Masquerades - Kate Novak [130]
"We can just sit at the table, if it will make you more comfortable," Victor said.
Alias stepped into the room, and Victor followed, pushing the door closed behind them. Feeling a little foolish, she walked past the table and sat down on one of the pillows. She inspected the bottle of Evermead. It was more than a hundred years old.
"Now, tell me what's wrong," Victor insisted, sinking onto a cushion beside her.
Alias shook her head. "It's nothing, Victor… really. Dragonbait and I just had an argument. He can be so-so-Oh! It just doesn't make any-sense! Victor, have you been telling me the truth about your father?" she demanded.
Victor looked into the flames of the fire. "No," he admitted softly.
Alias removed her mask, then reached up and untied the strings of the fabric covering Victor's eyes and pulled it away. She laid both masks down on the pillow beside her. Then she said, "Victor, you have to tell me everything you know."
"You have to understand," Victor said, looking her in the eye. "I love my father. I'm sure he thinks somehow what he's doing is right. He's not an evil man, Alias. He's just-well, he's just so certain that he's always right."
"You know he's involved with the Night Masks?"
"I've suspected it for some time. There hasn't been any money missing, but I guess he's been making some other kind of payments. He's in charge of all the smoke powder the city confiscates. There's a lot of it. It isn't all in the warehouse where the books say it should be. When I told him I'd found the key, I also told him I'd discovered about the smoke powder. He seemed pretty shaken. He asked me
to cover for him, to give him time to take care of some personal matters. He promised me, though, that he would come here tonight and explain things to you and Durgar."
The young man looked away, and Alias could see there were tears in his eyes. "It doesn't look good, does it?" he asked.
"No. It doesn't," Alias agreed.
"You'd better go back downstairs," Victor said. "It would be better for you if you weren't seen with me, I think."
"Why not?" Alias demanded.
"My father is going to be the center of a scandal, Alias. He could be involved with the Night Masks. Gods! He might even be the Faceless. I have to stand beside him, but there's no reason for you to be involved."
"Victor, no," Alias said, feeling her heart breaking for the young man's pain. "Look. I can't approve of your father, but I love you. I'm not going to abandon you because of something your father did."
"I love you" Victor replied, "which is why I can't allow you to stay. I don't want your name dragged down with ours."
"If you love me," Alias whispered vehemently, "you'll let me stay."
Victor smiled sadly. He ran his finger across her cheek, then down her neck and along her shoulder. "You are so very beautiful," he whispered. "You made me feel so lucky."
Alias put her hand behind the nobleman's neck and pulled his face close to her own. "I am not leaving you. You say you love me. Prove it," she demanded, and she threw her arms about his neck and pressed her lips against his own.
Lord Victor slid one hand about the swordswoman's waist to pull her closer as his other hand rested over Alias's porcelain mask, covering its eyes completely.
*****
Below, in the main room of the Tower, the interminably long quadrille had ended and Dragonbait excused himself from Thistle Thalavar's company as quickly as good manners allowed. Now he scanned the crowded room for either Alias or Victor. In the end, it was Olive who found him. She tugged anxiously on the hem of his tunic.
Where is she? he signed surreptitiously.
The halfling jerked her finger in the direction of the stairway. "With Lord Victor," she growled. "Didn't you talk to her?"