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Lord Gaius got to his feet and bowed deeply to Kassandra. “Indeed, a wise man knows the power of the loom. I believe it is time for the embassy to proceed.”
The men behind Lio kept whispering about unnatural weavings and seductive hands. Then Lio caught the word “witch.” He and Cassia rose to their feet at the same moment.
“Ritual Mother,” Lio said, “I will remove the embassy from your presence. We will impose upon you no longer.”
“That’s fine, Lio. They will see me again soon enough.”
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Cassia said. “We are leaving now, Benedict.”
As they departed her pavilion, the Cherans’ veils turned to follow them, but the mages did not rise to leave.
While Lio and his Trial circle guided the embassy past the last few sericulturalists’ awnings, he noticed Cassia making extra effort to attract the Tenebrans’ attention. She eased them right past the booths of silks, and Knight moved in tandem with her as if herding sheep. The smooth surface of her aura shattered into the frustration of someone who knows she has been cheated.
Lio tried not to frown at the stragglers he hastened after her. When their attention was on Cassia, Lio cast a glance in the direction she wasn’t looking, and he saw what she didn’t want the rest of the embassy to see.
Half hidden by a silk screen, Callen and Perita browsed the ribbon makers’ booth. Their auras mingled in a haze of fun and affection. He had draped his forearm in silk ribbons of various colors and was trying them in her hair one by one. She turned around for him, stifling her laughter behind her hand.
Lio helped Cassia hurry the embassy along until they were back on the main avenue of the fair. They joined Nodora at the instrument crafters’ display.
“We string all our sacred lyres with cattlegut, my dear,” the Semna was saying to her. “The cord is made from the intestines of the sacrificial cattle. It has been so for generations.”
Lio sent his Trial sister silent support through their Union.
Nodora smiled, although she looked a little green. “Naturally, we had to adopt an alternative that does not require killing animals. I craft my strings exclusively from the product of Princess Alexandra’s silkworms.”
“Silk is lovely,” the Semna replied, “but it simply does not sound the same as cattlegut.”
Nodora ran her plectrum over the strings of her lyre, releasing a cascade of delicate notes. “It has its own magic, don’t you think?”
“But it is a different goddess’s magic.” The Semna sighed.
Her aura filled with a pining Lio recognized from his time in Tenebra. Homesickness.
Her now-silent lyre in tow, Nodora joined him, Xandra, and Mak in the avenue. The Semna and her attendants fell into step with Cassia, and they all moved on together. On their way, Ariadne excused herself with the Semna’s blessing and found Eudias under the calligraphers’ pavilion. The girl settled down across from him at a table, and their heads bent near over a pile of scrolls. Lio exchanged a significant glance with Cassia.
At last they made it through the forest of pavilions and awnings to the terrace where Lyros waited. The long wings of House Timarete stretched out behind him, open to the night.
“Welcome, honored guests,” he said. “As a son of Blood Timarete, allow me to say what a pleasure it is to have your company here at our home. I hope you have enjoyed what you have seen so far.”
He ushered them inside, holding the door open until the last mortal had passed into the room beyond. Lio came in after them, and Lyros gave him a nod. Lio worked the light spell he had prepared according to Lyros’s specifications. At the same moment, Lyros let the door fall shut.
Utter darkness engulfed them all, and the mortals gasped.
“How are we supposed to see art in the dark?” Lord Adrogan asked.
“The fact is,” Lyros answered, “I am the only person in my family who is not an artist.”
“You are an artist,” Mak said. “Every move you make in the training ring is pure art.”
“Thank you, My Grace. But you know I cannot craft a likeness to save my life. Making a lump of marble look like someone recognizable? Not a chance. What was I to do with my education in the principles of art and the properties of minerals?”
Lyros clapped, and his warding magic resounded. Countless brilliant gleams flared to life all around them. At the sight of the precious gems glittering in the darkness, the mortals’ wordless utterances of awe filled the room. Lyros’s creations provided ample light for Hesperine sight, but the humans would be lost in a dreamland of darkness and jewels.
Lyros drifted through the room, a shadow who disappeared behind his craft. “Jewels have an inner light of their own. All they need is a touch of magic to bring out what is already there. Every gem has its own magical receptivity. It is endlessly fascinating to infuse different stones with my warding magic and discover the results. Let me show you the unique properties of each stone and how they respond to or enhance spells.”
Lyros led the mortals on a tour from one glass case to the next, identifying the materials he had used for each of his works and explaining the magical techniques for enhancing them. The Semna and Pakhne enjoyed the display with the uncovetous delight of people happy with their lot, but Lord Adrogan’s gaze burned with greed and bitterness. Lio was surprised to see Benedict linger with a wistful expression over a delicate anklet of copper set with tiger’s eye. The knight’s thoughts focused so powerfully on one person, Lio could not help but catch a glimpse of her in the man’s mind. A cascade of chestnut curls, laughing eyes, and lips with a natural upturn at the corners.
Would the lure of riches accomplish what art had not tonight? The Tenebrans gazed upon beauty with suspicion and peaceful crafts with disdain. In new sights and sounds, they found no excitement, only estrangement. Lyros’s display might prove the only act of tonight’s drama of the forbidden that they understood. Perhaps the price of the Oath would prove to be mundane diamonds and gold, after centuries of conflict that had cost lives.
