Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [216]
In an hour or so, the princess returned from wherever her thoughts had taken her. "Tell me, Moirin of the Maghuin Dhonn. What is the punishment among your people for defying the Son of Heaven?"
"We have no Emperor," I said.
She made an impatient gesture. "Your king, your ruler."
I shook my head. "The Maghuin Dhonn have no ruler."
Beneath the hem of her veil, Snow Tiger's mouth fell open. "How do you live?" she asked in astonishment. "How?"
"Oh…" I shrugged. "We are a solitary folk, preferring to live in the wilderness. If there is a thing to be decided, it will be discussed by the oldest and wisest among us. But I do not think that there have been any great decisions made in my lifetime," I added. "We made a very bad choice a long time ago, and the Maghuin Dhonn Herself punished us for it."
She stirred. "The gifts you spoke of… that night. The ability to see the paths of the future, to change shape. Is that how you lost them?"
"Aye, my lady."
"It must have been a very bad choice."
I thought of the green burial mound in Clunderry, the ring of standing stones in the forest. "It was. Would you hear the tale?" She nodded, so I told her the story of the D'Angeline prince and his Alban bride, binding magics, oaths made and broken, the babe who would have grown up to destroy us slain in the womb.
Snow Tiger listened without a word, exhaling softly when I finished. "It is a terrible tale," she mused. "And yet the magicians redeemed themselves in the end. The sacrifices they made saved their people."
I nodded. "That is why we remember them in grief and sorrow, and honor the bitter lesson that their history teaches us."
"Then I will try to do the same." She cocked her head. "Master Lo Feng said you were descended from the royal blood of two lands. How can that be when your mother's people have no ruler?"
"Alba has a ruler." I smiled. "It's just that the Maghuin Dhonn don't exactly acknowledge the Cruarch's sovereignty over us. And since the time of Alais the Wise, the Cruarchs of Alba have been content to leave us alone."
"Then it is your father who is of royal blood?" The princess sounded perplexed. "The father you discovered in Terre d'Ange? I do recall you shouting at me about him."
I flushed, embarrassed at the memory. "No, no. My father is a Priest of Naamah."
She leaned back against the seat. "I am very confused."
"I'm sorry, my lady."
Snow Tiger dismissed my apology with a gesture. "You may as well explain it to me. We have a long journey, and…" She paused, her voice taking on a wistful tone. "Despite your peculiar accent, I find I like hearing your stories. No one has told me a story since I was a very small girl."
And so I told her tales for the remainder of the day's journey, spinning out the complicated history of my ancestry, the tale of my parents' unlikely encounter, my search to find my father in the City of Elua— although I left out the more uncanny details of my complicated relationship with Raphael de Mereliot and I did not explain how I came to be Queen Jehanne's companion.
Still, it was enough.
She listened to it all with a sense of mortified wonder. "Are they all so licentious? D'Angelines?"
"They do not reckon it so." I rubbed my face beneath the veil, having talked myself hoarse. "Nor do I. Blessed Elua bade them to love, and they… we… do. I have felt Naamah's blessing upon me. I do believe there is divine purpose in it, my lady." Before she could reply, the carriage came to a halt. I peered out the window. It was dusk, true dusk, and we were in the rustic courtyard of the abandoned farmstead.
Tortoise rapped on the carriage door, his homely face appearing in the window, expression uncertain. "Noble… ah, Lady Chan? We have arrived."
"Yes, thank you," I said to him. "Give us a moment."
Two more figures emerged from the farmstead's main lodging, bearing paper