House of Shadows(60)

The girl clearly wasn’t trying to captivate the prince. There was nothing studied or artificial about her manner. But her natural warmth and innocence was delightful. And, Taudde judged, glancing around the table, every other man present agreed, even Miennes, whose close attention to the young keiso Taudde read as ugly and lascivious. Ankennes, in contrast, had an air of rather paternal interest. Koriadde and Jerinte had noticed their prince’s fascination and had taken a slightly distant attitude.

Rue and Summer Pearl both looked wry and amused and a little resigned at the men’s reaction to their young companion. Meadowbell and Featherreed had their heads tilted together, and Taudde suspected this evening would itself become a story. Bluefountain was playing a quick rippling melody with an intricate descant behind the melodic line. Her expression was closed, intent. Taudde thought the older keiso might not even have noticed the general male focus on Moonflower.

“We had taken ship for Ankanne,” Moonflower explained. “My father had business with the stone yards there. Why he thought he should take all eight of his daughters along I can’t say, except we begged to go and he did not like to be parted from us. And then I suppose he thought a little travel would be good for us—we had never been out of Lonne, except for Ananda once.” There was a touch of sadness when she spoke of her family, which only added to her charm.

“You have seven sisters?” asked Prince Tepres, seeming much struck by this detail. He had had seven brothers, of course, before the various rebellions three of them had attempted against their father.

“Yes, my lord. Eminence. My lord,” answered the girl, with pretty confusion. They had been very informal all through the evening and yet she knew this was a prince of Lonne. A little confusion of address was not exceptional, but in this case the prince seemed charmed by it. Again Taudde found himself drawn to like the young prince, and again he flinched from that impulse.

“By no means regard my interruption,” Prince Tepres was saying warmly, and gestured for the girl to continue. “And, indeed, we are not at all formal this evening.”

Blushing, Moonflower lowered her sapphire gaze. She said softly, “Well, then, my lord, we took ship for Ankanne. My sister Miande learned to make a horrible kind of porridge with fish and hard cracker, and all that next year she would make it sometimes, to tease us. My sister Enelle learned to figure the ship’s heading from the stars, and the captain of the ship gave her a compass of crystal and brass when we left the ship. Does one say ‘disembarked’? Is that the term?”

“One might,” said the prince. He rested his chin into his palm, regarding the young keiso with a serious expression, but the corners of his eyes had crinkled with laughter.

“Well, disembarked, then. But before that, my poor sister Nemienne was ill and hid below in our cabin, so we took turns nursing her. She thought it was very unfair and complained until she was too ill even to grumble.”

Jerinte, a little too far into the liquor, sat up and declared, “I’m always ill at sea! I go overland all the time now.”

“Yes, Jerinte, we all have great sympathy for your affliction,” said the prince sharply, and then much more kindly to the young keiso, “But by all means continue.”

“Well, my lord, so Nemienne was ill, and Tana a little, but not so much. And my sister Liaska, who was only just seven years of age, learned to climb in the rigging like a ship’s boy, even though everyone tried to prevent her, and she learned to curse like a sailor, too. It took months to teach her not to.”

There were chuckles around the table and Moonflower smiled in return and continued, “But I am the only one of us in all that voyage who laid a hand on the nose of a sea dragon.”

The prince sat up straight, exclaiming. From the reactions of the keiso, Taudde realized that none of them had heard this story before either. He realized that this girl must be a newcomer to Cloisonné House. Mage Ankennes blinked and cocked his head at her, deeply interested, and even Jeres leaned an elbow on the table and looked sincerely intrigued for the first time in the evening. Miennes had a faintly skeptical look in his eye, but said nothing.

“It came out of the sea on a day so quiet the water was as still as the sky,” Moonflower said. Her voice dropped, creating a new sense of intimacy as everyone was forced to hush and lean forward to listen. “The sea is dark there off Monne, where the bottom falls away and the sea is deep. There is a different look to the waves there, as though they hide all their power in the depths and so there is less to see on the surface.