Finally, he looked up.“Did you have one for me?”
My head throbbed.“One what?”
“A created name.”His eyes shone with daring.
The leftover mead in my stomach must have made me a little daring too.“You will like it too much.I almost shouldn’t tell you.”
He raised his brows.
“Shrewdmind.”
“Ha!You are right.I love it.I will have to wrestle with Hallbjern this afternoon to humble myself.”
I managed a larger piece of bread and found that once I swallowed, I did feel better.
The king’s gaze wandered back to the linen.“Gentlewoman, would you come look at this for me?”
I stood, with no joy at all to be moving, and came around to his side of the table, which was something I hadn’t done before.The linen was actually a tapestry.The sea rose up in the middle, with one big wave arching into a swirl.Trees filled with fruit hung over the sea from each side.
“What do you think of this?”
“The stitching is fair,” I said.
“But the image.What does it bring into your mind?”
“Well…” I tilted my head a little to the side.“It seems like there is no story at all, like the maker was trying not to say anything.”
“It does, does it not?”
I looked up at him—he wasn’t as tall as most Norsern, but he was still taller than I was.He had a rare quality about him.He was whatever age he was—his fair hair was streaked with grey, and he had lines around his eyes—but he also had so much energywithinthat he felt young.He felt the way lightning did when you were trying to catch it: endless, too much to be contained, but enough to fuel anything you could think of.
“Jorn said the same thing,” he said.“The craftswoman was hiding her thoughts from me.”
I felt my face go empty—I wasn’t sure what he wanted from me, so I became nothing.Nothing has less chance of making an error than something.But perhaps I also sensed a little of what was coming next.
“I have a request, Gentlewoman.”
“Of course,” I said.
“I would have you learn about reading stones.I enjoy fresh perspectives.”
“I…” My mind was still washed with mead.I needed an excuse… “I think I would do it poorly.”
“Ithink you would do it exceptionally.Jorn thinks so, too.You read this tapestry without any training.Indeed, likely with the opposite of training.Your gifts have been quelled is Jorn’s suspicion.”
My heart thumped uncomfortably in my chest.
“I do not like ordering people to do things they do not wish to do unless strictly necessary.So I amasking, Gentlewoman.But asking with great hope.I theorize this is why you have ended up on my shores.I find myself wondering if you are meant to read for me.”
I heard what he wasn’t saying.He wanted to keep me in Aalt until I’d read for him.
I thought of Loric’s gold, hidden safely for the time being.It was my job to get it back home.That was my purpose.
“And if I can’t… manage it?”
“Then I am mistaken, and it is something else you are here for.I have been wrong many times before.”His eyes disagreed with his words; his expression said he was certain.The feeling of standing next to him became the feeling of standing with my skin against steel—something was going to split first, and we both knew which something.
“I’ll try, your Grace, but I don’t expect much…”
