The Invisible Ring

Reyna. The moontime brews just didn’t happen to be part of it.
    But the words did what he’d expected them to do. A Healer was a respected woman, and there was the implicit faith that a Healer wouldn’t create a brew that would harm.
    He knew better. In places that stood in Hayll's shadow, Healers weren’t always well trained or respected, and some had made the choice to harm others in order to save themselves.
    Watching her shoulders relax as she took another sip, he felt relieved that the healing Craft was still strong in Dena Nehele.
    He didn’t want to hurt her. She was hurting so much already. But her self-imposed exile had made it possible for him to talk with her privately without calling attention to it, and there were questions he had put aside while they returned to the clearing, ate, and settled in for the evening, too weary to do anything more.
    So he tried to keep his voice gentle and soothing, and sent out psychic tendrils of reassurance so that his strength and maleness wouldn’t intimidate her so much she wouldn’t talk to him.
    “Lady . . .” Jared paused. Frowning, he sipped his coffee. What was he supposed to call her? Did the people in the court address her as Lady Arabella Ardelia? Formally perhaps, but surely not in a normal conversation. Lady Arabella? That made him think of a fair, dainty woman who wore ruffles and lace, not this tall, strong-boned, solid-muscled young woman with generous curves. Lady Ardelia?
    Yes.
    A woman as strong as the land, with a heart of fire.
    The Lady, on the other hand, might have a different opinion.
    “What do your people call you?” he asked, surprised at how much her answer might disappoint him.
    For the first time since he’d entered the wagon, she looked directly at him. Her lips twitched. “My father calls me Bella. My mother calls me Belle.” Her expression darkened, and her lips curled in a silent snarl. “My cousin calls me belly button.” She sipped the brew and muttered under her breath, “I never liked my cousin.”
    Jared wisely raised his mug to his lips, covering the smile. “Which do you prefer?”
    “Lia,” she said. “When I was seven, I decided I wanted to be called Lia. So that’s what everyone calls me now— except my parents.”
    “And your cousin,” Jared added, not bothering to hide the grin.
    She muttered something extremely uncomplimentary.
    Lia. The name flowed over him like a warm summer wind. Lady Lia. He could imagine the village children calling to her to see the new puppy, the new kitten, the new bit of Craft that had been learned. He could hear the affectionate way the men and older women talked about her. Have you heard what Lady Lia’s been up to lately?
    And in the court, now and when she established her own . . . Lady Ardelia. The strong young Queen with too much courage.
    Which brought him back to the beginning.
    “Why?” he asked quietly.
    For a while Lia just sipped the brew and didn’t answer. Then she sighed. “It’s the last time, you see. The Gray Lady was attacked after the spring auction, and her escorts were killed. Dorothea SaDiablo was behind that attack. The Gray Lady insisted that she had to go to Raej one more time so that our enemies would know that the strength of a Gray-Jeweled Queen still protected Dena Nehele. The males in the First Circle felt that the risks far outweighed whatever might be gained. They politely requested that she remain within the borders of Dena Nehele—and then they pulled out every scrap of Blood Law and Protocol they could find about the rights and privileges of males in the First Circle. By the time they were done, she realized their request really amounted to a command— which they vehemently denied, of course.”
    “Of course,” Jared said politely.
    She looked at him with keen suspicion.
    “That doesn’t explain why you’re here,” Jared pointed out.
    She fiddled with her mug. “She couldn’t go to Raej again. Even if the First Circle hadn’t found a way to stop her, she couldn’t go. We almost lost her the last time, and if we’d lost her before—” Lia quickly sipped her brew.
    “Before?” Jared’s green eyes narrowed as he watched her.
    “Before the new Queen was fully trained to take her place.”
    Which meant that the majority of the Warlord Princes and other Queens in Dena Nehele had already agreed to accept the Gray Lady’s chosen successor.
    “Why did they send you? Why not a more experienced Queen?”
    She worried the ragged edge of the blanket beneath her. “Well, I look a lot