“Right; he began sneaking around, and discovered that Hulda, rather than being the subordinate as everyone thought, had taken over control of the nursery and your education. She was drugging old Melidy, who was supposed to be your primary nurse. Well, that seemed wrong to me, but it wasn’t anything I could prove because Melidy had been ill—she’d had a brainstorm. So I had Skif keep watching. That was when he discovered that Hulda was in the pay of someone unknown—paid to ensure that you could never be Chosen, and thus, never become Heir.”

“Bitch.” Elspeth’s eyes were bright with anger. “I take it neither you nor he ever saw who it was?”

Talia shook her head regretfully, and took a sip of fruit juice. “Never. He was always masked, cloaked, and hooded. We told Jadus, Jadus told the Queen—and Hulda vanished.”

“And I only knew that I’d lost the one person at Court I was emotionally dependent on. I’m not surprised you kept quiet.” Elspeth passed Talia a clean plate. “Oh, I might have gotten angry if you’d told me two or three years ago, but not now.”

There was a great deal of cold, undisguised anger in the Heir’s young brown eyes. “I still remember most of that time quite vividly”

Talia lost the last of her apprehension over the indignation in Elspeth’s voice.

“There’s more to it than just my being resentful, tho” Elspeth continued, “Looking back at it, Talia, I think that woman who called herself my ‘nurse’ would quite cheerfully have strangled me with her own hands if she thought she could have profited and gotten away with it! Yes, and enjoyed every minute of it!”

“Oh, come now—you weren’t that much of a little monster!”

“Here, you’d better start eating or Mero’ll throw fits at us when we get downstairs to clean; he’s fixed all your favorites.” Elspeth took some of the platters being passed from hand to hand, and heaped Talia’s plate with crisp oatcakes and honey, warm bacon, and stir-fried squash, totally oblivious to the incongruity of the Heir to the Throne serving one who was technically an underling. She had indeed come a long way from the Royal Brat who had been so very touchy about her rank. “Talia, I lived with Hulda most of my waking hours. I know for a fact she enjoyed frightening me. The bedtime stories she told me would curl the hair of an adult, and I’d bet my life that she got positive pleasure out of my shivers. And I can’t tell you why I feel this way, but I’m certain she was the most coldly self-centered creature I’ve ever met; that nothing mattered to her except her own well-being. She was very good at covering the fact, but—”