Page 90 of House of the Raven
The best lies are sprinkled with the truth, Father used to say, so I give Amira something she would expect to come out of my mouth. She knows freedom is what I want most.
“As it stands,” I add, “I would be freer in Alsur.”
“Hmm, you bested the veilfallen. Again. Not many get to do that. Their attacks have been relentless in the last few days. They keep besting us, and you just… escape.” She says the wordescapeas if getting away from River was a game I played.
She’s considering this as if it were the most important piece of information I’ve offered so far. I frown. This is what she’s choosing to focus on. Why?
“I’m not an easy target,” I say, “and you know that.”
Father made sure we both trained in self-defense and weaponry. He said he never wanted us to be damsels in distress, that we should be self-sufficient in every aspect of our lives. Amira shouldn’t be surprised by my ability to defend myself.
“Yes, but…” She lets the word hang.
“But what?”
Waving a hand in the air, she dismisses the whole thing. “Never mind. What matters is that you are here and havecome to your senses.” The way she says the last bit makes me think she doesn’t believe me or suspects I’ll still cause trouble. “What are these conditions you’re talking about?”
All right, this seems to finally be moving in the right direction.
“I want Don Justo to court me properly. I want an engagement party, a ball here in Nido. I don’t want people to gossip and say I was spirited away because I got pregnant or some such nonsense. And I want a long engagement.”
“Fine.”
All the fight goes out of me. I didn’t expect her to agree so readily, especially to the long engagement part.
“I have a request of my own,” she adds.
And… all the fight rushes back in.
“What request?” I ask.
“I want you to give me Mother’s necklace.” Her brown eyes watch my reaction closely.
I’m genuinely confused, and I’m glad that’s the expression showing on my face. I wasn’t expecting this at all. Not after all the subterfuge.
“Mother’s necklace?” I shake my head.
“Yes.”
“Do you mean the one with the opal?”
“Precisely.”
“Why?”
“It turns out it might be of some importance,” she says.
“Really? Says who?”
“The veilfallen are looking for it.”
My jaw hangs open. Yet something else I wasn’t expecting. “Why would the veilfallen want Mother’s necklace?” I ask, feigning ignorance.
“I don’t know.”
I sense she’s not telling the truth. She knows why. If only I’d been able to get Maestro Elizondo to translate those pages already. Jago has them. He’s keeping them for me. I was afraid to walk in here wearing the evidence.
“That sounds insane. The veilfallen want a useless necklace Mother let us play with. That makes no sense.” I glance toward Emerito, wondering how much he knows.
