House of Shadows by Neumeier Rachel Read Free Book Online Page B

urchin roe off the creamy mound of mashed parsnips.
    “A lovely girl,” remarked Leilis.
    Rue made a perfunctory sound of mild interest without glancing up.
    “Lily also thinks so.”
    Rue paused in the midst of her second slice of duck breast. She looked at Leilis, a searching look. “And so you bring me a tray?”
    “With cherry sauce.”
    A slight smile crooked Rue’s mouth. “I’m surprised you care.”
    Leilis did not know how to defend her own sympathy for the new girl. She said nothing.
    “Does she dance?” Rue asked after a moment.
    “Compared to you?”
    Rue smiled again and went back to her duck. She knew, all possible modesty aside, that there was no likelihood that this new girl would even be able to perceive the distant heights of her art.
    “Mother will want to protect her,” said Leilis. “But she won’t.” She meant,
Not from Lily.
The faint, bitter edge to her voice surprised her, and she stopped.
    The keiso, understanding, lifted an eyebrow in cynical agreement. “Children blind a mother. Even a Mother. Lily might have grown into a less selfish snip if Narienneh had fostered her out just as she’d have done with a boy.” Even Rue would not have said anything that direct to just any servant, but then Leilis was not an ordinary servant. Rue simply went on, “But as she hasn’t and won’t, what do you think
I
will be able to do for this new deisa of ours?”
    There was, of course, very little even an influential and well-disposed keiso could do for a deisa among deisa. Leilis lifted a shoulder in a tiny shrug.
    Rue finished the duck and thoughtfully broke one of the cakes in two, exposing the thick cream filling. She ate the cake in two neat bites and licked cream off her fingers. “Very beautiful, is she?”
    “She’ll surprise you,” Leilis promised. “Even though I tell you so now.”
    Rue made a skeptical little sound, ate the second pastry, and rose to her feet in one neat motion. “Will you take the tray back to the kitchens, or shall I?”
    “I ought to leave it for you. Then at least you would have to leave the studio for half a moment.”
    The dancer only laughed, not at all offended at this impertinence. She glanced at the rail, at the mirror, but pulled herself away and strolled toward the door instead. She said over her shoulder to Leilis, who had picked up the tray and followed her, “I’m going out to the theater with Lord Nahadde soon. He gifts well, but he wishes an attentive companion, so I had better not be late. I must thank you for bringing the tray, Leilis. I would have noticed later that I had missed supper!”
    Leilis watched Rue walk away, then turned and headed slowly back herself toward the kitchens.
    Cloisonné’s banquet would certainly continue into the small hours, leaving the House itself largely deserted until the keiso came wearily home to seek their beds. In the meantime, a deep quiet settled throughout the House. The young servants had already retired; they would rise early, while the keiso were still sleeping off their night. And the retired keiso who had never acquired property of their own and remained in the House were mostly elderly and abed with the sunset.
    And, of course, the new girl would have been left to sleep in the deisa gallery, she being too new to the House to accompany the keiso to their banquet. Leilis wondered whether she had yet metthe other deisa. Whether she had yet met Lily. Whether she slept, and whether her dreams troubled her.
    Probably she was not asleep. Probably she lay awake in her narrow deisa bed and cried for her sisters. Especially if she had encountered Lily. She would be justified if she wept, then.
    More important… more important, Mother would be in her apartment. Leilis changed her direction and quickened her step, realized she still held Rue’s empty tray, hesitated, and turned back toward the kitchens after all.
    The kitchens were dark, if still warm; they were never really cold, even in the depths of