The Power and the Glory

Book 2 Chapter XIV: A Misunderstanding

Why would his mother object? Everyone knew how excited she was to have a royal daughter-in-law. For that matter, why would she demand money now when she would only have a right to it after the wedding?

"Isn't this very sudden?" Kitri asked, bemused. "Aren't you even going to have a proper ceremony?"

Irímé looked at her as if she'd started speaking a foreign language. "Ceremony? Who needs a ceremony?"

Technically he was right. Wedding ceremonies weren't legally required; all that was needed was for a couple to sign a contract and say their vows in front of a priest of Daisdíer[2]. In practice, of course, anyone who actually got married without a full ceremony and at least two hundred guests would be looked down on by their family, their wider community, and just about anyone who ever heard of it. Even worse it came with the implication of a hastily-concealed scandal.

Kitri warned him, "People will talk. I suppose this is Abi's latest bright idea. It's just as bad as her others."

"Abi has nothing to do with it," Irímé said, sounding as if she was the one talking nonsense. "She doesn't even know yet. I can't find her."

What in the name of all the gods? "You're going to leave her?" Kitri would have been furious about her friend being so casually abandoned if she wasn't so hopelessly confused.

Irímé now looked as if she'd sprouted a second head. "Er, yes? She lives here, not in Tananerl. Anyway, it's between me and Ilaran."

If she had been more sober Kitri would have realised by now that they were having two very different conversations. Unfortunately she was still half-drunk and had the idea of a marriage certificate firmly stuck in her head. "You're going to marry Ilaran?"

There was a long, awkward silence. Irímé's expression went from incredulous to horrified to resigned.

With a sigh he said, "We'd better start from the beginning. I think there's been a misunderstanding somewhere."

~~~~

Not even Haliran could complain about how comfortable the Silver Palace's cells were. She could however complain about how unbearably boring her imprisonment was. So far she'd had two visitors: Luamon and her housekeeper. The latter's visit could hardly be called that. She mainly wanted to ask if Haliran had specific instructions for how the household was to be run in her absence.

None of her other children came to see her. None of her friends dared show their faces. The empress hadn't summoned her yet or sent a lawyer to talk to her. She had no books to read, no records to listen to, not even a board to play Chiormurth[3].

For want of anything better to do she made up complicated arithmetic problems and solved them as slowly as possible. She had no paper to do her maths on, so she assigned numbers to the patterns on the wallpaper. That made the first few hours pass with relative speed. She was in the middle of a long division sum when the door opened.

Haliran looked up without much interest. It was probably just the guard delivering her dinner. Yet when the guard opened the door fully, she saw she had no tray in her hands.

"Only fifteen minutes, remember," the guard said to someone Haliran couldn't see. "I'll unlock the door when the time's up."

The still-unseen person said, "Thank you."

Haliran sat bolt upright in her chair. She knew that voice as well as she knew her own.

Siarvin stepped into the room. The guard closed the door behind him. Profound silence fell. The only sound was the key turning in the lock.