“I didn’t expect to see you until morning, Jahna,” he said.
She set aside Radimar’s message for a moment. “Father, did you know Sir Radimar was leaving us?”
His cheerful visage sombered and he nodded. “I did. He came to me as soon as he received the message from Ilinfan. He asked me to wait in sharing the news because he didn’t want Sodrin distracted before the Exhibition.”
“You could have told me.” Whether or not he did wasn’t truly important and wouldn’t change a thing, but Jahna felt somehow betrayed by both Uhlfrida’s and Radimar’s silence.
He eyed her a long time, a myriad of puzzling emotions flashing across his features, including some unnamed revelation that sharpened his gaze as he continued to stare at her. “I intended to tell you both together. How did you find out?”
“Sir Radimar told me, after you took Sodrin to celebrate.”
“Then Sodrin doesn’t know yet?
“No.” Even if Radimar told him tonight, she doubted Sodrin would remember by morning. “Sir Radimar is with him now. Sodrin is so drunk, he can hardly stand. They’ve gone to our chambers so he can sleep it off. I was sent to tell you so you wouldn’t worry.”
Uhlfrida patted her hand. “I’m glad you found me. Sodrin will pay for that overindulgence tomorrow. I warned him to slow down on the ale and wine. I’ll be up soon to check on him. Are you going there as well?”
Jahna doubted she’d find any sleep tonight, and the rest of the evening’s festivities didn’t hold any interest for her, especially now with the knowledge of Radimar’s upcoming departure. “Dame Stalt left a scroll in one of the Archives’ repositories. It describes the fading of the Gullperi from the world. She thought I might enjoy it. I’ll stop there first to pick it up before joining Sodrin. I suspect I’ll find him him either asleep or hunched over a basin tossing up the contents of his stomach.”
She went on tiptoe to kiss her father’s cheek and bid him goodnight. She headed for the door, stopping when he called her name. An inscrutable look had settled over Uhlfrida’s face. “Jahna, it may not seem so, but it’s probably a good thing that Radimar is returning to Ilinfan now.”
Good for whom, Father? She wanted to ask him but stayed silent, only nodding before turning away to escape the hall with its roar of noise and sea of people.
Except for a few scribes who greeted her with a wave or quick “Happy Delyalda, Lady Uhlfrida,” the Archives were deserted. Jahna found the scroll Dame Stalt had left for her on one of the writing tables, a card bearing her name tied to a ribbon that held the scroll shut. It was a heavy thing, promising several hours of reading that Jahna hoped would either engross her in its contents or help her fall asleep so she didn’t succumb to the sadness purling just under the surface of her serene demeanor.
The palace corridors were almost as quiet as the Archives except for the strains of music drifting through the cloisters’ open archways from the bailey below. Jahna had almost reached the doors to their chambers when she found herself suddenly blocked and cast back to three years earlier and the terror of the hunt when she was the prey.
Evaline Lacramor stood in the hallway, flanked by Nadel, Tefila and three others Jahna didn’t recognize—all women except for one man who seemed puzzled as to why they all decided to stop here. They spanned the hall’s width, cutting off Jahna’s access to her rooms and the safety they offered.
Still pretty, still petty, still driven by some strange need to seek out Jahna simply for the pleasure of tormenting her, Evaline took a few steps closer and eyed Jahna as if she were some particularly gruesome specimen someone had unearthed from a forgotten midden.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Fireface, roaming about the palace all alone.” The cruel smile blossoming across her full lips diminished her beauty. “Searching for something, Jahna? Lose your friends?” She tilted her head to one side and tittered. “Oh wait. You don’t have any.” Her brittle trill of laughter was echoed by the other women. The man, recognizing he was clearly out of his element, looked even more baffled.
“Too busy writing on parchment all day with those shriveled up prunes in the Archives,” Nadel added.
Evaline’s lip curled, her disdain obvious. “They’re probably the only ones who can stand to look at her.” Her eyes narrowed at her quarry’s continued silence and impassive face.
Three years ago, Jahna had huddled in terror within the shadows of an alcove, praying she’d remain invisible to those who tracked her. Things were different now. She was different. Evaline seemed far less monstrous to her and far more petty, a shallow creature made of sharp-edged sparkle and little substance, and Jahna had no patience for her.
She strode forward, straight through their little group. Their surprise at her forceful action was no less than hers when they parted to let her through. A tiny part of her cheered. This might end without trouble.
That spark of hope died a quick death when Evaline’s hand wrapped around her arm, sharp nails digging into her sleeve. Her voice was the hiss of a viper that snaked through the corridor and scraped across Jahna’s ear. “Don’t you walk away from me, you haughty cunt! I’m talking to you.”
“I will teach you how to save yourself.” Radimar’s declaration when she first met him, echoed in Jahna’s mind, and something inside her snapped.
She pivoted so fast, the movement jerked Evaline forward before she lost her grip on Jahna’s arm. Jahna’s hand swung up, then down again, striking Evaline so hard across the face, it slammed her into the adjacent wall. She ricocheted off the stone and fell, clutching the side of her face with one hand while screeching in pain. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and both her cheek and bottom lip were already swelling. She scuttled back on her haunches with a shriek when Jahna advanced a step toward her. Evaline’s cadre of lickspittles did nothing to help, their own faces open-mouthed with shock and a new fear.
“Don’t touch me. Ever.” Jahna warned her fallen tormenter in a voice she hardly recognized as hers. She raised the scroll as if it were a club. “Anyone else?” As one, the rest took several steps back. Jahna pinned them all with her gaze before settling back on the cowering Evaline who had stopped screeching when she realized no one was leaping to her defense.
“I owe no one an apology for my appearance, least of all you and your toadies. You don’t like it?” Jahna shrugged. “I don’t care. Go look at something else. Come near me again, and I’ll make sure the next time you won’t be able to stand up, even with help.”