Free The Seven Towers by Patricia C. Wrede Page B

them.”
    “Did I say that? I must be getting careless.”
    “I find that difficult to imagine.”
    “Well, some people have limited imaginations.” Vandaris grinned cheerfully at the shocked expression on Terrel’s face and turned to Eltiron. “I think I ought to be moving on; Marreth seems to like everyone to speak to everyone else at his dinner parties, and it would be a shame to disappoint him. Will you join me, Eltiron?”
    “Certainly,” Eltiron responded immediately. “I’m sure you’ll excuse me, Lord Lassond; good evening to you.” He nodded in Terrel’s direction as he turned away, thoroughly relieved to have come through the encounter as well as he had.
    Vandaris chuckled softly as they walked away. “Not bad,” she said when they were out of earshot. “The tone of voice could have been better, but the little nod as you left was just right.”
    “Just right for what?” Eltiron said, puzzled.
    “Just right to make Terrel look a little foolish—no, don’t look back, numb wit! You want to spoil the effect? Right now about a quarter of the people in this room think they saw you casually dismiss Terrel Lassond, which is going to make them think better of you and worse of him, and neither one would be a bad idea.”
    “I can’t say I would object, but I didn’t do anything, really. You did all the talking.”
    “So? Nobody was close enough to overhear us. All anyone knows is what they saw, and what they saw was Lassond looking foolish. What’s more, he knows it; if eyes shot arrows, you’d look like the straw dummy after target practice right now.”
    “Just because we walked away from him?”
    “Every pebble helps. And people will remember it tomorrow, when Terrel has to explain why he isn’t having his demonstration match with you, the way he’s been telling people he would. Why else do you think he’s so angry?”
    Eltiron did not reply at once. He knew Vandaris was exaggerating the effects of the encounter to make him feel better, but he was more interested in his own sudden comprehension of one possible reason for some of Terrel’s behavior. Terrel had always been the one who bowed and walked away from a conversation, leaving Eltiron standing awkwardly and uncomfortably in the middle of the floor. It was one of the things Eltiron disliked about Terrel, but he had never thought that it might be a deliberate attempt to make him look foolish.
    “Eltiron!”
    Vandaris’s whisper interrupted his train of thought, and he looked up with a jerk. “What?”
    “Look awake; the fun’s just starting.” Vandaris nodded at something to her right. Eltiron turned his head and suddenly found himself wishing he were somewhere else. Marreth was bearing down on them, and he did not appear to be in the best of tempers.
    “Vanderis!” Marreth’s roar stopped conversations all over the Great Hall. “What do you think you’re doing here?”
    “Enjoying myself,” Vandaris said imperturbably. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do at parties?”
    “You were not asked to attend this dinner!”
    “So? In case you’ve forgotten, I’m your sister.”
    “You’re a disgrace to the throne of Sevairn!”
    “That depends on who’s sitting on it. Most people think joining the mercenaries is fairly respectable.”
    “I am not most people—”
    “Thank Viran the Wise for that,” Vandaris muttered.
    “—and I consider your conduct disgraceful. It’s embarrassing to have a member of the royal family of Sevairn serving as a common soldier!”
    “Oh, never that.”
    “What?” Marreth stopped short and stared at his sister.
    Vandaris smiled sweetly. “I am never common. And you’ll notice that I’m a captain now.”
    Marreth snorted. “Why you refused to buy a position suitable to your rank at the very beginning, I’ll never understand.”
    “No, I don’t suppose you will. What bothers you more, the fact that I didn’t take any help from you to start with or that I was made a