One Good Knight Read online

  “Andromeda?” she replied, astonished. “All this?

  Was this what she was babbling to me about yesterday over breakfast?” She had long since gotten into the habit of turning a deaf ear to Andromeda’s chatter. Perhaps she should have been paying more attention. Andromeda had evidently gotten beyond the peasant histories of Fauns and Centaurs (who were purely rustic creatures and of no practical importance). Now she was turning her mind to practical matters that had bearing on the governance of the Kingdom.

  This could be either dangerous, or useful. If useful, Cassiopeia had no compunction about using her.

  If dangerous, she had no compunction about finding a way to get rid of her. There were things that 32

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  Cassiopeia did not want anyone aside from her and Solon to know.

  Least of all Andromeda.

  “Quite possibly.” Solon’s long and very handsome face remained sober, his blue eyes dark with thought. “I know she always has her nose in a book, but I was under the impression that she was reading poetry or mythical tales or something equally girlish.

  I had no idea she could put her finger on any fact or figure in the Palace library, but this—” he indicated the report “—seems to indicate that this is exactly what she can do.”

  “This could be very useful,” Cassiopeia replied, tapping one graceful finger on the table. “She isn’t someone we would have to pay, she doesn’t leave the Palace, she is young and naive, she doesn’t talk to anyone who matters and she should be easy to control. Much easier than some of your past secretaries.”

  She smiled slightly. “Furthermore, she is as eager to please me as a puppy. If I begin paying attention to her, she’ll work three times as hard.”

  “True, true.” Solon ran a hand through his long, black hair. “Her eagerness to please her mother will certainly be a powerful hold over her. Attention from you—more to the point, direction from you, and an indication that you are pleased with this turn in her studies, would probably be more effective than any reward I could devise for the others.

  But I am still…concerned. I am not certain she will remain naive.”

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  “Then you would be wise to see that as she gains in knowledge, she also gains in understanding just what a ruler is.” She allowed herself a slight smile.

  “And the difference between the ruler and the ruled.”

  Ambition. That was what had gotten Cassiopeia here. And ambition—properly channeled and guided—might be a useful thing in her daughter.

  “And if she persists in her…delusions?” Once again Solon raised an eyebrow.

  Cassiopeia dismissed his question with a flick of her wrist. “She is my daughter. If she is half as intelligent as you think, she will quickly come to the appropriate frame of mind.”

  Andie tried not to be impatient as the afternoon wore on, but it was hard. Solon had not only taken her report, he had begun reading it as he walked away.

  Surely he would be at least a little impressed, for she had included some anecdotal information about some of the foreign Merchant Captains from copies of ships’ logs of Acadian merchants. Copies of all logs of domestic merchant ships were filed in the Great Library purely as a matter of historical record, although most contained little that was of historical interest. She had a notion that Solon’s secretaries hadn’t thought to look at those, and she had been right; from the slight layer of dust, it appeared they hadn’t been looked at since they were put on the shelves.

  But it wasn’t until dinner that she received a summons from one of her mother’s ladies to attend the 34

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  Queen. Since this was not an evening when the Queen usually held a more formal dinner with the Court, it meant that Cassiopeia wanted to see her daughter alone, or relatively so. Although Andie had been ravenous, her throat closed and she lost her appetite.

  With her maid’s help, she changed from her tunic into a gown, and waited, twisting her hands nervously in her lap while her maid put up her hair, and consented to adding a simple necklace of gold and garnet beads, something she almost never did.

  Wishing now that she had taken lemon juice to the ink stains on her fingers, she made her way out of her own wing, through the marble Reception Hall and Great Hall, and into the Queen’s Wing. At this hour, no one was in any of the public rooms except the Guards, one stationed at each doorway. The rooms were lit only by token lamps, otherwise in shadow, but the fact that most of the Palace was built from light-colored marbles made a little light go a long way. In winter, these rooms could be awfully cold and drafty, but now, in the middle of summer, the cool air flowing through was pleasant. When she was a child, she used to come here at night when she was too hot and just sit quietly in a corner while the heat leached out of her body.

  Two of the Royal Guard were on duty at the bronze doors into the Queen’s private quarters. They let her in with a wink and a nod of encouragement, and she stepped onto the first of the many thick, brightly patterned, imported silk carpets that had One Good Knight

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  been her grandmother’s dower when she came here as a foreign bride. The first chamber was a reception chamber for small audiences; softly lit by a few lightly perfumed oil lamps, it was empty of all except one of her mother’s maids. As ever with any of the Queen’s servants, the girl was flawlessly groomed, her simple linen gown spotless, not a hair out of place. Like most natives of Ethanos, she was dark-haired and dark-eyed. Many beautiful women preferred that their servants be plain; Queen Cassiopeia had always insisted on physical attractiveness in those who waited on her, and this maid was no exception to that rule.

  “Please follow me, Princess,” the maid said, without the faintly contemptuous tone her mother’s maids usually used when they saw her. Evidently this time her appearance passed inspection.

  With a nod, Andie obeyed, moving through several more chambers, also barely lit, until they came to the lesser dining chamber. This one, of marble beautifully ornamented with jewel-tone mosaic wall-murals made of millions of bits of glass depicting enormous baskets of flowers and fruit, held one large table. The Queen sat at the head of it; to her left was Solon, and to her right, an empty chair. Farther down the table sat three of her more favored ladies.

  Andie knew two of them by name; those two were young members of the Queen’s regular Court, while the stranger was middle-aged or older. The young ones were dressed in a less elaborate version of the 36

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  Queen’s gown, with formfitting bodices, low neck-lines, full skirts, and tiny sleeves that left most of the arms bare. The Queen’s gown was a pale blue silk with festoons of heavy lace, which suited her blond beauty. The young lady to the right, raven-haired and olive-skinned, wore cream color with a silk fringe, while the one to the left, also raven-haired but with a translucent complexion, wore pink with garlands of tiny ribbon rosettes. The older woman wore a somber gown of dark ocher with ornaments of jet and longer sleeves that covered her arms to the wrist.

  “Andromeda, please join us,” Cassiopeia said, with the slight smile that indicated her favor. She turned to look down the table at one of the three ladies, the one in cream. “Kyria, do you think you could manage something more attractive for those lenses than that wire frame?”

  “Without a doubt, Majesty,” replied the lady, whose hobby was jewelry design, and whose talent for it was so formidable that the Queen would have no one else design for her. “The magician is a fine fellow, but his concern is function, not form.” She tilted her head to the side and one attractive, raven curl brushed her cheek. “As the Princess is young, and her tastes are austere, I believe that a carefully wrought frame of white gold will suit her personality as well as her face best. And I believe that I will ask him to construct larger lenses.”

  “Larger? Surely not—” Cassiopeia objected.

  But Lady Kyria smiled. “Majesty, larger lenses will One Good Knig
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  allow one to see the Princess’s eyes properly. Instead of being obscured, nearly eclipsed by small lenses, they will be enhanced. A little kohl, some malachite on her lids, and one will see the eyes first, and not the lenses. The oculars will become secondary to her face, not the first thing one sees.”

  Cassiopeia’s blue eyes warmed slightly with approval. “I bow to your singular ability, Lady Kyria.”

  As the Queen spoke, Andie had gingerly taken the empty seat at the Queen’s right, clasping her hands in her lap. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. Her mother was not only acknowledging her oculars, she was going out of her way to make them attractive? Larger lenses? I’ll be able to see so much better!

  “Now, Andromeda,” the Queen said, turning to Andie. “It is time to speak of why I asked you to dine with us this evening. Solon gave me your report over luncheon, and I am pleased. It was useful to me this afternoon. I was under the impression that you were wasting your time with purely scholastic interests—

  I was favorably impressed to see that you have, in fact, been turning your intellect and talents to practical matters.”

  Andie couldn’t help herself. She beamed. “Oh, Moth—I mean, Your Majesty! I hoped I could do something to help. I hoped that Adviser Solon would see that I—that I know that a Princess—is not free to choose her own interests. Not like ordinary people are.” She decided to press her case while her 38

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  mother was still looking interested. “I’m good at finding things out from books and records, and I think I can be useful to you. Please, Your Majesty, I want to be useful, I want responsibilities—”

  “And you shall have them, child,” the Queen interrupted with a throaty chuckle. “Tell her, Solon.”

  The Adviser coughed slightly. “Your report provided both an example of what you can do, and a reminder to us that, despite your outward appearance, which is that of a much younger person than your true age, you are not a child any longer. The fact that you wish responsibilities speaks well of your maturity, and the Queen has determined that we have been remiss in allowing your appearance to mislead us.”

  She blushed at his description of her. Well, so she was slight and flat-chested! And she didn’t like to fuss over gowns the way the Queen’s ladies did! Did he have to dwell on that?

  But he wasn’t finished, and her flush faded. “So from today, you are to provide exactly the kind of information analysis to us—that is, the Queen and I—that you provided in this report, and to signal the change in your status and responsibilities, there will be some significant changes in your household. Your governess will be dismissed—you clearly have no more need of such persons. If you determine you need a tutor in some subject, another language, perhaps, you will have the wherewithal to engage one yourself and dismiss him when you are through with One Good Knight

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  him. You will have a secretary of your own appointed to serve you in your researches. Your personal staff will be augmented. Lady Charis will become your Lady of the Wardrobe, designing your clothing in accordance with both your personal taste and the needs of your new position.”

  The second of the two ladies present nodded at Andie in a friendly fashion. “The austere style suits you, Princess,” Lady Charis said, and Andie suppressed a sigh of relief. “Columnar gowns will make you appear taller, and a very simple Gordian Knot hairstyle will suit your face. I will simply be making certain that any time you make a public appearance, you are not left to the dubious choices of an ordinary maidservant, and that your gowns will be kept in immaculate condition.”

  She hoped that Lady Charis would keep her promise of simple gowns. She didn’t think she could bear to be laced into the things her mother wore as a matter of course.

  “Your six current Guards will be retired,” Solon continued. This time, it was a surge of dismay that Andie suppressed. Not that she hadn’t been expecting just this for some time, but it was horrible to hear it voiced aloud, and so casually.

  “They are good and faithful servants, and long overdue for retirement. They were fine for a child, but you will need young, strong warriors who will actually provide a visual deterrent to attack. You will have new Guards appointed, signaling your new 40

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  importance to Her Majesty, and they will wear your own colors of—” He looked at Lady Charis.

  “Silver and green,” Charis said promptly.

  Another relief. Those were colors she could live with. The Queen nodded her approval; her own colors were wine and silver.

  “Yes. Silver and green. Your household servants will be augmented, and you will have your own household Steward appointed so that you need no longer concern yourself with the day-to-day trivia of your household.” He smiled, his expression not actually reaching his eyes—but then, it never did.

  “You will no longer need to go anywhere that you do not wish to if you are busy. From now on, whatever you want or need can and should be brought to you, whether it be a pen, or a person.”

  “As is appropriate to an adult Princess,” the Queen said approvingly. “Which leads me to Lady Thalia, who will be your household Steward.”

  The third lady nodded. Unlike the other two, she was gowned less for fashion and more for practicality. She did not appear to have been sewn into her gown like the others.

  The Queen continued. “She has served us as the Steward of one of our estates for many years now, and I am very satisfied with her competence.”

  “The Queen is too kind,” the lady murmured.

  Andie didn’t see anything in the woman’s expression to cause misgivings, and her next words, and faint smile, reassured the Princess.

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  “As the Princess is not the sort given to extrava-gance, nor is she spendthrift and frivolous, I anticipate no difficulty in managing her household.”

  “You are more likely to have to join with me in urging the Princess to acquire a wardrobe commensurate with her rank and status than to have to curb her passion for gowns and jewels!” Lady Charis laughed. “I fear I have been present at one or two discussions with her dressmaker, if you will recall, Majesty.”

  The Queen sighed. “‘But, Mother, linen is so much more practical than silk. Stains bleach right out and it wears so much longer!’” she quoted with a faint air of mockery, and Andie winced.

  “She has a point, Majesty,” Solon said unexpectedly, with a glance down at his own linen robes. Not that his elegant clothing had much in common with Andie’s… “Especially for a—uh—young person who is hard on her clothing. As a young student myself, I chose black linen exclusively, not as an affectation, but because ink did not show.”

  Andie felt an unexpected surge of sympathy at that revelation, and she cast a quick, grateful smile at him.

  “Indeed, she does, when it comes to everyday wear, particularly for someone who will be digging about among dusty books for most of the day,” Lady Charis agreed. “Tunics and divided skirts of linen are quite suitable for such a duty, and practical, although I must insist that you are more than old enough to refrain from bare-legged scrambles about from here on, Princess.”

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  Again, Andie flushed what she knew must be crimson. Her stomach kept turning over and over, the longer this interview went on. Pleasure that was half pain, followed by embarrassment that made her want to sink into the floor. Good things were followed by blows, so quickly she hadn’t the time to recover before another hit her.

  “However, Princess,” Lady Charis continued,

  “your new responsibilities will include more Court appearances, as well as the occasional attendance at conferences and audiences, and your gowns will occasionally need to reflect your status. Silk there will be, and jewels, and other ornaments you would rather do without. You must look the part of a Princess when the Queen requires it. Think of it as armor. You are a kind o
f guard to the dignity of your nation and lineage, and you must wear the armor for that duty.”

  “On other occasions, however,” Solon added, “we will wish for you, although you will be attending similar functions, to blend with the other secretaries and not stand out.” He raised an eyebrow, and she flushed, realizing that this meant they were taking her very seriously indeed. “If there is no need for the Princess to be present, then it should not be obvious that the Princess is indeed in attendance.”

  “My beauty has consistently caused foreign princes and diplomats to underestimate my intelligence, Andromeda,” the Queen said, unexpectedly, as Solon nodded. “It is a tool I have learned to use, One Good Knight

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  and use well. That is my armor. If they look upon me, bejeweled and draped in costly fabric, and assume that is all I care for, that is all to the good.

  You have not inherited my beauty, more’s the pity, but you have in your very ordinariness another sort of armor. You can make yourself overlooked and ignored, which is just as effective as being underestimated. I do not say these things to hurt you, child, but to educate you. The time for games and running about on the cliff steps is gone. You wish to be treated as an adult, and given responsibilities, I am doing so, and granting you the candor I give Solon.”

  Andie looked down at the hands twisting nervously in her lap. Maybe her mother didn’t intend to hurt her feelings, but—but they were hurt, all the same. I’m not that ugly, am I? Or no, she didn’t say

  “ugly,” just…forgettable.

  “Now, I believe we have said everything we need to,” the Queen concluded brightly. “Tomorrow, the next phase of your life will begin. And tonight—we will have dinner.”

  She touched her knife to her goblet, making it ring, and suddenly the room was full of servants, bustling everywhere with food that Andie barely touched and certainly couldn’t taste. There was no more serious talk; the Queen and her ladies and even Solon made light chatter that went right over Andie’s head, seeing as she didn’t know half the people they were talking about.