The Priory of the Orange Tree Page 11

  Niclays lay on his bedding, slightly drunk himself. He and Sulyard had spent the evening playing cards and exchanging stories. Sulyard had told the gloomy tale of the Never Queen, while Niclays chose the more uplifting charms of Carbuncle and Scald.

  He still had no liking for Sulyard, but he owed it to Truyde to protect her secret companion. He owed it to Jannart.

  Jan.

  The vise of grief snapped closed around his heart. He shut his eyes, and he was back to that autumn morning when they had met for the first time in the rose garden of Brygstad Palace, when the court of the newly crowned Edvart the Second was ripe with opportunity.

  In his early twenties, when he was still Marquess of Zeedeur, Jannart had been tall and striking, with magnificent red hair that rippled to the small of his back. In those days, Niclays had been one of the few Ments to have a mane of fairest auburn, more gold than copper.

  That was what had drawn Jannart to him that day. Rose gold, he had dubbed it. He had asked Niclays if he might paint his portrait, thus capturing the shade for posterity, and Niclays, like any vain young courtier, had been only too pleased to oblige.

  Red hair and a rose garden. That was how it had begun.

  They had spent the whole season together, with the easel and music and laughter for company. Even after the portrait was finished, they had stayed joined at the hip.

  Niclays had never been in love before. It was Jannart who had been intrigued enough to paint him, but soon, Niclays had longed for the ability to paint him in return, so that he might capture the darkness of those lashes, and how the sun glowed in his hair, and the elegance of his hands on the harpsichord. He had gazed at his silken lips and the place where his neck met his jaw; he had watched his blood throbbing there, in that cradle of life. He had imagined, in exhilarating detail, how his eyes would look in the morning light, when sleep made their lids heavy. That exquisite dark amber, like the honey made by black bees.

  He had lived to hear that voice, deep and mellow. Oh, he could sing ballads of its tenor, and the way it climbed to the height of passion when the conversation leaned toward art or history. Those subjects had set a fire in Jannart, drawing people to its warmth. With words alone, he could beautify the dullest object or bring civilizations rising from the dust. For Niclays, he had been a sunray, illuminating every facet of his world.

  He had known there was no hope. After all, Jannart was a marquess, heir to a duchy, the dearest friend of Prince Edvart, while Niclays was an upstart from Rozentun.

  And yet Jannart had seen him. He had seen him, and he had not looked away.

  Outside the house, the waves crashed on the fence again. Niclays turned on to his side, aching all over.

  “Jan,” he said softly, “when did we get so old?”

  The Mentish shipment was due any day now, and when it turned homeward, Sulyard would be with them. A few more days, and Niclays would be rid of this living reminder of Truyde and Jannart and the Saint-forsaken Inysh court. He would go back to tinkering with potions in his jailhouse at the edge of the world, exiled and unknown.

  At last he dozed off, cradling the pillow to his chest. When he stirred awake, it was still dark, but the hairs on his neck stood to attention.

  He sat up, peering into the black.

  “Sulyard.”

  No reply. Something moved in the darkness.

  “Sulyard, is that you?”

  When the lightning cast the silhouette into relief, he stared at the face in front of him.

  “Honored Chief Officer,” he croaked, but he was already being towed out of bed.

  Two sentinels bundled him toward the door. In the chokehold of terror, he somehow snatched his cane from the floor and swung with all his might. It cracked like a whip into one of their cheeks. He only had a moment to relish his accuracy before he was struck back with an iron truncheon.

  He had never felt so much pain at once. His bottom lip split like fruit. Every tooth trembled in its socket. His stomach heaved at the coppery tang on his tongue.

  The sentinel raised his truncheon again and dealt him a terrible blow to the knee. With a cry of “mercy,” Niclays raised his hands over his head, dropping the cane. A leather boot snapped it in two. Blows rained down from all sides, striking his back and his face. He fell on to the mats, making weak sounds of submission and apology. The house was being pulled to shreds around him.

  The din of breaking glass came from the workroom. His apparatus, worth more coin than he would ever have again.

  “Please.” Blood slavered down his chin. “Honored sentinels, please, you don’t understand. The work—”

  Ignoring his pleas, they marched him into the storm. All he wore was his nightshirt. His ankle was too tender to carry him, so they hauled him like a sack of millet. The few Ments who worked through the night were emerging from their dwellings.

  “Doctor Roos,” one of them called. “What’s happening?”

  Niclays gasped for breath. “Who’s that?” His voice was lost to the sound of thunder. “Muste,” he shouted thickly. “Muste, help me, you fox-haired fool!”

  A hand covered his bloody mouth. He could hear Sulyard now, somewhere in the darkness, crying out.

  “Niclays!”

  He looked up, expecting to see Muste, but it was Panaya who ran into the fray. She somehow got between the sentinels and stood before Niclays like the Knight of Courage. “If he is under arrest,” she said, “then where is your warrant from the honored Governor of Cape Hisan?”

  Niclays could have kissed her. The Chief Officer was standing nearby, watching the sentinels ransack the house.

  “Go back inside,” he said to Panaya, not looking at her.

  “The learnèd Doctor Roos deserves respect. If you harm him, the High Prince of Mentendon will hear of it.”

  “The Red Prince has no power here.”

  Panaya squared up to him. Niclays could only watch in awe as the woman in a sleep robe faced down the man in armor.

  “While the Mentish live here, they have the all-honored Warlord’s protection,” she said. “What will he say when he hears that you spilled blood in Orisima?”

  At this, the Chief Officer stepped closer to her. “Perhaps he will say that I was too merciful,” he said, voice thick with contempt, “for this liar has been hiding a trespasser in his home.”

  Panaya fell silent, shock writ plain on her.

  “Panaya,” Niclays whispered. “I can explain this.”

  “Niclays,” she breathed. “Oh, Niclays. You have defied the Great Edict.”

  His ankle throbbed. “Where will they take me?”

  Panaya glanced nervously toward the Chief Officer, who was bellowing at his sentinels. “To the honored Governor of Cape Hisan. They will suspect you of having the red sickness,” she murmured in Mentish. Suddenly she tensed. “Did you touch him?”

  Niclays thought back, frantic. “No,” he said. “No, not his bare skin.”

  “You must tell them so. Swear it on your Saint,” she told him. “If they suspect you are deceiving them, they will do all they can to wrest the truth from you.”

  “Torture?” Sweat was beading on his face. “Not torture. You don’t mean torture, do you?”

  “Enough,” the Chief Officer barked. “Take this traitor away!”

  With that, the sentinels carried Niclays off like meat for the chop. “I want a lawyer,” he shouted. “Damn you, there must be a decent bloody lawyer somewhere on this Saint-forsaken island!” When nobody responded, he called out desperately to Panaya, “Tell Muste to mend my apparatus. Continue the work!” She looked on, helpless. “And protect my books! For the love of the Saint, save my books, Panaya!”

  9

  West

  “I suppose one cannot often go for walks like these in the Ersyr. The heat would be intolerable.”

  They were walking in the Privy Garden. Ead had never entered it before. This retreat was reserved for the pleasure of the queen, her Ladies of the Bedchamber, and the Virtues
Council.

  Lady Arbella Glenn was still confined to bed. The court was alive with whispers. If she died, then a new Lady of the Bedchamber would be needed. The other Ladies of the Privy Chamber were already striving to showcase their wit and talent to Sabran.

  No doubt it was why Linora had been so vexed when Ead had, in her eyes, botched the storytelling. She had not wanted her chances dented by association.

  “Not in winter. In the summer, we wear loose silks to stave off the heat,” Ead answered. “When I lived in His Excellency’s estate in Rumelabar, I would often sit by the pool in the courtyard and read. There were sweetlemon trees to shade the walkways and fountains to cool the air. It was a peaceful time.”

  In truth, she had only been there once. She had spent her childhood in the Priory.

  “I see.” Sabran held an ornate fan. “And you would pray to the Dawnsinger.”

  “Yes, madam. In a House of Silence.”

  They wandered into one of the orchards, where the greengage trees were in full bloom. Twelve Knights of the Body followed at a distance.

  Over the last few hours, Ead had discovered that beneath her all-knowing exterior, the Queen of Inys had a circumscribed view of the world. Sealed behind the walls of her palaces, her knowledge of the lands beyond Inys came from wooden globes and letters from her ambassadors and fellow sovereigns. She was fluent in Yscali and Hróthi, and her tutors had educated her in the history of Virtudom, but she knew little of anywhere else. Ead could sense that she was straining not to ask questions about the South.

  The Ersyr did not adhere to the Six Virtues. Neither did its neighbor, the Domain of Lasia, despite its important place in the Inysh founding legend.

  Ead had undergone her public conversion to the Six Virtues not long after she came to court. One spring evening, she had stood in the Sanctuary Royal, proclaimed her allegiance to the House of Berethnet, and received the spurs and girdle of a worshipper of Galian. In return, she was promised a place in Halgalant, the heavenly court. She had told the Arch Sanctarian that before her arrival in Inys, she had believed in the Dawnsinger, the most widely followed deity in the Ersyr. No one had ever questioned it.

  Ead had never followed the Dawnsinger. Though she had Ersyri blood, she had not been born in the Ersyr and had not often set foot in it. Her true creed was known only to the Priory.

  “His Excellency told me that your mother was not from the Ersyr,” Sabran said.

  “No. She was born in Lasia.”

  “What was her name?”

  “Zāla.”

  “I am sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you, madam,” Ead said. “It was a long time ago.”

  No matter the differences between them, they both knew what it was to lose a mother.

  As the clock tower struck eleven, Sabran stopped beside her private aviary. She unlatched the door, and a tiny green bird hopped onto her wrist.

  “These birds are from the Uluma Mountains,” she said. Sunlight danced in the emeralds around her neck. “They often spend their winters there.”

  “Have you ever been to Lasia, Majesty?” Ead asked.

  “No. I could never leave Virtudom.”

  Ead felt that familiar twist of irritation. It was hypocrisy at its finest for the Inysh to use Lasia as a cornerstone of their founding legend, only to deride its people as heretics.

  “Of course,” she said.

  Sabran glanced at her. She took a pouch from her girdle and poured a few seeds into her palm.

  “In Inys, this bird is called the lovejay,” she said. The bird on her wrist gave a merry chirp. “They take only one partner all their lives, and will know their song even after many years apart. That is why the lovejay was sacred to the Knight of Fellowship. These birds embody his desire for every soul to be joined in companionship.”

  “I know them well,” Ead said. The bird pecked up the seeds. “In the South, they are called peach-faced mimics.”

  “Peach-faced.”

  “A peach is a sweet orange fruit, madam, with a stone at its core. It grows in the Ersyr and some parts of the East.”

  Sabran watched the bird eat. “Let us not speak of the East,” she said, and returned it to its perch.

  The sun was hot as a stove, but the queen showed no sign of wanting to go inside. They continued their stroll down a path flanked by cherry trees.

  “Do you smell smoke, mistress?” Sabran asked. “That is the smell of a fire in the city. This morning, two doomsingers were burned in Marian Square. Do you think that this is well?”

  There were two kinds of heretic in Inys. A scattered few still followed the primordial religion of Inys, a form of nature worship that had been practiced before the foundation of the House of Berethnet, in the days when knighthood was still young and the country had been haunted by the Lady of the Woods. They could recant or be imprisoned.

  Then there were those who prophesied the return of the Nameless One. For the last two years, these doomsingers had trickled to Inys from Yscalin and preached in the cities for as long as they could. They were burned by decree of the Duchess of Justice.

  “It is a cruel death,” Ead said.

  “They would see Inys consumed by flame. They would have us open our arms to the Nameless One, to take him as our god. Lady Igrain says that we must do to our enemies what they would do to us.”

  “Did the Saint also say this, madam?” Ead asked calmly. “I am not as well versed in the Six Virtues as yourself.”

  “The Knight of Courage commands us to defend the faith.”

  “Yet you accepted a gift from Prince Aubrecht of Mentendon, who trades with the East. He even gave you an Eastern pearl,” Ead said. “One might say that he is funding heresy.”

  It was out before she could stop it. Sabran gave her a glacial look.

  “I am not a sanctarian, responsible for teaching you the complexities of the Six Virtues,” she said. “If you wish to dispute those complexities, Mistress Duryan, I advise you to look elsewhere. In the Dearn Tower, perhaps, with others who question my judgment—which comes, as I am sure I need not remind you, from the Saint himself.” She turned away. “Good morrow.”

  She strode away, shadowed by her Knights of the Body, leaving Ead alone beneath the trees.

  When the queen was out of sight, Ead crossed the lawn and sat on the edge of a fountain, cursing herself. The heat was making her irrational.

  She splashed her face with the water and then drank it from cupped palms, watched by a statue of Carnelian the First, the Flower of Ascalon, fourth queen of the House of Berethnet. Soon the dynasty would have ruled Inys for one thousand and six years.

  Ead closed her eyes and let the runnels of water trickle down her neck. Eight years she had spent at the court of Sabran the Ninth. In all that time, she had never said anything to nettle her. Now she was like a viper, unable to keep her tongue in her mouth. Something made her want to rile the Queen of Inys.

  She had to cut that something out, or this court would eat her whole.

  Her duties that day went by in a haze. The warmth made their errands all the harder. Even Linora was subdued, her golden hair dampened by sweat, and Roslain Crest spent the afternoon fanning herself with rising fury.

  After supper, Ead joined the other women in the Sanctuary of Virtues for orisons. The Queen Mother had ordered that blue stained-glass windows be set into the hall to make it look as if it had been built underwater.

  There was one statue in the sanctuary, on the right side of the altar. Galian Berethnet, his hands folded on the hilt of Ascalon.

  On the left, there was only a plinth in memory of the woman the Inysh knew as Queen Cleolind, the Damsel.

  The Inysh had no record of what Cleolind had looked like. All images of her, if they had ever existed, had been destroyed after her death, and no Inysh sculptor had ever attempted to create a likeness since. Many believed it was because King Galian had been unable to bear seeing the woman he had lost to the childbed.

  Even the
Priory had only a few accounts of the Mother. So much had been destroyed or lost.

  As the others prayed, so too did Ead.

  Mother, I beg you, guide me in the land of the Deceiver. Mother, I implore you, let me comport myself with dignity in the presence of this woman who calls herself your descendant, who I have sworn to guard. Mother, I pray you, give me courage worthy of my cloak.

  Sabran rose and touched the statue of her forebear. As she and her ladies filed from the sanctuary, Ead caught sight of Truyde. She was looking straight ahead, but her hands were clasped a little too tightly.

  When night fell and she had seen to her duties in the Queen Tower, Ead descended the Privy Stair to the postern, where barges brought goods to the palace from the city, and waited in an alcove that held the well.

  Truyde utt Zeedeur joined her, cloaked and hooded.

  “I am forbidden to be out of the Coffer Chamber after dark without a chaperon.” She tucked a wayward lock of red into her hood. “If Lady Oliva discovers I am gone—”

  “You met your lover many times, my lady. Presumably,” Ead said, “without a chaperon.”

  Dark eyes watched from beneath the hood. “What is it you want?”

  “I want to know what you and Sulyard were planning. You reference a task in your letters.”

  “It is none of your concern.”

  “Permit me, then, to present a theory. I have seen enough to know that you take an unusual interest in the East. I think you and Sulyard meant to cross the Abyss together for some mischievous purpose, but he went ahead without you. Am I wrong?”

  “You are. If you must continue to meddle, then you may hear the truth.” Truyde sounded almost bored. “Triam is gone to the Milk Lagoon. We mean to live together as companions, where neither Queen Sabran nor my father can take issue with our marriage.”

  “Do not lie to me, my lady. You show an innocent face to the court, but I think you have another.”

  The postern opened. They pressed themselves deeper into the alcove as a guard came through with a torch, whistling. She marched up the Privy Stair without seeing them.