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"You want to do so?" Lucivar asked "Then let’s walkaround the table Right now, that will be i around the tablewas sufficiently challenging, especially since Lucivar kept getting his feet in the way When she finally reached the couch, she plopped down next to Jaenelle "I brushed Dejaal, and now he likes me If I brushed Lucivar, do you think he’d like me, too?"
"He’d prorowled softly while he pulled off her shoes
"It’s Marian’s job to brush Lucivar," Jaenelle said solemnly
"Okay"
"Why don’t I have some coffee and toast sent up?" Lucivar said
Wilhelmina watched Lucivar until he left the roo"
"Uh-huh Why don’t you lie down for a little while?" Jaenelle said
Wilhel a blanket around her, she said, "Everyone said you had died, but when they talked to me, they said we had ’lost’ you But I always knew you weren’t lost because you told me where to find you How could you be lost when you knehere you were?"
She looked into Jaenelle’s sapphire eyes The mind behind those eyes was so vast But she wasn’t afraid of that anymore "You always knehere you were Didn’t you?"
"Yes," Jaenelle replied softly "I always knew"
3 / Kaeleer
Alexandra paused, took a deep breath, and opened the door without knocking
The golden-haired wo herbs with a mortar and pestle didn’t turn around, didn’t indicate in any way that she knew soe bowl floated above the worktable, heated by three tongues of witchfire A spoon lazily stirred the bowl’s contents
Alexandra waited After awith that for a randmother? After all, it’s been thirteen years since I’ve seen you"
"Athat’s waited for thirteen years," Jaenelle replied, pouring the finely ground herbs into the bowl’s bubbling contents "But itwill ht potency" She half turned, gave Alexandra one slashing glance, then focused her attention on the brew
Alexandra clenched her teeth, rehter so different to deal with Even as a sestures of superiority, i thatshe had no reason to show respect for her elders or yield to a Queen
Why? For the first ti with everyone else, that those displays were atte less than the other witches in the family But, perhaps, they had been a result of so sweet lies into a child’s ear until the girl truly believed she was superior
She shook her head It was hard to believe that the child who had been unable to do the sirow up to become some terrible, powerful threat to the Realm of Terreille as Dorothea claimed If that weretrue, where was the power? Even nohen she was trying to sense Jaenelle’s strength, it felt muted just as it always had Distant, which was the way a Blood feth to wear a Jewel felt
That h Lord--or, perhaps, the urehead to hide behind
"What are youboy who’s ill," Jaenelle replied, adding a dark liquid to the brew
"Shouldn’t a Healer be doing that?"Hell’s fire, arethey really letting her make tonics for people?
"Iam a Healer," Jaenelle replied tartly "I’m also a Black Widow and a Queen"
Of course you areWith effort, Alexandra bit back the words She would reranddaughter; would remember that Jaenelle had already endured so the tonic and turned around
Staring into those sapphire eyes, Alexandra forgot about re that looked at her out of those eyes, she groped for an explanation that would fit