The Floodgate - Elaine Cunningham [101]
His heart skipped a beat. "Who are you?" he breathed.
She sat up and tossed a pinch of powder into the air over her head. The sparkling bits caught and hung in the air, then melted together to form a thin, shimmering sheet. This floated down, molded itself to her, and disappearedleaving a very different woman in her place.
Her features were not as delicate as Basel remembered them, and time had dimmed her eyes and blurred the lines of her face.
Basel stared in disbelief at the faded image of a woman he'd thought long dead. Although he'd mourned her for over a dozen years, his heart did not respond to her with joy.
"Keturah?" he said, not quite believing it "That's what we wanted them to think, wasn't it?" Memory flooded back. "Of course! You're Keturah's friend, the lady who helped her escape a near capture!"
"Friend, yes," the woman said. Her lips twitched into a brief and bitter smile.
"Lady, no."
An old story came back to him. Shortly after her marriage to Dhamari, Keturah had traveled to Basel's home city of Halar in the company of an Exchelsor merchant band. One of the hired swords had laid rough hands on herand lost them up to the elbows to her defensive magic. Her indignation grew when the caravan master explained that the mercenary had mistaken her for the camp doxie. A few words with the woman convinced Keturah that the "doxie" had not chosen this life. She had insisted that the woman be released in her care, and she had given her employment in her tower, and quietly trained the woman's magical gifts.
"A courtesan can still be a lady, regardless of the circumstances of her birth or her profession," Basel pointed out.
"Courtesan!" she scoffed. "That's still putting it too high! My mother could claim that title. She was a wizard's mistress. Guess what that makes me?"
"Illegitimate or not, if you know your father's name and lineage, you are guaranteed certain rights and a wizard's training."
"Oh, I know the name, but he was married into a powerful family and didn't wish to embarrass them. So I was sent away. I was handed over to a merchant's company as a sort of movable entertainment."
The enormity of this revelation stunned Basel into silence.
Any words that came to mind only trivialized such betrayal.
After a moment Sinestra shrugged. "An old tale, badly told. Whatever you're going to do to me, get on with it."
"All I require from you is an explanation. Why did you come here looking for Keturah's talisman?"
"I didn't. I came looking for your apprentice."
Basel studied the woman. She was already reverting to her enchanted appearance: her hair was darkening to black, and her skin was no longer sallow but golden and smooth. He had worked on such cloaking spells before. "If I'm not mistaken, the spell you wear is Keturah's."
"I don't have that much talent," she agreed. "It's a permanent spell. Nothing will touch it but the powder Keturah gave me, and you can bet I don't use that very often! The medallion was mine, though, in a manner of speaking. I bought it for Keturah. She was a good friend and a generous mistress. I kept every coin she gave me toward the day when I could repay her."
Something in her tone set off warnings in Basel's mind. "Why did you think that would be necessary?"
Sinestra's face-now fully reverted to its young and beautiful form-twisted with frustration. "I can't tell you."
"I see," mused Basel. "Perhaps you can tell me what you wanted with Keturah's talisman?"
"There are many kinds of slavery," she said shortly. "Some cages have golden bars, but at the end of the day there's little difference between gold and iron. How well do you know my husband?"
"Not very."
"Count yourself lucky. With this talisman, maybe I could win free of his prying eyes. It would be wonderful to have an hour or two to call entirely my own."
"Or perhaps to reinvent yourself and start a new life elsewhere, as you have done before."
"Perhaps," she said