Graceling (Graceling Realm #1)(33)
“It is like this, My Lady,” Oll said, “but different. The sea makes rushing noises, and it’s gray and cold. But it does move a bit like this.”
“I should like to see the sea,” she said.
Giddon’s eyes on her were incredulous.
“What? Is it such a strange thing to say?”
“It’s a strange thing for you to say.” He shook his head. He gathered their bread and fruit, then rose. “The Lienid fighter is filling your mind with romantic notions.” He went to his horse.
She ignored him so that she didn’t have to think about his own notions of romance or his suit or his jealousy. She rode hard across the flatlands, and imagined she rode across the sea.
———
It was more difficult to ignore the reality of Giddon once they’d reached his castle. The walls were great, gray, and impressive. The servants flowed into the sunny courtyard to greet their lord and bow to him, and he called them by name and asked after the grain in the storehouses, the castle, the bridge that was being repaired. He was king here, and she could see that he was comfortable with this, and that his servants were happy to see him.
Giddon’s servants were always attentive to Katsa, whenever she was at his court. They approached her to ask if she needed anything; they lit a fire for her and brought her water so she could wash. When she walked past them in the hallways, they greeted her. She wasn’t treated this way anywhere else, not even in her own home. It occurred to her now that of course, Giddon had specifically ordered his servants to treat her like a lady – not to fear her, or if they did fear her, to pretend they didn’t. All of this Giddon had done for her. She realized his servants must look upon her as their future mistress, for if all of Randa’s court knew Giddon’s feelings, then surely Giddon’s servants had interpreted them as well.
She didn’t know how to be at Giddon’s court now, realizing they all expected something of her she would never give.
She thought they’d be relieved to know she wouldn’t marry Giddon. They would exhale and smile, and prepare cheerfully for whatever kind, harmless lady was his second choice. But perhaps they only hoped for their lord what he hoped for himself.
Giddon’s hope bewildered her. She couldn’t fathom his foolishness, to fall in love with her, and she still didn’t entirely believe it to be true.
———
Oll grew increasingly morose about Lord Ellis.
“It’s a cruel task the king has asked us to perform,” he said at dinner, in Giddon’s private dining room, where the three of them ate with a pair of servants to attend to them. “I can’t remember if he’s ever asked us to perform a task so cruel.”
“He has,” Giddon said, “and we’ve performed it. And you’ve never spoken like this before.”
“It just seems…” Oll broke off to stare absently at Giddon’s walls, covered with rich tapestries in red and gold. “It just seems that this is a task the Council wouldn’t condone. The Council would send someone to protect these daughters. From us.”
Giddon pushed potatoes onto his fork and chewed. He considered Oll’s words. “We can’t do any work for the Council,” he said, “if we don’t also follow Randa’s commands. We’re no use to anyone if we’re sitting in the dungeons.”
“Yes,” Oll said. “But still, it doesn’t seem right.”
By the end of the meal, Giddon was as morose as Oll. Katsa watched Oll’s craggy face and his unhappy eyes. She watched Giddon eating, his knife reflecting the gold and red of the walls as he cut his meat. His voice was low, and he sighed – they both sighed, Oll and Giddon, as they talked and ate.
They didn’t want to perform this task for Randa. As Katsa watched them and listened, the fingers of her mind began to open and reach around for some means by which they might thwart Randa’s instructions.
———
Po had said it was in her power to refuse Randa. And maybe it was in her power, as it was not in Oll’s or Giddon’s, because Randa could punish them in ways he couldn’t punish her. Could he punish her? He could use his entire army, perhaps, to force her into his dungeons. He could kill her. Not in a fight, but he could poison her, one night at dinner. If he thought her a danger, or didn’t think her useful, he would certainly have her imprisoned or killed.
And what if his anger, when she returned to court without Ellis’s daughter, inflamed her own? What would happen at court, if she stood before Randa and felt an anger in her hands and feet she couldn’t contain? What would she do?
It didn’t matter. When Katsa awoke the next morning in her comfortable bed in Giddon’s castle, she knew it didn’t matter what Randa might do to her, or what she might do to Randa. If she were forced to injure Lord Ellis today as Randa wished, it would set her into a rage. She sensed the rage building, just at the thought of it. Her rage if she hurt Lord Ellis would be no less catastrophic than her rage if she didn’t and Randa retaliated. She would not do it. She
wouldn’t torture a man who was only trying to protect his children.
She didn’t know what would happen because of this. But she knew that today, she would hurt no one. She threw back her blankets and thought only of today.
———
Giddon and Oll dragged their feet as they prepared their bags and their horses. “Perhaps we’ll be able to talk him into an agreement,” Giddon said, lamely.