"You've about finished with the journals?"
"Only with the first volume, Sire. Your father was rather . . ."
"Verbose?"
"Yes, you might say so. Though it's fascinating reading, Sire."
"And it's strictly confidential--though I hardly need remind you of that, Lenka."
"Of course. Thayer?"
"Hm?"
"You realize we're being followed, yes?"
"Again?"
Eti ducked behind a tree at the side of the path--they'd almost seen her that time. She glanced back the way they had come and considered going to find Naira; a second pair of eyes would help. But it would also double the chances of their being spotted--
Then she remembered that the whole idea was to be spotted, to be noticed by the Dictator, make him fall in love with her, and so on and so forth. So what was she doing sneaking around back here? Eti grinned and turned off onto a side path; it would be much more effective to cut around and get ahead of them than to be running up from behind. . . .
"One of Mother's ladies, isn't it? I can't tell which one."
"I can. Etidorhpa Neris."
"Neris? That name's familiar. . . ."
"There's an older sister. As I understand it, she was a lady-in-waiting before Eti."
"Ah . . . let me see. . . ."
"Dohrnaira, I think?"
"Oh, good grace. I do recall that one. This is the sister?"
"Eti, yes."
"If she's anything like Dohrnaira . . ."
"I've not met the elder sister. But if she is anything like Eti . . ."
"Let's not wait around to meet the younger and find out, hm?"
"No, we--wait, I don't see her. Have we lost her now?"
"So it seems. Whyever has she been following us, I wonder?"
"Following you, Sire. I doubt my presence has anything to do with it."
"I don't suppose Mother sent her? Ordinarily she only throws one lady at a time at me, so why would she send Eti now?"
"She oughtn't to have--as far as Lady Atner knows, I'm the pawn on which to wager all. I think she really believes you've--I mean, that I--that her plan's worked, that is, and you'll abandon your Queen for . . ."
"For you, Lenka?"
"You know that's her plan."
"A plan she's clung to for far too long. Her ladies make fools of themselves scrambling for my attention; and what has she gained from this long stalemate between us? What has either of us gained? They're a constant distraction from the work of the throne; and it might even have been a pleasant sort of distraction, mind you, but that she chooses always the most insipid, the most flagrant and foolish--By Darwin's beard, are there no--no real women among the nobility of Mendellia; are they all nothing but these poor copies, ill-starred imitations of their Maker's intentions?--Excepting you, of course, Lenka, beg pardon; and Kir, too; but then it does seem as if the usual rules never quite hold with either of you two."
"I suppose I'll take that as a compliment, Sire. . . ."
"But I'm constantly besieged by these girls from my mother. They're a nuisance, Lenka. It's no good getting rid of one--she only sends another even more annoying, and the cycle begins again. And they're atrociously difficult to get rid of, what with--just why are you looking at me like that?"
"I don't suppose, Thayer, you've considered that the difficulty is with your method of getting rid of them?"
"What?"
"You've somewhat of a . . . reputation among Lady Atner's ladies-in-waiting."
"I?"
"You must be terribly harsh with them, Thayer. Many a one has left your mother's service in tears, frightened lest she should send them to you again."
"I . . ."
"As I understand it, Eti's sister was one such."
"Dohrnaira? Good grace, Lenka, but I had such a time trying to get rid of her; she was more persistent, more audacious than most. . . ."
"So you were harder on her?"
"Well. . . ."
"You know, you're going about it all wrong, Sire."
"Oh? And just how would you go about it, Lady Leannan?"
"Driving them away hasn't helped you any; treat them kindly and win them to your side."
"And if I did that, they'd just be encouraged to hope for a permanent place at my side, as per my mother's wishes."
"Well, perhaps then she'd stop sending new ones, at the least. You'd no longer have to work at sending them away."
"But if she stops sending new ones, doesn't it imply that she's won the game?"
"What if she has? You're just too stubborn to see what could work better, Thayer."
"Stubborn! One must be stubborn to spar with Llessur Atner. . . ."
"One must be rather silly, too. You know, Sire, you Atners are a frightfully competitive lot. . . ."
"We? Why, no more so than your average royal dynasty, I'd say."
"Ah, you've a point there."
"And you've rather a lot of points--for a girl who's only just recently learned to speak her mind to her Dictator."
"If I've spoken out of turn, Sire--"
"Grace, no, Lenka. I'm sorry. And you're probably right about the ladies-in-waiting."
"After all, kindness has worked rather well with me, Sire, wouldn't you say?"
"Hm. Well--you'll excuse me if I don't wish to put this theory of yours to the test first with this Eti girl: We'd best head back now before she shows up again."
"Yes, sir."
Hurriedly brushing the last of the leaves out of her hair--the remaining evidence of an ill-advised shortcut through the orchards--Eti broke out onto the path again, just where she calculated that the Dictator should now be.
He wasn't.
Where could he have gone?
Eti looked around in vain for half a minute before finally admitting to herself that she must have miscalculated--or--he'd taken another route--or--
He couldn't have seen her and gone back, could he? Seen her and yet not seen her, and all she wanted was to be seen, seen on her own terms, if he'd only just hold still long enough for her to have opportunity. Eti stamped her foot in frustration and then headed back to the Palace in defeat.