Kings of the North - Elizabeth Moon [155]
“Your … realm?”
“What humans call the elvenhome kingdom of Ladysforest. I do not choose to share its name with you.” With that, she withdrew, the light folding in around her, and the last grains of sand falling at last.
“She … that … that is your grandmother?”
For some reason, after so much emotion, Kieri found this amusing. “Do you still think elves are but a variety of mageborn?”
The king drew a long breath and released it, half huff and half sigh. “No. No, she is … how old is she?”
“I have no idea, and I would not dare ask,” Kieri said. “Thousands of years at least, I am sure. Certainly she was here—in her kingdom, which is not exactly the forests of Lyonya—when the first Seafolk came up the river seeking safety. She was here before the mageborn came over the mountains, and probably before they left Old Aare.”
“She looks young … but not young.”
“Yes,” Kieri said. “But you and I, sir, are kings with a problem to solve. We do not, I assure you, want her to solve it for us.”
That got him a sharp look, but the king relaxed. “I would have some water now, if you please.”
“Indeed.” Kieri poured him water. “And shall I now turn the glass again?”
The king shook his head sharply, swallowed, and said, “We are well beyond that. You are not my friend, and may never be, but I give my word not to attack you. I see no way to peace here, but perhaps together …” He drained the mug. “Is there any chance—any chance—that Elis would see me?”
“I do not know. I sent word to Falk’s Hall that you had come and were concerned for her welfare. We may hear tomorrow if she chooses to reply. But she will have sworn an oath to obey the Knight-Commander and other officers while she is a student there. He would have to permit her to leave.”
“She is imprisoned?”
“Only by her honor,” Kieri said. “Should she wish to withdraw and return home, she would be provided an escort to the river. And the Knight-Commander, seeing it is a matter of royal concern, may well bring her here and order her to see you. If she does not obey, she will lose her place. Falk’s Hall—like the other knightly training orders—is used to difficult sons and daughters of noble families.”
“Then she might actually learn discipline?”
“She will, or she will not gain her ruby,” Kieri said.
“And you?” The king seemed to be looking for that ruby.
“My ruby is still in the cabinet in the Knight-Commander’s office, in a little box with my name on it, should I give my oath to Falk.”
“You are strange,” the king said. “You are not what I thought.”
“Nor are you,” Kieri said. “But it has grown late as we talked. Let us sup a little, and sleep, and in the morning consider what is best for both our kingdoms.”
“And where shall I sleep?” the king asked, a little of his earlier suspicion returning.
“Not in my bed,” Kieri said. “But if you will, in the same room where your daughter stayed when she was here.”
“Locked in?”
“Watched, if you come out,” Kieri said. “Have you no guards in your own palace in Rostvok?”
The king nodded.
The Knight-Commander, in Falk’s red and white, sat with Elis at one end of the table; Kieri and the king of Pargun sat at the other. Kieri’s sword lay athwart the table, a reminder whose domain it was, in case emotion overpowered reason. Elis, in the leaf-brown uniform of Falk’s Hall for first-year students, sat bolt upright, pale, lips compressed. She was here by the Knight-Commander’s orders, as Kieri knew, and she did not look at her father.
Her father scarce looked at anything else in the room but her. Kieri tapped the table to get his attention. “We are met to discuss grave matters of state,” he said. “Pargun is in disarray, and that disarray threatens to spill over its borders, the king tells me. Knight-Commander, I believe you have not met the king of Pargun: I present him to you. And to you, Sir King—” The title felt strange in his mouth, but it must be given. “—I present the Knight-Commander of Falk, he who commands in Falk’s Hall, where Knights of Falk are trained.