Seraphina(74)

Even my human half could frighten people. I brushed past him, hating that. Somewhere in my heart, the flame still burned.





By the time I arrived, Kiggs had debriefed the Queen and Comonot and had taken himself off to bed. I felt his absence like a punch in the stomach.

The Queen’s study reminded me of my father’s, though it had fewer books and more antique statuary. The Queen sat behind a broad desk, precisely where my father would have sat. Ardmagar Comonot took a thronelike chair near the windows; behind him, the sky was beginning to glow pink. They’d each brought a little entourage, who stood along the walls as if guarding the books from our grubby hands. We three miscreants were not offered seats.

I was relieved that no one had thought to notify my father. He would have been furious with me, but maybe that wasn’t obvious to others. Maybe they feared he’d turn his baleful lawyer’s gaze on them.

Orma showed no concern for my long absence, although he did sniff rather loudly when I drew near. He would notice I was bleeding. I had no intention of discussing it.

“One request,” said Orma, speaking first, way out of turn. “Excuse Basind from these proceedings. Allot his blame to me. He’s a newskin, inexperienced and singularly stupid. I am supposed to be teaching him; he merely followed my lead.”

“Granted,” said Comonot, raising his jowly chin. “Newskin Basind, go.”

Basind saluted his Ardmagar and left without so much as a nod to the Queen.

“Prince Lucian has given us his account of your encounter with the dragon Imlann,” said the Queen, frowning as she followed the newskin with her eyes. “I would like to hear your version, Maid Dombegh.”

I told all I could, underscoring our commitment to the peace and our desire to uncover the truth, the better to protect the Ardmagar.

The Queen listened impassively; Comonot seemed touched that we’d undertaken to measure this threat. One might almost have taken them for their opposites: Comonot the sympathetic human, Queen Lavonda the dispassionate saar. Perhaps those qualities were what had enabled them to reach an agreement after centuries of distrust and war. Each saw something familiar in the other.

“Maid Dombegh has committed no material violation of the treaty,” said the Queen. “I see no justification for holding her. Possession of a transmitting device is against the law, but I am inclined to overlook that, if she gives it back.”

I plucked the earring from the cord around my neck and handed it to Orma.

Comonot addressed Orma. “By rights, I should revoke your scholarship and travel permissions for your unauthorized transformation. However, I’m impressed with your initiative and your drive to protect your Ardmagar.”

Apparently I’d lent sufficient color to that part of the story. Orma saluted at the sky, saar fashion.

“I elect to waive your penalties,” said Comonot, glancing sidelong at the Queen as if to gauge her reaction to his magnanimity. She looked merely tired. “We shall discuss the best course of action at council. A lone malcontent poses little threat to me, thanks to the fine security of my hosts, but he is still in breach of treaty and must be apprehended.”

Orma saluted again and said, “Ardmagar, may I take advantage of this unexpected audience to petition you privately?”

Comonot assented with a wave of his thick fingers. The Queen and her attendants left for breakfast, leaving Comonot with just a small retinue of saarantrai. I made to leave also, but Orma’s hand on my elbow restrained me. “Would you dismiss your retainers as well, Ardmagar?” said Orma.

The Ardmagar complied, to my astonishment. Orma must have seemed particularly harmless, despite his notorious father.

“All in ard,” said Orma. “This involves the Censors, and I did not wish—”

“I do not see that your family could sink much further,” said the Ardmagar. “Quickly, if you please. I find this body gets irritable without its breakfast.”

Orma squinted without his spectacles. “I have been hounded by the Censors for sixteen years: relentlessly tested, monitored, retested, my research sabotaged. How much is enough? When will they be satisfied that I am all I should be?”

Comonot shifted warily in his seat. “That is a question for the Censors, scholar. They fall outside my jurisdiction; indeed, I am as subject to them as you are. That is as must be. Their neutrality keeps checks on us when we descend into the monkey mind.”

“There is nothing you can do?”

“There is something you could do, scholar: voluntary excision. I have one scheduled myself, almost as soon as I get back.” He tapped his large head; his plastered-down hair gave it the appearance of a seaweed-covered rock. “I shall have all emotional detritus removed. It’s unexpectedly refreshing.”

Orma dared not look disturbed; I hoped the little muscle working near his jawline was noticeable only to me. “That would not do, Ardmagar. They inevitably remove memories as well, and that would spoil my research. But what if I hunted Imlann down?” Orma seemed not to know when to quit. “Would that not prove where my loyalty lies, or put the state in my debt—”

“The state does not repay debts in this fashion, as you well know,” said Comonot.

The quickness of his interjection raised my hackles; he was lying. “Basind shouldn’t be here, but he is,” I snapped. “Eskar explicitly said it was a favor to his mother, for turning in her husband.”