Viper's Kiss - Lisa Smedman [112]
The soldier stared at him a moment, indecision in his eyes. Then his hand fell away. "Just be quick," he said.
"I will."
Arvin entered the council chamber and walked to the far end of the room, pretending to be admiring the model ships that stood on the table. As he passed the two servants, he manifested the power that would let him listen in on their thoughts. Silver sparkles erupted from his forehead, vanishing even as the woman with the graying hair turned around. Her eyes had a distant expression, as if she were listening to some half-heard sound. When they focused on Arvin, she nodded and bobbed a curtsey.
The other servant-a girl in her teens, glanced over her shoulder then continued with her work. Her thoughts were superficial: musings about one of the stable hands-how handsome he was-and a slight irritation that the baron's guest had trod on her clean floor. Arvin focused instead on the thoughts of the older woman, the one he suspected of being Naneth's spy. She was worried about something, but not clearly articulating her fears.
Arvin would help her along.
He gestured for her to approach. She did, holding a rag that smelled of beeswax. So far, her thoughts were a mix of annoyance at having been interrupted and puzzlement about what Arvin could possibly want. She didn't remember him.
He leaned toward her and spoke in a low voice. "I know who you serve," he said.
The woman frowned. Of course he did, she thought. She served the baron. What did this man really want with her?
Arvin was impressed. If the servant was a spy, she was a good one. "I know why you were at Naneth's home, the other night," he continued. "About your… arrangement with her."
That made her eyes widen. And her thoughts begin to flow. Who was this man, and how did he know about Naneth? Would he tell her husband? She prayed to Helm that he wouldn't. Ewainn was so proud-he would crumble if he knew the fault had been his, all along. She'd thought he'd find out, when she'd been hauled before the Eyes for questioning four nights ago, but all they'd wanted to know, it turned out, was where the midwife was. And just as well, that Naneth had disappeared. Now she wouldn't have to pay the midwife-coin Ewainn would notice was missing, sooner or later. If he'd pressed her, she might have had to explain to Ewainn that he wasn't the one who quickened a child in her-that the midwife had used magic to do it.
Arvin struggled to keep his expression neutral. This woman was pregnant? He'd assumed, when he'd overheard her protest to the baron's soldiers that she was just one of Naneth's customers, that she had gone to the midwife's home to arrange for Naneth to deliver a daughter's child. With her graying hair, he'd taken her to be a pending grandmother.
"I don't know what you're talking about, my lord," she choked out at last.
"Yes, you do," Arvin said, more gently, this time. He glanced pointedly down at her stomach; it had a slight but unmistakable bulge. "When did Naneth cast the spell?"
Her hands twisted the rag. "A tenday and a hand ago."
Arvin glanced once more at her stomach. She was three months along, at least. "What date?" he asked. "The fifth."
Arvin nodded. The same night the demon had been bound into Glisena's womb. The night Glisena, thinking her pregnancy merely hastened along, had fled the palace.
Arvin stared at the servant, thinking furiously. Should he tell her that the child in her womb was really that of Glisena and Dmetrio? Seven days from now, Naneth would be as good as dead. No one except Arvin would ever know the baby wasn't the serving woman's.
Until the first time it turned into a serpent.
How would the woman's husband react to that, Arvin wondered.
In the doorway, the soldier cleared his throat impatiently. "'At once,' the baron said. Not a tenday from now."
Arvin touched the servant's hand. "Your name?" he asked gently.
Why does he want to know? she thought in a panicky voice. But she answered obediently, as her years of servitude dictated. "Belinna."
"We'll talk again, Belinna. Later. In