Chapter 490: A Confession at the Cave Mouth

Chapter 489: A Confession at the Cave Mouth

Lyria’s POV

I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could speak, Duke Valenridge shook his head. The intensity in his eyes vanished as swiftly as it had come, masked behind that familiar, impenetrable composure, and when he spoke, his voice was perfectly even.

"I beg your pardon," he said. "That was none of my concern."

"It i-is not w-wrong for you to a-ask," I told him.

"Is it not?" He glanced at me, his countenance giving nothing away. "It is scarcely my place to enquire, surely. Lucian addresses you by your given name, after all, and the two of you have known one another since you were young."

"That i-is t-true," I admitted. "B-but we were n-never close. It is only n-now that I am w-warming to him."

I paused, considering how best to explain, for I had the strange impression that the answer mattered a great deal more than the question had seemed to warrant.

"And as to your q-question, my calling him by his g-given name, it is only in p-private. I am s-still practising, if I am to be h-honest. It was only earlier, when Lucian c-called upon me, that he asked it of me, and I s-saw no cause to refuse, since he has become a c-confidant to me."

I smiled softly at the thought.

"Which, I must c-confess, I n-never imagined s-should come to pass, g-given who he is."

Duke Valenridge was silent a moment,.

"You are so fond of him as that?" he asked at last.

I nodded at once.

"Y-yes. And even Z-Zephyr is fond of him. He t-took to Lucian the very moment he entered my chamber this afternoon, which s-surprised me exceedingly. Zephyr l-likes no one at all, save m-myself, and y-you, and now L-Lucian."

I laughed, and then added, "Though y-you were obliged to b-bribe him with a s-snack."

Duke Valenridge smiled at me, though his eyes were strangely vacant, like a window in a house where the lamps have been put out. I expected him to remark upon what i had said, but he did not.

"Enough of Lucian," he said instead. "I know the gentleman well enough. He is formidable, and there is nothing in him that is not worthy of liking, save that he is, at times, a trifle stern."

He resumed walking, and I was left uncertain whether his praise had been given in sincerity or not.

"We are almost at the spring," he told me.

I moved after him at once, quickening my pace to match his stride. The rock beneath our feet had grown steeper, and the trees had thinned, giving way to even more bare stone, and to a faint sound of water somewhere ahead. A thin mist hung low among the boulders, and the air had altered, growing softer and warmer than the evening ought to have allowed. I was quite certain I was not imagining the sound at this point, and given what I saw now, I quite doubted it was the canal.

"What of the others whom you selected?" he asked.

I considered the question with some care, for I had not wished to speak lightly of gentlemen who had come so far at my request.

"Marquess S-Silverwyn was one of the b-better choices," I said. "But I m-must admit I do not yet u-understand the gentleman. I cannot say whether he has been sent to s-sabotage us as well, as Corvin has."

Duke Valenridge raised an eyebrow.

"First Lucian, and now Corvin. I find myself curious. What, precisely, is the story there?"

I made a face of the deepest distaste at his words.

"Unlike the case of L-Lucian," I said, "I d-dislike Corvin a g-great deal."

"That much is obvious," he said. "But I have yet to discover the reason. For I have observed that Corvin has a tendency to aim his distaste at you, and has done so ever since you were exposed at the first ball as the King’s daughter. Do tell me, Your Highness, is there some history behind it?"

I kicked a loose pebble from the path, and watched it skitter into the dark, as though it was the most interesting thing I had ever seen happen throughout the day.

"The s-story is worth nothing," I said after a while. "But I have no n-need to hide it."

I paused, gathering my thoughts, as he led me towards what I could only describe as a cave: a great hole in the rock, its mouth veiled in rising mist, from which came a breath of warmth that stirred the hem of my dress and curled about my ankles as though a living creature. Beyond the threshold the darkness was not cold, as I had supposed it might be—which was quite foolish given the warnth i felt—but soft, and faintly luminous, as though the stone itself held some memory of the sun.

I stood a moment upon its edge, and found, to my own surprise, that I did not wish to enter it with the matter unspoken. It seemed to me that a thing once said aloud, beneath an open sky, grew a little lighter to carry than one confined within walls, and that if I were to speak of Corvin at all, I should do it here, where the wind might take some portion of it away.

Duke Valenridge had halted beside me, and he did not press me. He merely waited, his hands clasped behind him, his gaze turned towards the mist, with that peculiar patience of his which I had learnt to recognise as a kind of courtesy.

I drew a breath, and the warm air filled my chest.

"T-the spring i-is in h-here is it n-not?" I asked.

"You already knew that." Duke Valenridge replied me. "But yes, it is in here though there is a different path to it that I shall lead you through."

I nodded.

"Corvin was the f-first gentleman I ever h-harboured r-romantic f-feelings for," I said. "And he was my d-dearest f-friend, once."