Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [136]
Well.
I was told that Queen Jehanne had stopped by that first day, but I was sleeping and she left me undisturbed. When she came the second day, I was awake. She stood in the doorway surveying the indoor jungle, then regarding me with an inscrutable look.
I didn't know what to say. "Thank you, your majesty," I managed at last. "This is very, very wonderful."
"You like it?" Jehanne smiled a little. "It suits you. You're looking much improved."
"I'm feeling much improved." I took a deep breath and asked the question foremost in my mind. "Why are you being so kind to me?"
"Oddly enough, I've been asking myself that very question." She dismissed her attendants and bade the guard to see that no one bothered us, closing the door behind him.
"And have you answered it?" I asked.
Jehanne sat uninvited on the end of my bed, curling her legs beneath her gown like a girl. Sunlight filtering through leaves made green shadows on her fair skin. "You know, my motives may not have been admirable, but I had fun with you that day at Cereus House," she said candidly. "It reminded me of younger, more carefree times." She tilted her head. "I was born into the Night Court. Many of us are. Both my parents were adepts of Cereus House."
"I see," I said, although I didn't.
She made a face at me. "Oh, let me talk. Growing up in the Night Court, we learned early. The Dowaynes like to begin training us young. Long before we're allowed to study the arts of the bedchamber, we're trained to be perfect attendants and companions, to serve and entertain. But, of course, we stole into the library to study the sacred texts, we hid in the wings to watch the Showings. By the time formal bedchamber training begins, we knew all there was to know about Naamah's arts, at least in theory. That's true of most adepts."
"But not all?" I inquired.
"No." Jehanne shook her head. Light scintillated from a pair of diamond eardrops adorning her delicate lobes. "Betimes a House will take on a promising young man or woman with no training whatsoever." She smiled. "Some gorgeous unlikely creature from a backwoods hamlet too poor to own a single copy of the Trois Milles Joies, with no experience of aught but crude peasant rutting and a hunger to learn more."
I didn't think it was a particularly flattering description, but I bit my tongue on the thought.
She saw it in my face anyway and laughed. "You don't understand, Moirin. As a full-fledged adept, it was part of my job to train them. And that was one of my favorite things in the world to do." She shivered with remembered pleasure. "All that untutored ardor! So eager to please, so ready to be delighted by unimagined pleasures."
I made a noncommittal sound.
"You think I'm mocking you." Jehanne eyed me shrewdly. "I'm not. Innocence fades, you know. And at Cereus House, we're taught to revere the ephemeral nature of beauty. That's why our adepts were sought after for training raw recruits. What they were… it was a transient thing. So poignant. We took joy in them as no others could."
"Joy," I echoed softly.
"You made me remember," she said simply. "And then you even showed me a piece of magic when I asked. It seemed such a gentle, lovely thing. Despite everything, I liked being with you. And then I began to watch you fade. Far too soon and far too fast. It offended my sensibilities. I tried to make Raphael let you go, and he wouldn't. Aside from making a name as a miracle worker, I don't know what in the seven hells he's been up to with you. Whatever it is, you, apparently, were too besotted to refuse him. So I intervened, and here you are."
My eyes stung. "Jehanne…"
"Elua, don't cry!" She sounded cross.
"I'm not." I blinked, rubbed away my tears, and smiled at her. "You should be nice more often. It's very pleasant."
The Queen of Terre d'Ange shrugged one slender shoulder. "Everyone falls a little bit in love with me when I'm nice. It's tiresome."
"I'll try not to add to your burden, your majesty," I offered in a cool tone.
"Oh, please." She glanced sidelong at me. "You fell a little bit in love with