Seraphina(101)

I heard the bell chime the fourth hour and had about decided to ask my comrades whether I couldn’t slip out for a catnap, when Kiggs himself stepped into the open space beside me and took my hand. “Pavano!” was all he said, smilingly pulling me into a promenade.

My weary brain had ceased to process the dances, but the music snapped into focus, as did the candles, the stately dancers, the entire room. Kiggs was better than coffee.

“I’m beginning to think we’ve been all wrought up for nothing,” I said, stepping with far more energy than I’d had a moment ago.

“I will merrily consider us mistaken once Comonot is safely home,” said Kiggs, his eyes tired. “Don’t pay Pau-Henoa until he gets you to the other side.”

I looked for the Ardmagar among the dancers, but he was not there for once. I finally spotted him leaning against a wall, watching, speaking to no one, a cup of wine in his hand and a glazed look in his eye. Was he getting tired? That was good news.

“Where’s Princess Glisselda?” I asked, not seeing her.

He handed me around. “Either napping or discussing something with Grandmother. She intended to do both but was unclear on the order.”

Maybe I could get a nap after all. Right now I didn’t want one. I didn’t want this dance to end, or Kiggs to let go of my hand. I didn’t want him to turn his eyes away, or live any other moment but this one.

A feeling rose in me, and I just let it, because what harm could it do? It only had another thirty-two adagio bars of life in this world. Twenty-four. Sixteen. Eight more bars in which I love you. Three. Two. One.

The music ended and I let him go, but he did not let go of me. “One minute, Phina. I have something for you.”

He led me toward the stage, up the steps, and into the wing where I had already spent much of the evening. In the corner sat Glisselda’s coffee flask, long empty; beside it was a small bundle wrapped in cloth that I had not disturbed, not knowing who it belonged to. He picked it up and handed it to me.

“What is it?”

“Obviously, you won’t know until you open it,” he said, his eyes glittering in the half light. “Happy New Year!”

It was a slim volume, calf-bound. I opened it and laughed. “Pontheus?”

“The one and only.” He was standing right next to me, as if to read over my shoulder, not quite touching my arm. “It’s his final book, Love and Work, the one I mentioned before. It is, as you might expect, about work, but also about thought and self-knowledge and what is good in life, and …”

He trailed off. There was, of course, one other word in the title. It sat between us like a lump.

“And truth?” I said, thinking it a neutral subject and realizing too late that it absolutely wasn’t.

“Well, yes, but I was going to say, er, friendship.” He smiled apologetically; I looked back at the book. He added: “And happiness. That’s why he’s considered mad. Porphyrian philosophers all sign a pact to be miserable.”

I couldn’t help laughing, and Kiggs laughed too, and Guntard, who was in the middle of a shawm solo just then, glared at us backstage gigglers.

“Now I’m embarrassed,” I said, “because I have nothing for you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” he said vehemently. “You gave us all a gift tonight.”

I turned away, my heart pounding painfully, and saw, through the gap in the curtains, Dame Okra Carmine standing in a doorway across the hall, urgently waving her long green sleeve. “Something’s happening,” I said.

Kiggs did not ask what, but followed me down the steps, through the whirl of dancers, and out into the corridor. There Dame Okra Carmine pulled on Comonot’s arm, preventing him from going anywhere, while bemused guards hesitated nearby, unsure whose side to take.

“He claims he’s going for a nap, but I don’t believe him!” she cried.

“Thank you, Ambassadress,” said Kiggs, unsure why Dame Okra should be involved in this at all. I’d have to invent some reason. All the weight of this night came crashing down on me again.

Comonot, arms crossed and jaw set, watched as Dame Okra gave sarcastic courtesy and returned to the party. “Now that we’re free of that madwoman,” he said, “might I be permitted to go about my business?”

Kiggs bowed. “Sir, I’m afraid I must insist that you take a guard or two with you. We have some concerns for your safety this evening, and …”

Comonot shook his head. “Still convinced there’s a plot against me, Seraphina? I wish I could look at that memory of yours. Your paranoia in this matter is almost enough to have me looking over my shoulder. That’s another human-body response, isn’t it? Fear of the dark and the unknown? Fear of dragons?”

“Ardmagar,” I said, deeply disturbed that he had mentioned my maternal memory so cavalierly, “please just humor us in this matter.”

“You have precious little to go on.”

“The peace depends upon your continued leadership,” I pleaded. “We have a lot to lose if anything happens to you.”

His eyes sharpened shrewdly. “Do you know who else it depends upon? The Royal House of Goredd—one of whose princes, if I recall correctly, was recently murdered. Are you watching your own as hawkishly as you’re watching me?”