Chapter 4
Chapter
Idressed for the Gathering in my formal gear: a navy leather doublet in my Family’s colors. Its plain cut kept its dignity, and the fitted nature was meant to set off the strength of my frame.
The Gathering took place in the Inner Court.
The palace’s main building rose in a ring with arcades on either side.
At its heart lay an open square without a roof, shaped like a garden.
Here and there soft grass and well-tended shrubs grew, interspersed with marble statues carved in the likeness of forgotten heroes.
In the very midst of the Inner Court stood ten marble benches with high backs, set in a circle. On common days they stood empty, but at a Gathering they filled with the Families’ delegates.
Only the members of a Family might sit on the marble benches. All others, lesser noblemens, courtiers and counselors, waited around them. Some perched on other stools, most stood beneath the arcades and watched for the proceedings to begin.
I crossed the square with Roderick. He walked at my side and murmured in my ear all the facts of the Families. His voice was quiet and steady, patient as a father’s, though each step betrayed his strain.
“Speak as little as you may,” he said. “Unfortunately, we all know that the Lady has a tendency towards... honesty. In the Dominium they do not prize it. Listen, observe, and learn.”
I raised a brow and gave him a look of solemnity, “Me, speaking whatever comes to my mind? Impossible.”
I teased, yet we both knew he was right. More than once my bluntness had led me into trouble. Roderick sighed and looked at me as though he feared I might fly at someone’s throat at any moment.
“My Lady,” he began, his furrowed brow saying more than a hundred words.
I smiled and brushed his arm with mine.
“Do not worry. I will strive to hold my barbed remarks in check.” The corner of my mouth rose, defiant. “Though you know how hard it is to bridle me.”
Patience and care filled his look, and then, to my surprise, he returned my smile.
“May the gods help us this day,” he muttered, shaking his head.
We entered the square when the benches were almost full.
I recognized Cassandra at once, dressed in grey and stones.
She sat beside the blond… the very same I had caught groping a wench in my bedchamber.
Of course it was him, sitting there carelessly, turning his diamond ring between his fingers.
The son of the Regent and Cassandra, the spiteful hag.
He was dressed with faultless care, every detail impeccable.
His white-blond hair lay in an artful disarray, yet he seemed ready to sit for a royal portrait.
The moment he saw me his lips took on a satisfied smile, as if proud of his deed and glad to mock me before all. Heat stung my cheeks. I turned my gaze away.
Some benches held several of the Family members, others fewer. Only two were occupied by a single person, mine and the one set opposite. There I marked a silhouette I knew, the tall stranger from the harbor tavern.
He looked dark and grave. Compared to the other lords who dripped with jewels, he wore only black.
Not a single Elementar on him. Soldier-cut leather tunic lay on his broad shoulders, close-fitted and edged with subtle work that lent a stern grace.
His face was keen, with sharply defined jawline and full lips.
His dark hair and tanned skin told me he was from the south.
His eyes, deep and unreadable, held a pull that made it hard to look away.
When he saw me he lifted one corner of his mouth, a slight, almost secret smile. I returned it, shyly. So he wasn’t a random soul that night in the tavern.
I was shaken from my reverie by a shove to my shoulder. An older man, draped in emeralds, forced past me and pushed me aside. It was the same lord I had overheard earlier. Without pause, he led his entire Family toward the marble bench.
They moved like a royal procession through the crowded Gathering.
Women and men alike with brown and auburn hair.
All were clothed in varying shades of green, their garments heavy with wealth.
Their jewels catching the light at every step.
Emerald cuffs, clasps, necklaces and rings showing Family status.
The man did not so much as glance at me as he passed, as though I were no more than air.
Near the end of the line walked a young man close to my own age. Unlike the others, he slowed. His gaze lingered on me, steady and unguarded, held a moment longer than courtesy allowed.
Roderick seized my arm in his firm grip and guided me toward my bench. As we moved through the crowd, he whispered. “Dorthals. They mine emeralds as common folk dig potatoes. A most favorable match for marriage.”
He cast me a knowing, suggestive look. I rolled my eyes. Oh yes, just what I longed for, a spoiled son of an ill-mannered boor.
When the bustle quieted, the proceedings began. Cassandra, standing for her husband the Regent Nicolas, stepped to the center and opened the Gathering.
It was the custom that from each Family the eldest present spoke first. One after another, folk rose and gave their names, until at last the stranger’s turn came.
“Dricus Cineris,” he said, calm as winter.
A murmur rolled through the court. Behind me whispers stirred.
“They say he burns his foes to ash.”
“They say no woman lived through a night with him.”
“They say he can set the desert aflame with a single breath.”
“They say he killed his own parents as a child.”
Each word hammered into my mind. So that was why… He must be born to power without need for an Elementar. Tales had already gathered to him like burrs to a cloak.
A sudden hush pulled me from my thoughts. I felt eyes turn toward me. Of course, my turn had come.
“Nerissa Veymaris,” I said, brief as I could, and sat down at once.
From the corner of my eye I caught the prying stare and sly smile of a fair young blonde on the benches of Salvadore Family.
She eyed me with open dislike, as if I were a rival in some race for a suitor’s favor.
Poor thing. She did not know she had nothing to fear.
Lewd young heirs held no interest for me.
Yet despite that thought, I could not resist glancing at Cassandra’s son. He was watching me too, with the same taunting smile and the glint in his eye that made me long to hurl something heavy at his head.
After the introduction, Cassandra moved to lesser matters, in which I took no part. All proceeded routinely until talk halted on the topic of savage attacks.
“We value the service of the Family Cineris in the guarding of our southern borders,” Cassandra began, cool as cut glass. “But the prices set for next year’s warding are far too dear.”
At once the hall stirred. All sensed a spectacle, the clash between Cassandra and Dricus promised intrigue.
Dricus kept his silence long, as though he stretched the moment by will. At length he raised his head and looked straight into Cassandra’s eyes.
“If the Regency holds the price too high,” he said slowly, his voice ringing beneath the stone arches, “then I can open a gate from the desert to the White City at any time. I will turn thousands of wildlings, and not them alone, straight upon the capital. I think they will explain the costs quite swiftly and vividly. For me, it would be the easier course, with less toil and less of my people’s blood. ”
The court went still. None had dared for such a tone with Cassandra, least of all from a young heir with half her years. I watched with a mix of tightness and grim delight. At last someone had stood up to the ice queen.
Cassandra kept her poise, though anger flickered in her eyes.
“You don’t need to be so dramatic, Dricus,” she said. “I assure you, for myself and for all assembled, that the sums you set for keeping the peace in the south shall be weighed fairly.” she added “Let us discuss it for the coming days,”
The Gatherings never ended in a single day.
Some matters required lengthy negotiations and hours of discussion.
All of it was merely a dance. A dance before the Election, which always came at the end.
During the weeks of the Gathering, the Families negotiated among themselves, plotted in quiet corners and traded favors behind closed doors.
All in pursuit of securing as many votes as possible or getting the most advantages under the new rule.
Cassandra could not allow the look of easy defeat, so she pushed the talk aside. But her voice told me Dricus had unsettled her.
Then I marked another thing. Dricus and the young Cavareth measured one another with their eyes. Two heirs, of two unlike Families, and a promise of strife yet to come.
“Before we pass to other topics our meeting,” Cassandra said, lifting her voice until the court hushed, “I would like to share some great news with everyone.”
My gaze involuntarily drifted to her son. He set his fingers to the bridge of his nose, as though he might rub the shame from his face. He looked ready to sink beneath the marble bench.
“The old forgotten powers return to the Dominium,” Cassandra said.
“We’re hearing more and more about the elements gaining strength.
My firstborn son, Aidenar Cavareth, has gained the air’s command without an Elementar.
It just manifested recently, and I think we’re all pleased that another heir to the Family has the power to help us care for and protect the realm. ”
A wave of whispers broke across the court.
The young ladies let out a chorus of excited gasps, as if Cassandra had named her son the most desired suitor in the world.
Aidenar looked ready to die of shame. I nearly bit my tongue to keep from laughing aloud.
Protect the realm? She has no idea what wielding such power, especially newly discovered, would entail. It promised more trouble than service.