Islands in the Sky

2.18

Last bit -

“Fine,” Cassa said. “I won’t kill your guardsman, so long as you believe that I could.”

“I believe you,” Willem said. “I have already said I believe you.”

“Well then,” Cassa said. “Why are we still speaking of it?”

“I don’t know,” Willem said,

They looked at each other for a moment.

“May I explain why I’m here?” Willem said, uncertainly.

“To violate me, I assume. To have a daughter of the Middletower.”

Willem sighed again, and seemed as if he was trying not to smile, and Cassa liked that about him as well.

“I was warned of you,” Willem said. “You should know that. I was warned of your fondness for knives, and your skill as well. I was warned you are dangerous, and that you would care not for me, and that both of those together could make my position dangerous.”

“Very, I imagine.”

“Indeed,” Willem said. “And I accepted this marriage anyway, because you seemed like a better choice than any other, despite the risks, because you and I, at least, would be equal in this.”

“Equal how?” Cassa said, actually slightly offended. “I am of Middletower. My family is the greater.”

“Equal in that I care not for you, and you care not for me. Equal because like you, I also want another.”

Cassa took a moment to understand. “Another what?”

“Another person.”

“What are you talking about?” Cassa said.

Willem seemed confused. He looked at Cassa, and began to speak a little too slowly, as if she was a half-wit. “I do not want this wedding,” he said. “You do not either. I do not want this wedding because I would prefer to marry another. I had assumed the same was true of you.”

“I don’t want another,” Cassa snapped. “I simply don’t want you.”

“Oh,” Willem said, still calm. “Then I apologise. As I said, I had assumed.”

He didn’t seem upset. He didn’t seem offended. Cassa stood there, and thought for a moment, and then put the dining knife down. She put it down in plain view, on the side-table beside Willem. In plain sight, and clearly from the set which her family used for formal banquets, so whoever had been supposed to watch her, probably Konstantin, would know of their failure.

She wanted Konstantin to know he had failed. She also wanted Willem not to think himself safe, merely because she had put one blade down.

“I have more knives,” she said, in case Willem thought her defenceless. “I have daggers everywhere in here.”

“I imagine.”

She looked at him for a moment, trying to decide if he sounded disbelieving or not. It was very hard to tell, when he kept talking in such a calm voice. She thought, then walked to a particular vase on a shelf against one wall, and removed a dagger from inside it, which she placed on the shelf. Then she went to a coat in her wardrobe and removed a thin-bladed knife from the sleeve, and put that on the table beside Willem, next to the dining knife. She didn’t show him the knife in the book beside the bed, because she wasn’t a fool. She was beginning to like Willem, and trust him a little, but he might be a liar, and she might still need to fight him off later. She had showed him enough, though, she thought. She had showed him enough he ought to understand.

“I have them everywhere,” she said.

“I believe you.”

“There’s nowhere in this room a weapon is more than three steps away, if I need it.”

“I’m not going to harm you.”

“For the time being,” Cassa said, sceptically.

“Ever.”

“Until it suits you.”

“No,” Willem said. “Ever.”

“So you’re promising me this,” Cassa said, scornfully. “You swear you’ll never harm me, no matter what?”

“If you wish,” Willem said, oddly earnestly, as if he actually meant that.

“Go on then,” Cassa said. “Swear.”

Willem shrugged. “I swear on my honour I will never speak a word against you, or raise a hand to you, or act against you. Nor will I fail you by inaction or silence. Is that sufficient?”

“Oh,” Cassa said, utterly surprised. “Yes, that’s sufficient.”

“Are you satisfied?”

Cassa nodded. “But I’m not swearing anything back.”

“So I assumed,” Willem said. “It would make it rather tricky to kill me later on, wouldn’t it?”

“Not if I’m a liar and break my promises.”

“Are you?”

Cassa looked at him, and didn’t answer for a long, thoughtful moment. She was beginning to find him irritatingly clever, with his odd little innocent-seeming questions.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said in the end. “I’m not swearing any oath back.”

Willem grinned. “And I haven’t asked you to.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“As you said.”

“Stop smirking,” Cassa snapped.

“I’m not.”

“Stop smirking at me. I don’t know what you’re doing, but I don’t like it at all.”

Willem stopped grinning, and then bowed slightly.

Cassa glared at him, and tried to work out this act of his was for.