Only Rennyn Claire seemed unmoved. She’d eyed the dome critically, cast a couple of spells, then pulled a big book out of one of her bags and sat in the coach making notes. The Black Queen’s focus hung from her wrist, awkward and obviously heavy, but she’d made no move to take it off since leaving Asentyr.
Ignoring the wet, Kendall drew back from the coach so she could watch the way everyone moved about Rennyn. The Hand mages hovered, itching to see what she was writing. The Sentene mages and Kellian, angry as they were, still kept a protective eye on her position. Militia and townsfolk angled for a glimpse in the coach door, wondering who warranted such heavy protection. Captain Faille standing near the rear wheel, surveyed everyone else because it was his turn to be bodyguard. He only moved his eyes, and felt liable to crush anyone who came near.
Not that any assassin had a chance. They were travelling with a third of the Sentene: some had stayed behind another day to deal with the natural breaches which followed the ones they knew were coming, and another group had gone ahead to prepare the ground at the next site. Like the White Lady, no outsider could get near Rennyn.
Kendall headed back to Rennyn’s coach just as Captain Illuma, becoming a little less like an imminent storm, crossed as well. "Do you wish to observe the next expansion, my Lady? We have time enough to delay."
"No need." Rennyn peered out the coach door, studying one of the big cracks in the ground which radiated out from the heaviness. "Have there been earthquakes?"
"It is a stable region. But the last expansion was felt well into Sark. That helped speed the evacuation."
"My best guess is that the final expansion will fall short of the southern edge of the city. But there will be considerable damage purely from the concussion." Rennyn turned back to Captain Illuma, started with, "Have–" then stopped, and looked fleetingly annoyed. "I’ve added minimum and maximum range for the final distortion to the map, but the range of the concussion and debris is outside my expertise."
"Where are they putting everyone?" Kendall asked.
Captain Sarana looked down from her unnecessary height and said: "Esson, Nelk, a dozen other locations. Mages of the Sentene and the Hand have been working with the non-specialist forces in ensuring that there are strong circles, and some kind of shelter. Temporary measures, since a large portion of the evacuations are merely precautionary and only the very southern fringe of the city is expected to be left uninhabitable. Much of Sark will be able to return to their homes and repair."
And a lot wouldn’t, would be looking for places to live. Bundling her wet smock and trying not to drip on everything, Kendall thought about where Mayor Dorstan and the Lippons and everyone from Falk had ended up as Captain Illuma nodded and set them moving toward the military camp coordinating the evacuation.
Kendall cast a sideways look at Rennyn’s face. She never seemed at all concerned about evacuations, never looked at the groups of angry folk they passed, even though there was supposed to be some great evil conspiracy of people out to get her. Was that likely? There’d been attempts aimed at the Sentene, and the royal family, but the only attack on the Claires had been Sebastian getting in the way of some Night Roamers. From what Kendall had heard, even her Night Roamer uncle had seemed more interested in talking to Rennyn than killing her. The gossip about her answers in the Hall of Question made it clear she wasn’t interested in helping the Black Queen, or becoming Queen herself, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have her own agenda.
Kendall was uncomfortable with her thoughts, but mulled them over all the way south from the camp to Sanlecey, which was a big town not far from the Lecey Forest, where they nicely filled one of the larger inns, and another down the road. While everyone settled in, looking after the horses and setting up guard stations, Kendall watched the crowd which formed outside on the street. She’d be out there herself if she was a local. Sentene were an exciting enough sight, let alone a whole troop of them. Did they know that Rennyn Claire was with them? Was that why some of them looked angry?
Heading downstairs, she found Rennyn in the smaller dining room, sitting down to table for an early meal with a mix of the Hand and Sentene, including Sukata and her mother and Lieutenant Danress. Kendall spent her time covertly studying her would-be teacher and thinking over Surclere arrogance. Though she sat at the same table with them, Rennyn was very much separate. She listened more than talked, lost in her own thoughts or in the meal. A real mage, a Montjuste-Surclere, with secrets.
"Why did Prince Tiandel betray his mother?"
Rennyn, who had been deeply involved in a gloopy trifle, looked up at Kendall’s question. Her expression didn’t change, which only reinforced Kendall’s growing feeling that she was always guarding herself against them.
"What’s the popular theory?"
Always answering questions with questions, buying herself time to come up with a story. "That the side-effects of the Grand Summoning – the stuff that’s happening around Falk now – upset him. That he couldn’t accept the price she was willing to pay in other people’s lives."
"Mm – well, to be the fair, Solace didn’t know the precise details of what would happen either. They both knew there would very likely be a general increase in breaches, that there would definitely be great stresses placed on the walls between worlds in a predictable pattern, and that there would be an initial outward expression of the spell. They both knew that people would probably die, directly or indirectly, as a result of the Summoning. The rationalisation was that in a war – for the threat of a Kolan invasion was very real – there are casualties. That for the greater good, sacrifices had to be made."
"And do you believe that?"
Rennyn Claire didn’t answer right away. Everyone else at the table had stopped talking, and the only sound was the clink of her spoon as she put it down.
"Yes and no." Her eyes were completely black, face expressionless. "If I had to kill you, to stop Solace, would you think it wrong?"
"Of course I would!" Kendall said immediately, then faltered. She was here, alive, because this woman had chosen the exact opposite.
Rennyn smiled, and stood up. "Well, if it’s any consolation, I don’t plan to kill anyone if I can at all avoid it. But perhaps that was Solace’s feeling as well. As to why Tiandel betrayed her, it was something she said to him just before she commenced the Summoning. The Council had been playing her off against the Montjuste Pretender in an attempt to increase their own power, and she was very much a Queen who believed that she should rule absolutely. She told Tiandel that after the Summoning, no-one would ever oppose her again. That gave him a lot to think about."
Moving to the door, she glanced at Captain Illuma. "An early start tomorrow?"
"Shortly after dawn." The Captain’s face was particularly blank. Sukata, beside her, had that slightly hunched posture that said she was upset.
When Rennyn nodded and left, Kendall refused to get up and leave too. Though her face burned, she ate all of her trifle, ignoring the muttered conversation between two of the Hand, and the less obvious communication between the Sentene. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Everyone tiptoed around Rennyn not asking the questions they should. Just because they were both enemies of the Black Queen didn’t mean they were on the same side.
Finished, she pushed her chair back and went out, unsurprised but annoyed when Lieutenant Danress followed her.