Jade's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Morning came gray through the tall windows of Autumn Castle. A servant brought Jade down to a smaller hall with a table set for two. Felgrim stood by the fire with the folded poster in his hand. He waved the servant out. Jade sat. The stoat stayed in her hood. Felgrim did not sit. He set the poster on the table between them, still folded, and said he wanted the name of the man she was meant to marry. Jade weighed the risk and gave it plain. She said her mother had signed the contract with King Volkay. She watched Felgrim's face as she said the name. His hand closed on the back of the chair. The knuckles went white under the red hair on his wrist. He did not speak for a long moment. Then he asked her to say it again. She did. He walked to the window and looked out at the orange trees. When he turned back, his voice was lower. He told her he had known Volkay a long time. He told her Volkay had once been promised to his younger sister. He said his sister had died a month before the wedding, in a house Volkay controlled, and no one had ever answered for it. He said the healers had called it fever. He had never believed them. He said Volkay did not love women. Volkay loved crowns and borders and the men who could hand him more of both. Jade kept her hands flat on the table. She asked what he meant to do with the poster now. Felgrim looked at it. He picked it up, walked to the fire, and dropped it in. The paper curled. Her painted face went black at the edges and then gone. Ten thousand gold burned in under a minute. Felgrim said the guest-vow was no longer the only thing keeping her in his house. He said he would not send another young woman to that man for any price. He said she could stay under his roof until the full moon passed and the contract broke by its own terms. Jade breathed out for the first time since the servant had woken her. She thanked him. Then Felgrim's steward came in fast, boots loud on the stone. He carried a sealed letter with a black rose pressed into the wax. He said a rider had brought it at dawn. Felgrim broke the seal and read. His jaw set. He handed the letter to Jade. Volkay had written to every lord along the border. He knew she had crossed. He was coming himself, with an escort, to collect his bride. He would reach Autumn Castle in three days.