Page 123 of Play of Shadows
Damn me, I cursed silently.I said that in front of the audience, didn’t I? The others must be wondering what the Hells I’mdoing.
But Shariza was taking it in perfect stride. On the stage she took my hands in hers and said, ‘Seek not your answers in spirits, my love, for it is the truth itself that haunts us this night.’
In the past, the young Ajelaine chuckled. ‘Oh, I like that. She’s got quite a flair for the dramatic, that one.’
When she smiled that way, she took Corbier’s breath away, and it was his voice murmuring, ‘Ajelaine. . .’
A longing overcame me– Corbier’s deep, desperate urge to feel Ajelaine’s lips once more against his. His need threatened to overwhelm my own volition, but I forced the compulsion aside.
No, I told him firmly,this is why you failed to pay attention to her warnings the first time, you love-struck idiot. This time wemustlisten.
‘The Court of Flowers,’ I said to her, praying Beretto, Teo and Shariza could keep covering for me a while longer. ‘Who are they?’
Ajelaine shook her head, the cascade of chestnut tresses interweaving with Shariza’s darker curls in the present. ‘I was too young here, my suspicions not yet proven. I knew only that someone was manipulating the affairs of the duchy, seeking to destabilise our city.’
‘But who’s behind it all? Why are they doing this? In my time, the Iron Orchids are killing people, forcing unconscionable laws—’
‘Orchids?’ she asked, tapping a finger to her lips. ‘How odd. Orchids are my favourite flower, but they’re not native to Pertine, nor to anywhere else in the country.’
‘What? Of course they are– there are orchid shops all over the city.’
She stopped. ‘How can that be? Unless someone starts importing them sometime between my century and yours– but to what purpose? You speak of these Iron Orchids as if they’resome sort of military force. Perhaps the symbolism is important to them. Ah, but yes. . . that would fit what I’ve observed in their actions.’
She began dragging me along again, ducking under low-hanging branches and swerving to avoid protruding roots, walking and talking so quickly I had trouble keeping up with either her feet or her words.
‘There’s a deviousness to those plotting against Nevino and Raphan, an almost mathematical precision to their moves, but I have noticed an arrogance as well– a need to leave traces and tracks as if this were a game and they have bound themselves to a set of rules of their own devising.’
I stopped her beneath a white stone arch adorned with a carved dove carrying what looked to be a heart in its beak. ‘My Lady, forgive me, but have you evidence to support these speculations?’
‘Oh, I acknowledge it’s little more than an intuition right now.’ She poked my chest. ‘Come and find me later, Veristor. Seek me out nine years hence, in the field by Pierzi’s fortress where first you saw me.’
‘But my Lady. . .’
Somewhere a hundred years from here, ten thousand people were watching two dozen actors playing for time.
It’s a bit late to be picking and choosing what you believe, Veristor, Corbier observed drily.
Fair point.
‘All right,’ I said to her, ‘but I’m going to need a way to shake loose fromthismoment and I’d prefer it not involve braining myself on a tree.’
‘Oh, no need for anything so dramatic,’ Ajelaine said. She pointed to the arch above them. ‘You see, this is a legendarily romantic monument, and around now is when Raphan says something truly stupid to me.’
Corbier cut me off. His recollection of this moment, standing in the warm, misty night air beside the only girl he would ever love, conspired with his irritation at her inability to recognise the necessity of the duel he’d just fought in her honour. And so, repeated his stupidity.
‘If you desire me to be your husband one day,’ the sixteen-year-old Corbier began, still obstinately convinced he was right to throw the first punch against the man who’d insulted her, ‘then you must accept that it is my duty and privilege to defend you in my own fashion against those from whom you cannot protect yourself.’
Oh saints, I swore silently,you didn’t really say that to her, did you?
What? I thought I was being roman—
I barely had time to notice Ajelaine balling her fingers before the blow struck me like a mallet on the temple. My grandmother would have approved of her using the side of her clenched fist rather than the more fragile knuckles. As Corbier stumbled back, dazed, I felt myself once again falling out of his memories.
Nine years later, I reminded myself,on the grassy field outside the fortress where I saw her that first night in the Belleza. . . when poor Roz still played the part.
But as my vision cleared, there was no fortress awaiting me, no grassy field. I was back on the massive stage outside the Ducal Palace where the panicked screams of the audience had drawn me back into the present.
Chapter 62
