Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher Page A

and then her remote gaze returned to Amara. “This one wished to speak with you, but I had informed her that you had a state dinner to attend.”

    “Your Majesty,” Amara murmured, and curtseyed again.

    Gaius let out a sigh and waved a hand, vaguely. “You go ahead, my wife. I’ll be along shortly.”

    Lady Caria’s chin lifted, tilting with a sharp little motion. “Husband. There will be considerable consternation if we do not arrive together.”

    Gaius turned his face toward Lady Caria. “Then if it pleases you, wife, you may wait elsewhere for me.”

    The First Lady pressed her lips together, but gave a graceful, proper nod, before her image abruptly fell back into the water, creating a splash that drenched Amara to the waist. The girl let out a surprised cry, moving to wipe uselessly at her skirts. “Oh, my lord, please excuse me.”

    Gaius made a tsking sound and his image moved a hand. The water fled from the cloth of her skirts, simply pattered out onto the ground in a steady rain of orderly droplets that gathered into a small, muddy puddle and then flowed back down into the river, leaving her skirts, at least, quite clean.

    “Please excuse the First Lady,” Gaius murmured. “These last three years have not been kind to her.”

    Three years since she married you, my lord , Amara thought. But aloud, she said only, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

    The First Lord inhaled, then nodded, the expression brusque. He had shaved his beard since Amara had seen him last, and the lines of age, faint on the mostly youthful features, showed as dark shadows at the corners of his eyes and mouth. Gaius appeared to be a hale forty years of age—in fact, Amara knew that he was twice that. And that no silver had been showing in his hair when she arrived at the Royal Academy, five years before.

    “Your report,” Gaius said. “Let’s hear it.”

    “Yes, milord. As you instructed, Fidelias and I attempted to infiltrate the suspected revolutionary camp. We were successful in getting inside.” She felt her mouth go dry, and she swallowed. “But… But he…”

    Gaius nodded, his expression grave. “But he betrayed you. He proved to be more interested in serving the cause of the insurrectionists than in remaining loyal to his lord.”

    Amara blinked up at him, startled. “Yes, milord. But how did you—”

    Gaius shrugged. “I didn’t. But I suspected. When you reach my age, Amara, people show themselves to you very clearly. They write their intentions and beliefs through their actions, their lies.” He shook his head. “I saw the signs in Fidelias when he was only a little older than you. But that seed has picked a particularly vicious moment to bloom.”

    “You suspected?” Amara asked. “But you told me nothing?”

    “Could you have kept it from him? Could you have played that kind of charade with him , who taught you, for the duration of the mission?”

    Amara clenched her teeth rather than speak in anger. Gaius was right. She never would have been able to keep such knowledge from Fidelias. “Why did you send me?” Her words came out clipped, precise.

    Gaius gave her a weary smile. “Because you are the fastest Cursor I have ever seen. Because you were a brilliant student at the Academy, resourceful, stubborn, and able to think on your feet. Because Fidelias liked you. And because I was sure of your loyalty.”

    “Bait,” Amara said, her words still with hard edges, points. “You used me as bait. You knew he wouldn’t be able to resist trying to bring me with him. Recruit me.”

    “Essentially correct.”

    “You would have sacrificed me.”

    “If you hadn’t come back, I would know that you had failed in your mission, probably because of Fidelias. Either that, or you would have cast your lot with the insurgents. Either way, I would be sure of the color of Fidelias’s cloak.”

    “Which was the point of the exercise.”

    “Hardly. I needed the intelligence, as well.”

    “So you