Summerfall Read Free

door behind him, “please tell me there’s been some kind of—”
    “Mistake?” Kaspar moved past her smoothly, the two hundred years’ worth of ceremonial pendants in his braids glinting in the firelight. “No, daughter. There has been no mistake. The Council has chosen.”
    “But you know I’m qualified! No one has spent more time researching humans and their customs than I. No one loves them like—”
    “Do not speak to me of loving humans, Rinka.” Kaspar settled behind his desk, and the simple upward slice of his quiet blue gaze was enough to make Rinka feel childish and rash. She sank into the chair opposite him, collecting herself. He was keeping his typically expressive face impassive, and that worried her.
    “Father,” Rinka began again, forcing her voice steady, “forgive me for pressing the matter, but I must. You know I’m more than qualified to have been selected. I’ve spent years in my studies. I’m fluent in their language. In fact, I’ve continued studying even though in recent months it has become—”
    “Suspect?” Kaspar suggested, a flicker of amusement in his gaze.
    The sight encouraged Rinka. “You can’t say I lack dedication. I know human customs, their gods, their songs. You cannot be trying to avoid favoritism. If you were, you would not have selected Garen. And you know I aspire to be chosen for the Council someday, when you no longer wish to serve. This would be the perfect way for me to prove my worth to our people.” She took a long, slow breath. “Why was I not chosen tonight?”
    Kaspar sat unmoving, studying her. It required incredible willpower to meet his gaze, but Rinka managed it. She was not unused to arguing with her father, but never had he been so unreadable. It was not the faery way to hide one’s true feelings like this, and it left Rinka feeling anxious.
    At last he sighed, and turned away to stare into the fire. There, at last—his expression relaxed, and Rinka saw something like regret on his face.
    “Because it is too dangerous,” he said quietly, and when Rinka moved to speak, Kaspar held up one long, white finger. “Because I’m not sure I trust the king anymore, no matter that his family has ruled since Cane’s beginning.” He said this quietly, as if ashamed, and Rinka’s skin prickled to hear the treasonous words. “Because you are my one child, and the only family I have left since your mother’s death.”
    “Nothing is preventing you from finding other wives, if you’re so eager for more children,” Rinka said, bristling. She would not be manipulated. “You really think King Alban summons us to court only to kill us once we’re inside his walls?”
    “Kill us, or something worse. Who’s to say?”
    “You can’t honestly believe he would force us to bind with him? Force us to serve him like the Seven mages?” Rinka scoffed, stalked away and then back. “I’m not even sure that would work. You’re beginning to sound as unreasonable as Garen. It’s a ludicrous idea.”
    “As I said, I’m not sure I trust the king,” Kaspar said again, heavily. “Or at least not those around him. He is young, and surrounded by duplicitous people with their eyes on the throne. I admire your willingness to trust, Rinka, and your compassion, but in this case I fear you are misguided.”
    “You don’t trust the king, and yet you send our people to his city. You’re using them as bait, to see what King Alban will do. Do you hope he proves you right?” Rinka rose. She could not believe it of him; he had always been reasonable and fair. That even he was beginning to believe these rumors was a startling truth, one that disappointed and frightened her. “You want war.”
    “No one with a whit of sense wants war.” Kaspar’s gaze was fierce. “Just as no one with a whit of sense hears rumors of antagonism against his own people and does nothing.”
    Rinka stepped back from him. She suddenly felt far removed from her father, as if he had