Maximilian had instructed it when they”d entered the house, and now it was restless.
“Yes,” whispered Maximilian. “Yes, we are leaving now.”
After Maximilian had left, Ishbel slept.
She dreamed.
She walked through a hall that glittered with glass and color that spiraled in strange
corkscrews far overhead.
She dreamed people filled this hall, tens of thousands of them, all standing back to allow
her passage, all watching her.
She dreamed that she was filled with loss and sorrow, and in her dream she sobbed,
because she knew what that sorrow portended.
In her hands she carried a goblet. It was heavy, made of exquisitely carved glass, with
leaping frogs all about its outer rim.
It was a gift for the man who stood, his back to her, at the far end of the hall.
He was a dark man, and blackness seethed about him.
More than anything Ishbel wanted to turn and run, but her feet would not follow her
command. Instead they carried her inexorably forward, until she stood before the man, and then
her traitor legs bent beneath her, and she abased herself, and held out the Goblet of the Frogs to
the Lord of Elcho Falling.
He turned his head a little, looking at her over his shoulder, and darkness and despair
engulfed Ishbel”s life.
[ Part Three ]
CHAPTER ONE
Pelemere, Central Kingdoms
Ishbel stood in the covered courtyard, listening to the approach of Maximilian
Persimius, King of Escator. Maximilian had arrived in Pelemere the previous afternoon, received
by King Sirus of Pelemere in two formal ceremonies: the first at the city gates, the second at the
palace itself. Maximilian had then stayed at Sirus” palace overnight, being royally dined and
entertained.
To none of these events had Ishbel been invited. She was still merely the Lady Ishbel
Brunelle, prospective wife of the King of Escator, and until Maximilian formally accepted her as
his bride, Ishbel was excluded from the royal receptions and entertainments. Today, however,
having partaken of Sirus” hospitality and having also, presumably, slept the night away in a
luxurious apartment within the king”s palace, Maximilian was paying a visit to the Lady Ishbel”s
house in order to meet her and, should that meeting prove satisfactory, perhaps open more
personal negotiations for a marriage.
What a farce all this is, thought Ishbel, listening to the sound of horses” hooves and
jingling bits getting closer. Four nights ago he spent the night in my bed, and here we must act as
if we”ve never seen each other.
Ishbel had expected Maximilian might appear in her bedchamber last night as well. She”d
spent virtually the entire night awake, watching every shadow, listening, waiting. But
Maximilian had not appeared, and Ishbel supposed Sirus had provided more amusing
entertainments for Maximilian.
Perhaps StarWeb was with him.
Ishbel was far more nervous than she liked. She didn”t know how she would feel when
she saw Maximilian again, and she had a tiny, niggling, horrible fear that when Maximilian rode
into the courtyard it wouldn”t be the same man she”d slept with a few nights ago.
Twisted in with all her anxiety and nervousness was a horrible sense of resentment: Had
Maximilian spent last night with StarWeb? Was she going to have to share her husband with the
birdwoman?
There were shouts from the guards at the gate now, and Ishbel barely had time to draw in
a hasty, shaking breath before Maximilian rode into the courtyard at the head of a retinue some
twenty strong. Dressed in a wine-colored velvet jacket quilted with seed pearls over dark leather
breeches, he looked very different from the night he”d appeared in Ishbel”s chamber. Very regal
and, impossibly, even more certain of himself.
Ishbel”s first emotion was one of profound relief—this was the man who had come to her
bedchamber.
Her second emotion was one of overwhelming confusion at just how glad she was to see
him again, and how desperately she hoped StarWeb wasn”t in Pelemere.
Strangely, although Ishbel continued to resent everything to do with this marriage, as
well as the marriage itself, Maximilian was the only thing she had resembling a friend within
eight weeks” travel.
Maximilian pulled his horse to a halt, lifted his right leg over the horse”s wither, and slid
to the ground.
His eyes never left Ishbel the entire time.
She was very nervous. She held herself extremely still, watching him with apparent
calmness, but he could see her nerves in the spots of color in her cheeks, in her overbright eyes,
in her rigidity of bearing, and in the manner in which she pressed the palms of her hands too
close to her silken skirts.
Behind him the rest of his entourage drew their horses to a halt. They would not
dismount, not even move, until Maximilian had greeted Ishbel.
He walked up to her, very deliberately, slowly pulling the leather gloves from his hands.
The wind whipped his dark hair into his eyes, but he didn”t blink, or make any move to brush it
away.
“My Lady Brunelle,” he said, coming to a halt before Ishbel. “How pleasant to finally
meet you. I trust your journey to this point has been comfortable?”
She wanted to shout at him, he could see it in her face, and his eyes crinkled in
amusement. Taking a final step forward he took her right hand and raised it to his lips. “Thank
the gods I picked the right bedchamber four nights ago,” he murmured. “All this time I”ve been
terrified I might have seduced the laundress instead.”
She relaxed. Her shoulders lost their tension, and she let out her breath on a shaky soft
sigh.
“Are you all right, Ishbel?” he asked, serious now.
“Yes,” she said, having pushed her dream of the Lord of Elcho Falling to the very back of
her mind. “Yes, I am.”
Baron Lixel now stepped up, greeted Maximilian warmly, and made the formal
introductions. Then Maximilian turned and waved forward two members of his entourage: a
young man who Ishbel thought was a year or so younger than herself, and an older man who was
the captain of Maximilian”s escort and who wore an emerald uniform jacket with a Manteceros
outlined in brilliant blue on its front.
“Commander Egalion,” Maxel said, introducing the older man first. “He captains my
Emerald Guard, and is one of my closest friends.”
Ishbel held out her hand for Egalion to take. “Commander,” she murmured politely.
“And this is Garth Baxtor,” Maximilian continued as Egalion stepped back to make way
for the younger man. “Garth is court physician, another close companion.”
Baxtor had an open, attractive face, very nonthreatening, and Ishbel liked him
immediately. She smiled as she held out her hand for Garth.
“Physician Baxtor,” she said as his fingers closed about hers.
Unlike Egalion, Garth did not immediately let go of Ishbel”s hand. A strange, but not
unpleasing, warm sensation passed through Ishbel”s fingers and suddenly all the friendliness in
Garth”s eyes vanished.
“My Lady Brunelle,” he said, dropping her hand before stepping back so abruptly it was
almost rude.
Maximilian frowned, but then Lixel was ushering them all inside, and Maximilian
contented himself with taking Ishbel”s arm and asking her about her journey to Pelemere as they
entered the house.
All the light had gone from Garth”s day. All he wanted now was to speak with
Maximilian urgently, but Maximilian was not leaving Ishbel”s side. They had gone from the
courtyard into the main reception room of the house, where to Garth”s surprise (and Lixel”s, and
just about everyone else”s except, he noted, Ishbel”s), Maximilian pronounced an intention to get
down to the nitty-gritty of the final details of the marriage contract between himself and the Lady
Ishbel immediately.
“You have no objections, my lady?” Maximilian said to Ishbel.
She hesitated very slightly, then shook her head. “None, my lord.”
“Well then, Lixel,” Maximilian said, “to work! Do you have the necessary documents to
hand?”
Still looking taken aback, Lixel showed Maximilian and Ishbel into a secondary chamber,
where Maximilian closed the doors firmly on the entourage.
Garth and Egalion exchanged a look. “What was that all about?” Egalion said.
“I have no idea.” Garth stared at the closed door, almost too shocked to be capable of
coherent thought. For weeks and weeks Maximilian had been extremely wary. Over the past day
or so, however, since his return from his time spent alone, his mood had changed, and he”d
appeared far more confident and relaxed about the proposed marriage. Even so, Garth had hardly
expected him to leap off his horse, take the lady”s hand, and immediately drag her and Lixel into
final conference about the matter.
“What do you think of her?” Egalion said. “I”d half anticipated a dumpy pockmarked
crone…but…” He gave a soft laugh. “No wonder Maxel has hurried her off to sign what papers
he must.”
“I hope he doesn”t sign them too fast,” Garth murmured. “I need to speak to him. Badly.”