House of Shadows(120)
Leilis admitted all this.
The king touched a summoning cord, and Neriodd reentered the room. This time, to Leilis’s surprise, the King’s Own guardsman escorted Narienneh—and, far less welcome, Lily. And behind them both, Jeres Geliadde. The prince’s bodyguard was expressionless. Narienneh’s manner was surprisingly similar, but behind her regal keiso mask, the Mother of Cloisonné House looked weary, almost as worn as the king himself. Lily, in contrast to them both, glittered with beauty and malice.
“This deisa of your House has described to me your treacherous dealings with the Kalchesene sorcerer Lord Chontas Taudde ser Omientes,” the king told Leilis. “I understand that you were suborned by this man and aided him in his designs against me and against Lirionne.”
For a long moment, Leilis said nothing. A wild flurry of denials clearly would not serve, but what would? At last she said merely, “The deisa is mistaken. The only such designs of which I was ever aware were owned by Mage Ankennes. And I think by your cousin, eminence—Lord Rikadde Miennes ken Nerenne—but I do not know his role with certainty.”
“One might wish,” murmured the king, “to know anything whatever with certainty.” For a moment, before he recovered his cold neutrality, his harsh face showed stark weariness. He asked, “You maintain you did not know Lord Chontas Taudde ser Omientes and were in no way in his employ?”
“I was not. We had hardly conversed five minutes altogether,” Leilis said firmly.
“She’s lying—she’s a deceitful, treacherous creature—she’s—” Lily began to protest. Then she stopped, collected herself, and said much more smoothly, “I assure you, eminence, Leilis would have done anything and betrayed anyone for a promise to remove her curse. I know Mother—” she slid a sideways glance at Narienneh “—always trusted her, but truly that only shows the smooth manners Leilis learned. Mimicking her betters, never knowing her place—”
“Lily,” Narienneh said. Only that, but it stopped the deisa in midsentence, almost in midword.
The king lifted an ironic eyebrow at Leilis. “So?”
Leilis drew a slow breath, and let it out again. Then she said, “You were in the dragon’s cavern, eminence. What can I add to what you saw there?”
“You see!” Lily said triumphantly.
“Yes,” said the king. “Thank you, deisa. You may go. Jeres—”
The prince’s guard, professionally bland, escorted Lily from the room and then returned to resume his place next to Neriodd, behind the king’s chair.
“Well?” said the king.
Leilis bent her head to the king, but she spoke first to Narienneh. “I’m sorry.”
The Mother of Cloisonné House shook her head, looking tired. “Leilis, you were not the only one of my many children to try to tell me about my one child.”
Leilis touched Narienneh’s hand in sympathy. To the king, she said, “What shall I tell you, eminence?”
Again, a pale eyebrow rose above an eye as cold as the gray winter sky. “Everything,” said the king.
Leilis had both dreaded and expected precisely this. She had hoped that if—when—this moment came, she would suddenly know what to say. But the moment had arrived, and still she did not know. Next to the king’s cool command, Lily’s viciousness shrank to something obviously childish and petty.
She could tell the king nothing but truth and yet leave out any hint that she had ever known—before the cavern—that Lord Chontas Taudde ser Omientes was Kalchesene. She knew she could tell a smooth tale to cover her encounter with Taudde and then Jeres Geliadde in the Laodd. She dismissed without even consciously thinking of it any fear that Taudde would give her away when he himself was questioned. Without any clear reason for her confidence, she simply knew that he would not.
Yes, Leilis could reach for her own safety. She doubted the king would question her story very closely. Lily’s accusations were nothing, or close to nothing. The girl’s vindictiveness was too obvious to be a threat. With his son infatuated with Karah, the king would wish to maintain a good relationship with Cloisonné House.
But only if she told the king everything could she tell him also the things Taudde had said to her. I think now I was wrong. I was glad to find I had done less than I meant to do. And, I swear to you, I did not come here to strike at your prince. Indeed, I swore to my grandfather I would not attempt personal vengeance. But then there was Miennes. So I was a fool, after all.
Leilis believed the Kalchesene. Now she wanted to make Geriodde Nerenne ken Seriantes believe him as well. But she had no faith in her ability to persuade the king of anything.