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CHAPTER 25 - MORGAN
The Mistress of theRobes was just leaving my sister's chambers as I arrived early the next afternoon. She looked irritated, her lips pursed in a sour line. She curtsied to me briefly, then marched down the hall. I assumed a fitting had not gone as she had hoped. I doubted Orcades was an easy queen to please.
A guard held the door of the antechamber for me as I went inside.
The rooms had once been my mother's. It was strange to see them being used again now. Somewhat to my relief, Orcades had exercised her own taste and redone the decor entirely, replacing old tapestries of hunting scenes and flower gardens with bright, richly colored ones in geometric patterns. Faded carpets had been removed and thick, plush rugs put in their place, so soft that my feet practically sank into them as I walked. The draperies had been altered and all of the furniture exchanged for a new style in a pale wood accented with silver rather than the traditional royal gold.
Orcades' color preference seemed to be firmly in the imperial purple spectrum. Violet and plum and amethyst shades permeated the room. Even the flowers seemed to have been picked with their colors in mind. Fresh lilacs and bouquets of lavender filled towering vases; their sweet, heady fragrance wafting over me as I walked through the lavish receiving room.
Beyond the antechamber lay the queen's inner chambers.
The door was slightly ajar. I could hear the sound of someone playing the harp from the room beyond.
I stepped closer, then hesitated.
“Come,” called a female voice, regal and melodic. “I’ve been expecting you, Sister.”
Pushing the door open, I entered the room. Orcades sat at a large, golden harp, strumming it softly. She wore a long silk robe in a deep shade of mauve, and beneath it, something very lacy. I glanced across the room at the large bed. The sheets were still rumpled. I tried and failed not to think of the implications, my stomach heaving slightly.
“Don’t you mean sister-in-law, Your Majesty?” I asked sweetly, turning to face her.
Instead of responding, Orcades raised her hand, snapped her fingers, and the door slammed shut behind me.
Orcades smiled. “There. That’s better.”
I looked at her and remembered the first time we’d met. Her ethereal beauty had seemed so exotic to me then. Her wild tangle of amethyst hair. Her magnificent violet eyes.
Even now, with her fae features purposely muted, she was quite possibly the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. She also seemed to radiate magic. The door had been but the snapping of fingers to her.
She had been extremely powerful once—and valuable to our father.
Orcades sniffed delicately, and I knew she sensed it, too. The magic I had grown accustomed to, simmering off me in turn.
Strange how our positions had almost reversed. Here I was, looking more distinctly fae than ever. While she masqueraded as a mortal woman.
My queenly sister rose from the stool by the harp and crossed over to me, looking me up and down. “You’ve changed. Grown up somewhat.”
“Yes, much has changed since we last met,” I said. “Queen Belisent, is it?”
She smiled briefly. “One of many names I’ve used from time to time. Not my only one. But then, you know something about changing names yourself, don’t you?”
For a moment I was afraid she meant my marriage. My heart hammered. Could she have found out where I had really been?
