Reader And Raelynx

CHAPTER 13

CAMMON was ossified with horror.

Standing there like one of those grim statues of her forebears, he watched Amalie crouch to the ground before the raelynx and rub her fingers over the brushy fur of its face. Its purr intensified; the ground itself seemed to shake with the sound. The raelynx turned its head to catch Amalie’s wrist between its teeth, and Cammon’s heart exploded, but the cat was playing. It nipped her skin, then ran its rough tongue down the length of her forearm. That hurt; Cammon felt Amalie’s sudden pain spike through her bubbling delight. But she didn’t cry out or jerk away. Instead she bent down and pressed her nose against the cat’s and ruffled the fur on either side of its face.

Cammon couldn’t even speak, but his mind was frantic. Amalie. Amalie. He could kill you with a swipe of his paw.

He had not expected an answer, but it came, wordless but clear, a projection of calm and well-being. She was not afraid. The big animal trusted her, and she trusted it in return. There was nothing to fear.

He stood there, terrified, unmoving, trying to think, trying to determine what to do. Should he call for Senneth? Would she be able to force the raelynx away from the princess, step by snarling step? Should he call for the Riders, send Tayse and Justin racing through the compound with swords uplifted? A raelynx could not be killed by human hands-that was almost axiomatic-but two Riders wielding flashing blades could probably make the creature back away, hissing and shrieking with fury, allowing Amalie time to escape.

Should he push himself through the gate, try to draw attention from Amalie, or would that only excite the beast to sudden violence? He had controlled the raelynx with some success during their trip through Gillengaria last winter. Could he, if the beast suddenly attacked Amalie, regain that control, drive it away from her? Not in time, surely not in time. It would just take a second, a moment of malice, a spurt of rage, and the raelynx could spill Amalie’s blood almost without effort.

He must take control now, he must ease the animal away. Slowly, with infinite mental stealth, he crept up on the creature’s mind, like a hunter tracking the most devious prey. He would throw the noose of his will around the raelynx’s consciousness, tighten it like a choke collar-be prepared for the inevitable furious fight-and hold on. Hold on. He was close, he was almost there, he could slip past those dark and deadly eyes-

But Amalie was there before him. Inside the creature’s head. Strolling beside it down a springtime path, an insubstantial leash looped carelessly around one hand.

Not even Senneth had been able to hold the cat so completely in thrall.

“Amalie,” he said out loud, his voice strangled, “what have you done?”

She didn’t answer, but then, he imagined she was expending all her energy merely to keep the cat quiescent. How had she learned this trick? Through Valri, obviously, but how had she learned it so well? If Valri had the same degree of power over the raelynx, she certainly hadn’t demonstrated it the other day. Amalie had an ability that superseded even Senneth’s, even the queen’s.

The cat had chosen to give her mastery. There was no other explanation. It loved her, and it had submitted.

Cammon hadn’t thought such a thing was possible.

Slowly he dropped to his knees on the other side of the gate. Amalie was sitting on the ground now, clearly settled in for a while. The cat butted its red head against her shoulder, demanding more attention. Amalie smiled and began running her hands down its rough fur, picking out burrs and stray bits of bark. “How long has he been like this?” Cammon asked, quietly now, no longer afraid. “How did this happen?”

She glanced at him, half smiling, sensing his change in mood. “I don’t know how it happened. One day he didn’t care much for me-he would pace and growl and let out this furious scream whenever I came by-”

“I’ve heard that scream,” he said.

“And then one day he liked me. But it was weeks before he allowed me to touch him. And months before I felt safe to come inside. But the first time I did, it was like this. He lay on the ground before me and started this thunderous purring. And we have trusted each other ever since.” She gave Cammon a serious look. “I’m not sure he can go back to the Lirrens now. He’s been spoiled-he might not be able to survive. If he doesn’t fear me, perhaps he won’t fear hunters and other men who wish to harm him. He could be trapped or killed.”

“He doesn’t seem to have lost any of his basic hatred for other people,” Cammon said dryly. “It’s only you he trusts.”

“It seems like he’s not afraid of you.”

“Maybe not, but he’d eat me if he could.”

She laughed softly. “Oh, I couldn’t let him do that.”

“Does Valri know that you can do this?” he asked.

She shook her head. “She would be almost as afraid as you are. I can’t tell you how many times she’s warned me-just like you did!-that a raelynx can’t be tamed.”

“She’s probably right. If he wasn’t inside that gate-”

“I want to open it and let him out. Just to see.”

“Majesty. No, no, no, don’t even think of it.”

She gave him a quick frowning look. “You called me Amalie a moment before.”

“I was trying to keep you from getting killed,” he said. “When you’re not in mortal danger, I think I can remember to use your title.”

“I like it when you call me by name.”

“Well, Valri doesn’t.”

“Well, Valri doesn’t have to know.”

“Then, Amalie, can I just say it would be a very bad idea to let the raelynx out? If you can’t control it, and you can’t get it back inside the gate, it could spend the next thirty years slowly killing off all the inhabitants of the palace. Not even the Riders would be able to hunt it. It would survive here till it died a natural death. No one would come to visit for fear of being eaten. Your father would have to abandon the palace and take up residence somewhere else. The Riders would have nowhere to train, and they’d grow fat and sloppy, and pretty soon no one would be afraid of them. And then Halchon Gisseltess would come sweeping in from the south, and take over the whole city, and you’d be forced to marry one of his ugly cousins, and see what you’d have done? Just because you wanted to set the raelynx free?”

His tone had gotten lighter as his threat had gotten sillier, and she was laughing by the time he was done. “I suppose you’re right,” she said meekly. “He must stay locked up. But I wish he could come keep me company in the palace. I’d like to have him sleeping at my feet at night. I’d be safe then, don’t you think? No one would dare try to break in and murder me if the raelynx was watching over me.”

He had to agree. But. “That’s one of the reasons I’m there,” he said. “To make sure trouble doesn’t come creeping up on you by night.”

She gave the raelynx a final pat on the head, came to her feet, and slipped outside the gate. Cammon had to admit to a profound feeling of relief when she keyed the lock, and the raelynx was still in the enclosure. “Yes,” she said, giving him a sunny smile, “I do feel safe knowing you’re nearby. Maybe I should keep you in a walled garden so you can’t ever leave.”

The image this conjured up was so vivid that for a moment he couldn’t think of how to answer. He glanced down at her, his mouth open as if he would speak, but no words came out. The truth was, he thought, feeling humble, feeling stupid, he didn’t think he would mind any more than the raelynx did being kept in perpetual service to the princess. “Men generally don’t make very good pets,” he said at last, and she went off in a peal of laughter.

“Didn’t you say that about the raelynx?” she said.

He managed a grin. “And it’s still true, whatever you may think.”

They didn’t speak for most of the walk back to the palace, being engaged in dodging the attention of servants and soldiers and random couriers off to deliver messages. They made it inside unseen and crept carefully down the passageways toward Amalie’s favorite parlor. Valri was inside and sick with worry. It was the first time Cammon had ever been able to pick up her presence without a visual cue, and that underscored for him how alarmed she was to know Amalie had spent the day with him unattended.

“I don’t think I should go in,” he said in a low voice. “Valri’s here, and I don’t think she’s happy with me.”

Amalie nodded but put a hand on his arm to stop him from turning away. “I was only joking, you know,” she said.

“About what?”

“I would never try to keep you here against your will. You or anybody. I wouldn’t want to.”

That brought his grin back, and he attempted to copy the sweeping bow that Justin and Tayse were so good at, right fist to his left shoulder in a gesture of utter fealty. “Majesty,” he whispered, “I live to serve.”

HE didn’t want to tell the story to anybody but Senneth, so he waited until very late before heading down to the Riders’ cottages after dinner. She was standing outside, seeming not at all uncomfortable with the late hour, the bitter cold, or the unconventional summons.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“It’s freezing. Can we go inside?”

“Tayse is awake. If you don’t mind if he hears-”

He shook his head, shoved his hands in his pockets, and started walking. She fell in step beside him, and almost instantly he started to feel warmer. He felt his shoulders unclench a little as the chill was chased away by her burning magic.

“So tell me what’s happened that has you running out in the middle of the night to confide in me,” she said. She sounded quite cheerful; clearly she had not had the kind of day he had. “I might know the secret already, though, for Justin came back from his audience with the king to tell us that Valri has confessed to being Lirren-born.”

“That’s not what I came to tell you, but it was a pretty interesting moment,” Cammon said. “What did Justin say? Was he shocked?”

“Apparently not. Relieved, actually. Ellynor had told him while they were in the Lirrens, but then made him promise not to tell anyone. Justin said he’d never had to keep a secret from Tayse before and wasn’t sure how long he could do it.”

“Were you surprised?”

She waggled her head from side to side to show uncertainty. “Yes and no. Well, there’s always been something strange about Valri! And I’ll confess that once or twice I wondered if she was from the Lirrens, but it just seemed so improbable that I put the thought aside. Still, it explains so much about her, down to the fact that you’ve never been able to read her. I confess, to some extent, I was relieved, too. This is the kind of secret I don’t mind so much. I have no quarrel with the Lirrenfolk.” Still walking, she glanced over at him. “But if that’s not what you wanted to tell me, what is it?”

“Well, Valri’s part of the story. Remember how, when we were traveling last year, Valri never let Amalie out her sight?”

“Hard to forget that.”

“It’s still that way. Every time I’m in the room with Amalie, Valri’s there. She told me once that she’s protecting Amalie. But, of course, we thought we were the ones protecting her.”

“So Valri’s protecting Amalie from something other than physical threats.”

He nodded. “I think Valri’s afraid someone will see into Amalie’s mind,” he said. “Uncover a secret.”

“What kind of secret?”

“I don’t know.” He could guess, though, and it terrified him.

“And only someone like you would be able to uncover such a thing.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe once we learn what the secret is, we’ll realize why Valri thought it would be obvious to everyone if she didn’t conceal it.”

“Well, unless you’ve made some grand discovery today-” Senneth said.

“She can control the raelynx.”

“Who? Valri? I’m not altogether surprised. I imagine Ellynor can, too.”

“Not Valri,” he said. “Amalie can handle the raelynx.”

That stopped Senneth in her tracks. “She told you that?”

“I saw her do it. We went to see him today.”

“Are you sure you weren’t controlling it? Not even meaning to?”

“Positive.”

She stared at him in the dark. Her pale blond hair drifted around her face like a cap of snow. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t have Lirren blood, does she? Her mother was from Merrenstow, right?”

“I’m sure Romar Brendyn could recite you their ancestry for the past sixteen generations. I can’t imagine there was a Lirren bastard anywhere in the line.”

“Then I can’t explain it.” The only other explanation he had come up with was too unsettling to say aloud.

“Are you sure Valri wasn’t the one handling the raelynx?” Senneth asked.

“She wasn’t with us.”

Senneth’s chin came up. “You were alone with the princess? How did that happen?”

“Like you said. Valri met Ellynor and suddenly they were talking about family and friends. It was obvious they had a lot to discuss. So, Amalie and I left the room and then-we just-ended up spending the rest of the day together.”

“I think perhaps I should be filled with foreboding. What else happened?”

“Well, the bit with the raelynx made me forget it for a while, but before that there was something else that seemed strange. I was thinking something, and she heard me.”

“We can all do that,” Senneth said.

“I wasn’t trying to send her a message. She just picked it up out of my head.”

From what he could see in the dark, Senneth’s face looked exceptionally grave. “What are you saying?”

“She could hear my thoughts-”

“What’s the conclusion you’ve reached based on these two separate events?” Senneth interrupted. Her mind was a swirl of confusion and dread-and a certain sense of bitter fatalism. I have feared this for so long.…“Are you saying you think she’s a reader? A mystic?”

They were absolutely alone on an unwatched pathway under the hard stars, and yet both of them glanced around uneasily as if to search out eavesdroppers. Then they drew closer together so they could lower their voices even more.

“Senneth-I don’t know. But I’ve never seen anyone who wasn’t a mystic even attempt to control a raelynx. And I’ve never had anyone go into my mind and look around without my knowledge. Jerril can step inside, but he has to knock, and I always know he’s there.”

“Bright Mother burn me in ashes to the ground,” Senneth whispered and shut her eyes. Although she stood absolutely motionless, Cammon felt her regroup, readjust, brace her shoulders for the acquisition of this new burden. “I have hoped so hard that this wasn’t true.”

“You mean, you suspected it?” he demanded. “You never let on! Ever!”

She shrugged. “It’s the one thing that makes all the pieces fit-particularly once it became clear that Valri is from the Lirrens. If Amalie’s a mystic, Baryn has had every reason to keep her secluded in the palace all her life. If she’s a mystic, Pella had a strong incentive to travel to the Lirrens when she knew she was dying. The queen wasn’t looking for a healer to save her own life, but for someone like Valri who would be willing to wrap Amalie in darkness and keep her safe.”

“Was Pella a mystic, too?”

Senneth started pacing forward, and Cammon followed her. “I never heard such a rumor. But magic follows bloodlines, so it had to come from the Merrenstow side-since no one has ever called Baryn a mystic, and surely after sixty-five years someone would have mentioned it.”

“Then, if it’s true, the regent knows of it,” Cammon said. “Amalie said she spent a lot of time at Romar Brendyn’s estate when she was growing up.”

Senneth nodded. “But that makes sense, too. That’s just another reason Romar was an excellent choice to name as regent. He would know what else to protect her from. Such as accusations of sorcery.”

“It might not be true.”

She glanced at him but kept striding forward. “So. You spent the day with her, and Valri was nowhere in sight. Could you read the princess without the Lirren magic to blind you?”

He was silent a moment. “I could have,” he said quietly. “I could tell her mind was open and full of wonder. But I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to look inside. It just seemed-unfair. Wrong.”

Senneth snorted. “So now you can’t answer the question we are both dying to know! A mighty inconvenient time to have scruples, wouldn’t you say?”

“Senneth, I didn’t sense magic on her, if that’s what you want to know. Maybe that’s why I was so surprised when she could read my mind. Every mystic I’ve ever met has just been caked in magic-it’s like a glow or a scent-I can instantly tell it’s there. But I didn’t pick that up from Amalie. If she has sorcery, it’s buried.”

Senneth walked on a few more moments in silence. By now they were almost to the wall that surrounded the compound; soon they would be intersecting with the nightly patrol of guards. Senneth angled her direction a little so that they followed a path parallel to the wall but a few yards away. “You can’t read magic on Ellynor or Valri, either.”

“Right. Which is why I wondered if Amalie had Lirren blood.”

“It just seems impossible. You know how rarely the Lirrenfolk breed with outsiders.”

“There’s Ellynor. There’s Valri. There’s Heffel Coravann’s wife,” he reminded her. “We know of three marriages between Lirren women and men from Gillengaria. So it’s not like it’s never happened. Maybe Pella’s mother crossed the Lireth Mountains when she was a girl. Maybe she fell in love with a Lirren boy and came back carrying his child. Maybe not even Romar or the king know how Amalie got her magic-they just know she has it. If she has it.”

“If she has it,” Senneth echoed. “Maybe we’re wrong.”

“I don’t think I can just ask her.”

“No, and I can’t ask the king, much as I’d like to. But, Cammon, you can’t repeat this to a soul.”

“Not even the others?” he said. It was unnecessary to list them. She knew who he meant.

She looked troubled. “I don’t know. I’ll have to tell Tayse, and he’ll surely tell Justin. And I can’t not tell Kirra. And what Kirra knows-well, I suppose all of us will know it by sunrise tomorrow.” She gave him a serious look, which, in the darkness, he felt more than saw. “But no one else, Cammon. No one. If this secret comes out-”

“I know,” he said, feeling somber and afraid as he never had in all his existence. “Amalie could be in the greatest danger of her life.”

HE made his way slowly back across the palace grounds, lost in thought. At this hour, every door was guarded, so even at the kitchen he had to pass a sentry. But that was a good thing, he thought. Let there be soldiers at every door, mystics at every window, dogs and even raelynxes loose in the yard, prowling around, patrolling for interlopers. Let the king invoke every possible measure to keep the princess safe. Cammon was starting to lose the confidence that it was a task he could accomplish on his own.

He could tell, as he made his way up the great stairway to his room, that there were still a couple dozen people scattered throughout the large building who were not yet sleeping. Some were servants, some were soldiers, some were restless souls unable to close their eyes. It gave him a vague sense of comfort to know that part of the world was awake around him. They might all be strangers, but he was not alone.

He pushed open the door to his room and realized with a shock that he still was not alone.

“Valri,” he said, for the little queen stood in the middle of the room like a marble statue intended, one day, for the royal sculpture garden. She had not bothered to light a candle. Child of the night goddess, she clearly did not need aid to see in the dark. Only a wavering sconce in the hallway provided enough light for him to identify her.

His own magic had failed him; he had had utterly no idea of her presence.

When she spoke, her voice was hard and angry. “Stay away from the princess when I am not there to chaperone you.”

He was instantly antagonized and made no attempt to hide it. “I would never do anything to harm her. You don’t need to worry.”

“She is the heir to the realm! She cannot be allowed to wander off alone with any man! Her reputation is as precious as her life.”

“Then you have a strange idea of what’s precious,” he shot back.

“I think I am better qualified to judge what’s important to Amalie than you are.”

“And are you better qualified than she is?” he said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He was angry, a state so rare for him that he almost didn’t know what to do or say next. Calm. Senneth would advise him to be calm. Slow down the hot words, bargain for a little time. “Let me light some candles,” he said. “I can’t even see your face.”

He considered closing the door, since she might not want an audience for the conversation, but it probably wasn’t good for the queen’s reputation for her to be alone with other men, either, so he didn’t. The candles cast some measure of familiarity back into the room, and he was more serene when he faced Valri again.

“I don’t know what you’re so afraid of,” he said in a quiet voice. “You know I won’t hurt the princess. You know that no one regards me as anything more than a servant. I’m not a danger to Amalie or her reputation.”

“You’re the most dangerous man in the city,” Valri said deliberately.

“I have no idea why you would say that.”

Valri came a step closer. Even in this poor light, her eyes were a spectacular green. “Amalie has so few friends-friends, people her own age. None, in fact. Me. And I am hardly anyone’s definition of a playmate.” She took a deep breath. “And now she has you. And you are exactly the kind of person a lonely girl would take to heart. You’re kind, you’re funny, you’re thoughtful, you have wonderful stories to tell, you’ll do anything she asks, and you don’t particularly care about rules because most of the time you don’t even know what the rules are. And, oh, yes, you’re a young man who is not terrible to look at, and who doesn’t covet her throne, and who has been brought into her life specifically to protect her from danger! What do I think you’re going to do? I think you’re going to make her fall in love with you!”

In the following second, Cammon had three radically different yet fully formed thoughts that all managed to occupy his mind simultaneously.

The first one: Valri’s lying. This isn’t the real reason she’s afraid of me.

The second one: Me? Amalie could fall in love with me?

The third one: Bright Mother burn me, I could so easily fall in love with Amalie.

“Majesty,” he said, and his voice perfectly conveyed his sense of shock, “you simply can’t be serious.”

She came closer, and now she frowned and shook her finger at him as if he was an erring schoolboy. “She must marry a high-born noble! You know that! She knows that! It will be a marriage of convenience and, like as not, marked by politeness instead of passion. You can’t distract her by being funny and charming and sweet. You can’t show her something she cannot have when she must have something else.”

A fourth thought intruded: Valri thinks I’m funny and charming and sweet? “Do you want me to leave the palace?” he asked.

“No! Of course not! We are relying on you and your wretched magic for too many reasons. You have saved the king’s life twice and perhaps you will save Amalie’s, and I pray to the Great Mother that you will be able to ensure that the husband she picks will offer her a warm heart instead of a cold ambition. You must stay. But you must keep your distance from Amalie. Cammon, you must.”

He felt resentful and aggrieved-and just a tiny bit smug, for Valri could not stop him from communicating with Amalie silently even if he had to sit in her presence poker-faced and mute from now until the wedding bells were sounded. And still, under all of that, he remained astonished. She thinks Amalie could fall in love with me?

“I don’t know what you want me to promise,” he said, and even to himself his voice sounded sulky. “If I am cool and unfriendly to her, Amalie will make a scene-you know she will. But if I act the way I have always acted, you will say I am-I am-I don’t know what you think I’m doing! Ingratiating myself, I suppose. I never set out to do that. I never set out to do anything except just be here like I was asked.”

“One thing I do not expect is for you to spend whole days alone with her. If I am not present, you should not be present, either.”

He spread his hands. How could he argue? “If that’s what you want.”

“And-and-you should not think to spend every morning with her, lounging in the parlor and telling her stories.”

“I’ll stay away, but she’ll ask me about it, and she’ll insist on an explanation.”

“I’ll take care of that.”

He shrugged. “Then fine. I’ll keep my distance. You won’t have cause to complain about me again.”

Valri nodded once, decisively, as if she was feeling confident and satisfied. But he could tell that she was still distressed, still terrified that something would happen to Amalie and that he would be the cause of it. What are you really afraid of? he wanted to ask her. What truth are you trying to conceal from me by shielding Amalie’s mind with your own?

“Very well,” she said. “Then we’ll see you tomorrow afternoon when another one of her suitors comes calling.”

“I’ll meet you by the receiving room.”

She nodded again. “Good night. I’m glad you’re willing to be reasonable.”

She left the room, shutting the door behind her. He stared at it for a long time, wishing he had had the nerve to ask the question he knew she would not answer.

Is Amalie a mystic?