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

small chance of winning it."
    The Terafin smiled at that. Commander Allen was not an obviously proud man, and he had never been boastful; his way, rather, was to let louder men underestimate him until they had no choice but to acknowledge his superiority. He was not, however, a man to accept that he had either a slender chance of winning or that his chance amounted to a single woman with no knowledge whatever of the strategies or tactics of war.
    "And besides, it means I won't have to deal with the Hawk and the Kestrel, and I can tell you, he wasn't looking forward to
that
."
    The Terafin's smile was the only natural thing about the moment, and it faded. They sat alone as if they had always been two solitudes.
    "Avandar, of course, will go with you."
    "Of course."
    Silence.
    "Will you take care of my den?"
    "Your den, Jewel, are as capable of taking care of themselves as my Chosen."
    Silence.
    It was awkward. It could hardly be anything but awkward. There was an unspoken assumption that neither woman wished to touch, but that had to be touched upon. The Terafin bowed her head. Took a deep breath. Smiled, the smile itself more of a wince than an expression of happiness or mirth.
    "I do not think that I will be here to greet you upon your return."
    Jewel had been fidgeting, her eyes drawn from one side of the library's expanse to the other, flicking here and there off book and shelf and table surface. It hadn't been obvious to The Terafin until the moment her words were exposed to the silence— because at that moment, Jewel became part of the silence.
    She broke the stillness by rising.
    "Isn't that why you came?" The Terafin said, pressing her, rising in turn. "To say good-bye?"
    The younger woman's face lost all color, all movement; became a mask, but at that a poor one—one that was translucent, transparent, one that could so easily be seen through. If it weren't for its stiffness, it might have been no mask at all. There were tears.
    She did not shed them. At least she had that much control.
    "Yes. Yes, Terafin, I came to say good-bye."
    "Without actually saying those words?"
    The younger ATerafin looked away. "Without actually saying those words."
    "Ah."
    "You know."
    "We know, but Morretz has difficulty acknowledging the eventual end of his service. It is why neither he nor Avandar is present."
    Jewel sat.
    The Terafin did not; she did not need to. "Have you no comfort to offer me?"
    "I'm not much for comfort. Ask Angel. Or Carver."
    "Or Teller? Or Daine?"
    Jewel flinched. "I'm not much for offering comfort when there's no comfort to be offered. You don't want it. You don't need it."
    "Oh, Jewel," The Terafin said softly, "you see, and you do not see. You're wrong. Tonight, in this room, between the two of us, I need comfort.
    "I have looked; I have looked as clearly, as harshly, as I dare. I know the end is coming. Your dreams. The House's. My death is not natural. It is not accidental. One of my own will betray me, and if I could see clearly which one, I wouldn't be facing certain death. I see a war beyond the stretch and reach of my life that would have required all of my cunning and all of my experience to survive.
    "This House—it is not me. But while I live, it is mine. I have been told by others with the particular experience I lack that my feelings are not unlike a parent's ferocity of affection for her child." She looked up; the stained glass was dark in the quiet night. From this vantage, the heavens weren't unreachable; they simply ceased to exist.
    And it was not from the gods that she would make the only demand that would ease her.
    "I had hoped that you would come to me. And you have." She looked across the table at the stricken younger woman.
    "Terafin—"
    "You know what I ask of you."
    Jewel's mouth opened. Closed. She nodded.
    "Offer me farewells, if that will ease you. But offer me something that will ease
me
. I have never asked it, Jewel. But this is the point of no return. When you leave, when you