Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey [217]
Sodden and shivering, as much with shock as the chill, he nodded. "Kaneka?"
"Here, little one." She answered him herself in zenyan, wrapping herself in Amaury's cloak and laying a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You gave me a fine chase."
"Elua!" Amaury said fervidly, eyeing her. "She swims like a fish. Phèdre, will you convey my thanks and compliments?"
I did, translating them into Jeb'ez. Kaneka laughed, water sparkling like diamonds in her woolly hair. "They call this a Great River?" she said contemptuously. "Let them try the Nahar in flood season, where it passes the cataracts and the crocodiles wait. Now that is a river!"
Someone caught the horse I'd borrowed, which had wandered some distance away, and Imriel was bundled in another cloak. By the time we returned to our party, Imriel had stopped shivering and grown excited by the adventure, displaying the bruise on his temple to Joscelin with a boy's pride.
"Very nice," Joscelin said to him, raising his brows. "Phèdre, may we speak?"
The drowned body of the guilty soldier had washed ashore on the far side. Captain Nurad-Sin made profound apologies, swearing up anddown that the man was a new conscript, and he'd had no knowledge of his actions, any more than his innocent comrade had had. I heard him out, gauging his words sincere. In the end, I had no choice but to accept them. We were too far outnumbered to do anything else.
"Thank you for your concern, my lord Captain," I said politely. "Her majesty Queen Ysandre de la Courcel is eagerly awaiting the return of her young kinsman, Prince Imriel. She would be most wroth if ill befell him now, after such trials, and I daresay his highness the Lugal would be displeased as well. I pray you ensure your men know this."
He gave a grim nod. "You may be sure of it, my lady."
Mayhap he did, for the next leg of our journey passed without event. I spent the time scavenging paper and ink as unobtrusively as I might, working on various missives by the light of our campfires at night, and during the day, riding among the women of the zenana and conversing with the Ephesians.
They were the first to leave our company, departing with an honor guard of Akkadians and a wagon-load of royal gifts to make their way over land to Ephesium. We made our farewells, and I watched them go, filled with a dour satisfaction.
"Do you care to tell me what that expression betokens?" Joscelin asked.
"Wait till we've crossed the Yehordan," I said.
Once we had, I told him. Joscelin laughed aloud, and went to fetch Nurad-Sin himself. Veiled and proper, seated within my tent while he stood outside it, I addressed the Akkadian captain again.
"My lord Captain," I said to him. "You are aware I have . . . concerns . . . for Prince Imriel's safety."
Nurad-Sin bowed. "My lady, I am. Before Shamash, I pledge you, I have taken every precaution to ensure that no further incidents occur."
"So," I said, "have I. Each of the Ephesian women with whom we parted company a few days past bears with her a missive, addressed in my name to her majesty Ysandre de la Courcel, Queen of Terre d'Ange. These I have instructed to be given to the D'Angeline ambassador in Ephesium city, and thanks to the Lugal's generosity, the women of the zenana shall have the means to accomplish this. In these letters, I have chronicled such events as have befallen us thus far, and laid forth my suspicions as to their cause."
The Akkadian captain went pale. "My lady, the Lugal esteems you above gold. Surely you do not suspect. . . ?”
"No." I said it with a blandness that would have done Valère L'Envers credit. "Not in the least. While Prince Imriel lives, my suspicions will go unspoken. Should any accident befall him..." I shrugged. "It is my instruction that the letters be sent. Mayhap, my lord Captain, you might see to it that every man among you—every conscript, every veteran, every hostler and cook and water-porter, for I do not expect you to vouch for every one—is aware of this."