Page 9 of Tides of Shadows

“They say he killed his own parents as a child.”

Each word hammered into my mind. So that was why… He must be born to power without need for an Elementar. Tales had already gathered to him like burrs to a cloak.

A sudden hush pulled me from my thoughts. I felt eyes turn toward me. Of course, my turn had come.

“Nerissa Veymaris,” I said, brief as I could, and sat down at once.

From the corner of my eye I caught the prying stare and sly smile of a fair young blonde on the benches of Salvadore Family. She eyed me with open dislike, as if I were a rival in some race for a suitor’s favor. Poor thing. She did not know she had nothing to fear. Lewd young heirs held no interest for me.

Yet despite that thought, I could not resist glancing at Cassandra’s son. He was watching me too, with the same taunting smile and the glint in his eye that made me long to hurl something heavy at his head.

After the introduction, Cassandra moved to lesser matters, in which I took no part. All proceeded routinely until talk halted on the topic of savage attacks.

“We value the service of the Family Cineris in the guarding of our southern borders,” Cassandra began, cool as cut glass. “But the prices set for next year’s warding are far too dear.”

At once the hall stirred. All sensed a spectacle, the clash between Cassandra and Dricus promised intrigue.

Dricus kept his silence long, as though he stretched the moment by will. At length he raised his head and looked straight into Cassandra’s eyes.

“If the Regency holds the price too high,” he said slowly, his voice ringing beneath the stone arches, “then I can open a gate from the desert to the White City at any time. I will turn thousands of wildlings, and not them alone, straight upon the capital. I think they will explain the costs quite swiftly and vividly. For me, it would be the easier course, with less toil and less of my people’s blood.”

The court went still. None had dared for such a tone with Cassandra, least of all from a young heir with half her years. I watched with a mix of tightness and grim delight. At last someone had stood up to the ice queen.

Cassandra kept her poise, though anger flickered in her eyes.

“You don’t need to be so dramatic, Dricus,” she said. “I assure you, for myself and for all assembled, that the sums you set for keeping the peace in the south shall be weighed fairly.” she added “Let us discuss it for the coming days,”

The Gatherings never ended in a single day. Some matters required lengthy negotiations and hours of discussion. All of it was merely a dance. A dance before the Election, which always came at the end. During the weeks of the Gathering, the Families negotiated among themselves, plotted in quiet corners and traded favors behind closed doors. All in pursuit of securing as many votes as possible or getting the most advantages under the new rule.

Cassandra could not allow the look of easy defeat, so she pushed the talk aside. But her voice told me Dricus had unsettled her.

Then I marked another thing. Dricus and the young Cavareth measured one another with their eyes. Two heirs, of two unlike Families, and a promise of strife yet to come.

“Before we pass to other topics our meeting,” Cassandra said, lifting her voice until the court hushed, “I would like to share some great news with everyone.”

My gaze involuntarily drifted to her son. He set his fingers to the bridge of his nose, as though he might rub the shame from his face. He looked ready to sink beneath the marble bench.

“The old forgotten powers return to the Dominium,” Cassandra said. “We’re hearing more and more about the elements gaining strength. My firstborn son, Aidenar Cavareth, has gained the air’s command without an Elementar. It just manifested recently, and I think we’re all pleased that another heir to the Family has the power to help us care for and protect the realm.”

A wave of whispers broke across the court. The young ladies let out a chorus of excited gasps, as if Cassandra had named her son the most desired suitor in the world. Aidenar looked ready to die of shame. I nearly bit my tongue to keep from laughing aloud. Protect the realm? She has no idea what wielding such power, especially newly discovered, would entail. It promised more trouble than service.

But the older Lords looked at young Cavareth with curiosity, irritation and envy. They knew Cassandra would try to use it to win the Election. Eric Salvadore, the eldest of his Family, watched the Regents son the longest. His gaze was cold and measuring, as though he was already calculating the cost and worth of the lordling’s existence. Even Dricus raised a brow, clearly intrigued by the revelation.

Cassandra was not done.

“For this reason, I shall hold a ball,” she said. “Let it lift our spirits and open this Gathering with a great occasion for our Families to rejoice.”

A ball. Of course. She would hold a pageant for the future bride of her firstborn and set every Family bowing, ready to show its wares.

Lord Iskareth interrupted the presentation. He was tall, his face carved with old scars that only sharpened the threat of his presence.

“Lady Regent,” he said, his voice rough, carrying through the hall. “We all delight in the revelations concerning your son. I believe the entire court will await the presentation of his might and power.”

Aidenar’s expression remained unreadable. It held neither pride nor a hint of a smile.

“But let us speak of matters more pressing,” Iskareth continued. “Matters that, it seems to me, trouble us all. The Plague.”

“The Plague,” other lords murmured, the word rolling through the hall like a low thunder.