03 - The Eternal Rose by Gail Dayton Page A

were they? What were they doing here? Could he perhaps gain more from them than mere money?
    Idiot . When had money ever been mere? What else was there of value? Nothing. He'd learned that lesson well. The things he remembered could be nothing more than child's illusion. He was a child no longer. He knew how to see through illusion. So he would watch and learn and decide how to best use what he saw.
    He listened another moment more, hearing only silence in the afternoon's heat. Finally he unfolded a leg from its knee-to-ear position and the arm that had been wrapped around it, reaching out of his niche for the carefully concealed hand- and footholds. Tonight he would find the Adaran embassy. He tried to squelch the tingle of excitement, but he couldn't quite eliminate the lingering whisper of home .
    * * * *
    Kallista strode into the extensive family quarters set aside for the Reinine, playing the best “majestic” she could summon at this moment. She was tired. More than she should be, she thought. She waited, then waited a bit more while a whole army of servants carried in luggage. She would have wondered how much luggage nineteen people could require, but she knew. Mountains of it.
    Especially when one of them was ruler of half a continent and required to wear ridiculously ostentatious clothing for a hideously enormous number of occasions. Kallista hid her shudder. She understood the need to impress, but she could only go so far. And she could only wait so long.
    When the servants stopped bringing in more bundles and trunks from the courtyard and began opening them to remove the contents, Kallista decided she had waited long enough. “Out!"
    She clapped her hands to get their attention, then waved them to the doors. “That's enough unpacking. Go find food. Arrange for baths. Go away from here."
    “There are gardens.” The head of the nursery servants, gestured toward an enclosed courtyard beyond gauze-draped doorway openings. “The children can run."
    “Take them. Go.” Kallista ruffled River's hair as he rushed by. “Make noise. Have fun. When the food arrives, we'll come out and join you. No, Keldrey. Stay, please."
    The children flowed away. The servants departed. Bodyguards disposed themselves at entrances and windows and courtyard walls. When she was at last as alone with her ilian as she was ever allowed to be, Kallista stretched.
    “I don't remember aching like this the last time we traveled in caravan.” She groaned as Obed dug his fingers into her aching shoulders. She had felt ... off since they'd left Arikon. Not bad, exactly, just wrong somehow. It had to be the worry. What else could it be?
    “We were younger then, love.” Torchay winked at her. “We've reached forty. It changes things."
    “Speak for yourself.” Stone sent a cushion flying across the room at the red-haired man, who caught it and sent it flying back. “Some of us haven't reached thirty yet."
    “Stop reminding me,” Keldrey grumbled. “Some of us are older than all of you.” He and Leyja were nearing the half-century mark.
    Kallista shivered, suddenly cold, though the air was scarcely cooler inside these thick walls than out under the sun. Now that they had arrived, the reality of the pretense they would be forced to live in this place was sinking in. As long as they'd been on the road from the coast, it had been almost a game, something they played at during the journey. But now, here, a slip could result in the collapse of all their plans.
    “Torchay—” she began.
    “Where is Leyja?” Fox asked. “I heard the noise, but I was too far back to tell what happened, except for people running in all directions."
    “Here.” Leyja walked in, hatless and coated with dust—more than the rest of them who had taken the chance to shake off the worst of it.
    “Where'd you go?” Keldrey demanded. Kallista let him, willing to put off the awful discussion a little longer.
    “Thief chasing.” Leyja found the water carafe on