Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey [38]
"Yes, my lady. Ysandre." I knew what she was saying, and I bled for her. Ysandre de la Courcel was no fool. She had bethought herself of her uncle, and his ungentle methods.
"For so long as he lived," she mused, "this child Imriel de la Courcel has posed a threat to my throne and my daughters' inheritance. I have always known it. And I have always been prepared to deal with it, in my own way, in accordance with the dictum of Blessed Elua. I will show no clemency to any who seek to deal with it otherwise."
"I understand."
Ysandre raised her eyebrows. "You will, I trust, report to me before you do Melisande Shahrizai, near-cousin?"
"My lady!" I protested. "Yes. Of course."
And with that, we were dismissed.
In the halls of the Palace, Joscelin and I spoke of our meeting in low tones, offering courteous greetings to those nobles we passed. Only a few scant weeks ago, we would have numbered ourselves among them, D'Angeline peers who came to meet and mingle in the various salons, the Hall of Games, come for gossip and flirtation and such games ofpower as are played out in those elegant, marble walls. Now, it all seemed trivial.
"Did you see her face?" I murmured to Joscelin. "Although she did not say it, I think she bethought herself of Barquiel L'Envers."
"I saw." He paused as we drew nigh to the Marquis d'Arguil and his lady wife, a handsome couple in their forties, very much a la mode. Attending them a pace and a half to the rear was a Cassiline Brother, a young man in ash grey with a cultivated look of stern hauteur. "Well met, my lord," Joscelin said politely, "my lady."
"Comtesse!" The Marquise d'Arguil took my hands in her own, offering the kiss of greeting. "We invited you to our cherry-blossom fête, you and your gorgeous consort, and you were gone from the City, heartless creatures. You must promise to come to our next."
"I will try, my lady, but I make no promises." From the corner of my eye, I saw their Cassiline attendant make an ostentatious greeting to Joscelin, inlaid vambraces glittering as he swept his arms crossed before him and bowed. "Betimes my business requires travel."
Ten years ago, after Joscelin's duel in the Temple of Asherat, an unprecedented influx of noble-born families sought to revive the ancient tradition of sending their middle sons to the Cassiline Brotherhood. Even as the Queen had eliminated her own Cassiline Guard, it had become fashionable for minor royalty to hire them. I think the old Prefect, under whom Joscelin had trained, would have dismissed the majority of applicants on both sides out of hand. The new Prefect did not. Most of the would-be Cassilines never completed training, but a few stuck it out, and were now assigned to wealthy wards, sworn to protect and serve.
And all of them regarded Joscelin with a desperate mix of hero-worship and contempt. His defeat of the traitorous Cassiline who sought Ysandre's life was the stuff of enduring legend; but he had left the Brotherhood for my sake, and been declared anathema for it. Those who remain, honoring their vows of celibacy, resent him for it.
"Your business." The Marquis d'Arguil smiled knowingly. "Naamah's business, you mean!"
"As my lord says." I smiled in reply, laying two fingers over my lips in the gesture betokening discretion. Joscelin, unseen, rolled his eyes. "I will do my best."
We parted ways with cordial farewells, the d'Arguils' Cassiline guard making another ceremonial display, bowing low enough to reveal his hair clubbed at the back of his neck. He bore no sword, though,only daggers. Ysandre had forbidden it in the Palace. This time, Joscelin acknowledged him with a dour nod. The hilt of his sword, wrapped in well-worn leather, was visible over his shoulder, token of the Queen's trust.
"Elua preserve me," Joscelin said when they had left. "Was I ever such a prig?"
I took his arm. "Worse."
He laughed. "Well, mayhap. Remind me to have plans when next the d'Arguils invite us to a fête. Phèdre." There was a change in his