The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) (49 page)

“Gracia, the defacements came before the
trial. People seem to understand now what happened, and why, thanks to…. Did
the boys really find those record books hidden here?”

“Luckily, they brought them straight to
Rexson.”

“Without them, Val and I would still be
in Traigland. Without those books to explain Amison’s motive, no one would have
believed he attacked me, that Val didn’t murder him.”

“I know, dear,” said Gracia. She folded
August in her arms once more. “I know.”

* * *

The following evening, Vane and August
made their way to Gratton’s inn. He had not returned from work yet, so they sat
unrecognized in plain clothes and ate some broiled fish while they waited.
Gratton spotted them as soon as he walked in. His gait revealed he was
dog-tired, but sober, without a doubt sober. He even was clean-shaven, and
looked to have cut his hair recently. August was not expecting him to be
keeping up his grooming, and she took his smooth chin as a positive sign.

“It’s
about time you two made it back to Podrar. We’ll speak in my room?”

“You
haven’t eaten.”

“I’ll
have them bring something up.”

Gratton’s
room was not much larger than his wife’s had been in Yangerton; he could afford
nothing more spacious until he sold his house.
Her
house.

“How
are you?” asked August, after Gratton removed his uniform hat and Vane erected
a sound barrier.

“Working
long hours to keep busy. It’s all I can think to do, but it’s enough. I’m so
exhausted at the end of the day I can’t help but sleep, and I wouldn’t
otherwise.”

“Sleeping’s
good,” said August.

“You sleeping any?” he asked her.

“I drink tea at night. Some days it helps
more than others.”

“Listen, I appreciate what you did on the
stand, defending Bennie.”

“The papers were out of line to suggest….
And people know it, Gratton.”

“And you,” he told Vane, “I’m glad you
killed the bastard. I’d rather have done it myself, but under the
circumstances…. You sure made the son of a bitch pay.” He started to apologize
to August for his language, but she told him to call Amison anything he wanted.
“You’re all right, you know, the both of you. I knew you wouldn’t stay away for
long, not from Herezoth. Somehow, when I think of you two and that kid instead
of her, it’s easier not to want a drink.”

“I
knew you before you married,” said Vane. “Not well, but I knew you then, and I
know you now. You’re better for the time you had with her. And I never was able
to thank you for coming along that day, with Zac and me.”

“Thanks
to you, I got the chance to make his peons regret taking her. I guess magic has
its upside.”

Vane
said, “You witnessed the hanging, didn’t you?”

“Goodly’s?
Of course I did! Whimpering little worm he was.”

Gratton
failed to notice August’s shudder, but Vane did not. He asked Gratton how
selling the house was going, and where he was hoping to move.

“Partsvale,”
he said. “Where I was raised. My brother still lives there, works in the record
room at Town Hall from what I hear. I’ll have to give up my captaincy, but I
should be able to arrange a transfer.”

“A
change of scene might do wonders for you,” said August.

“Either
that, or it’ll be a complete disaster. Haven’t seen my brother in twenty years.
We didn’t part on the best of terms: my fault, of course.”

Vane
said, “Troubled youth, were you?”

“We
got in a fight over some girl when I was seventeen. Don’t even remember who she
was. We both had quite a few. Well, I had more than was decent. He was looking
for a wife and only saw one at a time, at least.”

“What
kind of fight?” asked August.

“The
kind where I broke his arm and left home to join the guard. And months after
that, the Resistance. I never did tell Bennie about him. Figured she’d want us
to reconcile, and frankly, I didn’t want to deal with that long a trip or a
string of letters after which he’d just tell me to go to hell.”

August
agreed, “Bennie would have pushed you to patch things up.”

“I
figure now I should try. It would make her happy, and I’ve got nothing better
to do. Work’s something, but thirteen or fourteen hours a day of it…. I owe
Hayden one. He and his wife are getting the house in order and going through
Bennie’s things. She didn’t have much, but I haven’t the time or the head for
that right now. Hopefully I’ll sell the house by the end of the year and can
leave this dump of a city.”

“Well,”
said August, “I’m glad you’re not gone yet. We wouldn’t have seen you.”

Gratton
nodded his thanks as a woman from downstairs knocked with his dinner. Vane
removed the sound barrier to let her in, and after another hour or so, he and
August told Gratton goodbye.

“He’ll
get on,” said August, when they had snuck behind the inn and transported to
Oakdowns. “It really does seem he’ll get on. Maybe when some time goes by,
he’ll even reconnect with one of those girls up in Partsvale…. Val, this might
sound strange, but do you ever get the feeling your parents are watching over
you?”

“As
a child I liked to think that, once I learned who they were. Why?”

“Because
Gratton…. It really seems Bennie’s still with him.”

“He
was never a bad person, I don’t think. Just needed someone to bring out the
best in him, and she did that. It’s a crying shame he lost her, but the
influence will stick. He’s resolved on that point, don’t you think?”

“He
certainly seems to be.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The
Court

Three weeks
after Vane returned to Herezoth, Rexson hosted a state dinner to welcome a
group of Traiglandian diplomats who had come to adjust the terms of a trade
treaty. The five visitors were to work with the king and his Foreign Affairs
and Commerce Councils, both of which had a core formed of nobility but also a
secondary group of experts—historians, linguists, economists—that
the noblemen in question regularly consulted.

Rexson strongly
suggested Vane attend the dinner, and though Vane knew he would have to return
to court at some point, he was dreading the very thought. He spent the morning
of that day in the garden, staring at a book but not really reading it,
wondering how Thad would react to his return. How coldly would Mason Greller’s
eldest son, Amison’s brother-in-law, treat him? Would those cursed murmurs
behind his back return, or would people speak their minds to his face this
time? Vane had not killed just any man; he had butchered Carson Amison, head of
the very council on foreign affairs that had been in session each day for a
month preparing for the treaty talks; Carson Amison, from a bloodline among
those of the first warrior lords Herezoth had known; Carson Amison, powerful
enough that no one in fifteen years had dared challenge him over the degree of
support he had offered Zalski, not even the king.

Vane went
inside to lunch with August, though he wasn’t hungry. She distracted him from
his worries by showing him a hat and blanket she had knitted for the baby, and
he went back outside for two or three hours before he had to get ready for the
banquet. August had offered to go to the library so as not to be in his way,
and to wash and dress took him hardly any time. After that, he decided to join
his wife.

He found her
wearing an empire-waisted gown, emerald green, with a hoop skirt wide enough
that he could barely notice she was pregnant. Two servants were just finishing
putting up her hair, half of which was twisted in a rose-shaped bun on the back
of her head. Vane had never seen her dress formally or fix her hair that way,
and could only gawk as the women bustled about with clips to hold a few stray
strands in place. They left when August dismissed them, and she took Vane’s
hand to say, “I’m coming with you.”

“When did you…?
Where…?”

“The queen gave
me the dress. It was easy enough to take the seams in. I arranged things so you
wouldn’t find out ahead of time, but you’re not facing this alone. I won’t let
you.”

“August….”

“I’m going with
you, and that’s that.”

“The king’s
arranged for me…. I’m meeting with Amison’s family beforehand.”

“
We’re
meeting with Amison’s family,” she
corrected. “And it’ll be awkward and horrible, and no one will have a blasted
word to say, but it
is
necessary.
You’ll have to coexist with them if you want to remain at court and on the
council. You can’t see them for the first time after everything that happened
at this dinner, in public, with ambassadors from Traigland there while the
treaty’s still on the table. I know what’s at stake, and I’m coming with you,
Val. Gracia says if I’m ever to make an appearance, this is the time: when
overseas visitors standing around will ensure no one treats me rudely, even if
they want to; when the attack and the baby might dispose people to be welcoming.
It’s more important than ever to establish that we’re both in this relationship
and in Herezoth for good. I don’t expect we’ll have a pleasant evening, and I
don’t imagine I’ll become bosom friends with Carlina Greller, but you are not
going through this by yourself, not after you nearly died for me.”

“Are you sure
you can face that man’s family?”

“I wasn’t
before this morning,” she admitted. “I am now, though. I’m positive. Val, we
plow through the hard things together. I thought you understood how this
works?”

“And Rexson and
Gracia are expecting you?”

“There’ll be an
empty seat at your table if I’m not there. Now, I’m no expert in etiquette, but
I believe it’s frowned upon to throw a host in that situation, barring illness
or the like…. Would you bring me my jewelry box? You came in earlier than I
thought you would to get ready. I saw you through the window and didn’t have
time to pick anything out.”

He thanked her
and kissed her cheek.

“You can thank
me by fetching my jewelry.”

Vane was back
with the box in thirty seconds. He helped August select a ruby pendant necklace
surrounded by diamonds, with a pair of diamond earrings to match and white silk
gloves that ran to just below the elbow. After he clasped her necklace, she
stood to straighten out her skirt. She caught him staring at her with a glazed
look in his eye when she raised her head, and she asked him, “What is it?”

“You’re
gorgeous,” he told her.

“I look like a
watermelon.”

“You’re gorgeous,”
he repeated. “That dress, and your hair that way…. You never do that with your
hair.”

She moved
instinctively to pull a curl, then realized she should not and pressed her
hands together instead. “Am I forgetting something? Will I fit in at all?”

“You’ll be the
most beautiful woman there. That makes fitting in difficult.”

“Val, I mean
it.”

“You look
perfect,” he assured her.

As Gracia
walked Vane and August to the parlor-style room where they were to meet with
Amison’s family, she described for the girl’s benefit each person they would
find waiting.

“Tanya Greller
is the elder of the sisters. Her air is intense and can seem judgmental, but
she means no insult. She would rather go on as though nothing had happened, so
don’t be alarmed if she says little.

“Rayla Amison’s
quite the opposite. She means well, but speaks more than she should. They both
feel horrible for what their brother did, even if Tanya seems insensitive and
Rayla insincere. They aren’t cold. They’re at a loss as to how to respond to
this, and remember, they’ve no idea at all Vane was stabbed, so they can’t feel
for that.

“Gilbert
Greller, now, is the epitome of tact under normal conditions. He and Tanya have
three children, but you won’t see them until dinner. Here we are….”

Gracia entered
the first-floor parlor where Vane and August found Amison’s family dressed for
the banquet to follow. As the queen introduced the Duchess of Ingleton, August
realized both
that man
’s sisters
looked as uncomfortable as she herself must, especially the bony-faced Tanya.
Gilbert Greller had chiseled cheeks and a powerful frame as he approached forty
years, and gave Vane a firm handshake, August an unexpected but comforting
smile. Rayla, Carson’s youngest sister, shared her brother’s penetrating gaze
but not his air of egotism; even having just met the woman, August knew Rayla
would be horrified to suspect how much her sharp, amber-tinted eyes unsettled
her.

Amison’s family
sat on a settee and chairs beneath a window on the north wall, so August and
Vane took seats on a sofa across from them. Gracia, whom August had asked ahead
of time not to leave, settled in an armchair.

Gilbert Greller
was the first to speak, addressing Vane, whom he had met on various occasions
earlier in the year. “When did you return to Oakdowns? Are things settled
there?”

“We
went back almost a month ago,” Vane told him. “Things are calm now.”

“Glad
to hear it,” said Gilbert. “Glad to hear it….” He cleared his throat before
turning blunt. “My wife and her sister and I, we’re quite aware you’re
guiltless. It’s a bloody tragedy he put you in position to…. We feel quite
ashamed of it all.”

August
told them, “Please don’t. We know you had nothing to do with it, any of you.”

Rayla
said, “Things were difficult for you both before he caused this mess. I’ve been
so relieved he hurt neither one of you, or the baby, your precious baby….
Congratulations to you! How far along…?”

“Five
months,” said August.

Vane
offered, “I’m sorry you had to suffer the indignity of that trial, with the
reporters and all that testimony.”

“Nonsense,”
said Gilbert. “The truth had to come out, anyone with sense could see that. Me,
I knew and loved your parents. Grew up with them. I told Tanya as soon as we
heard about Carson there was no way you…. The truth had to come out,” he
repeated. “It wasn’t pleasant, but it was everyone’s duty. Anyway, every family
has its black sheep.” His face turned red as he realized to whom he addressed
that comment. “I didn’t mean….”

“I
know you didn’t,” said Vane.

Rayla
asked August, “Will this be your first time among the titled?” August nodded,
and Rayla offered, “I’ll be happy to introduce you to the women. Her Highness
won’t be able. The diplomats’ wives, you see….”

“That’s
very kind,” said August, beginning to blush.

“It’s
not often we find a new face among us, but I promise, I’ve no reason to suspect
everyone won’t just adore you.” Rayla lowered her voice conspiratorially.
“They’ll latch onto preparations for baby if they can think of nothing else to
say. Prepare yourself for that.”

“You’re
very kind,” August repeated. She had rarely felt so awkward, but she went on.
“Her Highness suggested I stay near my husband tonight, and I imagine I should
do that.”

“But
dear, if you’re to give and receive calls from these women, have tea with
them….”

Gracia
interrupted on August’s behalf. “She’s not likely to receive many invitations
beyond those wrought of rabid curiosity, Rayla, no matter what praise you or I
bestow on her. And she wisely plans to refrain from presenting herself among
your peers more often than she must. She’s no more interested in clawing her
way into society than you would be in her place and with her background. She’s
come to support Ingleton. That’s the extent of her aspirations, and she really
should stay with him this evening.”

“I
do appreciate your welcome,” August assured Amison’s sister.

Tanya
said, “You shouldn’t. She only wants to separate herself from Carson, and
figures you’re a useful scalpel. He threatened, so she’ll protect. It’s
sickening. You’ve suffered enough at my family’s hand and will forgive me, I’m
sure, if I prefer to allow you to live your life without further interference
on my part.”

“Of
course,” blustered August. “This is difficult for everyone. We just want to put
the past behind us, we all do.”

Gilbert
asked Vane, “And how do you intend to do that?”

Ingleton
replied, “By continuing as I was, I suppose.”

Tanya’s
lips grew thin, while Rayla said, “Whatever for? Won’t you leave that blasted
council, if you won’t leave Podrar? Don’t you see how pointless it all is? What
will you accomplish beyond another attack? You do realize Carson never would
have done this, had you kept from that council like he asked you? You see that
I, that my sister, would not be shamed?”

“With
all due respect, if what I do from this point out reflects on you to any
degree, that’s Carson’s doing, not mine, and while I wish my choices affected
you not at all, I won’t change my life’s course for you. My decision to return
has nothing to do with your brother or with anyone in this room beyond my wife
and me. I’ve no wish to spite your family.”

Rayla
demanded, “Then why are you doing this?”

“Because
I feel I must. That’s all I can say.”

“Very
well,” said Rayla. She rose to her feet to dismiss herself, and everyone else
took her lead. “Thank you both for speaking with us. Congratulations, again,
and best of luck to you.” She caught Vane’s eye. “You’ll need it. If someone
kills you or your wife this time around, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”

“I
can care for myself, don’t you worry.”

The
two families shook hands. When Rayla and Tanya walked toward the door, Gilbert
halted his wife with a hand on her shoulder and told her, “I’ll catch you up.”
The sisters left, and Gracia, while Vane and August hung back for a further
word with Mason Greller’s oldest son. “You two keep plodding on,” he told them.
“You’re doing fine, just fine.”

And
an empty crystal vase on the nearest end table began to shake. A moment later,
it vanished for a good five seconds before it popped back in existence.

“Can’t
make things disappear permanently,” Gilbert said. “Thad holds the family record
at three minutes. Tanya doesn’t know, so don’t tell her.” Vane promised not to,
and Gilbert went on, “My father tried to vanish the door the day Zalski took
over, you know, or so he says. I wasn’t at that conference where your uncle began
his slaughter. Zalski locked the court in, and when he threatened to turn
violent, my father thought vanishing the door might let some people escape the
old king’s meeting room. Zalski had cast a spell of some kind, on the walls….”

“A
sound barrier,” said Vane.

“Right,
that. His magic was stronger than my father’s, no surprise there. The door
wouldn’t budge.”