made her restless, and she rose and prowled the school, Liss dutifully at her heels. Many acolytes or divines, passing her on the balcony walks or in the corridors, bowed and smiled, by which she concluded dy Cabon’s indiscretion had now been widely shared. Pretending to be Sera dy Ajelo was well enough; having half a hundred total strangers assiduously pretend along with her felt oddly irritating.
They looked into a succession of small rooms crammed with books, packed in shelves and piled on tables: dy Cabon’s desired library. To Ista’s surprise, Foix dy Gura was curled up in a window seat with his nose in a volume. He looked up, blinked, rose, and made a little courtesy. “Lady. Liss.”
“I did not know you read theology, Foix.”
“Oh, I read anything. But it’s not all theology. There are hundreds of other things, some very odd. They never throw anything away here. There’s a whole locked room where they keep the books on sorcery and demons, and, um, the lewd books. Chained.”
Ista raised her brows. “That they may not be opened?”
Foix’s grin flashed. “That they may not be carried off, I think.” He held out the book in his hand. “There are more verse romances like this. I could find you one.”
Liss, staring around in wonder at what might have been more books in one place than she’d ever seen in her life, looked hopeful. Ista shook her head. “Later, perhaps.”
Dy Cabon poked his head through the door and said, “Ah. Lady. Good. I’ve been seeking you.” He heaved his bulk within. Ista hadn’t seen him since they’d arrived, she realized, not even at the evening services. He looked fatigued, gray and puffy under the eyes. Had he been up late in some forced study? “I request—beg—some private audience with you, if I may.”
Liss looked up from where she’d been peering over Foix’s shoulder. “Should I leave you, Royina?”
“No. The correct thing for a lady-in-waiting to do, should her mistress wish private speech with some gentleman not of her immediate family, is to place herself out of earshot, but within sight or call.”
“Ah.” Liss nodded understanding. Ista would never have to repeat the instruction. Liss might be untutored, but five gods, what a joy it was to finally have an attendant with all her wits about her.
“I could read to her, in this chamber or the next,” Foix immediately volunteered.
“Um . . .” Dy Cabon gestured to a table and chairs visible through an archway in the next room. Ista nodded and passed in before him. Foix and Liss settled back into the cozy window seat.
More discussion of their holy itinerary was due, she suspected, and tedious letters to be written thereafter apprising dy Ferrej of their planned route. Dy Cabon held her chair, then edged around the table to seat himself. She could hear Foix’s voice begin to murmur in the next chamber, too softly to make out the words from here, but in the cadences of some strong, striding narrative stanzas.
The divine tented his hands on the table before him, stared at them for a moment, then looked her in the face. In a level tone he asked, “Lady, why are you really on this pilgrimage?”
Ista’s brows rose at this utterly blunt beginning. She decided to return straight speech for straight speech; it was rare enough in a royina’s hearing and ought to be encouraged. “To escape my keepers. And myself.”
“You have not and had not, then, any real intention to pray for a grandson?”
Ista grimaced. “Not for all the gods in Chalion would I insult Iselle or my new granddaughter Isara so. I still remember how I was chided and shamed for bearing a daughter to Ias, these nineteen years ago. The selfsame brilliant girl who is now the brightest hope the royacy of Chalion has had in four generations!” She controlled her fierce tone, which clearly had taken dy Cabon aback. “Should a grandson come, in due time, I shall of course be very pleased. But I will not beg the gods for any favor.”
He took this in, nodded slowly. “Yes. I had come to suspect something of a sort.”
“It is, I grant, a trifle impious to use a pilgrimage so, and abuse the good guards the Daughter’s Order lends me. Though I’m quite sure I’m not the first to make holiday at the gods’ expense. My purse shall more than compensate the Temple.”
“That does not concern me.” Dy Cabon waved away these pecuniary considerations. “Lady. I have read.