Stolen Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy, #1)(57)

“Then why did you foster Roland with them?” The words were out before I could think.

A glass floated my direction and I snatched it out of the air, drinking deeply.

“You know why,” he said. “I didn’t want your aunt whispering in his ear like she did to you.”

“But why them?” I persisted. “Why a family that has been our enemy for centuries? Our most powerful enemy.”

“Ah.” He stared into the depths of his glass. “It was because they are our enemies.” He cleared his throat. “I wanted the girl Ana?s for you – she had all the makings of a good queen, and uniting the two of you would have done much to reduce tension between the houses. Angoulême was of an accord, with the exception of one aspect of the contract: he would not allow her to be bonded. And I could not risk such a union – there would be too much chance that she’d stab you in your sleep.”

I nodded slowly. Those of that family did not bond – they considered it a weakness. Ana?s’s mother had died mysteriously a few years ago, and there were whispers that her husband had murdered her. It was to his advantage – he had only two daughters, one of them now dead – and a new young wife gave him another chance at a son. Though in my opinion, anyone who married him was a fool.

“I gave them your brother to sweeten the pot, so to speak. The Duke agreed, and the contract was finalized.” He drank deeply. “Later, of course, we discovered that Ana?s and her sister were afflicted, and I broke off the engagement. She was unfit – something your cousin did a fine job of demonstrating when he made the mistake of bonding Pénélope.”

I was glad Marc was gone – he did not consider Pénélope a mistake.

“I did not know there was a contract,” I said.

“I know,” he said, regarding me with an unreadable expression. “Despite what you might think, there are a great many things you do not yet know.”

I shrugged. “Then enlighten me: why not take Roland back? It would be in your right.”

“And do what with him?” He drained his glass. “Your brother is a bloody menace, and the Duke’s family is the only one other than us with the mettle to control him. And I can’t very well bring Roland to the palace with Cécile wandering about. He’d slaughter her on sight. And that,” he inclined his head to me, “would be most unfortunate.”

That was an understatement.

“Ana?s knew about the contract,” he said, almost as an afterthought. “I’ve always been surprised she didn’t tell you.”

I wasn’t surprised – my friend did not suffer shame well. “Ana?s is loyal to me,” I said, “not to her father.”

“As you say,” my father replied, waving away the conversation. His eyes settled on the swirling black orb obscuring Lessa from view. “Go,” he said abruptly. “I need to deal with this.”

I quickly removed myself from his presence, sensing his mood was about to take a turn for the worse. Part of me wondered what he intended to say to Lessa – I had no fear he would harm her – but, oh, to be a fly on that wall. Having been hidden away under Damia’s wing most of her life, Lessa was something of an unknown commodity. I didn’t know anything about what she was like, only that she was powerful. And, I suspected, loyal to Angoulême.

Walking blindly through the corridors, I pushed the matter of Lessa to the back of my mind and turned instead to my father’s behavior. It was not like him to be forthcoming. And why, after all these years, bring up that I had been contracted to Ana?s? I chewed the inside of my lip as I considered what he would gain from telling me the information. Not, certainly, to provide more proof that the Duke was a deceptive bastard – that was obvious. This was to do with Ana?s – the fact she had known about the contract, but never told me. An attempt, then, to undercut my faith in her loyalty? To drive a wedge between us? It seemed counterproductive given that our friendship promised to do much in smoothing over the discord between our families.

Not friends, lovers.

“Ah,” I muttered, everything becoming clear. He must believe that it was at least partially Ana?s’s doing that I continually avoided or fought with Cécile. He was trying to drive me away from Ana?s and towards my human wife.

Pushing open a door, I trotted down a set of steps, then froze, realizing I stood at the entrance to the glass gardens. The sound of Cécile’s voice was thick in my ears, a fiercely defiant song of a warrior woman in some distant civilization. Apparently my meandering through the halls had had more purpose than I thought.

It was almost habit now for me to seek her out whenever I heard her singing – her voice was my only respite. The one moment in the day when I allowed myself to forget the growing pressures of my life. The one moment when I allowed myself to forget who I was.

Extinguishing my light, I started into the garden towards her voice, but not before pausing to break a single rose from the glass bushes lining the gates.





CHAPTER 18





CéCILE





There was only one way to lure Tristan into my company, and that was to sing. As often as I could, I would go out into the glass gardens and do battle with the thunder of the waterfall, my voice echoing through the cavernous hall of Trollus, knowing that no matter where Tristan was in the city or what he was doing, he would come to listen.