Chương 135: Chapter 132: The Quiet Hand

"My Lady, everything is ready."

"I'll be right out," I said. Estovan nodded, and his head ducked back behind the tent flap.

"Lady Esra, please sit still," Anias said from over my shoulder. She was running a comb through my hair. It caught every now and then. Apparently my hair was less tangled than Sere's, but only just.

"I did not think nerves would find you after everything you've done." I inspected myself in the mirror. The gown was Veyne black, with silver-blue thread worked along the collar and the cuffs. The collar was high, as was apparently now my signature. My hair had been pulled back and pinned, save for a few strands Anias had deliberately left loose. She had said they softened my face. I would have to take her word for it.

I looked presentable, which was good, for I was about to present myself to every reporter in the city, and likely a few who had come from outside it too.

"It's hard not to be," I said.

"When you're relying on someone else." Anias said nothing to that, perhaps because it was true. Today was the day. Duke Solair had sent the letter yesterday. The first of the grain shipments was ready. After decades of Aelheim depending on Julian's generosity simply to feed itself, today was the day I declared no more. It would be a blow to Julian. A tremendous blow. Assuming everything went right. Assuming Duke Solair held up his end of the bargain, and held it well.

"How is my father?" I asked. Anias was quiet for a moment. She was currently at war with a particularly uncooperative tangle. Eventually she gave up, and I felt her Gift settle over my hair. A second later, the tangle was gone entirely. How useful.

"He is well," Anias said.

"He has started to walk."

"That's good," I said.

"It would be," Anias agreed.

"If he wasn't forcing himself to." That made me pause. I looked at her through the mirror.

"Why would he do that?" Anias said nothing for a few moments. She stepped to my side, picked up a small brush, and pressed it to my cheek.

"My Lady, I am sure you can guess." I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye.

"He must be tired of lying in one place," I said.

"It's no wonder that a man like that will try to walk even when-" The brush paused. I looked at Anias fully this time. The head maid had raised an eyebrow. It was a small gesture, if it were anyone else. I felt my cheeks start to burn.

"It's uh… it's because of me, isn't it?" I said finally. Anias slowly nodded. The brush moved again. She worked in silence after that. Outside, the murmur of the crowd had grown from a trickle into a steady hum. Anias wasn't just painting me pretty, though she was certainly doing that too. She was also making me look older. Harder. Just like I had asked. Now that I was who I was, I needed to think about the image I wanted to cultivate. And I had settled on this. It was Anias who broke the silence.

"He wished to be here today. And I was not able to stop him." I froze. I looked at Anias.

"He'll be-""Somewhere in the crowd, My Lady. I believe he won't announce himself, however." A hundred objections came to mind. He was still weak from what that Hero had done to him. If he overexerted himself now, he would only make his own recovery longer. I said none of them. Because there was no point. If Anias was telling me now, then it was already too late. Hells, maybe he was already outside, somewhere in the growing crowd.

"My father is stubborn," I said finally.

"He is your father," Anias said. She set the first brush down and took up a smaller one, along with a shallow dish of color. Red. The exact violent shade Sere had once picked out for my debut. The shade of my eyes, and of a certain gemstone besides.

"Chin up, My Lady." Two fingers tilted my face toward the light, and I held very still while she painted my lips.

"You did not even try to stop him, did you?" I said, once she had finished. Then I winced. I hadn't meant for it to sound like an accusation. That made Anias pause. I turned to her, and saw Anias looking down at me. Hers was an expression that asked just how the head maid of a house was supposed to stop the lord of that house from doing anything at all.

"Sorry," I said.

"That was unfair." Anias slowly nodded, and resumed her work. The crowds outside were getting louder now. By now, Julian would have heard. We had sent letters to every newspaper in the city just a few hours ago, and since most of them were bought by Greenward one way or another, it would have been a greater surprise if he hadn't. I wondered what that snake thought of this. Would he come himself? I doubted it. Why would a man attend the very ceremony that threatened to make him obsolete?

Then again, Julian was a man who couldn't resist a stage. Maybe even one like this.

"Well… I hope my father is the only unexpected guest," I said.

"Estovan has not seen her," Anias said.

"Though, from what I have heard, that does not discount the possibility entirely." This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Well, that was just lovely. After our examination, the Princess had all but begged to join us more permanently. When begging at me had failed, she had gone to Violet instead, and by the time I found out about it, my friend had half agreed to let her stay at Indri Manor. I had stopped that particular disaster just in time.

The Princess had protested. Loudly. Honestly, I'd half expected her to simply break in anyway. So far, she hadn't. That was a small mercy.

"I'm not sure what she finds so interesting," I murmured.

"It's not like I did anything." To my surprise, Anias actually answered.

"From all of the rumors, the First Princess has grown up in unusual circumstances, My Lady. It is not so surprising that she carries a certain interest. Though, how far she has gone for it… is surprising." Anias stepped back.

"You are ready, My Lady." I inspected myself in the mirror once. I looked every bit like a noble Lady from a fairy tale, the kind I had read back on Earth.

"Are you sure your Gift isn't something to do with makeup?" I asked, turning my head to look at myself from every angle.

"I hardly even recognize myself."

"Good makeup, My Lady," Anias said, "serves to highlight the features a Lady already possesses. Nothing more." That sounded wise, though I didn't know the first thing about makeup. My life on Earth had kept me far away from this kind of thing.

"You have too many talents, Anias," I joked.

"Maybe we'd all be better off if you became Duchess instead. At the very least, it feels like a waste that you're a maid. Not that I mind, of course." I saw the woman stiffen. It was a small gesture. No more than a tightening of the eyes, a stilling of the arms. I turned to her when she did not speak.

"Anias?" Anias looked at the tent flap. Then she looked back at me, and she looked at me for a long time. Then I felt mana. It bloomed out from her and everything in the tent took on that faint purple glow. Anias closed her eyes. When she opened them, the glow faded away.

"It seems she isn't here," Anias murmured, mostly to herself. It took me a few seconds to understand.

"Were you… checking for Sere?" I asked. Anias nodded stiffly. I had half assumed Sere was here somewhere. It seemed that wasn't the case. And the fact that Anias had checked at all meant that whatever came next was for my ears alone.

"I was not always a maid," Anias said after a long time. She hesitated over the words, forcing each one out slowly.

"I was not one before I came under House Veyne's employ." She paused.

"I spoke with your lord father. I believe you have questions, and… he has given me leave to answer some of them." I nodded slowly. I had always been curious about Anias's past. Anyone would be, if their maid had talents that had nothing to do with being a maid at all. If their maid knew the secret codes of one of the most powerful Houses in the entire Kingdom. I had never asked, nor had I tried to find out. Whatever secret the woman had, I had long since decided that I could trust her.

And trusting her meant trusting her to tell me in her own time. I hadn't expected that time to be now, of all times, but I wouldn't squander it. Not when Anias had brought this up herself.

"And before that…you were?" I asked.

"Have you ever heard of the Quiet Hand?" I shook my head. Anias nodded, as if she had expected nothing else.

"It was before your birth. The Quiet Hand were… a clan of assassins, so to speak." I blinked. Anias continued.

"The noble houses of Arian are always at war, My Lady. Always fighting with one another. Sometimes the fighting is done in massive ballrooms, with beautiful gowns and suits. Sometimes it is done with trade agreements and coin." She looked at me.

"And sometimes, a House requires something more direct. And more final." I stared at her. I had put the pieces together well enough. I simply wasn't sure I wanted to.

"And so they turn to… assassins. Like this Quiet Hand you speak of."

"Yes," Anias said.

"And the Quiet Hand were the finest of them all. One that operated the continent over, not just in Arian."

"And you were… one of its members," I said slowly. Anias nodded. So that was how she had known House Solair's code. That was one mystery answered, and all the answer did was make ten new mysteries. Well, whatever I had expected, this wasn't it. It wasn't like I hadn't made guesses. In my head, Anias had been something like a secret war hero. A soldier who had walked away from some famous mercenary company, maybe. I had a thousand and one questions. One of them stood out over all the others.

"So why are you here?" I asked. I knew House Veyne well enough by now. My father and his father and his father before him were all men who believed in honor. Who preferred to stab a man in the front and never in his back. For House Veyne to knowingly employ an assassin was…was simply strange. There was silence. I looked to Anias for an answer and none came. The silence lasted for so long that I wondered if I had asked the wrong question. I wondered if I needed to apologize.

"I tried to kill your father, once," Anias said. I stared at her. The words were simple. There were only seven of them. I understood every one of them completely. Together, I did not understand them at all.

"WHAT?" My voice had gotten very loud. I coughed and cleared my throat.

"I mean… how is that… how?" Somewhere far in the back of my mind, Vaelin hummed.

"I failed," Anias said.

"He bested me. And when he had my life in his hands, he spared it." She dipped her head.

"And so, I became a part of the Veyne household. It has been… a very long time since then." I was wrong. Answering one question did not bring up ten new questions. It brought up a hundred. My father had caught an assassin in the dark, held her life in one enormous hand, and chosen to open it. I thought of Lana, folding linens somewhere in my manor at this very moment. Perhaps I had always been my mother's daughter, my real one. But it seemed I was my father's daughter too.

I found I liked that thought a great deal more. After a time, Anias bowed.

"I understand that what I have told My Lady might… change how she regards me," she said.

"And if so, I am more than willing to step aside. If My Lady wishes it." I blinked. I hadn't expected that either. It seemed today was full of things like that. The tent flap opened again, and the noise of the crowd poured in with it, twice as loud as it had been before. Estovan poked his head inside.

"My Lady, it's time."

"I'll be right out," I said. Estovan nodded and disappeared, and the flap swung shut behind him. I rose. I took one step toward the tent flap, and then I looked back. Anias was staring at the ground.

"I would have you do as you have always done," I said.

"If you still want to do it, I mean." Anias looked up at me.

"…Pardon?"

"Nothing in this conversation changes anything." And it didn't. I had plenty of secrets of my own, after all. Bigger ones than hers, if we were comparing. What right did I have to judge anyone for the things they kept to themselves? I looked at Anias, and I smiled.

"Besides, I wouldn't know what I'd do without you anyway. So… so if it's all the same to you, I would prefer you keep doing as you've always done. As our maid." I paused.

"And my friend." Anias blinked. And then she bowed, and this bow was deeper than the last.

"Of course, My Lady." I thought I heard her voice crack, just a little.

"Now," I said, looking at the tent flap. Beyond it, half the city was waiting.

"It's about time we went and met them, isn't it?" It was hard, relying on someone else. It was a great deal less hard, I decided, when the someone was her. And just like that, the nerves were gone.