is necessary," Lady Caria said. "Though you might work on your timing in the future."
"Yes, Lady. Please, Your Grace. I need to speak to the First Lord."
Lady Caria shook her head. "Impossible," she said, her tone one of finality. "I'm afraid you'll have to speak to him later. Perhaps tomorrow."
"But, Lady-"
"He's swamped," the First Lady said, emphasizing each syllable. "If you feel the matter is an important one, Academ, then you may leave me a message and I will present it to him as soon as opportunity allows."
"Please forgive me, Lady, but I was told that if I ever used the coin, that the message was to be only for him."
"Mind your tongue, Academ," Caria said, her brows arched. "Remember to whom you speak."
"I have the orders from the First Lord himself, Your Grace. I only attempt to obey them."
"Admirable. But the First Lord is not a favorite professor you can simply visit yourself upon whenever you wish, Academ." She stressed the last word, very slightly. "And he has affairs of state to attend to."
Amara swallowed and said, "Your Grace, please. I will not be long in telling him. Let him judge if I am abusing the privilege. Please."
"No," Caria said. The sculpted figure looked over its shoulder. "You have
taken enough of my time, Academ Amara." The First Lady's voice gained a note of tension, hurry. "If that is all..."
Amara licked her lips. If she could hold on a moment more, perhaps the First Lord would overhear the conversation. "Your Grace, before you go, may I give you a message to pass on to him?"
"Be quick."
"Yes, Your Grace. If you would only tell him that-"
Amara didn't get any farther than that before the watery form of the First Lady grimaced and shot her a cool glance, her features becoming remote and hard.
The water beside Lady Caria stirred, and a second furycrafted shape rose from it. This one was a man, tall, with shoulders that had once been broad, but were now slumped with age. He carried himself with a casual pride and a confidence that showed in every line of his body. The water-figure did not appear in liquid translucence, as did Lady Caria's. It rose from the river in full color, and Amara thought, for just a moment, that the First Lord himself had somehow come, rather than sending a fury in his place. His hair was dark, streaked with silver-white strands, and his green eyes looked faded, weary, and confident.
"Here now," said the figure in a gentle, ringing bass. "What passes, my wife?" The figure of Gaius turned toward Amara, squinting. His features went completely still for a moment. Then he murmured, "Ah. I see. Greetings, Cursor."
Lady Caria shot her husband's image a glance at the use of that title, and then her remote gaze returned to Amara. "This one wished to speak with you, but I had informed her that you had a state dinner to attend."
"Your Majesty," Amara murmured, and curtseyed again.
Gaius let out a sigh and waved a hand, vaguely. "You go ahead, my wife. I'll be along shortly."
Lady Caria's chin lifted, tilting with a sharp little motion. "Husband. There will be considerable consternation if we do not arrive together."
Gaius turned his face toward Lady Caria. "Then if it pleases you, wife, you may wait elsewhere for me."
The First Lady pressed her lips together, but gave a graceful, proper nod, before her image abruptly fell back into the water, creating a splash that drenched Amara to the waist. The girl let out a surprised cry, moving to wipe uselessly at her skirts. "Oh, my lord, please excuse me."
Gaius made a tsking sound and his image moved a hand. The water fled from the cloth of her skirts, simply pattered out onto the ground in a steady rain of orderly droplets that gathered into a small, muddy puddle and then flowed back down into the river, leaving her skirts, at least, quite clean.
"Please excuse the First Lady," Gaius murmured. "These last three years have not been kind to her."
Three years since she married you, my lord, Amara thought. But aloud, she said only, "Yes, Your Majesty."
The First Lord inhaled, then nodded, the expression brusque. He had shaved his beard since Amara had seen him last, and the lines of age, faint on the mostly youthful features, showed as dark shadows at the corners of his eyes and mouth. Gaius appeared to be a hale forty years of age-in fact, Amara knew that he was twice that.