Free Imager's Challenge by L. E. Modesitt Jr. Page B

some sort. The design had to be Seliora’s.
    I’d barely walked away from it when I heard footsteps coming down the side staircase from the private quarters on the third level. I turned to wait for her. She was wearing blue and silver, flowing dark blue trousers and a matching blouse, with a pale silver jacket trimmed in the dark blue. I couldn’t help smiling as we walked toward each other.
    “You’re early. I’m glad.” She took my hands, then tilted her head and kissed my lips, gently but warmly. “You don’t mind if we just sit here? I told Mama that we’d greet everyone.”
    “Who is ‘everyone’? Odelia wouldn’t tell me.”
    “Good.” Seliora grinned, then turned and led me toward the settee closest to the archway at the top of the entry staircase. “She shouldn’t have. Papa’s sister Staelia and her husband, and Papa’s cousin Duerl and his wife. Staelia has a bistro not that far from the river. Odelia and Aunt Aegina and Grandmama Diestra will join Mama and Papa and us . . . and Shomyr and Methyr. It’s cool enough that you’ll finally get to eat in the dining chamber.”
    We settled onto the settee.
    “Is that a new chair?” I asked, gesturing to the one I’d looked over earlier.
    “Unhappily.”
    “Oh? Done for a client, and they didn’t like it?”
    “High Holder Tierchyl. He did himself in with his favorite pistol last Mardi.Your ‘friend’ Ryel managed it. I don’t know the details, but Tierchyl was overextended. He arranged a huge timber harvest to pay the interest on his debts. Everything in the sawmill and in the drying barns, as well as the timber waiting to be stripped and milled, caught fire, including Tierchyl’s mill itself. The Banque D’Rivages refused to extend any more credit or to even extend the term of the notes.”
    “But . . . a High Holder has to have tens of thousands of hectares.”
    “Most of them will have to be sold, Mama said. He had almost no cash at all remaining, and supposedly all his lands were security for the notes at ninety percent. There will be more than enough golds for a comfortable life for his widow and children, but nothing like what a High Holder requires.” Seliora shrugged. “We’re out the cost of the chair, as well as a hundred yards of special fabric. The wood isn’t a problem, because most of it hadn’t been even rough-shaped and can be used for other commissions in the future. It’s still a loss of close to a hundred golds.”
    I winced. While I knew her family could afford it, the loss of more than I’d make in two years wasn’t something to dismiss lightly. “Are you sure Ryel was involved?”
    “Some of their lands adjoin, and Tierchyl had refused to sell certain properties to Ryel. That’s the rumor anyway.”
    And Ryel had declared me his enemy. I glanced toward the chair. “It is beautiful.”
    “The design is unique. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to use it as a model for someone else in the future.”
    “If not, it makes a lovely addition here.”
    “An expensive addition.”
    Within a few moments and before anyone thumped the big brass knocker on the main door, I heard another set of footsteps, slower but lighter, coming down the steps.
    Without thinking I said, “That’s your Grandmama Diestra. She wants a few moments with us before dinner.”
    Seliora looked at me, then at the archway, where Grandmama Diestra emerged, glancing at Seliora.
    Seliora shook her head. “I don’t care what your mother thinks. There has to be Pharsi in your background. You didn’t even think about it, did you?”
    “No,” I admitted, somewhat sheepishly, before standing to welcome Seliora’s grandmother. “Good afternoon.”
    Seliora rose and stood beside me.
    “The same to you, Rhenn.”
    Seliora just said, “He knew you were coming before he saw you, and he knew what you had in mind. I hadn’t said a word.”
    “You’re surprised, granddaughter?” Grandmama Diestra chuckled.
    I grinned, then gestured to