Kushiel's Chosen - Jacqueline Carey [87]
"It would ease my mind," Ysandre said slowly, "if you had some proof of your suspicions, Phèdre. If there were cause, I would not hesitate to pursue it... Trevalion, the de Somervilles, even my own uncle. I would summon the Prefect of the Cassiline Brotherhood before the throne if Ithought there was cause. But what you tell me is guesswork, and nothing more. I will not act on supposition, not even yours."
I had not expected her to; only to heed my warning. "There is the cloak."
"Yes," Ysandre said wryly. "There is. I should tell you, I have had a correspondence from my great-uncle, Prince Benedicte de la Courcel. Did you know I dispatched couriers to him after Marmion's hearing?" She looked sharply at me, and I shook my head. "I did. And he has scoured La Ser-enissima, and found no trace of Melisande. Indeed, he invites me to make the Caerdicci progressus regalis ere winter, that the city may receive me as Queen of Terre d'Ange."
"Why doesn't Benedicte come here to acknowledge
you?" I asked.
Ysandre rested chin on hand and gazed at me. "It is customary for the D'Angeline ruler to make a progressus, to renew alliances with the Caerdicci city-states. My grandfather did it as a boy; it's not been done for decades. Not in either of our lifetimes. Mayhap if it had, they'd have been quicker to aid us against the Skaldi. Benedicte is right, I can't afford to let those ties lapse. At any rate," she added quieüy, "his new wife has just been delivered of a son, and he's not minded to travel."
"My lady," I said, "that may all be true, but from what Severio told me, La Serenissima is a knot of intrigue. Even Prince Benedicte didn't know his own daughter and son-in-law were guilty of poisoning your mother."
The Queen's eyebrows rose again. "And did Severio Stregazza tell you Melisande Shahrizai was in La Serenissima?" she asked with deceptive mildness. It made my blood run
cold.
"My lady," I whispered. "I would have told you if he had. No. He did not know her, and I believe he spoke the truth. Marmion plagued him, and he didn't know why. I promise you, if I had the least corroborating proof of any of this, I'd have come to you.”
Drustan kept his silence, watching us both.
Ysandre sighed. "So. You suspect the Lord Commander, his son Ghislain, Gaspar Trevalion—whom even Delaunay trusted—and my uncle the Duc, who saved your life. Also the Cassiline Brotherhood, whose service has been beyond reproach for centuries. You believe Melisande Shahrizai is in La Serenissima, despite the fact that you received this information at third hand, obviously by her own devising, and no Serenissiman has laid eyes upon her."
"Yes." I had to admit, it sounded insane to my own ears. "My lady..." I said reluctantly. "I cannot ask you to believe me. But I know Melisande. If she wanted me to think she is in La Serenissima, it is because she is in La Serenissima. I have come to a blind alley, here. It is there I need to go."
It was Drustan who spoke at last, frowning. "I do not like it either, Phèdre nó Delaunay. But it is in my thoughts that this is the voice of your dreams you feared to heed."
I nodded.
Ysandre looked dourly at me. "Last time, you brought me a heap of stinking hides, a Skaldi dagger and a Tsingani fortune-teller. This time, a velvet cloak and a dream. What next? A kerchief and a worrisome feeling?" I bit my tongue and did not answer. "Very well. It is my profound hope that you're wrong this time, but I'm not fool enough to wager on it, nor to try and stop you. What do you want of us?"
I told them my plan. Drustan looked amused, although Ysandre did not. Nonetheless, she agreed to it.
When I made my obeisance and would have left, she called me back in a different tone. "Phèdre." I turned and met her violet eyes, dark with concern. "Anaflel Delaunay was my ally when I had no other around me who did not seek to use me. I called upon his oath, and he died of it. We are at peace, now, and I hold the throne unchallenged. The army is in my hand, and no province but that acknowledges my sovereignty. Drustan mab Necthana is my acknowledged