The Truth-Teller's Tale (26 page)

But I had seen Roelynn look lovely before. It was Alexander who drew my attention.

He was dressed in smartly cut black velvet with a foaming ivory-colored cravat at his throat. His fair hair had been pulled back and tied with a velvet ribbon, and the style exposed all the sharp angles of his cheeks and chin. Perhaps it was the severity of the hairstyle or the somber color of the suit, but Alexander had never looked so serious before—so stern, so unsmiling, so noble. So absolutely beautiful. He held Roelynn very correctly, arms extended stiffly till his hands rested at her waist and on her shoulder. They were gazing at each other as if there was no one else in the room.

However, there were a fair number of other people in the room, and most of them were staring at Alexander and Roelynn. I identified the handful of strangers present—the couples from Wodenderry that Karro had invited to give consequence to his ball—and I saw all of them watching Alexander with troubled, speculative eyes. Not for the first time, I wondered about the precise nature of the scandal that had sent Alexander and Gregory running from the royal city in disgrace. One of these Wodenderry visitors could fill me in on the details, I had no doubt.

I wondered if it was perhaps my duty as Roelynn's friend and Truth-Teller of Merendon to find out.

“Has Karro seen Roelynn dancing with Alexander?” Adele asked in a whisper. There was no possible way anyone on the dance floor could overhear our conversation, but there was something about the very act of spying that led us to speak in low voices.

“I don't know. He seems very absorbed in his own conversation.”

“Why can't she have more discretion?” Adele demanded. Because discretion was something she herself had in abundant supply, it was hard for her to understand why other people lacked it. “If she's going to dance with an uninvited guest, at least she should do it in a less spectacular way.”

I was still watching Roelynn and Alexander watch each other, intent, absorbed, oblivious. I remembered seeing their fervent embrace two nights ago. “I think they've reached the point where they don't care who sees them or how spectacular their behavior is,” I said.

“Karro will care.”

There was no answer to that except the obvious. Karro would very certainly care.

Finally the music stopped and all the couples disentangled, some more reluctantly than others. While we watched, Melinda and Gregory materialized beside Roelynn and Alexander. A smiling Gregory took Roelynn's hand as the orchestra pattered into another melody; a frowning Melinda appeared to launch into a furious scold of Alexander. So she knew him, too! The fair-haired young man merely gave her a deep bow and held out his arms to escort her into the polonaise. Within a few moments, the movements of the dance had separated the couples.

I pulled away from the eyehole and backed against the wall, needing the support. “Well,” I said. “We'll have to count this as a successful evening only if it doesn't result in bloodshed.”

Adele gave me a sober look, clearly not thinking my comment was funny. I shrugged, she spread her hands in resignation, and without saying another word, we headed back to the kitchen.

It was perhaps an hour later when Melinda came to find us. Another tedious hour of scraping food into garbage pails, dipping plates into soapy hot water, leaving pans to soak in oversize sinks. I tried to remember the generous pile of silver coins on our own kitchen table, but that amount seemed to shrink to a paltry sum as the wearisome evening wore on. One of the house servants, a girl who couldn't have been more than fourteen, took five minutes to rest her sore back against the wall, and fell asleep there standing up. Even the cook didn't bother to reprimand her, so she stayed there until her head jerked forward hard enough to wake her up.

When Melinda appeared, dressed in gold and white, it was as if some kind of rare fabled bird had alighted among the common crows and sparrows of the countryside. The cook and most of her assistants drew back, in awe of her elegance and station, though the girl who had fallen asleep crept close enough to brush her fingers across the back of Melinda's dress. A visit from the Dream-Maker; may as well take the chance of touching her in the hopes that she might make your dream come true.

“Eleda. Adele,” Melinda snapped. “Come with me right away. I think—” And she turned away and fled back down the hallway before completing her sentence.

I think there's going to be trouble.
No need to say it out loud.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Adele and I followed Melinda down the corridor that led to the dining room, then down another hallway that paralleled the dance floor. Clearly Melinda had been in this house often enough to have a fair idea of where she was going. We could hear the music distinctly, though muffled somewhat by the thick walls, and the low soothing murmur of indistinguishable conversation. I hurried to catch up.

“What's wrong?” I demanded. “What happened?”

“I just saw Karro yank Roelynn off of the dance floor and pull her out of the room,” Melinda said over her shoulder. “There's a little den right down this hall—the closest place for one to find privacy, I think, if one had just exited the ballroom.”

“Did he see her dancing with Alexander?” Adele asked.

Melinda half turned to give Adele an unreadable look. “ ‘Dancing with Alexander'?” she repeated. “That would be one way to put it.”

I was about to ask for more details when our attention was arrested by the noise of a choked cry. It sounded like Roelynn, and it sounded as if it had come from behind the closed door just ahead of us. Without hesitation, Melinda twisted the knob and stalked into the small room.

What greeted our eyes was a horrifying sight. Roelynn, in her rose and silver gown, was backed up against a dark-paneled wall, her hands flat to the wood behind her, her head thrown back as if to scream. Karro stood over her like some black bird of prey, a hulking, dangerous presence, reeking with fury. He had both hands around her throat and appeared to be trying to choke the life out of her.

“Delton Karro,” Melinda snapped in a hard, authoritative tone. “Let her go!”

Karro whirled around to face us, but he did not drop his hands from Roelynn's throat. Consequently, she stumbled in a half circle around him in some grotesque parody of a maypole. He repositioned his arms and jerked her against his body so that she was suddenly standing with her back flat against his chest. He had one arm crooked around her neck—and a small silver dagger pointed at her throat. I was so shocked that for a moment I could not move or think, but I heard Adele gasp and I saw Melinda move closer.

“Step away from us, Dream-Maker,” he warned, and it was clear by his voice that he was so angry he had temporarily slipped into the realm of madness. “This quarrel has nothing to do with you.”

Melinda was enviably cool at the best of times, but now she was positively icy. “Drop your hands from that girl's neck and talk to me,” she said. “Tell me what disaster has brought you to this pass. There must be some way it can be mended.”

“It will be mended well enough!” Karro shouted. “When I have beaten her senseless and locked her in her room! Shameless, disobedient girl! She defies me at every turn—she flirts with every handsome commoner who comes her way—when she knows, she
knows
of the plans I have for her, the life I could make for her—”

“Father,” Roelynn squeaked, but he uttered an inarticulate cry and seemed to squeeze his arm even tighter. She whimpered and lay still.

Melinda took a step closer, and now she tried a different tack. Extending a hand, she spoke in a coaxing voice. “What plans?” she said. “What life? I'm sure whatever you're angry about now is just a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding? A misunderstanding? Did you see her, dancing the night away with that lowborn boy, that man, that—that nobody! I asked someone, ‘Who is it who has claimed my daughter's attention all night?' and I was told, ‘Oh, he's the dancing master's apprentice.'
The dancing master's apprentice?
Some cast-off poor relation of a bad branch of someone's noble family, no doubt! When I had such dreams of her! When I was planning to marry her to the prince!” He contrived to shake her so hard that I was sure her very bones must be rattling.

“There's still plenty of time for your great dream to come true,” Melinda said, still in that soothing voice. I wondered if Adele and I could tiptoe around her, sneak up to Karro, and assault him hard enough to free Roelynn. It seemed too risky, and yet I felt terrified and foolish, standing there doing nothing while Melinda tried to calm his rage. “She was just dancing with this young man. A harmless flirtation. Who's to say that she won't marry the prince after all?”

Karro shook his daughter again, growling low in his throat. “Yes, that's what she'll do if I have anything to say about it, but she—
she
has other ideas! ‘I love him, Father,' she said to me as I dragged her off the dance floor. She loves him! She
thinks
she loves him! We'll see how much she loves him when she's been starved for a week.”

“All girls talk that way when they've been dancing with attractive men,” Melinda said in a dismissive voice. “Why, I'm sure tomorrow morning she won't even be able to remember his name.”

To my complete astonishment, this was the moment Adele chose to speak up. “Anyway, even if she loves him, this young man does not love her,” my sister said in a soft voice. “I know his secret.”

Everyone in the room grew very still. Karro swung his heavy head toward Adele, and Melinda and I pivoted slightly in her direction. Even Roelynn, trapped in her father's brutal embrace, seemed to strain to hear what Adele might say next.

“What's that? He has a secret?” Karro cried. “Who are you then—oh, the Safe-Keeper. I know you. And you know a terrible secret about this young man?
Tell it to me now.
”

She couldn't, of course. A Safe-Keeper could no more repeat a confidence than a Truth-Teller could speak a lie. But I saw her clench her hands and take a deep breath and seek the right words.

“Yesterday morning, I saw that man—Alexander—at the chapel with a young girl from Merendon,” Adele said, speaking as calmly as if she betrayed secrets every day. Every word she said slammed like a stone against my rib cage, because I could tell that every word was true. “In stealth and secrecy, with only the pastor and one other for witness, they were married. You need not fear that Alexander will disrupt your plans for your daughter's future.”

“Well!” Karro exclaimed, and his voice was richly pleased. I was sure he must be smiling, but I could not look at his face. All my attention was on Roelynn. Her cheeks had gone deathly white at Adele's words. She sagged in her father's arms, as if only his grip kept her on her feet, only his dagger against her throat reminded her to breathe. Alexander wed to another! It seemed absolutely impossible. But I could see that Roelynn believed Adele—as I believed her myself. “Well, this is splendid news indeed! Did you hear that, daughter?” he demanded, rattling her against him once more. “Yet again you've displayed the poorest imaginable judgment and chosen a man entirely unworthy of you. When will you learn? When will you realize you must be guided by me? Will I really need to beat some obedience in you—now, this very night?”

He must have relaxed his chokehold on her throat just the tiniest bit, for Roelynn managed to spit out an entire sentence. “The only time I will ever do what you want of me is when I am dead, and I lie in the grave you have provided,” she said very fast and very hard.

He uttered another wordless cry and seemed swept with red fury. Making a quarter turn on one heel, he slammed her head twice against the paneled wall and pushed the dagger closer home. I saw a dot of blood form in the hollow of her throat above the lace-encrusted bodice.

Melinda called his name again, and the three of us moved closer, but now he brandished his knife in our direction and seemed quite prepared to use it on any of us. I could think of only one thing to do to calm him from his mindless rage and restore even a modicum of sanity to the scene. Promise him what he wanted.

“You need not worry for Roelynn's future,” I said, raising my voice to be heard among all the oaths and pleas being loosed into the room. Everyone quieted down and looked at me, and I swallowed hard, hoping the words would allow themselves to be spoken. But surely if Adele could tell a secret, I could tell a lie. I had never done so. I could not be certain. “You know me, I think. I am Roelynn's friend Eleda. The Truth-Teller of Merendon.”

“Yes, yes, speak then if you have anything to say!”

I swallowed again, my throat so tight it was hard to breathe. “All your plans for Roelynn will come true,” I said, my voice sounding scratchy and strained. “She will marry no one but Prince Darian.”

“Aaaahh!” Karro said, releasing a long, silky syllable of satisfaction. I kept my gaze on him, but I could see Roelynn close her eyes as if she had just been cursed, could see Adele staring at me in marveling disbelief. As for myself, I could scarcely believe I had been able to speak the lie, the first one I had ever uttered. My tongue did not choke me; my lips did not refuse the tainted words. I had not been brought down by lightning, or shriveled from within by the judgment of my own implacable conscience. A false word offered as a true one and the world did not end. I was as disillusioned by that as I was terrified by my present situation.

Karro was smiling widely now. “And if you say it, it must be true. My daughter will marry the prince after all. This dancing boy—all the other riffraff she consorts with—they all will amount to nothing. Her wild ways, her saucy manner—none of that will be enough to disgust the royal house. Roelynn will marry Darian.”