Magnus Casnar D’Accorso sat in his thickly padded chair, his fingers steepled beneath his chin. Cynara slowed her pace to a more decorous creep. The captain of the Pegasus felt like a postulant begging the bishop’s favor.
“Daughter,” Casnar said in his deep voice. He swung the chair about to face her. “You are well?”
“I am, Father.” She touched her knee to the carpet in the ancient convention of respect and brushed his knuckles with her lips. “The Pegasus has completed another successful mission.”
“I am happy for you.” He sighed and waved her to a smaller chair.
“How is Mother?”
He was slow in answering, gazing about at the many shelves of books as if he hadn’t spent most of his life in this very room. “She is not as she once was, but you know that, Daughter. She dotes on Elendra, as if…”
As if she had no other daughter. It was strange and almost frightening to hear her father hesitate, even to spare her feelings.
“You know that Elendra is to take the veil in a week’s time,” he said.
She had forgotten. It was not something she liked to dwell on. “I doubt I’ll be here in a week, Father. The Pegasus—”
“You may explain that to your mother.” He touched the buzzer on his desk. “You were visiting Jesper?”
“Yes.” No surprise that he knew; he and Jesper had been close since the day the Persephonean married his sister. “Ship-related business.”
“Is this alien stranger the business in question?”
That startled her. Jesper would have kept the matter confidential. Casnar had received that intelligence from some other quarter.
D’Accorso spies on the Pegasus. No one beyond the crew, Janek, Jesper, and now the Council knew of Ronan’s origins.
“Since you’ve heard,” she said, “you undoubtedly know that I’ve asked Uncle Jesper to speak to the Council on his behalf. The man is in a delicate position, having just escaped the shaauri who held him prisoner for most of his life. He may be of great service to us.”
“Or he may be dangerous. I would hear everything you have learned of him, Daughter.”
“If your concern is for me—”
“I fear your foolishness in taking such risks.”
“But you would not fear if Tyr did the same thing.”
‘Tyr thought first of his duty and less of sentiment. His one great error…”
Once more he fell silent, tempering his words. Scrupulous courtesy and strict custom forbade her from entering his thoughts, or him hers, but she could not help but feel what he meant.
Tyr’s only great error was in believing I was strong enough to take his skills, his knowledge, his very self, and carry on for him, for Dharma, and for the Alliance.
He believed I could withstand the stigma of his gift. And I have, Father.
Casnar’s skin darkened under his meticulously groomed beard. “We will speak no more of this now. You will wish to see your mother.” The library door opened, and Tesar entered with a bow.
“Escort Filia D’Accorso to the Matrona,” her father said.
Cynara could have refused the dismissal. Every rebellious instinct she had harbored in childhood rose up again. But now, of all times, Tyr’s confidence deserted her. She turned on her heel without farewell and followed Tesar to the conservatory.
Zurine Casnara D’Accorso half reclined on a chaise with a tapestry frame beside her. The stiffness in her posture told Cynara that she was already well aware of her daughter’s arrival and had girded herself for battle in the only way she knew. Her eyes were shadows under an embroidered veil much heavier than required for any woman in her own home.
I will not see you, the veil said. You are a stranger.
“Mother,” Cynara said, bowing her head. She would not seek a benediction her mother would refuse. “It is good to find you well.”
“You have seen your father?”
No pleasantries, of course—no affection for the family pariah. “Yes.”
“And you have seen Jesper.”
“I have. Lizbet Montague is staying with him.”
Zurine’s lips curled. “That lowborn creature—”
“—can hardly pollute someone already beyond the pale.”
Her mother sat up on the chaise. “Do not speak with such pride of our family’s shame.” She recovered and settled back again, but the bodice of her gown rose and fell with each rapid breath. “Have you come for some reason other than to disturb the peace of this house?”