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Orien's eyes flared. "By whose appointment? Cefwyn's? He has no right!"
"By mine, lady." He could be obstinate. He had learned it of Emuin. And he had every right, beyond Cefwyn's grant of power to him. He was suddenly as sure of that as if it had Unfolded to him: their power had ebbed here, and ebbed further as he gave it away to others.
More, Orien knew it, and fear insinuated itself into all her dealings.
"For my sister's sake," Orien said, past tight lips, "we require a lady or two—a lady, mind you. Shall a lady of our rank give birth with the cook and the scullery maids in attendance?"
That was unkind. Cook had never affronted Orien that he knew of. But he had no wish to provoke a quarrel that might bring harm to someone. "If you object to Cook, I might ask Lord Drumman's sister to assist you."
"Lady Criselle? That preening crow!"
Now it was Crissand's mother Orien slandered. "Lady Orien," Tristen said with measured patience. "No one pleases you. You may not have your servants. You refuse all others. I don't know what more there is."
"I wish my own nurse," Tarien cried, and burst into tears. "They murderedher, at Anwyfar. They killed all the nuns, and Dosyll with them. She was sixty years old, and she never threatened them!"
"I'm sorry." He was honestly afflicted by her report. "Who did it, and why?"
"Brave soldiers of the Guelen Guard," Orien interposed harshly. Heroes of the same company the bloody Marhanen garrisoned in my town, the same company as these hulking men you post at my door! The Marhanen's best bandits! Murderers! Mercenaries!"
"Are you sure they were of the Guard?"
"And should I not be sure, with the Guelens garrisoned at Amefel all my life? I know what I saw. I know their badges and their ranks and of one of them I knew the face!"
"Do you know the name?" he asked, with a sinking heart recalling the men he had dismissed home because of their discontent in his service, men guilty of malfeasance and murders that should have sent them to the hangman, if they had not acted under Crown authority, in the person of Lord Parsynan.
"Essan," she said, and he had to bow to the truth.
"I doubt your eyes deceived you, then," he said, "since I dismissed him, with a handful of others, for crimes here. The others, I sent to Cefwyn. He and his sergeant slipped away rather than answer my summons to accounting."
"Gods bless the Holy Quinalt, then! They shouted that, you know, while they burned down a Teranthine shrine, and murdered old women! I don't know what they were looking for besides the wine and the treasury, but they weren't shy about their cause."
"No," he said, "clearly not. I'm sorry for your nurse and I'm sorry for the nuns. And I know Cefwyn didn't send them."
"You know nothing. You said yourself, you sent these murderers to him! He sent them back again, to Anwyfar!"
"Not Captain Essan. He and his sergeant took shelter in the Quinaltine, so I understand."
"Oh, so it was the Patriarch himself who sent them to burn Teranthine nuns!"
"I doubt it, and you doubt it, lady. And if you'll give me answers, I can send to Cefwyn. I know he'll find these men. Can you tell me any reason for what they did? Were they looking for you? Were they angry with the nuns?"
"Look to yourself, Tristen of Ynefel! Look to yourself! Yes, it was us they wanted, and do you think common soldiers imagined this? Do you think the drunkards and ne'er-do-wells of the garrison traveled all the way to Anwyfar to raid the wine cellars in the nu
"That may be true," he said. "But Henas'amef is stronger than Anwyfar."
"A great deal stronger. And have they come for you? Is thatthe cause of the army outside these walls? There were Ivanim we spoke to last night. I saw Sovrag's pirates."
"You did see Olmernmen," he said, letting her shafts rain about him, none landing, for she knew nothing, and struck none home. "And Ivanim. But none of these have to do with the nuns and Essan's men."
"The rumor reached us," Orien said haughtily, with her hands on her sister's shoulders, "even in our rustic exile, it reached us— that Cefwyn has married the Lord Regent's daughter and intends war against Elwynor this spring. And is thatwhat we see outside the walls? Will you wage his war for him? Tristen, the i
It was a fair question, however unkindly put.
"What he calls on me to do, I'll do. And I've wished nothing against you."
Barbs had flown. Now Orien seemed to pause for thought, and heaved a sigh and walked a few paces from Tarien's side. "And do you wish anything against us?"
"Not for yourselves. Not except as you wish harm here, or to Cefwyn."
"Have we sanctuary here?"
Sanctuary was a Word. It meant safety no matter what, justice and all other considerations notwithstanding. It was a strong Word, and Unfolded with magical force.
"Do you wish harm to Cefwyn?"
"Am I required to wish him well?"
"No. Nor would I ask it, nor would he. And I don't offer sanctuary, but if you deserve safety, I promise you'll be safe in this room." A coldness wafted to him out of the gray place, fraught with time, and change. "No more can I do."
"What? You have limits?" Scorn edged her voice. "Or do you set them for yourself?"
"If you work mischief here or anywhere, Lady Orien, I will prevent it. If you work any mischief against Cefwyn or anyone else, you won't be safe here, or anywhere."
"I am your prisoner."
"Yes."
"I demanded my rights of my liege lord, my rights by oath, and Cefwyn denied me them and sent me and my sister away in a common cart in the mid of the night, like offal from the kitchens! Was that just? Was that justice? Better he had killed us!"
"He thought it mercy," he said in all honestly. "And said it was a risk."
"And how long will this arrest go on?" Orien cried indignantly. "Are we to live here forever?"
"As long as you wish to oppose Cefwyn. I won't ever permit that. And I knowthat you do."
Clearly this had taken a turn the ladies Aswydd did not like. Tears brimmed in Tarien's eyes.
"And shall we never leave this room? Shall we not at least have the freedom of the halls?"
He had pity on them in that regard, if not his sense of the danger in them were not so great. He had had his own fill of locked doors and silent guards.
"Not while you intend harm. Think and change your minds if you can. Intend better if you can."
There was a moment of silence, in which Lady Orien gazed at him with heaving breast and fire in her eyes. But then the glance lowered, all but a bowed head, a meek clasping of hands—an implied acceptance he did not trust.
"We have no choice," Tarien said in a low voice. "And we have no chance if we go on as we are." Orien's anger flared, scenting the very air of the room, but Tarien persisted: "Good sir, we did hear in the convent that you had been given Henas'amef, else we wouldn't have dared come here. You were the kindest of the Marhanen's friends. I expect nothing good of him, but you would never harm us."