Arrow's Fall by Mercedes Lackey Page B

he’s grown into, and I want to know that before I even begin to seriously consider the match. To tell the truth, I’m hoping for her to have a love-match, and that with someone who is at least Chosen if not a Herald. I saw for myself the kind of problems that can come when the Queen’s consort is not co-ruler, yet has been trained to the idea of rule. And you know very well that Elspeth’s husband will not share the Throne unless he, too, is Chosen.”
    “Good points, all of them—but you have more than that troubling you.” Talia had fallen into reading the Queen’s state of mind as easily as if she’d never been away.
    “Now I know why I’ve missed you! You always manage to ask the question that puts everything into perspective!” Selenay smiled again, with delight. “Yes, I do, but it wasn’t the kind of thing I wanted to confess to the Council, or even to Kyril, bless his heart. They’d put it down to a silly woman’s maunderings and mutter about moon-days. What’s bothering me is this: it’s too pat, this offer; it’s too perfect. Too much like the answer to everyone’s prayers. I keep looking for the trap beneath the bait, and wondering why I can’t see it. Perhaps I’m so in the habit of suspicion that I can’t trust even what I know to be honest.”
    “No, I don’t think that’s it.” Talia pursed her lips thoughtfully. “There is something out of kilter, or you wouldn’t be so uneasy. You’ve Mindspeech and a touch of Foreseeing, right? I suspect that you’re getting foggy Foresight that something isn’t quite right about the idea, and your uneasiness is being caused by having to fight the Council with no real reasons to give them.”
    “Bless you—that’s exactly what it must be! I’ve been feeling for the past two months as if I were trying to bail a leaky boat with my bare hands!”
    “So use Elspeth’s youth and the fact that she has to finish her training as an excuse to stall for a while. I’ll back you; when Kyril and Elcarth see that I’m backing you, they’ll follow my lead,” Talia said with more confidence than she actually felt. “Remember, I have a full vote in the Council now. Between the two of us we have the power to veto even the vote of the full Council. All it takes is the Monarch and Queen’s Own to overturn a Council vote. I’ll admit it isn’t politic to do so, but I’ll do it if I have to.”
    Selenay sighed with relief. “How have I ever managed all these years without you?”
    “Very well, thank you. If I hadn’t been here, I expect you’d have managed to stall them somehow—even if you had to resort to Devan physicking Elspeth into a phony fever to gain time! Now, isn’t it time to make our entrance?”
    “Indeed it is.” Selenay smiled, with just a hint of maliciousness. “And this is a moment I have long waited for! There are going to be some cases of chagrin when certain folk realize you are Queen’s Own in truth, vote and all, and that the full Council will be in session from now on!”
    They rose together and entered the huge, brass-mounted double doors of the Council chamber.
    The other members of the Council had assembled at the table; they stood as one as the Queen entered the room, with Talia in her proper position as Queen’s Own, one step behind her and slightly to her right.
    The Council Chamber was not a large room, and had only the horseshoe Council table and the chairs surrounding it as furnishings, all of a dark wood that age and much handling had turned nearly black. Like the rest of the Palace, it was paneled only halfway in wood; the rest of the room, from about chin-height to the ceiling, being the gray stone of the original Palace-keep. A downscaled version of Selenay’s throne was placed at the exact center of the Council table, behind it was the fireplace, and over the fireplace, the arms of the Monarch of Valdemar; a winged, white horse with broken chains about its throat. On the wall over the door, the wall