The Gards hands twitched at their scabbards, and Adeline could take the silence no longer.
“Have you come to seek shelter?” she asked him. Her voice came out small and breathy. She sounded like a little girl. She drew her back even straighter.
The man tilted his head to one side and considered her. His eyes were too much, too intense. She could swear he was seeing through her skin to the muscle and sinew and the uncomfortable rush of hot blood in her veins. He took a step and the air rang with the sound of metal as the Gards unsheathed their swords.
Adeline threw her hand up to halt them, but the man had barely flinched. He continued his approach, and Adeline waited, willingly rooted, though she couldn’t say why. He stopped just a step before her, and his heavy gaze dragged across her face.
When he spoke, it was not the half-frozen croak she’d expected, but a deep and rich lilt.
“You are not who I expected.”
Adeline blinked, exhaled slowly. “Right. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint.”
The stranger’s lips twitched under the black bristle, though Adeline suspected it was not so much a smile as a grimace. As they stared at each other through the stretching, looming silence, she had the distinct impression that the stranger would not allow himself to be charmed - he had come here with a bone to pick, and from the dark way that he watched her, perhaps that bone was to be her spine, viciously torn from her body.
Which put her at a complete loss, if she was entirely honest. She wasn’t going to let Doran and his men assault this man for sport, but she couldn’t exactly invite him inside for tea. Not if he kept looking at her like he wanted to rip her nails from her fingers and use them to claw out her own eyes.
Fortunately, she was saved from contemplating the potential loss of her eyeballs when the doors to the palace were suddenly flung open.
The Queen swept into the courtyard, white cloak billowing behind her like a snowstorm, hands held wide and palms up in welcome. The Gards each dropped to a bow, and Adeline lowered her head respectfully – the stranger moved nothing but his bright, violent eyes.
The Queen smiled at them all, and Adeline’s head snapped up. Just minutes ago her mother had looked like a feverish child. Now she was almost back to her luminous self, if a bit dimmer. A bit worn.
“Adeline, my darling, I thank you for your assistance. Captain Doran, good afternoon. And who is our guest?”
Adeline and the Captain began to talk all at once.
“Your Majesty – ”
“Mother – ”
But one voice drowned out all others, demanding to be heard, to be answered.
“I’ll not be turned away until I’ve spoken to a Beira. No one else.”
The Queen smiled stiffly, though not without grace. “I amtheBeira. I am the Queen.”
At that, a flicker of shock widened the man’s eyes, the long lines of his body tensing. His gaze swept quickly over the palace, darted between Adeline and the Queen. At last he seemed to reach some conclusion in his mind, and moved into a fluid but shallow bow, Adeline’s cloak swinging on his shoulders.
“I am Kai Cumhaill.”
Adeline looked to her mother a second too late – the Queen was already composing herself, arranging a beautiful blank mask across her face.
“An honour,” the Queen said earnestly. And then, slowly, stiffly, as though she had never attempted the gesture in her life, Adeline’s mother bent into a slight curtsey.
Adeline’s mouth hung open. From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the Captain flinch.
“Captain, please escort our guest to my parlour.”
“Your Majesty?”
“And have your Gards bring word to the kitchen; ask Marie to prepare a spread. Pastries, wine, meat and cheeses, and any sweets leftover from the festivities.”
Captain Doran stared incredulously at the Queen, but she seemed not to notice. She turned to Adeline, who had been holding her breath, hoping to avoid being noticed and dismissed.
“Adeline.”
She felt her shoulders sag. The Queen smiled softly, and reached to brush a stray curl from her daughter’s shoulder. Adeline stiffened, surprised. “You have been such a help, my love, but I must speak with our guest in private.”
