Three fences and D'Sanya's loose apparel yielded me the victory. She had long legs, and ran with the speed and grace of the fell-deer on the Comigor heath, but my legs were longer, and I could leap the fences without slowing or catching my garments on the fence rails. I was sitting on the garden fence, trying not to appear winded, when she collapsed on the grass just beside it five heartbeats behind me.
"I'm out of practice," she said cheerfully, between deep lungfuls of the hot air. "Give me two weeks and a man's breeches, and I'll leave you gasping in the meadow."
"No doubt of it," I said, grinning at her. "You'd have had me today except for the fences. But I'll claim my prize anyway."
"Hmm … a secret. Let me think." She closed her eyes and pushed up her floating sleeves to bare her arms. By the time she spoke again, I'd almost forgotten what I was waiting for.
"I have it!" She popped her eyes open and sat up, and I did my best not to fall off the rail. "It's nagged at me ever since I began hearing everyone speaking of my father with such reverence. D'Arnath—the epitome of a kingly ruler, the symbol of all nobility, the savior of his world. One would think him a candidate for godhood! But—now this is for you alone, my play friend—what would everyone think if they knew that holy King D'Arnath was an inveterate card cheat? He hated to lose more than anything in the world, and even when he would sit in on our children's games, we'd find him slipping a card from his sleeve, or fingering the pile of them, using sorcery to discover the sword trump or whatever he wanted. What do you think of that?"
I could do nothing but laugh.
"Next race, when I win, I shall expect an equally scandalous confession from you, sir!" she said. Then she jumped up from the grass, grabbed my arm, and dragged me into her house.
I spent the rest of the day with her. We ate fruit and drank wine. We unpacked three crates of books she'd had shipped from Avonar, and I climbed up and down the steps in her library five hundred times, commanded to admire each volume and place it exactly where she wanted. Among the new books was a folio of drawings of Dar'Nethi ruins in the most ancient corner of the city. She held that one aside until our tasks were finished, and then spent two hours on the carpeted floor showing it to me, telling me what the places had been like when she knew them, and where the Archivists who'd done the sketches had guessed wrong.
Na'Cyd came in frequently to seek D'Sanya's advice or opinion about some matter of business—food supplies, painters, two possible candidates for admission— but she put him off each time. Each time the aristocratic consiliar bowed gracefully and retired without comment or sign of annoyance. When the angle of the light falling through the tall windows told me evening was near, I mumbled something about her having business to attend to. ". . . and I need to bid my father good night and start down the road to Gaelic."
D'Sanya pushed me back to the floor. "You shall do no such thing. Na'Cyd can see to all my business; he is very wise and needs to assert himself more. As for you, I have decided on your prize for winning the game of hide-and-seek—a picnic supper. I've already given orders as to its contents and delivery, and I really must insist."
Then she left me for a while, saying she was going to change her clothes and rid herself of the dust from the book crates and our adventures in the woods. She offered to send for fresh attire for me, but I said I would look in on my father and perhaps borrow something of his. We agreed to meet in the library in an hour.
As I set out through the garden doors, taking a shortcut to my father's apartments, I stumbled over a small pair of boots sticking out from under the barberry hedge just to the left of the garden doors. The boots were attached to someone's legs. "I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't see you." Before I could glimpse a face, the person scrambled away into the thick greenery. I saw only the lurker's back. Slight. Dark hair, cut short and ragged. Was it Sefaro's daughter, keeping an eye on me? I walked more slowly after that and kept my eyes open.
My father was standing on the little terrace outside his sitting room, staring into the blue-gray haze that had settled over the rim of the valley. It took several greetings to catch his attention.
"Can't say what I was dreaming about," he said as he rummaged through his clothes chest and pulled out a clean shirt. "Nothing of importance. Your day must have been more interesting than mine, especially if it isn't done yet, and you need a change of clothes."
I sponged myself off and changed into my father's full-sleeved white cambric shirt. Made before he fell ill, it hung large on me. As I tucked it into my breeches and grabbed a brush to clean up my boots, I told him of the day and how we had not spoken a single word of substance since the Lady's apology when I first met her. "Maybe this evening I can get some answers."
"So she feels guilt when faced with evidence of slavery, yet she was herself a prisoner."
"When we went riding, she said she'd been a prisoner for three years and was 'enchanted' when they tired of her. She claims to know nothing of the years between then and now."
"That may be exactly the truth. Just because her enchantment has this . . . deadening . . . effect does not mean the woman is evil. Perhaps she's just inexpert in the use of her power. She was so young when she was taken."
"She lived in Zhev'Na and wore no collar," I said. The glimpse of Sefaro's daughter had sobered me considerably. "Her father was the first and most bitter enemy of the Lords. I'll not believe her uncorrupted until I hear what happened in those three years. Perhaps if I consent to this game of hers, I'll get the chance. But I never imagined this business would involve playing hide-and-seek or climbing trees."
My father smiled and straightened my collar. "Sounds as if you'd best get in some running practice, too."
"She's unbelievably fast. I've never imagined a woman could come close to catching me at full speed. And when she rides …" I pressed my hands to my eyes and tried to get her image out of my head before I started babbling about how the sun caused her skin to glow golden when she lay in the grass. "I wish we could just get to business, and get it over with. I keep thinking of how the Singlars are getting on; we have so much to do yet. I need to get back. And you're trapped here. Damnation! She can't be what she seems, but I can't get her to speak anything but nonsense."
"Don't be in too much hurry. Ven'Dar still has five months. You've taught your Singlars to care for themselves, and L'Tiere will not vanish before I get there. I doubt I am any more dead here than I will be there. Whatever else she may be, I think the Lady has judged you wisely. It might be very good for you to learn how to enjoy yourself a bit." With a clap on the shoulder, my father shoved me out the door.
Chapter 9
The full moon had moved across a quarter of the sky by the time D'Sanya and I arrived at our picnic supper high in the foothills beyond the hospice. The world was so quiet as we walked up the light-washed path, I might have believed no soul existed but the two of us. The path leveled out and in twenty steps more we emerged from the scattered trees and rocks into a grassy meadow. In the center of the meadow, looking like a patch of snow left lingering into summer, sat a low table covered with a white cloth and carefully placed silver spoons and crystal wine goblets. Whoever had set out the plates of roast fowl, the bowls of cherries and plums, the hot, cinnamon-dusted pastries, and the chilled wine was nowhere in evidence.
D'Sanya took off her sandals and looped them over one of her silver-ringed fingers as we walked through the springy grass and took our places on cushions set on either side of the table. Candles in silver holders sat in the center of the table, but we didn't light them. The moon bathed the meadow in light.