Capítulo 11: Balle, Day 11 (4)
Five cards were placed on the table before her, their marked sides pressed down to the wood. She recognised the game instantly, as it was one she had played with her sisters often when teaching them to count and play with numbers as children. Spades and Paladins.
Two of the cards were of consecutive platoons—lance of six and charge of two—and the other three were wraiths. She gathered them in her hands, looking over the wraiths to decide which she would sacrifice come her turn. The first play was made by the one of earthen hair, as she placed one card to the centre of the table. A wraith.
"As I was saying," began the fire-haired one, "my sister lives in Laina and she says conditions are worsening for them. Drought, I suppose."
"Another one?" Startled the earthen-haired woman. "We've seen more droughts this century than in the entire Tharwenn dynasty combined."
The time came for Verinia to sacrifice a card, and she placed down a wraith, harp of three, leaving her with a wraith cup of one and a wraith veil of ten.
"The Arcana must be displeased." The raven-haired one laughed with a stupor, the sound long and idle. "I wonder what our Sovereign has done this time to provoke such a thing."
Verinia set down her cards and puffed her pipe unhurriedly. "Sired an illspawn."
The three women looked at her. The raven-haired woman held a card in her hand as it hovered over the other cards in the centre of the table.
"Pardon?" Gasped the woman with fire hair. Verinia puffed once more and gave a short laugh.
"So I've heard. Palace servants enjoy their gossip and rumours."
"That is a magnificent rumour to toss about." The earthen-haired woman placed a gauntlet of four to the table. "A sovereign illspawn? How has this news not spread?"
"You know the sovereigns," drawled the raven-haired woman. "If they wish to keep a scandalous secret, they'll bury anyone who knows along with it."
Within herself, Verinia also wondered why her father hadn't concealed the truth of his child like she knew that he could.
He could have ordered Kaelbi dead, yet he hadn't.
"If it's true and the Triternal is displeased, we have troublesome times ahead." Verinia made a show of sighing deeply. "I pray for our Sovereign."
"Well," said the earthen-haired woman, "the old blood has good fortune counted in measures."
The Su'Adrit's hand stilled as she began to draw a new card from the downturned tower beside the mess of their playing cards at the centre of the table.
Her blood completely turned into ice, possessing her delicate body in a shiver beneath her heavy cloak.
If anything, Verinia considered that she had good instinct, and her instinct was telling her that those words she had just heard were nothing short of a curse and an ill omen.
What in the Hells would possess someone to say something like that?
She murmured something of faint surprise, casting an amused glance toward the earthen-haired woman.
The card she had drawn was a helm of ten. She quickly took her wraith veil of ten and presented it to the table. "Trade."
"I have a trade, also." The fire-haired woman presented a wraith of eight. Both of them drew one card from the tower of downturned cards. Verinia drew a jousting card.
"Who do you suppose the illspawn's mother is?" Asked the raven-haired one. "From the serai?"
"It wouldn't be an illspawn if it came from one of his concubines." Earthen-haired woman waved a dismissive hand. "In any case, I don't suppose it matters. The court will never accept its existence."
"They will if the Sovereign recognises it."
The fire-haired woman laughed, a hearty, bodily laughter. "Imagine."
Verinia wondered if her words were due laughter at all. "He could."
"And do what with the bastard? Parade it like some embroidery?" She laughed again. "It cannot inherit and it cannot breed to inherit. They're useless, even to the peasants."
"He should have killed it, then." Raven-haired woman set down a foot guard card. "At least to spare the Hellfryne name from ridicule."
"If our Su'Datheram has a bastard, the Hellfryne name won't fall under ridicule," the earthen-haired woman defended.
"It will if he recognises it." Verinia set down her last wraith card and observed as the three women conversed amongst themselves, absently playing their respective hands. She only needed one more card of a consecutive platoon to complete her knight suit.
"I hope our Su'Darath is a better Sovereign than his father, anyhow." Fire-haired woman set down her cards and took a lengthy puff of her pipe.
"If he becomes Sovereign."
The princess's eyes flew to the earthen-haired woman and her piercing gaze became fixed upon the other party's face, which was slackened from the effects of the pipe and glowing with a joyous sheen.
"What do you mean?" She asked slowly, ignoring the look of the other two women sitting at the table. The earthen-haired woman smiled slyly and drew a card.
"I've heard that certain powerful people are unhappy with the state of the continent. That is all."
"Powerful people?" She'd heard nothing of the sort and it alarmed her to be informed by three stupefied women in a tent of the night market.
Just how much unrest was there that even this rung of society had heard of the turmoil in rumours?
"I've heard it as well," added the fire-haired woman. "Supposedly, the midlands are to enter civil conflict and the Sovereign refuses to be involved, so Su'na Baddenkur has claimed offence. This being hearsay, of course."
"I doubt Su'na Baddenkur would be truly offended for not having Sovereign support. The midlands are the most autonomous of regions." Verinia drew a card. Gauntlet of one.
"Perhaps," replied the raven-haired woman. "Perhaps that isn't why he claims offence at all."
"Knight of nineteen." The princess set down her complete suit. The earthen-haired woman lost with a spade of twelve hand, and the raven-haired woman won with a paladin of twenty hand. The fire-haired woman drew a knight of eighteen.
Presentes
-- Presente
recebido Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder