The Black Raven - Katharine Kerr [150]
“Do eat somewhat, Your Highness,” Elyssa said.
“In a bit. I’ve got to get out for some fresh air first. I simply must.” Bellyra rose and waved a vague hand at them. “But please, eat now. Don’t wait for me.”
Bellyra sent a maidservant for her cloak and clogs, then summoned her pages and her bodyguard. As they were walking down the spiral stairs, it occurred to her that she might see Lilli in the great hall. The thought gave her an odd sensation: a cold, weak feeling that made her tremble before it mercifully passed on. She hesitated for a moment halfway down and looked out over the great hall, mobbed with riders and servants. At the table of honor Nevyn and Oggyn sat talking. She saw neither Maryn nor Lilli.
Outside the crisp air made her gasp. With Maddyn beside her, she walked slowly, gauging each step on the slick cobbles before she took it. Her pages ran on ahead to scoop up handfuls of the clean bright snow. She paused, watching them fling snowballs at one another and listening to them laugh. She found herself remembering the child she’d been at their age: a solemn little girl, not given to laughing at much of anything.
“Your Highness?” Maddyn said. “Are you unwell? I hope I don’t speak above myself, but you’re as pale as the wretched snow.”
“Am I? It’s just the cold, truly. I’m not used to it.”
“Very well, then.” He was studying her face as if he could read truths upon it. “I don’t mean to presume.”
Bellyra turned away from his stare. She tipped her head back to look at the sky and saw the looming towers dance through tears.
“Oh, my lady,” Maddyn said, and his voice was as soft as a plucked harp. “It aches my heart to see you sad.”
“Does it?” She turned around and wiped her face on a fold of her cloak. “My thanks. I wish I were better at hiding it. I won’t be much of a queen if I can’t learn to lie.”
“Don’t jest!” He reached out his hand, then jerked it back. “Your Highness, forgive me! I forget myself.”
“Do you, Maddo? Then I envy you.”
Before he could answer she turned and ran, slipping a little on the icy cobbles, ran all the way back to the broch with her pages haring after, yelling “Your Highness, wait!” over and over. At the door she stopped, took a deep breath, arranged a smile, and walked decorously inside.
“Lilli, has the cough returned?” Nevyn said.
“It hasn’t, my lord. I’m just tired.”
Nevyn set his hands on his hips and studied her. In his tower room she was sitting in a spill of sunlight from the window. She slumped in the chair, and her pale face looked blotchy, as if perhaps she’d sat up late being sick.
“It’s not good for an apprentice to lie to her master,” Nevyn said at last. “Especially in our craft.”
“Well, in truth, I hurt my back.”
“Oh indeed? How?”
“I slipped on the stairs coming out of the women’s hall.”
When Nevyn opened the dweomer sight, he saw that she’d hardened her aura around her till it looked like grey stone.
“Lilli, don’t lie!”
“I’m sorry.” Lilli looked only at the floor while she spoke. “It was rather awful, actually. I was in the women’s hall, and the princess grew angry with me. Over Maryn, I mean, and she yelled at me and told me to get out.” Her voice shook badly. “She called me a little slut. And so I started to leave, and she threw somewhat, I’m not sure what it was, but it hit me in the back. It still hurts, my lord, so I’d say it left a bruise.”
Nevyn was about to call her a worse liar than before—but her aura revealed her to be telling the truth.
“Lean forward,” he said. “I want to see if there’s a swelling.” When he ran his fingertips down her back, he could feel the contusion clearly even through her pair of dresses. “I should make you up a poultice for that.”
“Will it make it heal more quickly? I don’t want Maryn to see it. I’d better make up some story. He probably