“I loved her,” he said. “I want—”
“It is too late to want,” she said. But Ecub stood back once she had spoken, and beckoned William inside. Having closed and bolted the gate, she led him to the
priory’s chapel where she directed him to lay Caela’s body on the altar.
Matilda followed behind, crying silently.
The chapel’s altar was clothed in snowy linen, its hemline embroidered with depictions of the running stag and the twists of the Labyrinth. The altar’s surface was bare, derelict of any Christian paraphernalia; waiting, perhaps, for a duty such as this.
As Matilda straightened Caela’s limbs and smoothed her hair away from her brow, Ecub stood behind the altar, arms folded, staring at William.
“What happened?” she said.
William’s face was haggard, that of an old man, and when he lifted a hand to rub at his close-shaven beard Ecub saw that it trembled.
He began to speak, in a broken, stumbling voice, and he told Ecub everything that had happened in the crypt. Everything that had been said, and everyone who had been present.
“And so you killed her,” Ecub said as he faltered to a close.
“It was what she wanted.”
Ecub did not reply, not verbally, but her face set into hard, judgemental angles, and Matilda hissed in disbelief.
“Mother Ecub—” he began, then whipped about, shocked, as a new voice spoke.
“Well, well, Brutus of Troy, William of Normandy,” said the Sidlesaghe, walking slowly forwards from where he stood within the chapel doorway. “Grimly met, I fear.”
“Who are you?” William said, one hand at his sword.
“William—” Ecub began, fearful, but the Sidlesaghe waved her to silence.
“I am Long Tom,” he said. “I am a Sidlesaghe. I keep company, I sing, I watch over her.” He nodded at Caela’s corpse.
William addressed the Sidlesaghe again. “What are you?”
“What I am does not concern you at this moment. Tell me, William of Normandy, Kingman of the Troy Game, are you going to retrieve the bands of Trojan kingship now that you are here?”
“What is the point?” William said. “Asterion will only haunt me if I try to find them, and as for Swanne, she is so corrupted that—”
“Swanne is dead,” said Long Tom.
William just stared at the Sidlesaghe, shocked.
“Harold came to her before he came to you,” Long Tom finished.
“Well, the night has some joy in it, at least,” said Matilda, speaking for the first time.
William shook his head, as if trying to shake some understanding into it. “Gods,” he said. “What am I going to do?”
Ecub and the Sidlesaghe shrugged simultaneously. What William did, as long as he let the bands be, was of no concern to them.
“Go now,” Ecub said finally. “There is nothing more you can do here.”
William looked at her, then walked forward until he stood by the altar. He laid a hand on Caela’s face and then, as Ecub had done, smoothed the hair back from her brow. “Next time,” he whispered.
And then, without word or look to either Ecub or the Sidlesaghe, he turned and strode from the chapel.
Matilda hesitated a moment, looked at Ecub, then hurried after William.
As the door slammed closed behind them, the Sidlesaghe smiled at Ecub. “Do not fear, Mother. All is not lost. Asterion does not know about Eaving. He does not know about me. And he does not know…” He raised his eyebrows at the Mother.
She nodded, understanding. “He does not know about Harold.”
“Yes.” The Sidlesaghe’s smile broadened. Then he sobered, and looked again on Caela’s corpse. “Will you care for her?”
“Aye. We will wash her, and stitch her wound, and clothe her in fine array, and then we will bring her to you atop Pen Hill.”
“And there,” the Sidlesaghe whispered, “we will watch over her.”
Epilogue
Christmas Day, 1066
Aldred, Archbishop of York, crowned William of Normandy and his wife Matilda as King and Queen of England on Christmas Day in a lavish ceremony held in Westminster Abbey.
It was a celebration day in London, although there was little in the way of feasting or joy, or even mild cheer. Most craftsmen stayed home, their workshops closed, while the markets were empty of all save children playing hopscotch on the pavements.
Don’t jump on the cracks, or the monster will snatch!
The ceremony in the abbey went well enough, apart from a peculiar episode when Aldred lowered the crown on to William’s head.
“I find this most amusing,” Aldred whispered. “Crowning you, most witless of fools, as King of England. Enjoy it while you can, William, for when I return—Caela and Swanne chained to my hand—I will take the Game and bury you. The bands shall be mine, the Mistress is mine, and you shall be irrelevant. Are irrelevant.”
The eyes of the entire abbey were on the king, sitting on his throne, and Aldred, standing with his hands on the crown as it rested on William’s head. Aldred had murmured something, but most believed it to be a blessing.
They were astounded when William reached up his hands and seized Aldred’s wrists.
“She promised to Silvius, fool, not to you.”
Aldred gave a small laugh. “Her verbal promise meant nothing. It was a ruse to upset you only. Don’t you know how I shall control her? It is what I planted in her womb, as what I planted in Swanne’s womb, that binds her to me. She may not be a willing tool, but she will be a tool.”
Aldred stepped back, wrenching his wrists from William’s grasp.
“All hail the King of England,” Aldred intoned. “Mighty among men.”
And then he turned his back and walked slowly away down the centre of the nave between the ranks of Normans who cheered both their new king and their new realm.
Only their king, sitting on his throne, knew how empty his kingdom truly was.
The stone hall stood empty.
Empty, that is, except for the black imp that sat in the shadowy recesses of one aisle, playing with a red woollen ball to while away the time.
Waiting.
It grinned suddenly, and its teeth were white and sharp.
Waiting.
Its jaws snapped closed, then chewed as if they had bitten off something delectable.
The black imp sat.
Waiting.
GLOSSARY
ALAN: Second son of HAROLD and SWANNE.
ALDITHA: widow of a Welsh lord, sister to EDWIN and MORCAR, wife to HAROLD.
ALDRED: Archbishop of York.
ALEXANDER II: Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, 1061–1073.
ANSGAR: a member of the WITAN.
ARIADNE: Mistress of the Labyrinth of Crete, sister to ASTERION, foremother of SWANNE.
ASTERION: the Minotaur.
BEORN: eldest son of HAROLD and SWANNE.
BOLLASON, ÖRN: one of HARDRADA’S men.
BOWERTHEGN: the senior chamberlain of the bower, or bedchamber.
BRUTUS: Kingman and leader of the Trojans. Instigator, with GENVISSA, of the Troy Game on the banks of the THAMES. Now reborn as WILLIAM, Duke of Normandy.
CAELA (EADYTH): wife of EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, sister to HAROLD.
CHENESITUN: a small village to the west of Westminster. Now known by its modern form of Kensington.
CLOPEHAM: a small village some six miles south-west of the City of London. Now known as Clapham.
CNUT: a Dane, and former King of England; he was also EDWARD’S stepfather and his hatred of his stepson was the primary reason that EDWARD spent so much of his earlier life in exile.
COERL: a free landholder.
DAMSON: the middle-aged widow of a stonemason, living in Westminster.
EADWINE: Abbot of Westminster Abbey.
ECUB: Prioress of ST MARGARET THE MARTYR, a priory established in a convent close to Pen Hill north of London.
EDWARD: King of England, known as th
e Confessor for his piety. Husband to CAELA.
EDWIN: a northern Saxon earl and brother to ALDITHA and MORCAR.
GENVISSA: former MagaLlan, Mistress of the Labyrinth, instigator, with BRUTUS, of the Troy Game in England. Now reborn as SWANNE.
GERBERGA: a midwife.
GLAMOUR: an enchantment which swaps souls from one body to another.
GODWINE: Earl of Wessex, father of HAROLD and CAELA.
HARDRADA, HAROLD: King of Norway.
HAROLD: Earl of Wessex at the death of his father, GODWINE; brother to CAELA and TOSTIG, husband to 1) SWANNE and 2) ALDITHA.
HAWISE: attending lady to SWANNE.
JUDITH: a noblewoman attending Queen CAELA.
KINGSHIP BANDS: the six golden limb bands of Troy’s Kingman. Possession of them enables the Kingman to control the Troy Game.
LONDON: an ancient city in England. Formerly known as Troia Nova. Established in the late Bronze Age by BRUTUS.
LONG TOM: one of the more talkative among the SIDLESAGHES.
MARTEL, GUY: an envoy of WILLIAM of Normandy.
MATILDA: daughter of the Duke of Flanders and wife to WILLIAM, Duke of Normandy.
MORCAR: a northern earl, brother to ALDITHA and EDWIN.
OLAFSON, HALLDORR: one of HARDRADA’S men.
POITERAN: a Bronze Age kingdom in the west of France.
RANULD: Duke WILLIAM’S huntsman.
REGENBALD: a member of the WITAN and EDWARD’S Chancellor.
ROUSSEL, ALAIN: Master of the Horse to WILLIAM of Normandy.
SAEWEALD: a physician.
SIDLESAGHE: a name meaning “sad songster”. A member of the ancient race of Britain.
SILVIUS: father of BRUTUS.
SOUTHWARK: a small community on the southern bank of the THAMES near LONDON. It is largely grouped about the southern approaches to London Bridge.
SPEARHAFOC: Bishop of London.
ST MARGARET THE MARTYR’s: a priory at the base of Pen Hill. It is run by Prioress ECUB.
STIGAND: the Archbishop of Canterbury.
SWANNE: Danelaw wife of Earl HAROLD of Wessex.
THAMES, RIVER: the major waterway which runs through LONDON. In ancient Britain it was named the Llan River.
THEGN: a Saxon noble.
THESEUS: son and heir of the Athenian king, he was sent as tribute and sacrifice to CRETE where he was to be fed to the Minotaur ASTERION. But Theseus, aided by his lover ARIADNE, managed to defeat the Minotaur and escape from Crete. Later in life he was the first lover of Helen, whose abduction precipitated the eventual destruction of TROY.
TOSTIG: Earl of Northumbria, brother to HAROLD and CAELA.
TROY: the fabulous city of Troy sat on the western shores of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). Paris, son of the Trojan king, Priam, stole away Helen from her husband, Menelaus, King of Sparta, precipitating the Trojan war in which the city-states of Greece united against Troy. Although it survived a long Greek siege, Troy was eventually destroyed due to a combination of hubris, the betrayal of the gods, and Greek cunning. Those Trojans who survived the destruction scattered about the lands of the Mediterranean, either as refugees or slaves.
VEILED HILLS, the: the six sacred hills of ancient Britain, known in the Bronze age as Llangarlia. These sacred hills were clustered above the Llan River (THAMES RIVER) in the area now known as London. The six hills are: Tot Hill (where now stands Westminster); the Llandin, the most sacred of the hills (now called Parliament Hill); Pen Hill; Og’s Hill (Ludgate Hill); Mag’s Hill (Cornhill); and the White Mount (Tower Hill). The hills are intersected by three small rivers which flow into the mighty LLAN: the Magyl (now called the Fleet), the Ty (now the Tyburn), and the Wal (now the Walbrook).
WILLIAM: Duke of Normandy, husband of MATILDA.
WITAN: council of Saxon earls and elders.
WULFSTAN: Bishop of Worcester and friend of HAROLD.
YVES: a priest in the employ of ALDRED, the Archbishop of York.
About the Author
Sara Douglass was born in Penola, South Australia, and moved to Adelaide when she was seven. She spent her early working life as a nurse before completing three degrees at the University of Adelaide. After receiving a PhD in early modern English history, Sara worked as a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at La Trobe University, Bendigo. She left University to start her own business in 2000.
Sara is the author of 11 novels, three of which have won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel.
Sara lives in Bendigo, Victoria.
Visit Sara’s website at:
www.saradouglass.com
Visit the Voyager website:
www.voyageronline.com.au
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ALSO BY SARA DOUGLASS
THE AXIS TRILOGY
Book One: BattleAxe
Book Two: Enchanter
Book Three: StarMan
Threshold
Beyond the Hanging Wall
THE WAYFARER REDEMPTION
Book One: Sinner
Book Two: Pilgrim
Book Three: Crusader
THE CRUCIBLE
Book One: The Nameless Day
Book Two: The Wounded Hawk
Book Three: The Crippled Angel
THE TROY GAME
Book One: Hades’ Daughter
Copyright
Voyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers,Australia
First published in 2003
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Pty Limited
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www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Sara Douglass Enterprises Pty Ltd 2003
The right of Sara Douglass to be identified as the moral rights author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 (Cth).
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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Douglass, Sara.
God’s concubine.
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1. Brutus the Trojan (Legendary character) – Fiction.
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Douglass, Sara.The Troy game ; bk. 2).
A823.3
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Table of Contents
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Gods' Concubine Page 62