His Majesty's Elephant Read Online Free PDF

“And why shouldn’t she, after all? What can she do with it? It’s just a pretty relic. She loves relics, especially when they’ve jewels on them.”
    His expression was pure male exasperation. “What she can do with it doesn’t matter in the least. It’s what Michael Phokias will do when she lets him touch it.”
    â€œIs that his name? I never noticed. No, he shouldn’t get it. But who says Gisela will give it to him?”
    â€œYou do!” He threw up his hands. “Why do I bother with any of this? Let her take the thing. Let her give it to him. Then see what he does with it. What should I care? This house could fall about my ears, and I’d be no worse off than I’ve ever been.”
    â€œAre you laying a curse on my father’s house?” Rowan asked, low and very calm.
    â€œI don’t need to. The Byzantine will do it for me.”
    She hit him. Not the way a lady would, a weak flathanded slap, but a good solid blow of the fist in the face, sweeping him right off his feet.
    He went down in blank astonishment. She stood over him. He stared up, rubbing his jaw. “You’ll have a bruise,” she observed.
    â€œYou’re moon-mad,” he said.
    â€œOf course I am. I’m a woman.”
    He lay in the hay with his jaw already going purple, and he laughed. It was dreadfully catching.
    Rowan’s knees gave out. She toppled beside him, holding her aching sides.
    She blinked through tears of laughter. Kerrec looked no better blurred than clear. “Tell me,” she said, “why a Byzantine should want to get hold of a single relic in a whole palace full of them.”
    â€œI don’t know,” he said. Then when she glared: ‘This isn’t just a relic. You know that as well as I do, or you wouldn’t be here, running out on what you very well know you should be doing.”
    â€œWhat? Embroidering crosses on an altar cloth?”
    He did not dignify that with a response. “Have you wondered why he doesn’t just steal it?”
    â€œHe’s a Byzantine. Byzantines can never do anything the simple way.”
    â€œGranted; and seducing your saintly sister would be just the sort of thing to spice the game. But,” said Kerrec, “what if there’s a reason why it’s not to be stolen—why it has to be a free gift?”
    â€œA spell?” Rowan asked.
    â€œHow did you feel when you saw it?”
    She shivered.
    â€œYou see,” he said. “Your eyes get all white around the edges when you talk about it. And you didn’t even touch it. Or did you?”
    â€œNo,” she said. “Oh, no.”
    â€œI think,” said Kerrec. “I’m not sure, but I think... there’s something the Talisman is meant to do.”
    â€œSomething bad?” Rowan whispered, huddling in on herself.
    â€œDo you think so?”
    She did not want to think at all, but his eyes were so steady that she could not help it. After a while she said slowly, “No. I don’t think it’s bad. Just... strong. And—wild?”
    â€œUnmastered,” said Kerrec.
    Rowan sat up so quickly her head spun. “You’ve seen it!
    â€œNo,” said Kerrec. He was not looking at her. She twisted about. The Elephant stood as he always did, but something about him made her think that he listened.
    â€œAbul Abbas knows,” said Kerrec. “He isn’t telling. He says we aren’t ready.”
    â€œYou really can talk to him,” Rowan said. After everything else, it was hardly worth remarking on.
    â€œHe says,” said Kerrec, “that you have to make your father keep the jewel. Make him wear it, if you can.”
    â€œWhy?”
    Kerrec’s brows drew together. He looked as if he was getting a headache. “It’s not for your sister, and not—ever—for your father’s enemies.”
    â€œWill it destroy them, do you think?” Rowan