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guardswomen made her small build seem fragile by con-
trast. Elienne hoped with all her heart the impression would cause Faisix to
underestimate her. She needed every advantage she could foster, however
slight.
Eiienne was given a suite of rooms in the top of a keep overlooking the sea.
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Aisa and Denji guarded the only door, which gave onto the stair. The room was
built on the defense wall, and arrowslits pierced the stone in place of
casements.
Left to herself, Elienne looked out. Hundreds of feet down, green, foam-laced
breakers crashed against the black, splintered rock of the headland, and
sunlight struck rainbows through the spindrift thrown up by the surf.
Chilled by more than damp air, Elienne turned away.
Though savagely beautiful, the view foreclosed any hope of escape. Even the
spartan ugliness of the arrowslits became a blessing to her eyes. Windows, in
that place, would have left her susceptible, not to attack from the outside,
but to a push from within. And all too likely, the guardswomen were hostile.
Until they proved otherwise, Elienne chose to regard her surroundings with an
eye for her own defense.
The chambers themselves were lavish. In keeping with what she had observed of
Pendaire's palace, the furnish-
ings were handsomely adorned with stone and inlay of silver filigree. Thick,
patterned carpets brightened the parquet floor, and a fire burned in the grate
to drive off
the damp. Through the doorway, a maid labored over a carved double bed,
patting smooth silken sheets and embroidered coverlets in deferential silence.
Yet the beautiful decor did nothing to allay Elienne's sense of vulnerability.
With stiff self-reliance, she began at once to rearrange the furniture. The
maid emerged
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from the bedchamber, startled to find the new Consort pushing a heavy chest
across the floor.
She curtsied deeply. 'My Lady, did you not find the room to your liking?'
Elienne shook her head and leaned like a draft horse.
The chest rumbled another foot across the parquet. She abandoned it in the
middle of the chamber and gathered the ornaments from a small side table.
Puzzled more than politeness would permit, the maid tactfully curtsied again.
'The Lady mustn't spoil her dress before this evening's banquet.'
Elienne responded with a preoccupied smile, both hands full of glassware. When
she deposited the items on a cushioned chair and hefted the table toward the
other side of the room, the maid salvaged the awkward situation as best she
could by offering her help.
'Thank you.' Elienne nodded toward a stuffed stool.
'That can go there.'
She and the maid labored for a time in silence. After a particularly trying
struggle with an armchair, Elienne said, 'Why won't Aisa and Denji speak to
me? Have I offended them?'
'The shieldmaids?' The woman's eyebrows rose in her round, sweating face. 'My
Lady, they are deaf-mutes.'
'Forgive me; I'm foreign,' said Eiienne quickly. 'I didn't know. Is it common
practice to put out ears and tongues in Pendaire?'
'Ma'Diere, no, my Lady.' The maid wiped sweaty palms on her sleeves. 'That
pair belonged to the royal family of Kedgard.'
Elienne's face remained carefully blank.
'It is an island kingdom,' explained the maid. 'The
Regent took pity on them during a diplomatic visit and bought their freedom.
They have served out of gratitude since.'
'That was a kind act.' Glad she had not trusted the guardswomen, Elienne bent
and began to wrestle with an immense potted plant. 'Is his Excellency often
moved to charity?'
'I wouldn't know.' The maid sighed. 'Lady, must you move that?'
Elienne gave the plant a determined shove. Branches swayed, bobbing small pink
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fruits precariously against stem moorings. The tree was top-heavy, and would
likely upset if she disturbed it further.
'I suppose the thing will do well enough where it is.'
Elienne critically surveyed the room and finally nodded in satisfaction. 'That
will do. And thank you.'
The maid's reddened face reflected little appreciation for Elienne's taste.
'I'll send a girl up to help tidy your hair and dress, with permission, Lady.'
Elienne hesitated. She disliked personal fuss. As Duch-
ess of Trathmere, she had often declined the services of a maid, and since her
arrival in Pendaire she wanted nothing better than to be left alone. 'I'd
rather manage myself.'
The maid pursed her lips with evident disapproval.
Elienne's labors with the furniture had badly mussed her dress, and her dark,
copper-brown hair sported loosened wisps like a peasant woman's. Should she
appear in that state before Pendaire's best blood, she would disgrace her
royal partner.
Elienne signed and tilted her head toward the reddened
slice of sky visible through the nearest allowslit. 'It's only sunset.' She
smiled with girlish innocence. 'I have until the ninth hour of the evening
before the banquet, and nothing at all to do between. If I have to sit idle, I
think the excitement will ruin me.'
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'Very well, my Lady.' Dubious still, the maid curtsied and departed, weaving
her way through a tortuous maze of tables, chairs, and hassocks toward the
door.
Eiienne sank into the nearest chair the moment the heavy inlaid panel closed
and left her solitary. She was hot and tired, and the excuse she had just
uttered had been an outright lie. The necessity of acting and reacting with
strangers who had no awareness of her recent loss strained her. Not even in
Trathmere, as prisoner of the
Khadrach, had she felt so bereft, and until now Darion's difficulties had
denied her the rest and quiet she needed to reach acceptance of foreign
surroundings and the role she had agreed to play through.
Unbidden, Cinndel's face arose in her mind as he had appeared the night his
son was conceived. Elienne thrust the memory forcibly away. Darion's uncertain
succession endangered her own safety, and only the Prince's enemies would gain
advantage if she indulged grief to the exclusion of caution.
Reluctantly Elienne rose, pulled a stick of kindling from the bin by the
fireside, and wedged it beneath the fruit tree. She gave the ornate pot an
experimental shove.
It tottered unsteadily. Satisfied that an easy push would topple the ungainly
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