Chapter 39 Schemes Among Schemes
~ brEN ~
“It is fascinating to meet you, Brennan,” a beautiful blonde woman said with a sharp smile. She wore a dress that made my eyes bulge. Her breasts were bared almost to the nipple.
She didn’t seem to be lying about her interest in meeting me. But I distrusted her immediately. “I am humbled,” I said, bowing my head, but meeting her eyes when she spoke.
Her brows rose, then she turned to the queen. “Always finding new ways to entertain us, Diaan. No wonder the Vosgaarde Court is so reluctant to travel.”
I was aware of a certain crowding—other nobles moving closer to greet the queen and offer their bows and curtseys. But I didn’t miss that most of them remained hovering, watching over shoulders and clustering much closer to each other than they had been when we arrived.
Apparently, I was the entertainment the lady had mentioned.
“Brennan, this is the Lady Faye—the lovely friend from Fyrehold that I mentioned to you in my chambers,” the queen said tartly.
“She has been so impressed with Vosgaarde, she’s utterly refused to relinquish her chambers in the palace since our Banquet.
You’ll remember the event. It was such a jolly time. ”
Faye’s eyes flashed, but she and the queen smiled at each other.
“I didn’t have the pleasure of attending, I was still in training,” I said as calmly as I could, drawing their attention back to me.
“Training?” the Lady Faye asked sweetly, and several other heads turned towards us.
“Brennan has a gift,” the queen said airily.
“With the dragons,” she continued, tipping her head towards the Lady Faye as if they were confidantes.
“She’s able to speak to one of the females who is mated to the Primarch, and well, I don’t understand all of it of course,” the queen said, waving the words away as if they were of no matter.
“But I find her company enthralling, and the General sings her praises, so I’m not surprised to hear that the dragons do also. ”
The Lady Faye turned to me with a new light in her eyes. “Do you ride, Brennan?”
“I… yes,” I nodded, swallowing hard, reminding myself that everyone in Fyrehold would be told that I rode Akhane and could speak with her, though I was clearly not a Furyknight, of course. “I assist the Commander with the dragons, yes,” I stammered. “Particularly his dragon’s mate.”
“I understand she possesses a stunning ability to tame beasts of all shapes and sizes, ha ha ha,” the queen tittered.
Lady Faye’s eyes slid from the queen’s delighted face, to mine, her gaze gleaming. “Is that so?”
“It’s not taming, so much as—”
“Oh, don’t be modest, Brennan. You’re no longer among the common who must lead with their humility. Do tell Lady Faye of your adventures. I’m sure she’s fascinated.”
“I’d particularly enjoy tales of the beasts,” Lady Faye said, accepting a cup from a servant passing with a tray, her smile small, but cutting. Her eyes took on a calculating shine as she looked between the queen and me. “Can you explain precisely how they benefit from your gifts?”
The queen smiled and I blushed, which the Lady Faye seemed to find amusing.
It took some time to remember that I didn’t need to hide my familiarity with Donavyn—who was admired here—or the dragons, though I had to be careful with my words.
They didn’t know we were mated. They couldn’t know I was a pinned Furyknight.
By the time we’d been there twenty minutes, a small circle of nobles remained gathered around us. I was no longer holding the queen’s arm. The Lady Faye led the questioning, but some of the others—both men and women—had begun interjecting with questions over each other’s shoulders.
Though I was tense, I soon warmed to the task of indulging their questions.
I was reminded of Fair days, when we’d taken the wagon to the city and sold our farm wares for the season.
When my parents found old friends who’d known me since I was small, but whom I only remembered by appearance.
Their probing questions, and assumed familiarity was uncomfortable, but it offered plenty of opportunities to practice speaking to people like this—and how to phrase my position with the dragons, and Donavyn.
“…never imagined I’d be welcomed to this kind of work, but when God offers a gift, I wouldn’t dare deny it,” I said honestly.
There was a round of nobles making pompous noises of affirmation and sweeping, arrogant statements of their own duties and responsibilities before God. But the Lady Faye’s eyes never left my face. And the next time there was a lull, she leaned in closer.
“Are you also gifted with the male beasts, Brennan? Or is it only the female creatures who benefit from your talents?”
Several of the men burst into laughter. I stammered a moment as I caught the flirtatious and knowing undercurrent of her question. I didn’t know what to say.
Thankfully, the queen came to my rescue. “You see how delightful she is? A true innocent. Stop with your scandalous influence, Faye, and let the poor girl breathe. She has too much work to do caring for one creature as it is.”
The double-talk and lascivious suggestions continued between the nobles, however, and the queen didn’t interject again. She did meet my eye for a moment with a smile on her face and one brow arched, but she quickly buried the expression in her wine goblet.
Although this banter made me deeply uncomfortable, it wasn’t hard to see why the queen had brought me here.
These people were pompous, powerful, and bored, and the conversation very quickly turned into a competition for who could provide the most suggestive innuendo without starkly speaking about sex.
I had to choose whether to play the utter innocent—wide-eyed and shocked by their daring. Or hint at a less-than-na?ve undercurrent.
But these were men and women I may see again in future. Presumably, eventually the nobles would hear of the female Furyknight, and know it was me.
I didn’t want to accidentally meet one of these men at an event and have him consider me a willing participant in this sexual play.
So, I held my smile, and let my cheeks heat, and generally kept my eyes low—but remained pleasant and cheerful. An innocent young woman, but one with a sense of humor and willing to be educated.
Dear Lord, I was starting to hear the innuendos myself.
Feeling all those eyes on me—surprisingly, the most predatory being Lady Faye—I began to see how the queen helped me, occasionally stepping in to divert attention from a question I might not know the best answer to, but also serving me up so that I could flirt, or be coy.
We stood there for hours, barely moving, because the crowd came to us. But by the end, when the queen claimed she was called away and would be taking me with her because she didn’t trust them not to steal me, my confidence had grown.
I may not understand the etiquette of these people. But now that I’d had a chance to watch them, I wouldn’t flounder next time. I had a better understanding of the rise and fall of their humor, and the sharp edge of their social cues.
Though, I did heave a sigh of relief when we stepped back into the hallway and the footmen ushered us back to the queen’s rooms.
I don’t know if she caught the sigh, or merely felt the tension leaving me, but the queen turned and smiled.
“You see, Bren?” she murmured. “Rumors and whispers are food to these people. And you are the fire they need to cook. See yourself in that role, and you will be very successful,” she said, eyeing me from the side with a glance that held more thoughtfulness than I’d seen from her before.
“Just be certain you don’t get thrown into the fire and cooked as a tasty morsel.
These men will vomit you out and then start on the next mouthful without pause. ”
At that mental visual, a great deal of the confidence I’d been feeling drained from my toes.
And yet, I knew she wasn’t wrong. This was my job now—at least, when we flew to Fyrehold. I had to season myself to these kinds of people and become the meal that would hold them in thrall.
And I had to pray that I could accurately measure the line between flavor and flame, so that I wasn’t swallowed up in the process.