“Love?” Master Fellows tilted his head to look down at the white kitten on his shoulder. Her slender tail was wrapped as far around his neck as it would go. Her claws dug deep, through the material of his demicape into what was apparently a thick pad fixed on his right shoulder.
“Have you ever noticed her acting strangely since you brought her here to the palace?”
“Strangely?” The Master of Graces regarded Ellysetta with a furrowed brow. “How do you mean?”
“Taking an inexplicable fright, for instance? Hissing regularly at particular people in the palace?” At the corners of the room, Tajik, Rijonn, Gil, and thelu’tanwho’d taken Gaelen’s place all emanated a mild sense of curiosity and confusion over her question. Bel, however, suddenly went still and intent. He had been in Celieria this summer and witnessed Love’s unique talent firsthand.
“Well, there are a number of courtiers she’s never taken a particular liking to, though I simply put that down to discriminating taste. Most of them I don’t care for myself.”
“Which courtiers? Can you tell me their names?”
“Oh, dear, you want names?” Master Fellows tapped his lip. “Several of the new Dazzles. Ser Egol, Sera Tyrene, Ser Sonneval and his new bride, Lady Giamet, Lord Bolor, Great Lord Ponsonney, Lady Thane, Lord Tufton. Those are just the few I can think of at the moment. And, of course, there’s Great Lord Barrial and his sons–and regrettably, on more than one occasion, even the king.”
Ellysetta exchanged a look with Bel.
“What is it?” Master Fellows asked.
“I don’t know that Love’s reaction to the courtiers is so much a matter of discriminating taste as it is a reflection of her rather acute sensitivity.”
“Sensitivity?”
“To magic.” Ellysetta clasped her hands at her waist. “Love senses when people weave magic. The closer and more powerful the magic, the stronger and more violent her reaction to it.”
“Oh.” He drew back in surprise.
“So, the likelihood is that all or most of those people were either weaving magic, or present when magic was being woven near them. I know Lord Barrial and the king both possess magic. They each descend from the vel Serranis line of the Fey. The others you mentioned may have inherited magic from their forebears as well, but…” She paused. For an instant, she considered holding her silence. What she was about to propose would put Master Fellows—an innocent man and a friend—in danger. And yet no one was better situated to be of help. “Master Fellows…Rain and I believe there are Elden Mages at work here in the city…perhaps even in the palace itself.”
The master of graces blinked. “Here?”
“Aiyah. We don’t believe this increasing disaffection for the Fey is entirely natural in its origin.”
“You think the Mages are deliberately turning people against the Fey?”
“What better way to win a war than to divide your enemy so that they spend more time fighting themselves than you? I know the Mages were here this summer.” She lowered her gaze to her clasped hands. “One of them murdered my best friend and her husband and led the attack at the cathedral that killed my mother. It’s possible they are still here, working to defeat Celieria from the inside.”
Master Fellows didn’t hesitate. “What can I do to help?”
He looked so earnest. And so slight to her eyes after her months in the Fading Lands. The Mages would snap him like a twig. What was she even thinking to consider asking him to risk his life? She rose to her feet and paced a short distance away. “I thought…butnei. It is too much to ask. The risk too great. You could be killed, and I would never forgive myself.”
Master Fellows rose as well. “My Lady Feyreisa, for the last months, the men of Celieria—including boys half my age—have been preparing to risk their lives for Celieria’s sake. Though I long ago accepted that my talents were more suited to the drawing rooms of noble society than to battlefields, I have always been a patriot. If there is any way I may be of service to my king in the coming war, I should like to hear of it.”
“Do you think it wise to enlist the Queen’s Master of Graces in spying on the court when we have yet to determine whether the queen herself has been compromised?” Tajik asked after Master Fellows took his leave. “What if he tells her what you’ve asked him to do?”
Ellysetta stared at the gilded doors through which Master Fellows had just exited. “I don’t think he will,” she said. “While he listens to every whisper of gossip of the court, he’s quite discreet himself.” She turned to face the redheaded Fey general. “Besides, there is no one better suited to spy on the court than Master Fellows. He has entrée into every level of court society. He is a fixture in the palace. And since he has taken to carrying Love with him everywhere, no one will be suspicious.”
“Do you think Dorian will approve of your enlisting his subjects as spies without his consent?”
Heat warmed her cheeks. Impulsivity was her downfall. “Once I explain the situation, I am certain King Dorian will see the benefits of my idea.” When Tajik arched a single red brow, she lifted her chin. “And since I asked Master Fellows to report his findings directly to the king, I cannot see why he would object.”
She sank back down onto the settee’s blue brocade cushion and reached for the keflee pot. She started to pour a fresh cup of the still-steaming aromatic brew, then paused to give each member of her quintet a warning glare. “And don’t any of you dare to turn this cup of keflee into anything else, do you hear me?” She fixed her baleful glare longest on the cobalt-eyed leader of her quintet.
Bel held up his hands. “I swear to you, all I said was, ‘Change it,’ and that only because I remembered what happened the last time you drank keflee in this place.” He attempted to look innocent, but the effect was ruined by the laughter he was fighting to keep in check. “I was looking out for your best interests.”
“Clearly you have spent too much time around Gaelen.” She sniffed. “Gallberry? It’s a wonder I didn’t spew the entire mouthful directly into Master Fellows’s face.”
Bel’s mouth twitched.
“Oh…er…that was my fault,” Rijonn admitted. “Sieks’ta. I am not familiar with Celierian beverages. I thought it was sweet hazel.”
