Kushiel's Justice - Jacqueline Carey [226]
"Perhaps you would prefer to speak Caerdicci?" he asked in that tongue when I finished.
"Elua, yes!" I laughed, startled. "Thank you, my lord.”
Adelmar smiled thinly. "Some of us are educated." He arched one brow. "I'll own, I'm curious. What brings one lone D'Angeline to our midst in the company of a group of Albans? You're either brave, foolhardy, or both.”
I explained.
It took a while.
He listened without interrupting, studying my face. At one point, he glanced away to shuffle through some papers on a side table. When I faltered, he merely beckoned for me to continue. At last I finished. He propped his chin on one hand and regarded me. "I would very much like to believe you're a raving madman," he mused. "Unfortunately, I do remember this man of whom you speak, very clearly indeed. And my men have asked questions. It seems the women of Maarten's Crossing are filled with gossip about the young D'Angeline staying at Halla's inn. Terrible scars, it seems.”
"I've not lied to you, my lord," I said.
"You should have," Adelmar said bluntly. "You should have told me you were pilgrims.”
"Would you have believed me?" I asked.
His brown eyes glinted with amusement. "Not likely.”
"Safe passage," I said. "That's all we ask. We're travelling swiftly. If he sticks to the pilgrims' route, we'll catch him within three weeks' time. A month, at most.”
"It's not that simple." Adelmar rose to pace the room, hands clasped behind his back. "You're too young to remember the war, I suppose?”
"I was born after it ended," I said.
"I'll wager he remembers it." He paused in front of Urist, who favored him with an unblinking stare. "We might have faced one another on the battlefield, he and I, along the banks of the Rhenus. Neither of us much older than you are today, young prince. And do you know what I discovered?" he asked. I shook my head. "I don't have a taste for war," Adelmar said grimly. "Waldemar Selig was a great man, but he had a great man's impatience. I am a lesser man, but a patient one. After Skaldia's defeat, while my countrymen retreated to lick their wounds, I saw what the future might hold when Alba opened for trade. And I set about building a lesser empire than Selig envisioned, built on trade, and not glory.”
I nodded. "So did many along the Caerdicci border.”
"Yes," he said. "I studied among them. Unfortunately, my holdings here are isolated. We don't lie on the Caerdicci trade routes. So I looked east to Alba, and south to the Flatlands. And I looked north. Recently, the north looked back.”
"Vralia?" I asked.
"An interesting man, Tadeuz Vral." Adelmar gave me another thin smile. "We held a meeting, he and I, along the southern border of his fledgling empire. He made me promises; promises of fur and amber and timber, promises of a vast, growing market for trade. And I made him a promise. I promised to grant safe passage through Skaldia for the Yeshuite pilgrims with which he thinks to build a mighty kingdom in the north.”
"Berlik's no pilgrim," I said.
"Can you gauge a man's heart so surely?" he asked. "He came to me as a pilgrim. Those with whom he was travelling spoke eloquently on his behalf. I saw no violence in him, only sorrow.”
"He's not a Yeshuite!" I raised my voice. "Name of Elua, man! He's a magician of the Maghuin Dhonn. The people he was with—whoever they are, he's only just met them.”
"A man's heart may change in a day," Adelmar said dryly. "Tadeuz Vral claims that his did. And he is a valuable ally.”
"Are you refusing our request?" I asked.
He was silent for a moment. "I have no great wish to offend the Cruarch of Alba and the Queen of Terre d'Ange. If you were to return with a large delegation and a generous offering of thanks, enough to offset the ill will it would generate