A Jewel Bright Sea. Claire O'Dell

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СКАЧАТЬ Maszny before he withdrew. Maszny appeared not to notice. He swept his hand around to guide Anna toward the table. “Would you care for some wine? Or anything stronger?”

      “Tea,” Anna said. She managed to disengage herself from the man and sat down. The tone of his letter ought to have warned her. Even so, she could not picture anyone like Maszny taking command of such an important post as Eddalyon.

      Maszny himself appeared amused. “My dear Lady Vrou. Please don’t abandon all good opinion so quickly. You have a complaint to lodge, and I must perform my duty.” He inspected the various decanters, made a face. “My unreliable servants have provided us no tea, but we do have strong coffee, brewed in the Eddalyon fashion. Will that suffice?”

      He poured a cup. She accepted it from his hands, noting the calluses on his palms. A swordsman, then. That fit with the reports she’d had about the man. It did not fit with his manner today.

      She glanced up in time to see him studying her. At once, he smiled and offered her a plate of biscuits powdered with cinnamon. Anna accepted one and sipped at her coffee, which was chilled and spiced even more heavily than the biscuits. Maszny, she noticed, had poured himself a generous cupful of wine. He leaned back and took a long swig.

      “So you have crossed paths with our local brigands—pirates, I mean.”

      “Yes, Hêr Commander. Or rather, they have crossed me.”

      “Ah, a terrible thing. Tell me everything, if you please, my Lady Vrou.”

      So he was amused, she thought. She let her annoyance leak through as she told him, in blunt phrases, about the attack and subsequent events. She wanted to speak about the dead and wounded guards, but Vrou Iljana would not, no matter how Anna Zhdanov wished it, and so she dwelt upon the outrage to her person and her position. Her father the Barône would not take the matter lightly, she said. He had connections in Duenne’s Court. He would not suffer the insult to his family.

      Throughout her speech, Maszny listened with eyes half-lidded, his mouth relaxed into a faint smile. She could almost believe he’d fallen asleep, except that he occasionally took a sip from his wine cup. Once, when she mentioned leaping from the ship to escape, his eyes widened, but he offered no other reaction.

      “And not one hour after I returned to my rooms, he bribed a kitchen boy to smuggle a letter into my private chambers,” Anna said, her voice catching on a deliberate sob. “He dares too much.”

      “You are not so very wrong about that,” Maszny murmured. Then in a louder voice, “So. What are your exact wishes in this matter?”

      “That you hunt down these pirates, Hêr Commander. That you guard Vyros and its citizens, as your Imperial orders no doubt require.” Remembering the pirates’ attack, the glitter of steel sweeping toward her, it was not hard to sound angry and frightened.

      “You are overset,” Maszny said. “Quite understandable.”

      He poured a cup of wine for her, but she waved it away. “You have my official complaint, lodged by my man Kovács, and now you have mine. You know my wishes in this matter. Let me only add that I believe this attack was not entirely random.”

      “Indeed?” He drank from his cup, now seemingly bored. “How so?”

      Anna dropped her gaze and hesitated. “This is difficult for me to say, but… You know I came to Eddalyon to, to seek an old friend from Court.”

      Maszny lifted an eyebrow. “An old friend?”

      His tone was offensive, but Anna decided to ignore it. Best if she pretended embarrassment. “I hardly dare speak more plainly, Hêr Commander, but surely you understand me.”

      A glance through her eyelashes showed Maszny smiling. “I believe I know your friend,” he said.

      “Then you know that he, too, vanished suddenly, not far from the place those pirates attacked me and my guards. I believe they took him hostage.”

      Maszny was silent a moment before he replied. “I understand your concern, but I see a few contradictions. Unlike your father, Lord Gerhart has no money, nor any family of high standing.”

      Anna gave a careless shrug, as if these contradictions meant nothing to her. “Then he is a stupid man. Or perhaps this Koszenmarc believes all nobles to be as rich as my father.” She paused. “You are investigating Lord Gerhart’s disappearance?”

      “Oh, we investigate everything, Lady Vrou. Do not trouble yourself about the matter.”

      “I cannot help it, Hêr Commander. You understand why. If you would be so kind—”

      “—to let you know the details of our findings?” Maszny laughed softly. “Would that comfort you, Lady Vrou? What if we discover your lordling did not survive his capture? What comfort might I offer you then?”

      His voice was soft and husking. Anna abruptly stood at the insult. “None at all. I believe we are done here, Hêr Commander.”

      Maszny unfolded himself and held out a hand. “The Lady Vrou is cruel.”

      She ignored his hand. “Do your duty, Hêr Commander—”

      “That I can easily promise, Lady Vrou. In spite of my disappointment.”

      “—and you will let me know your findings, or I shall write to my father, and my father to the Emperor, to express our dissatisfaction.”

      She stalked out the door before he could reply. Outside, the same young officer waited to escort Anna back to the gates. She hardly noticed. Maszny had proved useless. Surely he had obtained his rank and his position through intrigue or favors, if not by outright bribes.

      Outside the garrison, her new guards gingerly handed her into the waiting sedan chair. Anna closed her eyes and rubbed her aching temples. I used to be a calm woman. My father always complimented me on my manners.

      It was Eddalyon that had changed her. That and Lord Brun’s mission. She ought to have argued with him. He sometimes listened if she approached him the right way. But no, she knew his ambitions. He simply would have bought or hired another in her place, then handed Anna off to another household. She could picture the conversation: She’s young enough, pretty enough. She doesn’t make a fuss in bed.

      A hard bump yanked her from her bitter thoughts. The sedan had stopped in the middle of the street. More chairs jostled around hers, and from not far ahead came the noise of others trapped in the chaos. Anna opened the shade and rapped on the door. “What is wrong?”

      “A blockage in traffic, Lady Vrou,” said the leader for her chair. “May I suggest we take a different route?”

      “Whatever you think best.” She rattled the shade closed and collapsed in a puddle of irritation. Gods-be-damned traffic. Gods-be-damned fops that bought their rank as officers in the Imperial Army. She wished, not for the first time, that she could vanish into some anonymous name and position, in a city far away from Duenne and its intrigues.

      But it was Duenne and those same intrigues that guaranteed her freedom.

      With some awkward maneuvering, the carriers threaded their way back and around to a side street. Anna drew the shade back a few inches. She could see little except the blank facades СКАЧАТЬ