trap of some sort? Had Halchon sent her to lure Senneth from Amalie’s side? With that possibility in her head, would Senneth even agree to the meeting?
 
Sabina met her eyes. “What? You don’t trust me.”
 
“I am always open to the possibility of betrayal.”
 
Sabina nodded. “Yes. I can see that—yes. What can I do? What can I say to make you believe that I come to you on my own, without my husband’s knowledge?”
 
Kirra wished Cammon were here so that he could tell her if the marlady lied or told the truth. But adding even one more player to the mix seemed dicey in the extreme. If Sabina really were bent on deceiving her husband, the last thing she needed was a parade of mystics calling attention to her behavior.
 
“Whether you are lying or telling the truth, I think Senneth will want to hear you out,” she said slowly. “I will take the measures I deem necessary to keep everyone safe. Remember. One hour. A young man in Danalustrous colors will come for you.”
 
“I’ll be ready,” Sabina said.
 
Seth Stowfer appeared just then, bowing to the marlady and asking for a dance. Belying any evidence of sore feet, Sabina jumped up and allowed him to lead her away. She didn’t even glance back at Kirra.
 
Kirra started making the rounds.
 
First to the great door that led to the main hall, where Tayse was stationed just outside. “Something odd just happened,” she said. “I think we might want the rest of the Riders here.”
 
She told her story, and he nodded. Motioning to one of the servants, he sent the man to collect reinforcements.

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