Michelle West - The Sun Sword 03 - The Shining Court by The Shining Court Read Free Book Online

ATerafin? This is the altar upon which service is pledged. To my House. To me."
    "I can't do what you ask of me."
    "You have already decided to go."
    She looked away. Cursed, not bothering to restrain herself. The night heard the words, and the dead. Neither of them were moved. "Years of dealing with merchants," she told him softly, "and I still can't bluff my way through a negotiation."
    A brow rose.
    "Yes. This is a negotiation. It just doesn't sound much like one 'cause it's late, I've had no sleep for a week, and I'm always at a disadvantage when dealing with the dead."
    "A negotiation occurs when there is something to be negotiated. I fail to see that here."
    "Yeah, well. Being dead probably doesn't help much." She tried for flippant. Got most of the way there. But her heart wasn't in it.
    There was only one thing her heart was in. "I want you to take care of them."
    "Jewel."
    "Not the Terafin. I know it doesn't work that way. But them. My den. I want you to protect Teller. And Finch. I need you to watch over them."
    "If I could, Jewel Markess, I would watch over
all
members of my House."
    "There must be something you can do. You speak to
me
."
    "Yes, I do," he said softly. "Just as I speak to The Terafin. You understand this, Jewel." He paused. His mannerisms were nothing at all like those of the man whose face he wore, and she wondered why he'd chosen Teller. "Why don't you take them with you?"
    "You know why."
    "Do I?"
    "I don't know if anything is going to survive where I'm going."
    "But you know there's no safety here. The truth, Jewel."
    She knew why he wore Teller's face, then. Teller was the only one of her den she couldn't lie to. Or rather, the only one who knew when she was lying, and who seemed—by the complicity of silence—to understand why.
    "If they're not here, the House falls."
    "Yes."
    "And if I'm not there, the House falls."
    "Yes."
    "Gods, I
hate
this." She spun to the altar and back. Once. Twice. Three times.
    "And I," he said softly. "But I will tell you this: they must stand in your stead. Trust them."
    She was stony faced. She'd never understood that expression before.
    "They offered me their service. I accepted it." The night began to dissolve him. "It may surprise you, but you are not the only ATerafin of import; not the only ATerafin whose service the House depends on. You have surrounded yourself with people you trust. This is not uncommon.
    "What is uncommon is that they are—all of them—worthy of that trust. You see clearly. You chose well.
    "If I had any choice, I would keep you here. But it comes. Remember this: I left my House to ride with the sons of Veralaan."
    "What am I going to tell The Terafin?"
    "The truth," he said softly, his voice now as thin as the facade he wore. "She will accept it."
    The Terafin sat across the length of the familiar, spotless table. Nothing adorned it; no books, no paperwork, no inkstands or quill, no lamp. But the lights that ringed the edge of the open glasswork above it cast soft reflections. Hers. Jewel ATerafin's.
    She had chosen to forgo the domicis; Morretz, seldom excluded, had made his feelings plain by a slight compression of lips even as he bowed. Avandar, on the other hand, had darkened. Had, in fact, turned from The Terafin to Jewel, forcing them both to acknowledge that Jewel was his chosen master, no matter whose gold had paid for—and continued to pay for—the contract.
    Jewel, however, was more politic.
    Or perhaps more stubborn.
    The two women sat in the room, experience, as always, the thing that separated them. But not, The Terafin reflected, as much as it once had. They were older. Wiser, perhaps.
    Alone.
    She waited for the younger woman to speak first.
    Jewel acknowledged the right rank gave her; she spoke. "I'm going South ahead of the armies."
    Amarais inclined her head. "I suspected you might. Commander Allen will not, I think, be pleased."
    "He might be."
    "Oh?"
    "If I don't go South, he loses the war. If I go, he has a