The Radiant War

Chapter 17b

     Tell me about Kethlan,” she said. “What's she like?”

     “Beautiful! Tall, hair as white as snow. Slender and graceful. Already as sharp as a razor, bright as an electric candle. She'll be a force to be reckoned with one day, able to play the game of politics with the best in the world. She works as a maid in Krell’s mansion at the moment... What is it?”

     Ardria struggled hard to keep the amusement from her face. She worked as a maid at the moment, and she was pretty sure that a maid was all she would ever be, at least until she found herself married off to some minor aristocrat for political reasons, and that was almost certainly the very best she could hope for. If the Dukedom did survive, under Carrow rule, it would be Kriss Barlann, first of the newly formed House of Barlann, who would inherit it, with Joran Barlann as his heir, and the Pardews would fade away into history.

     She stared at the woman sitting across at her, spreading more honey on her bread and taking another sip from her wine. If she really did believe that the glory of the Pardews would be restored, then she was in for a very rude awakening the moment the King no longer had a use for her, and the fact was that her real usefulness had ended the moment she’d been uncovered as the traitor in the palace. So why was Nilon still indulging her, letting her continue to dream? Was it simply that none of his underlings wanted to take the responsibility for telling her the truth?

     That suddenly felt right to her. Carrow was a country ruled from above by fear of punishment, in which no-one dared to take the initiative and think for themselves. That was the real reason they'd managed to cross the border with a column of Helberion and Kelvon soldiers. It wasn't that Captain Leese had been unusually sensible and intelligent. It was that he’d been terrified of taking any responsibility for himself. All he'd dared to do was pass the buck to Colonel Hemdall. It had taken a man of his seniority to dare risk Nilon’s wrath. If that was true, then Nilon would disabuse Darniss of her delusions the moment they arrived at the palace.

     The effect on Darniss was likely to be dramatic, and the effect on her mission equally dramatic. Nilon would simply dismiss anything Ardria said as a last, desperate attempt to save Helberion from Carrow conquest. She’d been depending on Darniss lending her voice to the effort. The voice of a woman of influence in Carrow, who had nothing to gain and everything to lose by saving Helberion. If Darniss no longer had that influence, what hope was there? Maybe she had to hope that she was wrong to be so cynical, that Nilon really did intend to keep his promises. Was her pessimism being fuelled by her hatred for the woman? For the horror she’d subjected her to? Even now it was hard to think back on it. How she’d woken up each morning to find that her body had changed a little bit more, grown less human, more horrific. Feeling things shifting inside her as her internal organs moved and changed. Her very mind changing...

     I must see things clearly, she told herself. I need to talk to someone... She looked across at Tamwell and Brailsford, sitting at a table on the other side of the room with two Carrow soldiers keeping a close eye on them. Did either of them know enough about Carrow politics to be able to help? Tamwell had been nothing but a common soldier before being chosen for this mission, but Brailsford had been a member of the Kelvon embassy staff. He would have been primarily interested in Helberion politics, of course, but with the international situation as it was it was quite possible that he'd taken an interest in Carrow as well. The Carrowmen had been keeping them well separated until now, but maybe she could arrange something later, when they stopped for the night.

     Until then, there was Captain Silva, sitting right there, at their table with them. Could she somehow mine him for information without Darniss realising what she was doing? She decided to give it a try.