Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey [53]
"I am a friend of the Queen's," I said.
"The Queen cares what happened to Imri?" It was the girl Beryl who spoke, her voice sharp with disbelief. I looked gravely at her. She was the eldest among them by a year, budding into young womanhood, with black hair as fine and straight as silk, the tender beginnings of breasts and green eyes that held only scorn. I wondered if she was Brother Selbert's get. It was not uncommon for priest's children to end as wards of their sanctuary.
"Yes," I said. "She does."
The child Honore had clambered onto Joscelin's knee. He held her loosely, looking amused; I swear, I do not know why children adorehim so. Most adults have the sense to find him distant and off-putting. "Imri taught me to climb trees," Honore announced, settling herself with a proprietary bounce. "He got me honey after Beryl told him not to. He was stung seventeen times and Sister Philippa put mud all over him."
"Be quiet, Honore," Cadmar muttered. "The lady doesn't care about that."
"Why not?" I asked, leaning forward and propping my chin on my hands. "I like honey. And I want to hear about Imriel."
"Imriel," Honore sang, bouncing on Joscelin's knee. "Im-ri-el! He made Cadmar angry, because he said he liked Beryl. Cad-mar likes Ber-yl!"
"Be quiet!" The lad flushed red to the roots of his fiery hair.
"Is this real?" Sturdy little Ti-Michel stretched his arms above his head to tug at the hilt of Joscelin's sword. "Can I see it?"
"Hush." Joscelin drew him onto his other knee, holding both of the young ones in place. "I'll show you later, if you like. Michel, what do you know about Imri? Were you there the day he went missing?"
"Ti-Michel came to find me, Lady Phèdre," Beryl interrupted him. "I was with Honore, in one of the lower pastures. We fetched Cadmar, and he and I looked as far as we dared, while the little ones watched the goats. When we couldn't find him, we went back to tell Brother Selbert."
"Did you go past the rockfall?" I asked her.
She paused, then shook her head. "Not then. It's a narrow ledge, and dangerous. There'd been another fall, we couldn't pass. Brother Othon worked to clear it that night."
"Cadmar was scared!" Ti-Michel slid down from Joscelin's knee, forgetting his distress, chin raised in challenge.
"So were you!" the older boy retorted. "You ran for Beryl!"
"Cad-mar was sea-red!" Honore sang, bouncing, then added, "Imri wasn't scared of anything."
"Is that true?" I addressed my question to Beryl.
"No." She gave me a cool look of appraisal. "Of course not. Nobody's afraid of nothing. But he was brave, for a boy." Her lip curled. "Braver than Cadmar. Imri liked to take risks, to see what would happen. And when he got hurt, he never complained. He was afraid, though. He was afraid of anyone seeing him cry."
"One time," Ti-Michel said, "one time I fell in the river, and Imri—"
"Oh, shut up," Cadmar said in disgust. "You could have walked out, if you'd stood up and stopped flailing around. It wasn't so deep."
"Imri taught us how to swim." Honore climbed down from Joscelin's knee and came over to stare into my face, clutching my skirts absentmindedly. "We took all our clothes off. I like to swim. How come you have a red spot in your eye?"
"Because," I said, touching her nose. "I was born with it. Why do you have freckles?"
The child looked cross-eyed at her own visage and giggled.
The words that followed were spoken in a half-whisper. "Mighty Kushiel, of rod and weal, late of the brazen portals, with blood-tipp'd dart a wound unhealed, pricks the eyen of chosen mortals."
I raised my head, looking at Beryl, who had gone pale and defiant.
"I know who you are," she said. "Brother Selbert thinks I'm too young to know, but I'm not. I hear them whisper. They are always whispering, since Imri disappeared. I see the books they study when they think we're not paying attention, the scrolls they hide. I know who you are. Why are you here? Why do you want to know about Imri?"
Joscelin and I exchanged a glance. "Beryl," I