"It’s really an awful play," Eluned said, wishing he’d been rehearsing something more cheerful. "Tesaire goes through so much after being conscripted, and tries to do the right thing by sending a warning to the rebels – for whatever reason – but ends up walking into an ambush with the rest of the soldiers. Is the audience supposed to be happy that his Queen shows up and kisses him before he dies?"
"Ah, but we haven’t finished the final scene." Milo collected his script and handed it back to her, then arranged himself into artful collapse at her feet.
"My Queen," he said, gazing up at her with a mix of defiance and pride. "This is the last I look upon you. But I look upon you as Tesaire, a free man of France. Remember me well."
"You will not be forgotten," Eluned promised, remembering to hold herself as he’d taught her. She stepped down from her crate, but was a little flummoxed as to how to kneel beside him in a grand way. Nor was she entirely sure how a Queen would kiss a dying man, but decided that lightly on the lips would do.
Then she had to stop and look at the script, for this was where they’d paused before for lessons on kissing.
"'Tesaire rises'?" she said, reading the pencilled stage directions. "Don’t tell me she’s god-touched with some sort of healing powers?"
"No, no. It is his spirit we see rising," Milo assured her, lifting himself up as he spoke, as if he was being hauled by ropes. "There is to be a mannequin for his body, hastily inserted from under a nearby bit of scenery. The Queen stands as he rises, and perhaps allows him to touch her arm."
He then dropped back into character, and cried out: "Grant me the gift of your name, before I am taken!"
"I have many names," Eluned read. "I am Sister of the Grain. I am the Moon of the Depths. I am Kore of the Shades. I am She Who Destroys Light." Eluned paused, frowning, then read on: "Come, my Tesaire. I have a place for a true and valiant man of France." She lowered the script. "I don’t understand. Is she supposed to be a French god?"
Milo laughed. "No. You might recognise her best-known name. All this time, Tesaire has been talking to Persephone."
"Proserpina?"
"That is beauty of it. Not Proserpina, no matter what the Romans say. Persephone, Queen of the Dead in her own right. A Hellenic god. To say that the gods of the Hellenes are not gods of Rome using different names, that is one thing that annoys Rome more than anything else. That is why the Moon always has at least one performance in Latin. It is a defiance of Rome."
"So he ends up in a Hellenic Otherworld?"
"Yes. And, while being in love is not the reason he chooses to stay true to himself, it does add to his strength, his determination." Milo suddenly covered his face, and then swept his hands back over his hair. "This is such a large role. I was so nervous I was ill outside the theatre when they called me back for a second audition. Thank you for reading with me, Eluned."
They read through the final act again, without interruptions. And then Milo asked her, very politely, if she would like to practice kissing a little more, and Eluned decided that she did. No lightning bolts struck, but it was pleasant enough in its way. She would rather see Milo perform, and was sorry she was not staying in France long enough to watch his debut as Tesaire.
Pondering the mystery of why people found kissing so interesting, Eluned went upstairs to find Eleri still sitting at the window of their room, staring out.
Most of the time, Eluned had to admit, Eleri didn’t visibly mope. She tended to stay more in the background than Eluned was used to, but there was no visible cloud of gloom. Eluned was just aware of her sister’s unhappiness, and hated that she could find no way to make the problem go away.
"We should have a plan," she announced.
Eleri, mind obviously far across the Channel, looked at her slowly.
"For what? Going home tomorrow?"
"For Tangleways. For how we get to meet the Gwyn Lynns again."
Eluned hated herself, then, for the faint shift in Eleri’s expression. For the knowledge that she had been too obviously dismissive of what had happened to her sister when she had seen Celestine Gwyn Lynn.
Even if Eluned didn’t understand how anyone could love someone they had met once, she knew Eleri. Eleri didn’t say things she didn’t mean, and Eluned should have given her sister her trust and support, no matter what. Love might bring Eleri strength, or make her a puppy, or just leave her hurt. Eluned couldn’t change any of that.
But she could be a true sister, and help her find out.