6
Alyssa had slept terribly, and gladly welcomed the daylight that shone through her window. At least she could get up instead of trying to fall back asleep. She bathed, and servants brushed her hair and helped her dress. Through it all, she keenly felt Zusa’s absence. Normally she lingered like a protective angel, but this morning, when she needed her comfort most, she was gone.
“I wish for a small meal,” she told her servants. “Just family at our table, plus Lord Gandrem.”
“Yes, milady,” one said, hurrying off to give the order.
Finally ready to face the day, she dismissed the servants and stared at herself in the looking glass. They’d done what they could, but still she saw the dark circles beneath her eyes, and how puffy her face was. She’d spent much of the night in tears, all in confusion. She felt joy for having her mother back from the dead, and at times it nearly overwhelmed her. Other times she felt terror at losing control of everything she’d built, and if she closed her eyes tight, she could almost hear invisible gears turning, the machinations of a hundred different lords and ladies seeking to use this newfound change against her. Sometimes she wished Melody had remained dead, and then immediately followed this up with shame and regret for such horrible, selfish desires.
Yes, she was very glad the night was done. The last thing she wanted to be was alone with her thoughts. She was sick of them. Exiting her room, she crossed the hall to where her mother stayed. A servant was just exiting, her head ducked low and her eyes to the floor.
“Is Melody dressed?” she asked.
“Yes,” said the servant, a pretty little thing with dark hair. “But I think perhaps she needs a moment alone…”
Alyssa dismissed her, and despite her advice, knocked on the door. No answer. She turned the knob and gently pushed it in. Stepping inside, she found her mother sitting on the edge of the bed. The image shocked her breath away. Melody wore an emerald dress that had long remained in the storage, Alyssa too short to wear most of her mother’s clothing. It looked like an image from the past, and she could almost imagine her childhood self sitting beside her, book in hand. Except tears were in her mother’s eyes instead of the smile she’d known in the past.
“Are you all right?” Alyssa asked, strangely timid in her own house.
“I will be fine,” Melody said, dabbing at her eyes with a cloth. “I just miss him, is all.”
“Father?” Alyssa asked, sliding beside her on the bed.
Melody smiled softly.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “But let us not dwell on that. Mindy said you have prepared us breakfast, so let us go. I don’t want to keep John waiting.”
Alyssa’s cheek twitched at that. John Gandrem was staying in their mansion as an honored guest, and was very much a father to her son. When Melody had introduced herself, John had seemed quite taken, and they’d talked long after Alyssa left them to retire for the night. Idly she wondered what a union between Felwood Castle and the Gemcroft estate might mean for her son. So much added wealth and land…
She shook her head, dashing the fantasies away.
“Indeed,” she said. “I would hate to be rude.”
In their grand dining hall, John and Nathaniel sat beside each other in the center of the long oak table, looking humorously insignificant compared to the food stretched out before them. They had not begun eating yet, and Alyssa was not surprised. John was most particular with his manners, and that was partly why Alyssa had first sent her son to be fostered in his hall. John stood at their arrival, and Nathaniel quickly followed. She smiled at her son, looking so small and youthful beside the older lord, dressed in fine green robes and a thin silver crown across his forehead.
“I fear your servants misunderstood,” John said, tilting his head in disrespect. “We are only four, yet they cook for forty.”
“The rest will eat after we are done,” Alyssa said, taking a seat opposite her son. She glanced to the upper corner of the room. “And it is five, not four. Come down, Zusa.”
Just a shadowy spider, Zusa climbed down from the tall rafter, hidden in shadows that clung to her most unnaturally. Raking a hand through her hair, Zusa joined them without a word or smile. Alyssa looked to her plate, already simmering with meats, eggs, and a choice of sweetbreads, and felt her stomach twist.
“Do you feel well, dear?” Melody asked.
“I’m fine,” Alyssa said, forcing herself to nibble on some bacon so they would leave her be. From the corner of her eye, she caught Zusa’s troubled expression.
“What is it?” she asked softly as John and Nathaniel started up a conversation about some jousting tournament to start soon on the outskirts of the city.
“We must speak soon, in private,” her friend said. “One is of a personal matter, the other of Lord Victor and his foolish crusade.”
“Crusade? What are you talking about?”
“Not now. And we must speak with Terrance. If he has made even the slightest error, your life might be in danger.”
Terrance? Alyssa was baffled. Terrance was a distant cousin of hers, a young man she’d promoted four years ago to be her master of coin and trade after the previous advisor had secretly worked against her, eventually making an attempt upon her life. So far as she knew, Terrance was a good man, careful. How could an error by him put her life at risk?
“Zusa, I don’t like how vague this…”
“Milady,” interrupted a servant at the door. She was young, and looked flustered. “A man seeks an audience with you, and says it is quite urgent.”
“It can wait,” Alyssa said, harsher than she meant. John glanced her way upon hearing the tone of her voice, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
“Yes, of course, milady,” said the servant. “It’s…well, he has many soldiers with him, and is very insistent that he speak with you.”
“Soldiers?” asked Melody, her eyes widening.
“It’s nothing,” Alyssa said, pushing away her barely touched plate. “I will meet with him, though he better pray to the gods his matter truly is urgent. What is this whelp’s name?”
“Lord Victor Kane,” the servant girl said, bowing quickly before hurrying away. Alyssa paused a moment upon hearing the name, and she looked to Zusa, whose eyes met hers. A warning went unspoken between them.
“At my side,” Alyssa said softly as both of them stood.
“Do you wish me to accompany you?” Melody asked. Alyssa shook her head.
“Stay, eat. I’m sure it is nothing.”
Alyssa left the room, feeling their eyes upon her. Zusa matched her stride, and together they walked through the halls, paintings of dead ancestors on either side of them.
“You said you had something to say about this Victor, correct?” Alyssa asked. “Now sounds like a good time to say it, and fast.”
“He’s been given free reign by the King to pursue his agenda,” Zusa said as they turned a corner. “Rounding up every thief, merchant, and noble he can find that has broken the law. They are taken to the castle, judged, and more often than not, executed on the spot.”
Alyssa stopped, her mouth dropping open.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Only a day.”
She ran a hand through her hair, trying to piece the puzzle together. The Kane family sounded vaguely familiar, but how or why wasn’t coming to her.
“Who is this Victor?” she asked. “What do we know about him?”
Zusa frowned.
“A small lord, from an even smaller family. Inconsequential, really, until now. They own a meager castle, and control a modest but fertile stretch of land for growing wheat.”
Wheat, that was it. Alyssa finally placed the Kane name. They’d had a few dealings before, nothing significant. A portion of the wheat market was controlled by their family. They weren’t the dominant player in the market, nor the most aggressive.