Free 03 - The Eternal Rose by Gail Dayton Page A

protection, until she led the way to the group waiting at the top.
    There were five of them. Beyond the columns, in the shade, so many others stood crowded so close that Kallista thought they would have been at the steps to greet them if they could.
    The five women dressed in identical fashion, in white hooded robes over brightly colored, ankle-length dresses. The robes were embroidered in colors that matched the dress beneath. Each wore a broad pectoral collar of heavy gold in elaborate, jewelled designs—the badge of office for the Head of a Line.
    One of them, tall, with a sleek coil of snow white hair above black brows and an unmistakable air of power, stepped forward and bowed in the austere Daryathi way with her arms down by her sides. The other four followed suit from where they stood.
    Kallista put her right leg forward, brought her hand up in a hopefully graceful flourish, and gave them the most elegant bow she could manage, her ilian matching her.
    When Kallista rose, the white-haired woman spoke. “I greet you, Kallista Reinine, Ruler over all Adara and Chosen of the One. I bid you welcome to the Seat of the en-Kameral. I greet you Kallista Varyl, wife of my sister's son. I bid you welcome in the name of my Line."
    “I greet you, Shakiri Shathina.” Kallista responded as she had been endlessly coached on the journey by her foreign ministry and by Obed. “And I thank you for this welcome to Daryath. I greet you, sister of my husband's mother, and I thank you for the gift of your Line."
    Everyone bowed again. Then Shakiri Shathina introduced those standing with her. These five women served as what was loosely translated as the executive council. They had the power to make decisions in an emergency, when there was no time for matters to be brought for debate to the whole of the en-Kameral. They also supervised the bureaucracies that managed the day-to-day running of Daryath. Their decisions were then approved by the entire en-Kameral. If they were not approved, the council members were turned out of office and new ones chosen.
    Kallista paid close attention to the names since her high steward had not come on this journey to remember them for her. Three she did not recognize, but the fourth—a dark-haired woman of perhaps fifty with a stern, square face and a pectoral collar adorned with amethysts and cranes—proved to be Habadra Khori.
----
    Chapter Five
    The Habadra held Kallista's gaze as they mutually acknowledged the introduction. Kallista smiled, doing her best to seem inoffensive and perhaps slightly stupid. Negotiations often went better if the other side thought her easy to fool.
    “Let me make known to you the Godmarked of Adara.” Kallista beckoned her iliasti forward. She couldn't rush through the introductions, but she wanted to. The sun was heating up as it rose higher, and if it got too much hotter, she would melt like so much ice and slither right out of the heavy court-tunic.
    Finally Leyja, the last of them marked, had given and received bows and they were escorted through the rows of Kameri waiting on the porch into the cool of the stone-walled building. The year was winding down, but autumn had not yet found Daryath.
    Kallista and Obed were seated in high-backed chairs just below the dais where the five-member council sat. The rest of the godmarked were given chairs hurriedly set up in the open floor space before the dais. She leaned toward Obed to mutter, “Why do I get the feeling they don't quite know how to deal with the Godmarked?"
    His smile flashed before he could hide it. “Probably because they do not. I am certain my aunt believes it no more than an honorific."
    When all the Kameri had filed in, they took their seats in a simultaneous rumbleofnoise,andthespeechesbegan.Theyweregoodspeeches,asspeeches go. If one could get past the fact they were given alternately in Daryathi and Adaran, each sentence coming first in one language, then the other.
    Kallista had never been fond of