The Riddle - Alison Croggon [175]
Maerad licked her dry lips. “You are angry?” she said meekly. “I thought time was of no account to you.”
“You have sought to deceive me,” said the Winterking. “You are insolent, in so abusing my hospitality.”
“I don’t understand.” He knows, she thought with sudden panic: he knows my magery has returned. “But how can I deceive you, in your own palace? You told me I could not.”
“I told you not to play me for a fool.” Arkan took a step toward her, and the lightnings about his brow grew more dangerous. “I know you have tried to hide from me. I do not permit it.” So he had sensed her shield.
Maerad outfaced him with all the haughtiness she could muster. “I did not realize your hospitality meant that you can witness all my privacies,” she said.
“Here you may have no privacy,” said Arkan. “You have not earned such trust.”
“And why should I trust you?” said Maerad hotly. “What do you think it feels like, being watched all the time, like a — a captured animal? What right have you to accuse me? I have done nothing wrong.”
“I will not countenance your opposing my power,” said Arkan.
“How can I oppose your power?” asked Maerad bitterly. “Here, you say, I have none.”
“If I chose to take all your power, you would be unable to move a single finger without my permission.” The Winterking stared at her with withering contempt. “I leave you a little, as a courtesy. You are unwise to use it against me. Even in your full power, you could not challenge me.”
“It’s strange, for you to speak to me of courtesy,” she answered angrily.
“Silence!” This time the Winterking exerted the full force of his power over her. Maerad felt as if a rope jerked her hard; she gasped in pain and fell forward onto her knees. “Elednor of Edil-Amarandh, I have been patient with you. I have spread before you the riches of my palace. I have refused you nothing. But perhaps you prefer this treatment? I can easily oblige you.”
Maerad, her head bent, said, “I don’t understand. What have I done?”
The Winterking stepped down from the dais and walked toward her, and then bent down and took her chin in his hand. His hand was cold as ice, and its strength inexorable, but his touch was gentle. Maerad looked up into his eyes and instantly forgot everything in a rush of desire. She blinked with humiliation, seeing a flash of triumph in Arkan’s eyes, and tried to hide her face.
“You are the Fire Lily,” said the Winterking softly. “And I am the Ice King. Does fire melt ice? Or ice put out fire? Or may they come together, fire and ice, neither melted nor quenched?”
Maerad blushed and turned her eyes away. Arkan let go of her chin, and she bowed her head, looking at the floor. She was trembling all over — with fear or longing, she could not tell.
“I do not know,” she whispered at last.
“I thought to honor you as my queen,” said the Winterking. Now his voice was sad and full of longing, a young prince wounded by his unfaithful lover. “And I think in return you betray me.”
Maerad reeled in shock. She shut her eyes for a moment, gathering her breath and her will, carefully shielding her mind. She could feel her pulse throbbing hard in her neck. He doesn’t know I have any power, she thought, not for sure. Very slowly, she stood up and looked Arkan in the eye, refusing to lower her gaze.
“You said that love could not be feigned and could not be stolen,” she said passionately. “And now you say that I will be your queen. And yet you imprison me and give me no freedom. You know what it is like to be caged. It is a death. You tell me I cannot hide from you, and yet you punish me for hiding. You say you do not want me to fear you, and you treat me as if I were a slave. Forgive me, My Lord” — and here she bowed her head sadly, contrite and meek — “I do not understand your anger. I do not understand why you are punishing me for something that you say I cannot do. I do not understand your love, if this is the love you offer me.”
The Winterking turned on his heel, and she looked up as he walked away from her. She could feel his doubt, as slowly the light in the throne room