Chapter 54
“You haven’t been entirely honest with me,” Karris said once the secretaries and slaves had cleared out of the White’s rooms to give them privacy.
“I am entirely honest with Orholam alone, and him only when he forces it from me, I’m afraid,” the White said.
“None of that,” Karris said. “Don’t turn this religious. I’m not taking over your spy network because you’re roombound and you can’t go see them all yourself.”
“Oh?”
“At least that’s not the only reason,” Karris said.
The White’s wrinkles deepened as she smiled. She had lines aplenty, of course, and the smile lines were not so deep as the worry lines. “Push me to the window, dear.”
Scowling, Karris did so. One couldn’t push the woman’s chair across her apartments without being painfully aware of how thin and saggy her skin was, how delicate the bones. It was as if Death were gently announcing his impending arrival by these hints at how close to a skeleton this woman was, how near the end of her term of service on this earth.
“Hold. Are you deliberately reminding me how frail you are so I don’t yell at you?”
The White laughed. “Not everything is a trick, girl.”
Karris frowned deeper. “Oh. Well, sorry then.”
“But that was.”
The White’s grin was infectious, and Karris couldn’t help but grin along with her. She took back all her thoughts about Death’s arrival. This woman was going to live forever. Somehow Orea Pullawr was a little girl caught filching sweetmeats, smiling like, ‘Mommy, you can’t be mad at me, I’m too cute!’ and simultaneously the wisest old crone in all the world.
Karris couldn’t lose her. She sat down on the floor with her back to the blue luxin wall, looking up at the woman who had become hero and mother to her. “Please don’t leave me,” she said. She couldn’t help it.
“Not until it’s my time, girl,” the White said.
Karris scowled again. “Well, that’s meaningless.”
The White waved a dismissive hand. “Bah. People say meaningless things all the time when they’re about to die. How about this one: ‘As long as I’m in your heart, I’ll never truly die.’ Ha! Please don’t keep me trapped in your heart after I die, girl. I get claustrophobic.”
“How about, ‘You’ll be watching over me’?” Karris asked, only half joking.
“Sure—so please spend less time in latrines, because I don’t want to see it!”
Karris laughed. And then she couldn’t bring up what she’d come to ask about. Her courage wasn’t doing so great today.
“You’ve had a little talk with Marissia,” the White prompted.
“I just came from there, how do you know? I thought we had all your spies!”
“What need for spies, when I have eyes?”
“Huh?”
“Or a nose. You reek of that whisky she drinks. Crag Tooth, which means she was trying to make peace. Otherwise she’d have given you that swill Barrenmoor.”
Oh. Right. Not everything was about spies and betrayal. You still had to use your wits. Karris took a deep breath. “You brought me on to handle your spies, you said. But you’ve already got Marissia. She’s been your spy handler for years, hasn’t she?”
“Yes,” the White said.
“So why did you ask me to do what she’s already doing, probably better than I ever will? Were you just trying to give me purpose? You thought I’d kill myself without Gavin around, without the Blackguard?”
“I don’t see you as one for self-slaughter.”
Karris said, “You’re giving me nothing here. Please.”
The White smiled sadly. “For many years now, Marissia has handled my spies within the Chromeria. I personally handled the external spies. She is very, very good. She would be better than I am at such work, were it not that I am the White and meeting me personally tends to carry weight. With the spy we’re handling in this matter, it’s unclear whether this should be treated as an internal Chromeria matter or an external threat.”
So the White was simply transferring a spy from one handler to the next. “That’s all?” Karris asked.
“This didn’t come up when you fought with her?” the White countered.
“There weren’t that many words exchanged.”
“Oh dear. You didn’t break any of her bones, did you, darling?”
Karris kept a straight face. “You’d be surprised how much pain I can inflict without doing permanent damage.”
The White winced.
“But that’s it?” Karris asked. Fun as it was to mislead the White in something harmless, Karris had gotten awfully wound up over something that turned out to be utterly trivial.
The White lifted her hands. “There isn’t always a grand design.”
‘With you there is,’ Karris almost said. Instead, “I could have used some warning.” About Marissia, she meant.
“You needed to have it out with her. I expected you to do it on your own long ago. Perhaps your abstention from red and green is doing you more good than I’d hoped.”
“About that,” Karris said. “How long—”
“No.”
“But—”
“No.”
“I’ve—”
“Absolutely not.”
“Very well, then,” Karris said. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a desire to go the training room and destroy something.”
“You’re dismissed. I’m sure Marissia will be eager to come give me her version of events.”