All the Hidden Paths by Foz Meadows EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
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- Author: Foz Meadows
- Language: English
- Genre: Fantasy Fiction
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VELASIN
We’d been at Caethari’s holdings in the Avai riverveldt just long enough for
me to fall in love with them when the summons came. A courier rode in on
a fine bay mare and handed the message to Cae in person, bowing from the
saddle in one breath and departing in the next, her job done. A sense of
foreboding tickled my neck as my husband broke the elaborate wax seal on
the missive and unrolled its fine paper, frowning at the contents. I’d been
happy enough for long enough—which is to say, for nearly three weeks—
that I’d grown suspicious of my own felicity, and when Cae’s mouth twisted
in annoyance, some cynical part of me rejoiced in perverse vindication.
See? it seemed to say. We knew this couldn’t last.
“We’re wanted in Qi-Xihan,” said Cae. He swallowed, glancing at me.
“Her Majesty Asa Ivadi Ruqai desires an audience.”
Whatever crisis I’d been expecting, this wasn’t it. I blinked at him.
“What?”
“The asa wants to see us,” Cae repeated. He shot me a look that was
equal parts confused and frustrated. “She doesn’t say why; only that we’re
to appear at our earliest convenience, which is a polite way of saying as
soon as is humanly possible, and that this is her personal request.”
I grimaced, thoughts whirling. “There must be trouble with Ralia over
our marriage,” I said. “Either King Markus objects, or one of his factions
does, and we need to give an accounting of it all.” I faltered. “That, or—the
other thing.”
My husband winced and looked away, leaving me to silently curse
myself. The other thing, I’d said, as though the deaths of Caethari’s father
and sister, the former at the latter’s hands, was a sordid afterthought. The
only reason he wasn’t dressed all in black was in deference to the newness
of our marriage: Tithenai custom held that to observe full mourning before
a new couple’s second and final marriage-gathering was bad luck. As such,
Cae wore a dark lin edged with black and had wound black ribbons into his
braid, but was otherwise dressed normally.
My lin, too, was trimmed with
black, and as my hair was yet too short for a proper Tithenai braid, I wore
my matching ribbons bound around my wrists. Cae had tried to say it
wasn’t necessary—I’d scarcely known his father, while his sister’s last act
had been to take me hostage—but I’d ignored him and done it anyway.
Honouring his grief seemed the very least I could do, under the
circumstances.
I placed a hesitant hand on Cae’s shoulder, relieved when he leaned into
the touch.
“You needn’t talk around it so,” he said, raising his opposite hand to
squeeze my fingers, this gentleness in contrast to the bitter scrape of his
voice. “Call it what it is: Laecia’s treachery.”
“I’ll call it whatever hurts you least.”
“There is no least hurt, with a thing like this.” And then, with a sigh,
“I’m sorry, Vel. I shouldn’t snap. It’s just … I thought we’d have more time
here.”
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