22.6

Kendall was surprised that Dirk would neither receive him nor even deign to acknowledge his presence formally. The king was too busy brooding about his personal affairs.

Kendall used the time to reacquaint himself with the castle's other residents. Almost everyone he had ever known in his youth was here now. The young men he had left behind five years ago had ascended in rank with the new monarch, earning lucrative landed titles and positions of leadership in the military.

"So where is this queen I keep hearing about?" the knight asked Cai. "Has he locked her up in Castle Dracnil already?"

Cai knew that not even Portia knew the answer to the question about Zyrdicia's whereabouts. The fact that Zyrdicia had abandoned the king again was a very sensitive secret. Were it to be known, it would probably cause riots in Geshna - not to mention a panic in the northern army.

"She's away on personal business," he said in a non-committal tone.

"Why aren't there any portraits of her hanging in the castle if she supposedly means so much to our monarch?"

"You want to know what she looks like?"

"After all I've heard, you'd think she was the most beautiful woman that ever lived. If that were true, I'd expect paintings, statues or something. There is nothing."

Cai noted the knight's skepticism and stifled a smile. Kendall was waiting for confirmation that she was not all that she was rumored to be. "Zyrdicia has a short attention span and hates to sit still for the artists to complete their work. The only portrait she ever sat for is incomplete."

"Show me!"

The seneschal nodded agreeably and led the man to a parlor not far from the throne room. A single canvas on an easel stood in a corner, turned toward the wall. Kendall moved forward to turn it so that he could examine it.

The knight's jaw dropped at the sight of the image on the canvas. Clad in a very tight, narrow strapless black gown, Zyrdicia clutched a single purple snow orchid in her fingers. Mysteriously beautiful, she stared back with wide, guileless eyes.

Kendall stammered, "She's so young! A mere child!"

"She's older than you might suspect," Cai assured.

Kendall glanced sidelong at the seneschal and smirked. "I always expected Dirk to fall for someone treacherous. He never used to have a taste for youth and innocence."

"He still doesn't."

"If she's a day over seventeen, I'll eat my hat. She looks like she'd cry the first time anyone here was mean to her. "

"Looks can be deceiving, my friend," Cai grinned and shook his head. "The background in the portrait has yet to be finished because as she stared at the painter with that very expression you find so 'innocent', she caused the man's head to explode in flames. He danced wildly around the room, screaming while his brain cooked inside his skull. She found it all very funny."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Dirk found it even more amusing than she did."

"She's a Witch?"

"No. Her magic scares Vector and Bethel. She isn't bound by the Council's command. She kills with magic without hesitation, for pure pleasure."

Kendall was silent, not knowing how to respond. "Has she bedeviled Dirk?"

"Zyrdicia would not appreciate your word choice. You must never refer to her as a devil in her presence. She finds it offensive."

"Is she one?"

"Not exactly."