Ivory Lyre Read Online Free PDF

his horses directly to them. His coming to Sardira
was just as bad, though. If he was willing to sell his fine,
spirited animals to any cruel taker, even where they would be used
to help the unliving, he was no better than the dark leaders. It
was people like Prince Tebmund, who helped the dark for their own
selfish gain, that made the battle so one-sided. She stood shaken
with anger, but very aware that she must not lose control.
    When Kiri slipped away from the great hall
at last, it was all she could do to keep herself in hand. Her inner
turmoil frightened her. To let her feelings rule her was too
dangerous—for herself and for the cause she served. Why had Prince
Tebmund stirred such anger in her?
    And the eyes of that black stallion! She
could not forget them.
    The next morning Kiri was late getting to
her cousin Accacia’s apartments. She stopped in the servant’s
scullery to heat the lemon juice and grind the minten leaves she
used to wash Accacia’s hair, then fled up the six flights to her
cousin’s floor. Accacia, of course, was in a temper, her brown eyes
angry. Kiri supposed she had been pacing; her green satin robe
swirled around her as she bore down on Kiri.
    “Can’t you ever be on time? We have an
important visitor in the palace, and I want to look my best—to
please Abisha, of course, when he presents me. Do get on now as
quickly as you can.” She flung herself into the straight satin
chair and leaned her head back over the silver tub. Kiri lifted
Accacia’s long chestnut hair up into the vessel and began to pour
on the warm herbed lemon juice. The minten leaves made a fine
lather, and soon Accacia relaxed under Kiri’s knowing fingers. The
hearthfire had been built up to dry Accacia’s hair, making the room
very hot.
    It was an ornate room, not to Kiri’s liking.
Too much gold-leaf filigree in the screens and furniture, too much
crowding of satin draperies over the bed and at the windows, so one
had a closed-in feeling. It was a room that couched Accacia’s
beauty as a velvet-lined box would couch a jewel.
    Accacia had ordered long ago that Kiri alone
was to wash her hair and perform other small duties for her, but
not because she liked Kiri’s company or wanted to make a more
secure place for her in the palace, or because they had been raised
together. Accacia’s father had been related to the king, but it was
the girls’ mothers who had been sisters. Kiri carried none of the
king’s blood in her veins, she thought with satisfaction. Accacia
kept her to do her bidding because she did so like ordering Kiri
around, as she always had since they were babies growing up
together. Accacia’s mother had died at her birth. Her father had
been in the king’s guard. When he died in battle, Accacia lived
with Kiri’s family. She had not left the palace after Kiri’s father
was maimed and sent away. She got herself engaged to Prince Abisha
and promptly commandeered two floors of the west tower for her use.
Her sympathy was shallow and short-lived when Kiri and Gram were
turned out, to take the tiny cottage below the wall. Kiri guessed
she ought to be grateful that Accacia had gotten her appointed a
minor page. It was safer than trying to find work in the city, and
the information Kiri gleaned in the palace was invaluable to those
who mattered.
    Kiri was so deep in thought as she shampooed
away that she was startled and jerked a hank of hair badly when a
shrill voice exploded behind her in the doorway. She turned, her
ears filled with Accacia’s scolding and with the irritating voice
of her cousin’s friend Roderica, daughter of the present master of
horse. Two maids followed Roderica in, bearing curling irons to
heat at Accacia’s hearth. The two friends liked to have their hair
done together so they could gossip in private. Roderica had no maid
of her own and used Accacia’s freely. The thin, angular girl
shrieked and giggled as they discussed the visiting prince.
    “Oh, he’s beautiful,