The Beauty of Darkness - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,119

delivering babies.”

Kaden turned, looking at Pauline. “How is he?”

“Fine,” she answered quietly.

He walked over, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth, and gently nudged the blanket aside so he could see the baby’s face. Pauline leaned back, lifting the baby protectively to her chest. Kaden noticed her retreat, and his smile disappeared. He stepped away, a small movement that stung with disappointment, and my heart ached for him. But I understood Pauline too. After all she had been through, trust was as slippery as hope.

“Anything else you plan to surprise us with?” Berdi asked.

He looked at me. “Lia, I need to speak with you privately.”

“Not so fast, soldier,” Gwyneth intervened. “Anything you have to say to her, you can tell us all.”

I nodded. At some point, we all had to start trusting one another.

He shrugged. “Have it your way. I know another one of your traitors. My father is no longer lord of County Düerr. He sits on the king’s cabinet.”

Pauline drew in a sharp breath. Kaden didn’t have to say a name. It was immediately apparent to her, much as it was to me. There was no one else in the cabinet with Kaden’s white-blond hair, or his warm brown eyes. Even the sound of his calm steady voice was the same. Everything that should have been obvious had eluded us and I realized there were assumptions we made about people, and once we did, that was all we could see—Kaden was a barbarian assassin, the Viceregent a respected lord descended from the Holy Guardians, and surely one could have nothing in common with the other.

Berdi and Gwyneth didn’t know the Viceregent and remained silent, but Kaden glanced from me to Pauline, wondering at her reaction. “Lord Roché,” he added to confirm his assertion.

For a moment I planned to lie to him, say there was no Lord Roché in the cabinet, afraid that he would storm off and get his head bashed in again, but he was already reading my eyes.

“Don’t lie to me, Lia.”

I braced myself, knowing he wouldn’t take this well. “I know who he is. I met with him two days ago. He’s a member of the cabinet as you said. He may have been a terrible father Kaden, but there’s no proof he’s a traitor.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

I had watched Kaden stomp toward the mill to check on the animals. I could almost see the steam rising from his shoulders.

It’s a lie! I have no relatives. My mother was an only child. The people who took me in were professional beggars.

I saw the rage in his face, but I also remembered the genuine grief in the Viceregent’s eyes. He was only eight, a grieving child who had just lost his mother.

If there was one thing I had learned, it was that time could twist and shred truth like a forgotten sheet battered in the wind. Now I had to piece the shreds together again.

I told Natiya I had another job for the priest, and at the first break in the weather, she was to go to him. A record of trained governesses was kept in the archives. Somewhere there had to be some information on one named Cataryn.

* * *

Dieci’s ears twitched with satisfaction as I scratched between them. I gave Nove equal affection and wondered if they missed Otto. The mill was dry, but one wall had tumbled away long ago, leaving the old building cold and drafty. Owls roosted in the high rafters. Natiya sat in a far corner, drawing a whetstone over her sword. We had sparred this morning. She was the one who had reminded me of the need to keep our skills sharp. The habits I had taught her across the Cam Lanteux remained deeply ingrained.

Pauline had watched with what I thought was a doubtful eye and later questioned me again about the Komizar’s army.

“They’re going to destroy Morrighan,” I said, “and traitors here are going to help them do it. We have to be ready.”

“But, Lia—” She shrugged, her expression full of skepticism. “That’s impossible. We’re the favored Remnant. The gods have ordained it. Morrighan is too great to fall.”

I looked at her, not sure what to say, not wanting to shake her world further, but I had no choice.

“No,” I said. “We aren’t too great. No kingdom is too great too fall.”

“But the Holy Text says—”

“There are other truths, Pauline. Ones you need to know.” And I told her about Gaudrel, Venda, and the girl Morrighan, who was