Abaddon's Call

Chapter Forty-Eight

Jasor stood as Naena entered the salon and waited until she was seated before he took his seat once more. Nervousness pittered up and down his nerves as he watched her, trying to figure out Pan's angle.

First the lords called him and recognized him formally and publicly. Then, the other families began recognizing Jasor and giving him the respect of his rank without any fight or confrontation, as if he had always had the title.

Pan withdrew from the public.

The family still appeared to be doing its running and other work, but no one led them.

Yet they still kept going as if they had a head.

"In all honesty, I came for two reasons," Jasor said. "You've already been clear you want nothing to do with me, but I still want you to wear Salord green to balls. I know you have a dress, but it is your bloodline and cannot be denied. Lord Pan agreed."

Naena had been glancing away as Jasor spoke, but her attention snapped to him.

"What?"

"Which part?" he asked, for she hadn't paid any attention until the mention of Lord Pan.

"Lord Pan agrees that I should wear Salord green."

"Yes, he wrote this morning."

Jasor pulled the letter from his pocket and slid it across the table to her. She picked it up, read his letter to Lord Pan, and the man's response added to the end of the letter, sealed by Pan. Lord Pan's response was dated that day, which meant he signed it quite early, considering it arrived before dawn.

Naena handed the letter back, looking uncomfortable.

"And my dress?" she asked. "I have a dress."

"Well," Jasor started, stopped, then frowned and shook his head. "Your husband will take you places. That dress would be perfect for anything."

"It's not suitable for tea or Sunday dinner," she said. "Nor is it suitable for anything except perhaps a funeral for all the colour I chose."

"Lady Pan is known for having a sharp tongue," he responded with a nod. "I don't fear Lord Pan, but his wife? Those who ascribe to the devil being male have protested that even he is afraid of his wife. There's a reason for that. And Lady Pan... is just like her father."

Naena almost laughed as she nodded.

"Yes," Naena said, then she went a little red in the cheeks. "I mean, everyone else loves her."

"Women of the shield families tend to bicker with other women of the shield families. Lady Pallas nearly killed the youngest Pallas girl for looking at her funny. And they say us mages are the problem."

"Salord women tend to seize and die in their sleep," Naena responded, her tone even and yet accusing at the same time. "Twins are never born yet are rampant among the Seven, who breed with the shield families often, most especially Salord. Tell me, why is that?"

"We control our family, but the Seven control history."

"I don't give two shits about mage history," Naena said. "The spells they made are still on the shelves. Whether you had a coven five years ago or twenty doesn't matter to me."

"When I was growing up? Women knew not to speak to men. They only spoke to their husbands, and even then, rarely to their husbands. They couldn't read. They'd lose a finger if they were caught writing or drawing, even to mark on their patterns where they stopped at the end of their day. My father drove my mother to suicide because the world had changed, and he refused to let her learn to read."