It was from his father's Lord Chancellor, Uleris Chavar: Maia felt his face heating, his ears lowering, but he knew better than to try to explain or apologize for Setheris.
The messenger knelt to retrieve it before Maia could and handed it to him without a flicker of expression. Maia grabbed at it ineffectually as it fluttered to the floor. He scanned the paper, his customary frown deepening into a black scowl, then flung it at Maia and stalked from the room. Setheris snatched the letter and broke the seal savagely, as if he still believed the messenger to be lying. There was only one letter within, which the messenger held out. "Yes, Serenity." The messenger turned and picked up his dispatch case from where it lay on the side table. He knew neither what he felt nor what he ought to feel, but he knew what he ought to do, the next necessary thing. But the Lord Chancellor has sent Witnesses, and it is being investigated." "Serenity," said the messenger with a deliberate nod in Maia's direction. As if from a very long distance away, he heard his own voice saying, "What caused the crash?" And then it was suddenly, pitilessly clear. Nothing made sense nothing had made sense since he had woken with Setheris's grip hurting his shoulder. "There were no survivors."įor five pounding heartbeats, the words made no sense. "And the Wisdom of Choharo crashed," Maia said slowly, carefully. They were returning from the wedding of the Prince of Thu-Athamar." The Emperor Varenechibel the Fourth, the Prince Nemolis, the Archduke Nazhira, and the Archduke Ciris were all on board.
"The airship Wisdom of Choharo crashed yesterday, sometime between sunrise and noon. Maia said hastily, merely to prevent the altercation from escalating, "Please, explain." "We bear messages from the Untheileneise Court." "Then you understand what we do not," the messenger said, rising again to his feet, as graceful as a cat. "We understood that you had messages from the Archduke's father." "Oh, get up, man, and stop babbling!" Setheris said. He looked from Setheris to Maia and said, "Are you the Archduke Maia Drazhar, only child of Varenechibel the Fourth and Chenelo Drazharan?"Īnd then bewilderment compounded bewilderment, as the messenger deliberately and with perfect dignity prostrated himself on the threadbare rug. He was clearly full-blooded elvish, as Maia was not his hair was milkweed-pale, and his eyes the color of rain. The messenger was maybe a year or so older than Maia himself, but elegant even in his road-stained leathers. It would not be the first time one of his father's messengers had witnessed him as unkempt as a half-witted ragpicker's child, but that did not help with the miserable midnight imaginings: So, tell us, how looked our son? He reminded himself it was unlikely his father ever asked after him in the first place and tried to keep his chin and ears up as he followed Setheris into the lodge's small and shabby receiving room. Maia ran his hands through his hair, fingers catching on knots in his heavy curls. Maia hoped uneasily that Setheris had not drunk enough metheglin to mar the glossy perfection of his formal court manners.
So he had not been wakened from sleep by the emperor's messenger, but only because he had not yet been to bed. "Come along!" he said as soon as Maia had his jacket fastened, and Maia followed him barefoot out of the room, noticing in the stronger light that while Setheris was still properly and fully attired, his face was flushed.
Maia could not find his stockings, nor would Setheris give him time to search. Setheris watched grimly by the single candle's light, his ears flat against his head. Maia struggled into drawers, trousers, shirt, and jacket, aware that they were wrinkled and sweat-stained, but unwilling to try Setheris's ill temper by saying so. "Is't not what I said? Merciful goddesses, boy, canst do nothing for thyself? Here!" He jerked the nightshirt off, caring neither for the knotted strings nor for Maia's ears, and shoved his clothes at him again. Maia dropped them, fumbling with the strings of his nightshirt, and Setheris hissed with exasperation as he bent to pick them up. "Get thy clothes on." Setheris shoved yesterday's clothes at him. Obediently, Maia crawled out of bed, clumsy and sleep-sodden. "Cousin? What…" He sat up, rubbing at his eyes with one hand. Maia woke with his cousin's cold fingers digging into his shoulder.
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