“She’s a blower, Auntie Rhoner—a terrible liar! I hardly touched her.” Lillia was particularly irritated by the hue and cry because she’d also been listening with interest to the two grown-up women’s conversation. “Isn’t that true, Aedonita?”
Aedonita, daughter of a Rowson relative and one of Lillia’s most frequent playmates, nodded vigorously. “Ely’s a terrible sniveler, Countess.”
After order was restored, Elyweld was given one of Lillia’s dolls to play with (and probably to destroy, was Lillia’s thought). The two older girls continued with their game of jackbones and Lillia continued with her eavesdropping.
“I dread this, I truly do,” the queen was saying. “It is hard enough, having Morgan so far from home, but now I must leave this little one behind, too.”
Lillia knew that meant her, and although she did not like being called the “little one,” she was pleased that her grandmother was worrying about her.
Auntie Rhoner laughed “She’s like a weed, our Lillia. She’ll be fine. And why shouldn’t she be, here in the Hayholt with me and soldiers and her grandfather the king?”
“I just worry. The world seems such a dangerous place to me these days.”
“Well, you know what they say, dear Miriamele—I mean Your Majesty. ‘Heaven is good, but you still shouldn’t dance in a small boat.’ And I think that it’s true. You shouldn’t call down troubles you don’t have yet. In Nad Glehs, we were raised most studiously to avoid such things.”
“Ah. Very wise.” The queen sighed loudly, which surprised Lillia, because it seemed more like the sound she, herself, would make on a boring afternoon or during a punitive banishment to her bedchamber. “But it’s not just the little one I’m worrying for. It’s the king as well.”
“Do you think him apt to get into mischief with you gone? Shall I keep an eye on the serving girls?”
The queen laughed again. “Simon? No. He is more like a boy that way. Not in the marriage bed, where he is lusty enough, but his eye for a pretty woman shames him a bit—he thinks I would take it badly, so he looks away more than he looks at, if you take my meaning. God bless him, but he does not want me angry with him.”
“So what is it you want, dear? What is it that has you worried?”
“Oh, everything. I’m not even certain, my lovely Rhona. I suppose I fear that the king, my Simon, will be sad with me gone. That he will be lost. And this is not a time when he can afford to be a mooncalf.”
“The king—a mooncalf?”
Miriamele smiled. It was slightly grim. “You cannot even guess. Don’t misunderstand me—Simon is the kindest man I know. But sometimes, I swear with the Sacred Mother as my witness, I feel more like a mother than a wife. Do you know, he wanted us to go and eat supper last night on top of Holy Tree Tower?”
“Truly? Why?”
“He wanted to talk about things he’d done when he was a boy—which tower roofs he’d been on, where he’d gotten into different kinds of mischief. I wanted to talk with him instead about what was to come, what he must watch carefully while I’m gone, many important things. All he wanted to talk about was when we were young.”
“Hmmmm.” Lillia saw that Auntie Rhoner was not convinced by what the queen said. “I can think of worse things, Majesty, than a husband who wants to reminisce about the days when you both were young and in love.”
“To be honest, I don’t think I have that much to do with it, Rhona. When he was young he knew me only as somebody he saw a few times from a distance. I knew him better than he knew me.”
“You did? How could that be?”
Lillia, listening intently now, wanted to ask the same thing.
“Because I watched him and the other servants. I envied them their freedom.”
“That’s an odd word for it.”
“Oh, I know, Rhona dear. Don’t scold me. We never understand anyone but ourselves when we’re young, and we don’t understand ourselves very well. But I watched Simon and Jeremias, and that page, what was his name . . . ? I watched them running around, and even when they were working, they laughed and they sang.” She frowned. “Izaak. That was his name. Little fellow, but he had a lovely singing voice. Not like Simon’s honking.”
Rhona laughed. “I stand near your husband in the chapel. I have heard him sing, my lady. When you say ‘honking,’ you are very kind.”
“Bless him. And he does love to sing, too.” She sighed again. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, Rhona. I will miss him terribly. And he is not a fool, not at all—he will do very well whenever he takes time to think carefully. But I worry that something may happen that compels a sudden choice, and that is when I fear his judgement.”
“I will do my best to watch over all your dear ones, Majesty,” her friend said. “And don’t forget, we will miss you too—and not just the ladies of the court, either. All of Erkynland will miss you until you come back to us, my queen. I’ll pray every day for your safe journey and speedy return.”
“Ah, you have reminded me of something else.” The queen looked over toward the children, and Lillia pretended to be studying the jackbones, which had been awaiting her next throw for some moments.
“Aren’t you going to go again?” Aedonita demanded, sounding almost as querulous as her little sister.
“Ssshhhh.” Lillia waggled her hand, wanting to hear what else the queen had remembered.
“I have heard a number of alarming things lately about Hernystir,” the queen told Auntie Rhoner. “Most of them we’ve talked about already, but the latest reports suggest that things have grown very strange indeed in Hernysadharc. Please, write to your friends who are still there, and without being too obvious, see what you can learn.”
“About Tylleth? The woman that King Hugh is marrying?”
“About anything. About Lady Tylleth, Hugh, anything you can discover. Do not ask too specifically or too openly, but I would like some impressions of what goes on around the Hernystir throne that does not come from our envoys or other official carriers.”
“Do you distrust your ambassadors?”
“I trust nobody completely, dear Rhona—except you and Simon, of course. But the news that comes to me from the Taig seems too strange not to be more generally known. Did you know that the Silver Stags have arrested and imprisoned several nobles who were friends of Queen Inahwen?”
Lillia could see that Countess Rhona looked surprised. “Truly? I have not heard it! Why?”
“I haven’t been told yet. But I fear Hugh, especially since that woman got her claws into him.”
“I will do my best to learn more.”
“But discreetly, dear, as I said, and not just to keep my interest secret. Your husband still has many ties to Hernysadharc. Do not risk your family’s safety.”
“Risk their safety? Now you truly are frightening me, Majesty.”
“Better that I frighten you into caution than lull you into carelessness.” She smiled and raised her voice. “Now, where is my granddaughter, the one I came to see? I could have sworn she was here somewhere!”
Lillia was pleased that her turn had finally come, although slightly miffed by how much time the queen and Auntie Rhoner had spent talking first. “I’m here, Grandmother! I mean, Your Majesty!”
“You may certainly call me Grandmother, and especially today, when I have to say farewell to you for a while.”
The queen beckoned to her, and Lillia got up and hurried over, then crawled into her lap. The queen always smelled of nice things. Today her dress smelled of oranges and cloves, and her hair smelled of violets. “Why do you have to go to Nabban?”
“Because there is an important wedding there, and I want to attend it.”
“Why isn’t King Grandfather going?”
The queen smiled. “Because he has to stay here and take care of the kingdom.”
“Will you be gone long?”
“Not too long. I’ll be back before St. Granis’ Day.”
Lillia thought. “Will you bring me back something?”
“Would you like a doll?”
“Yes. A Nabban doll. With a great long stola.”
“They don’t wear stolas in Nabban anymore, dear one,” said Rhona. “Not for years and years. Centuries!”
“I don’t care. I want one with a stola.”
Her grandmother stroked her hair. “Look how golden you’re becoming with all this sunshine. I’ll do my best, lamb. I’ll see what I can find.”
“You can get one for Aedonita too,” Lillia said generously. “But not Elyweld. She’s a terrible, terrible sniveler.”
But her grandmother was talking to Auntie Rhoner again, and Lillia could only hope the queen had heard the important part at the end about not wasting a doll on little girls who blew and cried and told tales. She snuggled deeper, smelling her grandmother’s smells, and wondered why people ever went anywhere far away.
“And the chapterhouse at St. Ormod’s is to be rededicated on the saint’s feast day—that’s coming soon. The archbishop will remind you, I’m sure, but I’m telling you so you won’t stay up late the night before. You know how easily you fall asleep at such events.”