The Blood Knight - J. Gregory Keyes [56]
“Wilhuman, werliha. Wilhuman hemz,” a voice scratched behind him.
“Welcome, traitor. Welcome home.”
“YOU’RE SUPPOSED to kill me?” Anne asked, fixing Elyoner with her gaze.
The duchess of Loiyes smiled lazily back at her.
Anne could almost feel Neil MeqVren tightening next to her, like the string of a lute.
She waited until I sent Aspar away, she thought. Not that he and Winna would have made a difference against this many…
She lifted a hand to rub her forehead but let it drop. It would only make her look weak.
Too much had happened, and far too quickly. She’d still been blurry with alcohol when she’d met Elyoner and her men on the road. And then the relief of seeing a familiar face—the face of family, even—had been so intense that she hadn’t allowed herself to entertain the most obvious thoughts.
That Elyoner had sent her attackers.
Elyoner Dare had always been a mystery to Anne, albeit a pleasant one. She was Anne’s father’s sister, older than Lesbeth and Robert, but she had always seemed much younger than Anne’s father. Anne guessed her to be around thirty.
Family trips to Glenchest had always been a treat; there was even a sense among the children that the adults were having more fun than they were, though it wasn’t until much later that she had begun to understand what sort of fun it was.
That impression had grown as Anne got older. Elyoner always appeared to do pretty much as she pleased. Though she had a husband somewhere, he was never really in evidence, and Elyoner was well known for taking young and highly temporary lovers. Muriele—Anne’s mother—had always seemed to disapprove of Elyoner, which for Anne was another thing that recommended her aunt. Though a great gossip, she had never seemed in the least political, or even particularly aware of what went on beyond the who-was-sleeping-with-whom.
Now Anne was suddenly, acutely conscious that she did not really know her aunt at all.
“Kill you and bury the body where it will not be found,” Elyoner amplified. “Those were the instructions. In return, Robert tells me my life at Glenchest will go on much as it always has.” She sighed wistfully. “Such a comforting thought.”
“But you aren’t,” Anne said. “You aren’t going to have me killed…are you?”
Elyoner’s cerulean eyes focused sharply on her.
“No,” she said. “No, of course not. My brother doesn’t know me quite as well as he thinks he does, which is a bit disheartening.” Her face grew more serious, and she leveled an accusing finger at Anne. “But you should never have trusted me, for I might have,” she said. “Consider that if your dear uncle Robert has ordered your murder, no other relative of yours is trustworthy, with the likely exception of your mother. Taking your side makes my life very difficult and could in fact end it. That’s not an easy choice to make, even for you, my sweet.”
“But you made it.”
Elyoner nodded. “After what happened to Fastia and Elseny, practically in my very own parlor—no, not you, too. I loved William above all my siblings. I could never betray his last daughter that way.”
“Do you think Uncle Robert has gone mad?” Anne asked.
“I think he was born mad,” Elyoner said. “It happens with twins, you know. Lesbeth got everything that was good from their parents’ union, and Robert was left with the dregs.” Her gaze cut aside to Sir Neil.
“You may relax now, sweet knight,” she said. “To repeat myself in plain words, I’m here to help Anne, not to harm her. If I wanted her dead, I should have accomplished that long before finding you and then used your grief to make you my lover. Or some other wicked and delightful thing.”
“You always speak such comforting words,” Neil replied.
Anne thought that the familiar response seemed to confirm what Elyoner had implied earlier, that Sir Neil and her sister Fastia had had some sort of affair.
On the surface that seemed impossible. Fastia had been ludicrously dutiful, and so was Neil. One