NORMALLY WHEN SHE WENT UP ON THE RAMPARTS OF HER castle at su was to look south, watg the play of light and the ging colors of the sky above the mountains. Of late though, as springtime turowards the summer they had all been waiting for, Alienor found herself climbing to the northern ramparts instead, to pace the guards walk behind the ellations or lean upon the ch stone, gazing into the distance, ed in her shawl against the chill that still came when the su down.
As if she could actually see as far as Senzio.
The shawl was a new one, brought by the messengers from Quileia that Baerd had told them would e. The ones who carried the messages that could, if all went right, turn the whole world upside down.
Not just the Palm: Barbadior too, where the Emperor was said to be dying, and Ygrath, and Quileia itself where, precisely because of what he was doing for them, Marius might not survive.
The Quileian messengers had stopped on their way to Fort Ortiz, as ropriate, to pay their respects to the Lady of Castle Borso and t her a gift from the new King of Quileia: an indigo- colored shawl, a color almost impossible to find here in the Palm, and one which was, she knew, a mark of nobility in Quileia, It was evident that Alessan had told this Marius a fair bit about her involvement with him over the years. Which was fine. Marius of Quileia, it seemed, was one of them; in fact, as Baerd had explai the afternoon after Alessan had ridden into the Braccio Pass and then away west, Marius was the key to everything.
Two days after the Quileians passed through, AJienan a habit of springtime rides that took her, casually, far enough afield to ate one or two ht stays at neighb castles. At which time she relayed a quite specific message to a hah 0 dozen equally specific people.
Senzio. Before Midsummer Not long afterwards, a silk-mert and then a singer she rather liked came down to Castle Borso with word of tremendous troop movements among the Barbadians. The roads were absolutely clogged with meraries marg north, they said. She had raised her eyebrows in quizzical mystification, but had allowed herself more wihan was ary each of those two nights, and had rewarded both men later, after her own fashion.
Up on the ramparts at su now, she heard a footstep oair behind her. She had been waiting for it.
Without turning, she said, "You are almost too late. The sun is nearly gone." Which was true; the color of the sky and the thin, u clouds in the west had darkened from pink through crimson and purple most of the way down to the indigo she wore about her shoulders.
Elena stepped out on the parapet.
"Im sorry," she said, inappropriately. She was always apologizing, still uneasy in the castle. She moved to the guards walk beside Alienor and looked out over the gathering darkness of the late-spring fields. Her long yellow hair fanned over her shoulders, the ends lifting in the breeze.
Ostensibly she was here to serve as a new lady-in-waiting to Alienor. She had brought her two young children and her few belongings into Borso tws after the Ember Days had ended. It was sidered a good idea that she be established here well before the time that might matter. It appeared, incredibly enough, that there could actually e a time when her being here might matter.
Tomaz, the gaunt, aged Khardhu warrior had said that it would be necessary for one of them to stay here. Tomaz, who was very clearl