Kushiel's Avatar

know. It is a splendid, terrible tale, and you have been privileged to see a glimpse of it. Outside Azzalle, I do not think they even tell it. But Hugues, never forget it is real people who live out such tales and bear the price of the telling, in grief and guilt and sorrow.”
    He fell silent, then, and lowered his handsome head, and I felt remorse for having shamed him. We stayed at an inn in the town of Seinagan that night, and Hugues excused himself from the common room to retire early. Ti-Philippe, offering no comment, accompanied him.
    It was pleasant in the common room, whitewashed walls freshly scrubbed, a fire to ward off the evening chill of spring smelling sweetly of pear wood. “You were hard on the lad,” Joscelin said quietly, not looking at me, running his fingertips over the sweating earthenware curve of a wine-jug. “He’s excited, no more. He meant no harm.”
    “I know.” I put my head in my hands. “I know. It’s just that it galls me, Joscelin. To see Hyacinthe thus, and be helpless. It is a pain in my heart, and I take no pleasure in it.”
    “Would that I had been the one to answer the riddle.” Joscelin raised his head abruptly. “Is that what you want to hear? I would that I had, Phèdre. Better for all of us if I had. If I could trade places with him and spare you this pain, I would. But I can’t ,” he said savagely. “I’m not clever, like you, and I have no gift of sight to aid me. Only these.” He turned out his hands, palms upward, callus-worn. “It has been enough, until now.” His expression changed. “And could be still, if you convinced him,” he said slowly. “I do know the answer, don’t I? I don’t need to be wise or gifted, not anymore. All I need is for Hyacinthe to let me set foot on his shores.”
    “Joscelin, no!” I stared at him in horror. “How can you even think such a thing?”
    “Ah, well.” He smiled faintly, wryly. “It would solve your problems.”
    “Idiot!” I grasped both of his hands hard in mine. “Joscelin Verreuil, if you think for one minute I would grieve over you one whit less than I do for Hyacinthe, you are a blessed fool,” I said in exasperation. “He is my oldest and dearest friend and I love him well, but you ...” I shook my head. “You are an idiot. And if you think I’m going to walk into darkness without you at my side, an idiot thrice over. You’re not getting out of it that easily.”
    His fingers closed over my own. “Then I shall stand at the crossroads,” he said quietly. “And choose, and choose again, wherever your path shall lead. I protect and serve.”
    They were words that needed to be spoken between us, and in the morning I awoke with a resolved heart and made greater effort to be gracious to those around me. Thus we made good time on the road and returned the City of Elua to find the word of Drustan’s arrival had preceded us by a day, brought by Azzallese couriers riding at a breakneck pace to receive Ysandre’s reward.
    The Queen heard our news with grave compassion, taking note of the passage of power and Hyacinthe’s words thereon. I daresay she was genuinely sorry for his plight-but there are limits even to a Queen’s power. Ysandre had a realm to govern and her beloved husband, the father of her children, was making his way to her side. There was naught she could do. If there had been, I would have asked it; would have spent the boon, long-hoarded, she had granted me with the Companion’s Star.
    But there was nothing.
    As a matter of courtesy, I consulted with the Master of Ceremonies on preparing the way for Drustan’s entry into the City; it is one of the great rites of spring nowadays, and I was there at its inception. Once, there were precious few D’Angelines who spoke Cruithne. Now, traffic is brisk between our lands, it is taught in many schools and Ysandre does not lack for translators. The children of the realm do not need my coaching to greet the Cruarch in his own tongue.
    One distraction I had in the days before his arrival, and that was a cabinet meeting of the Guild of the Servants of Naamah. It is the only appointment I have ever sought, and I have served in the cabinet since the days of La Serenissima, designated as the Court liaison. They reckoned themselves lucky to have me at first-over a hundred years it has been, since a member of the peerage served on that Guild-but they did not always like the reforms I proposed. We voted on one that day that had Jareth