The girl’s voice trailed off in a half question because Derand had closed his eyes and stood rubbing them as he fought to keep from cursing aloud. Seea was using today to show that she was staying in the palace on her own terms, and it wasn’t like her to do a job half way. She might also be testing his resolve to keep his word, to see how far she could go before he proved he’d been lying?

  “Tell the queen that I’ll pass on her regrets and that I wish her a good night’s sleep,” Derand said with as little growl in his voice as he could manage. “I’ll certainly see her tomorrow? “

  Since the girl flinched with every word Derand spoke, he gave up on saying anything else and simply headed for the dining room where his guests waited. Tomorrow would be another day, and all he had to do tonight was try not to make blood enemies out of his father, Gardal, and King Ostrin? Tomorrow he might have a real enemy to face, a thought that actually brought a smile of sorts to his face?

  Chapter 17

  Elissia left instructions that she wasn’t to be awakened early, so it was almost mid-morning before she started the day. While she washed and dressed she felt the urge to ask if the High King had destroyed anything or anyone the night before, but being that flip wouldn’t have been a good idea. She hadn’t been trying to flex some newfound power last night, she’d simply been trying to avoid any new problems.

  Not that trying was likely to do any good. Derand might or might not understand that her new role had demanded that she play high and mighty, and that was the main reason she’d gone to bed early. If she’d gone to dinner instead, she would have had to rub everyone’s nose in her victory.

  “And if the other kings start to arrive today, putting their liege lord into a towering rage won’t be the best of moves,” Elissia muttered as she finished dressing. Since she wore breeches and tunic again, she hadn’t needed the help of any of the girls. “We have to find out who’s behind the attacks as soon as possible, and then we can see about our private affairs. Assuming there are any left to see about once this is nonsense is over? “

  The breakfast Elissia had ordered was waiting when she finished dressing, so she sat down and ate slowly while she thought about how she ought to act now that she’d “gotten her way.” She would have to show a certain amount of smugness and high-handedness, but not toward Derand. That would add a complication they didn’t need, since the man’s mind had to be clear to work on their problem.

  But everyone else would be fair game, all but her parents and brother. Them she would have to ignore as she’d said she would, and that just might make things easier for her. She’d bared too much of her deepest feelings to take any of it back even if she wanted to, and things would never be the same with her family again. She was glad she’d spoken her mind, even though there was the faintest twinge of guilt flitting ghost-like around her mind?

  Elissia came back to the world she lived in to find that she’d finished all the food in front of her. She’d eaten only fairly well the night before, so she must have been hungrier than she’d thought. Well, it didn’t really matter?

  “Your Majesty, word was just brought that more guests are arriving,” one of the maids said after coming back from the hall door. “Would you like help now in changing your clothes?”

  “I won’t be changing my clothes,” Elissia said, voicing a decision she’d made earlier. “If I’m supposed to be the High Queen of Arvin, it’s time I began to make a few changes in the way things are done. It’s stupid for women to constantly tie themselves into uncomfortable clothes just because that’s the way it’s been done until now. If any women like to wear gowns all the time they’ll be free to do so - as long as the rest of us are just as free to wear what we prefer. Do you see anything wrong with that attitude?”

  “Me?” the girl squeaked, apparently trying to decide between being amused and being nervous. “I doubt if anyone would listen to my opinion, Your Majesty, especially the High King. Wouldn’t it be better to ask him what he thinks?”

  “It would be silly to waste time asking,” Elissia said with a faint smile as she got to her feet. “The king won’t hesitate to make his opinion perfectly clear, so all we have to do is wait. Please ask the guards to let me know when the first of the new guests have arrived.”

  The girl curtsied and then hurried to the hall door, and Elissia took a fresh cup of tea with her to sit near the opened windows. It was a fairly nice day out right now, but gathering clouds suggested that it would be raining well before dark. Which, in turn, could mean that their guests would decide against dragging their feet in order to get to shelter before then. Wouldn’t it be fun if they all arrived at the same time and no one was able to make a special entrance? ?

  That amusing thought ended up being a prediction rather than a joke. Word was brought to Elissia that, one after the other, all five of the kings and their retinues had entered the city and were approaching the palace. She had had a thought not long after finishing breakfast so she’d sent for Listan, and the man hadn’t taken long to show up.

  “Your Majesty,” Listan had said with a hasty bow. “I beg your pardon, but I don’t have much time right now. The other kings - “

  “That’s why I sent for you,” Elissia had interrupted with one hand raised. “It might be a good idea to provide an ‘honor guard’ of fighters along the route the kings will take to get here to the palace, as well as having plainly dressed people here and there on the streets. Avoiding an incident is a better idea than trying to cope with one after it happens.”

  “Your Majesty,” Listan had said with a much more respectful bow. “You have my deepest thanks for having interrupted my other duties. Please don’t hesitate to waste my time again if you have any other unimportant ideas.”

  The man had been grinning while he spoke, and then he’d left at a run. Elissia had hesitated before sending for Listan, thinking that Derand had surely already thought of the possibility that his guests might also be in danger of attack. But Derand was being distracted by everything going on around him, so it was a good thing she’d decided to make sure.

  The last of the kings reached the palace in time to freshen up before lunch, so that would be the first meal they would all share. It was already beginning to rain out, and that probably meant the “games” Derand had mentioned would wait until tomorrow to start. Elissia stood and stretched, then went to find out where lunch would be taken - and incidentally to let Derand know what to expect from her.

  Elissia was told that lunch would be served in the main dining room, and that was where she found Derand. He was speaking to some of his fighters before his new guests showed up, and when he saw Elissia he finished up with the fighters and came over to her.

  “It’s a good thing you thought to suggest that ‘honor guard’ to Listan,” he said in a soft voice at once, giving her a smile. “There were men ready and waiting to disrupt the arrival of my guests, but only two actually got to try before my men quickly had them in hand. The others were taken even before they tried anything, but they’ll probably be as much of a dead end as the ones from yesterday. Those three were hired by a man in a mask, and they have no idea who he is? Aren’t you going to change for lunch?”

  Elissia wanted to ask what three from yesterday, but Derand’s question distracted her.

  “Lunch is too informal a meal not to ? prove my independence, so to speak,” she answered just as softly. “Don’t forget that I’m supposed to be feeling smug and in complete control now, so I’ll be kind of

  ? high and mighty with your guests. You won’t let it upset you too much, will you?”

  “You’re worried about helping me to keep my word?” he asked, a really odd smile now on his face as he looked down at her. “That’s more than decent of you, and I really appreciate the effort. And I can see the logic in what you said, so no, I won’t let your act bother me too much.”

  “Good,” Elissia said, his smile making her feel ? almost uncomfortable. “But I have a question. You said something about three attackers from yesterday, and I was wondering - “

  “Uh oh, here they come,” Derand said suddenly as the doors to the dining room were opened. “Time to get started with your act.”

  Their guests were streaming into the room, so Elissia had to admit that he was right. She’d simply have to remember the question and ask it again later, since right now she had something more pressing to give her attention to.

  The people who strolled in were dressed better than the average man and woman, but it was clear that most of them still wore their traveling clothes. And there were only four couples, along with men who were probably advisors or bodyguards. They spotted Derand at once, of course, and let their stroll bring them over to him.

  “Your Majesty,” one of the associates said when they were close enough, pausing to give a fairly good bow that the other men copied only to a small extent. The women curtsied, but not very low. “You summoned your kings and they have arrived.”

  “But one of them seems to have lost his way,” Derand observed after nodding just a little. “I’m glad the rest of you didn’t have the same difficulty, my royal lords and ladies.”

  Most of his audience chuckled at that, giving Elissia the impression that they really were amused by the comment, and then the dining room doors were opened again. A couple followed by someone who looked more like a secretary than a fighter came in, and Elissia couldn’t keep from staring at the two.

  The man was old enough to be the woman’s father, but she held to his arm in a way that said she was his queen. He was tall and lean and looked hard and strong despite the heavy gray in his hair, but he also looked distantly uncomfortable. He still wore what were obviously traveling clothes along with the jeweled band around his brow that the other kings also wore, but the woman had clearly taken the time to change into a magnificent peach and gold gown. Her blond hair had also been done in an intricate way, and the gleam of diamonds was enough to make everyone squint.

  “King Derand, how lovely to see you again,” the woman called even before they’d joined the earlier group, her smile devastating. She was a really beautiful woman, and when her husband paused to give Derand a fairly good bow she produced a curtsey that was more invitation than a show of respect. But Elissia had been able to see that the woman hadn’t enjoyed the idea of having to curtsey, and had only done so because the gesture served her own ends.

  “My royal guests, I welcome you all to my home,” Derand said to the group at large, giving Elissia the impression that he was very deliberately ignoring the blond woman. “It delights me that you’ve all agreed to join me in my time of happiness, and now I’d like to present you to my queen, Elissia.”

  Eyebrows rose and sounds of surprise were murmured when Derand gestured to Elissia. Obviously the newcomers had assumed that Elissia was a servant of some kind, and most of them had barely noticed her. Now they were being told that she was High Queen and above them, and most of them didn’t seem to know what to say. Most of them, but not the flashy blonde.

  “Surely you’re joking,” the woman said almost at once after sounding a short tinkle of laughter. “The high queen has to be an impressive woman, not a - a - “

  “Not the opposite of a clotheshorse?” Elissia asked pleasantly when the woman groped for a word that would describe her feelings without being too insulting. “Clothes don’t really make the man or woman, my dear, they just show which of us is overly absorbed by appearances. Someone like that simply announces to the world that in their opinion shallowness is the only way of life.”

  “Dressing properly is the way you show respect for those around you, my dear,” the woman came back at once in a sweet voice that did nothing to hide the glint of heavy anger in her blue eyes. “Weren’t you taught anything in the shack you grew up in?”

  “It was a palace I grew up in, dear,” Elissia returned just as quickly, filling her tone with condescension.

  “That’s why outer trappings do nothing to impress me, which obviously can’t be said for you. Even if the poverty of your beginnings make you overdo it now, you should have learned at some point that ostentation is more insulting than simplicity when you’re among your peers.”

  “Enhancing your beauty is never insulting for a woman, something you would have learned if you’d had any beauty to enhance,” the blonde snapped, then a nasty smile came to curve her full lips. “What’s really bothering you is the fact that Derand finds me more attractive than he finds the stick he was forced to marry as a boy. Step away from him, stick, and let a real woman stand by his side.”

  And with that the fool of a woman actually began to move toward Derand! Another woman might have gotten flustered by the blonde’s outrageous nerve and simply stood where she was, but Elissia had lots of experience with not letting herself be stepped on. Without hesitating for more than a heartbeat Elissia moved quickly in front of Derand, who very wisely hadn’t yet said a word.

  “That’s High Queen stick to you, peasant girl,” Elissia said, insulting the woman in a way she would never do with an ordinary woman. “If my husband ever decides he wants someone else in my place, he’s perfectly capable of saying so himself. If that day comes I’ll certainly step aside, but until then no one will stand beside my husband but me. Why don’t you go and offer to open your legs for some of the other men here instead of bothering a man you so clearly embarrass.”

  The blonde gawked from where she’d stopped short, red tingeing her cheeks. She seemed to think that no one had noticed the way she’d been coming on to Derand, or at least that no one would actually mention her actions. The other men in their audience all looked pained, but the women seemed to be having trouble keeping themselves from laughing out loud.

  “I think a short break in the introductions would be appropriate right now,” Derand said from behind Elissia as the blonde’s husband came up to take her arm and pull her a small distance away. “There are servants arranged around the room with various drinks, my friends, so let’s take advantage of their presence before we go to table.”

  All the men but the blonde’s husband quickly agreed with that idea, and a moment later they joined Derand in heading for the nearest servant with a drink. Elissia was about to look for the servant with tea when the other women suddenly stepped closer to her.

  “I’m Hileen, and my husband is Paltin,” the woman said with a wide, friendly smile on her plainly pretty face. She had brown hair and eyes and a fairly decent figure, but not quite as good a figure as the blonde.

  “I’d like to thank you for finally giving Kaylea the taking down she’s deserved since Monil was foolish enough to marry her. The man is out of his mind with love for her, and flatly refuses to keep any kind of check on what she says and does. Monil can’t help but know that Kaylea wants to marry your husband and become high queen, but he can’t even refuse her that.”

  “Women in love are most often a lot more practical than men in love,” Elissia agreed with an answering smile for Hileen. “And now that I’ve had a minute to think about her, I really doubt that Kaylea is from common stock. If I had to bet on the point, I’d put my gold behind the likelihood that the woman comes from a noble family that somehow lost all their money.”

  “Oh, you’re really good!” another woman exclaimed as she joined the growing inner circle more completely. She was smaller than both Elissia and Hileen, with black hair, green eyes, and a pixie-like beauty. “I’m Sissile, my husband is Lovar, and you’re incredibly good, Elissia. Yes, Kaylea is from a noble family that was practically living in rags on the streets until Monil married her, but how did you know that?”

  “Mostly I knew from the way she dismissed my calling her a peasant girl,” Elissia answered, oddly enough beginning to enjoy herself. “She clearly knew that everyone was aware of her noble background, so she was able to dismiss the charge of being a peasant without even thinking about it. But she obviously has something driving her to gain the most prominent place she can reach, and if she isn’t common born then she must come from a family that embarrassed her.”

  “She doesn’t seem to realize that her behavior is more of an embarrassment than loss of money can ever be,” Hileen said with a shake of her head. “She’s waved herself under the noses of all our husbands, laughing when she proved she’s more attractive than the rest of us. We all wanted to put her in her place, but our husbands were too concerned with politics and ‘propriety’ to let us do it. How on earth did you know that Derand would choke trying not to laugh rather than get mad?”

  “As long as I’m not risking my life, Derand doesn’t mind when I defend him,” Elissia answered with a small chuckle. So Derand almost choked trying not to laugh? “I saw how he ignored Kaylea’s behavior, probably to keep from insulting her husband, so - “

  “No, I will not keep quiet!” Elissia heard Kaylea shout, the words interrupting what she’d been saying as the disturbance drew everyone’s attention. Kaylea was talking to her husband, obviously replying to something he’d said. “That stupid female insulted me! Are you just going to stand here telling me to calm down, or are you going to do something about that insult? You claim to be a man so I demand that you prove it!”

  Another man might have flinched at the slashing caused by Kaylea’s words, but Monil just stared at his wife sadly before drawing a deep breath and then letting it out. For an instant Elissia expected Monil to turn in her direction, but when he turned toward Derand instead she knew what had to be done. She hurried away from the other women just as one of the ones who had been silent was about to speak to her, distantly noticing a flash of annoyance touch the woman’s face. Well, she’d have to apologize later; right now there was something more important to do.