She stopped suddenly as a shocking wave of pain assaulted her. Instinctively she threw up a mental block against it, but it still left her breathless and leaning weakly against the wall. Her head throbbed. Where had that come from? And who?
“Are you all right, Miss Trahaern?”
Two of the guards stopped beside her. One turned to bark orders at another but Talia quickly intervened. “No, that’s okay. I’m okay.” That was a lie, but a necessary one. “Let’s continue. Please.”
The guard paused, looking to his commander, who finally nodded tersely.
Talia was given no time to analyze what had just happened to her, however, and less time to fully recover.
They stopped moments later and the guard motioned for her to move in front of him. A large painting of two golden lions graced the wall in front of him. “You will be admitted now.”
Talia nodded, then blew out a shaky breath. The screen turned transparent and she stepped into a dimly lit room. She took a moment to try and adjust her eyes. It was lighter in here than yesterday, but darker than the hallway.
“Come closer.”
Talia started, then peered through the gloom toward the towering four-poster bed that dominated the far end of the room. She looked quickly around for Archer, but he wasn’t there. Talia could see the queen resting on the bed. Actually, she looked more like a child from this distance, her small form hardly taking up any space at all.
As she moved closer, the first thing she noticed was the mound under the blanket that was her stomach. Talia felt her own stomach grip tightly. Dear Lord, what had she honestly thought, coming here? This was no game. She had no skills to help this poor woman. And what if she died, and God help her, the baby, too, while Talia was with her? Her steps faltered.
“Closer, please.” Her voice was well modulated, and quite beautiful, but much weaker and not nearly as imperious as it had been the night before.
Talia took a steadying breath and stepped closer. The instant her gaze landed on Catriona’s face, it was as if her body had stepped beyond itself. She froze as her mind leaped forward without her even attempting it. She’d been so busy worrying that she hadn’t put up any guards at all. The connection was swift and more powerful than anything she’d ever felt in her life.
And she knew immediately who she’d connected with in the passageway. Intense and overwhelming pain. Talia’s knees buckled under the force of the pain, but she held her ground. No one must see. Must stay strong. For the kingdom. For my child. Talia gripped her stomach, feeling movement where she knew there was none. Such a sweet sensation of fullness. Joy, such indescribable joy, feeling him move inside me. Talia’s throat closed over. Fear, deep abiding fear of the world I’m bringing him into. Just let him live, please God, just let him live. Tears burned in her eyes. Give him my strength and he’ll be okay. Strength, must have strength. Talia locked her knees and focused her own strength, wanting nothing more than to send it to that unborn child. Oh, but the pain, the squeezing, wrenching pain. Now that I’ve found her. Just a little longer … Found who?
Talia wrenched herself back. Her skin was so damp her dress clung to her. She felt as if she’d just run a dozen miles. Her breath came in short gasps and she pressed one hand over her stomach, another over her galloping heart.
“Talia?”
She jumped. Realizing she must look like a loon, standing there panting and swaying, she tried hard to regain her outward focus, but the experience had been overwhelming. So overwhelming that she was afraid to even look at the queen again.
“Don’t be afraid of our connection,” Catriona said softly.
Talia kept her gaze fixed on the foot of the bed. “I’m—I’m sorry,” she managed hoarsely. “I wasn’t even trying to—”
“Don’t be sorry. I had wondered about it yesterday when there was no apparent connection. You must have developed a great deal of control over your gift.”
The queen sounded somewhat stronger. Talia shivered as she realized what she’d done. She knew that during a connection with an animal in pain, taking on that pain lessened the animal’s suffering. At least for the duration of the connection. Unfortunately, when the connection ended, so did the respite for the animal. Nothing else would be changed. She was not a healer.
Talia thought of the suffering of the woman before her and was almost overwhelmed again by what she’d just experienced during their connection. She’d had no idea the queen was in such constant agony. Despite her fragile appearance, she managed to give such regal authority to her every word. Talia felt humbled and wished there was something more she could do for her.
“Have no fear, Talia, you just soothed a goodly number of my remaining fears.”
Talia worked to steady her breath before she finally faced Catriona once again. This time she stayed within herself, but her legs shook and her fingers trembled with the effort. “I think you did just the opposite to me,” she said with a shaky smile.
Catriona smiled then, and Talia was startled by the beauty that lay beneath the illness-ravaged face. She was so thin, too thin to be facing impending motherhood. Talia looked toward her stomach, reliving that miraculous moment when she’d felt the pressure of a child in her own belly.
“How far along are you?” she blurted, then stopped as the queen’s words echoed in her ears. You just soothed a goodly number of my remaining fears. Did the queen really think that because she had taken on a measure of her pain, however temporarily, she was truly a real healer?
“Twenty-nine weeks,” the queen answered.
Talia’s attention returned to the queen’s stomach. Twenty-nine. That was good, wasn’t it? Even in her time they managed to save babies who were born extremely early. Certainly they’d improved on that over time.
“I don’t want to build up false hopes,” Talia said, knowing she had to get this out now. “I have no natural healing abilities like my mother did. I know you said it’s hereditary, so I don’t know why I don’t, but I don’t. As an empath, I can take on your pain, but that won’t heal you. Surely there are doctors who could—”
The queen was shaking her head. “They exhausted their skills early on. The only method left to me now has only a small possibility of working and would certainly end my baby’s chance at survival. I can’t do that.” She rubbed her stomach, then smiled at Talia. “Please stop worrying. I am not expecting to survive this. I only want to ensure that he does.”
Talia was more confused than ever. “How do you think I can help the baby?”
“Not in the way I’d hoped when I first sent Archer after you.” She motioned to a large chair positioned near the bed. “Please, sit. I’ll have Marletta bring some tea.”
Talia sank gratefully into the chair, but waved off the offer of tea. “No, thank you.” She looked up to find the queen studying her with disconcerting frankness.
“You really do bear an amazing resemblance to your mother.”
“Thank you.”
“Of course I never knew your mother but my father kept images of her close by for the remainder of his life.”
That information made Talia pause. “I found some sort of cube today, in my mother’s chamber. Apparently she locked the contents of the room under some sort of spell or illusion. There was a message in it, though. She said she had the key to open it, or, failing that, the next healer would. But I don’t know how. I tried. The cube cannot be taken from the room, either. I’m sorry.”
Catriona waved away her concern. “I am sorry there wasn’t more for you to look through, for your own sake. But there is little to be done for it now.”
Talia paused, then said, “My mother … she mentioned your father’s name …”
The queen’s gaze sharpened. “Yes? Explain yourself.”
Talia straightened, reminded again whose presence she was in. “It was nothing, really. Just the way she said his name. I got the feeling they were close. I imagine my mother’s role was a trusted one, so that makes sense. I guess I was just
warmed by the idea that she seemed close to your family. I know it wasn’t easy for her to leave.”
The queen’s focus intensified. “You know why she left, do you not?”
“She was pregnant with me. Baleweg told me it cost her a great deal to turn her back on her obligations and leave, but there had been threats against her and she was afraid for my life if she didn’t.”
The queen closed her eyes and Talia started to rise, automatically opening herself up to find out what was wrong.
“Don’t,” Catriona said, her eyes remaining shut. “It’s all right. I’m just … a little overwhelmed. I already had the proof but … I suppose I had to hear it from you.”
Confused, Talia had pulled back before connecting with her. She had no idea what the queen was talking about. “Hear what from me?”
“Did you not wonder at the depth of our connection? You do know that empaths only connect with those they care deeply about, or are connected to in some way.”
“Yes, I know that. I assumed it was because you are a royal, and I am destined from birth to … to serve you somehow.”
Catriona shook her head. “Many rules apply between royal and healer, but that is not what forged the bond you felt today. Empathy is not exclusive to healers. In fact, it is a somewhat common ability. At least in this time, if not in yours—the one in which you were raised.”
Talia opened her mouth, then shut it again. So she knew.
The queen smiled lightly. “Yes, I am aware that the Old One helped to hide your mother in the distant past. Again I wish to tell you of my gratitude that you so willingly came to my rescue. I would like to think I’d have made such a selfless gesture, but I am learning that I am a far more petty and closed-minded person than I thought myself to be.”
Talia had no idea what to say to that.
“As you have also discovered,” she went on, “you are not a healer. That is not the source of our connection.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Did your mother marry after leaving this time?”
“No, she never did.”
“Did you wonder who your father was? Did you perhaps come back in hopes of discovering who he was?”
“I have wondered, of course, but no, actually, I never thought of looking for him here.” She was somewhat surprised about that, given what she and Devin had talked about the night before. But it had never even occurred to her. “Do you know who he is? Is he—?” She couldn’t get the words past a suddenly tight throat.
But Catriona was already shaking her head. “He is no longer living.”
Her breath caught. “Then you know who he was?”
“Oh, yes. Tell me this. Do you have a birthmark? Anywhere on you, the shape of a small crescent moon?”
Talia shrank back in her seat, mortified beyond belief. “You were watching!”
Catriona looked confused, then actually laughed. It ended on a wrenching cough that had Talia leaping from her seat.
The queen managed to wave her away. “It’s all right,” she rasped. “Sit, sit.” She took a moment to recover her breath. “I assume you mean that you think the room you shared with Mr. Archer last night was monitored. It is, as are all rooms in this castle save my chamber and the healer’s. But trust that no one was watching you last night.”
Talia let out a relieved laugh of her own. “Thank God.” Then she sat up again. “Then how did you know—?”
The queen lifted her hand and drew her gown off her shoulder. There, above her right breast, was a small crescent moon. She smiled at Talia. “It’s hereditary. From our father.”
Talia’s mouth open and shut several times, but nothing came out as the reality of what she was insinuating came crashing over her. “Dear God.” It couldn’t be.
King Cynan was her father. Her father was a king. All those fairy tales her mother had told her about a brave king who would treasure a little girl who could talk to animals … she’d never once guessed.
“We are sisters, Talia,” Catriona said. “Half sisters, but sisters to be certain. And that is why you will never be a healer. Had any other fathered you, you would have retained your mother’s skills. But royal blood can never mix with a healer’s blood. It ends the line.”
Talia sat back limply in the chair, her skin cold and clammy. Her mother had left because she’d been carrying the king’s child. Her! She couldn’t grasp it all, it was too much. “Why didn’t she tell me?” Though Talia realized now that in her own way, she had. “And wouldn’t she have known I wouldn’t have her skills?”
“I can’t say, though I would imagine she did know. At least my father would certainly have told her, had he known.” She stopped and frowned.
“What?”
“Maybe he never knew about you. It’s possible she also realized that if she gave birth to you here, once it became apparent that you didn’t have her skills … people would know of their relationship.”
“So she left to protect me and your—our—father.”
“I don’t know. We’ll never know.”
Talia was still trying to take all this in. “But you knew. How long have you known?”
“I never even knew of your existence until yesterday, though now I am amazed I never put it together.”
“What do you mean?”
“My father spent his whole life searching for your mother. He made it out to be his royal duty to his healer, but my mother soon suspected it was more. He never gave up looking, not really. He was convinced she’d traveled through time and it was largely through my mother’s behind-the-scene efforts that he was not taken seriously. Though my father denied the affair, she was quite jealous and her bitterness colored everything she did.
“I’m ashamed to say that I allowed it to color my perception of my father, as well. Not that I knew of the love affair, I only knew my mother held some deep-seated resentment toward him and it filtered down to me. I was the recipient of her diaries upon her death and the details were all there. It was a well-guarded secret. No one ever knew. And naturally I never told anyone.” She fell silent, her focus drifting inward. “All those years,” she said softly. “Wasted. I should have trusted him, or at least given him a chance.” Catriona looked back at her. “Now that I think back on it, I’m sure my father never knew. If he had known Eleri carried his child, nothing would have stopped him from doing whatever it took to find her, even if it meant destroying his kingdom to do it.” She shook her head. “I know my mother never knew. No one knew Eleri was leaving until it was too late. I was stunned when you told me who you were.”
Talia knew exactly how she felt.
“I will admit my first reaction was suspicion,” she went on. “You were being somewhat evasive and it all seemed too neat a package. I’ll apologize to you now, but when I saw you and Archer had grown … well, close, I put you in that room for the sole reason of obtaining a pure sample of your DNA. I had it tested while you were in your mother’s room.” She talked over Talia’s gasp. “I know it seems rather calculated, but there is a great deal at stake here and I’d do far more than that to ensure that I’m not being drawn into a trap.”
“Trap?”
“If you had indeed figured out that you had Dalwyn blood in your veins, then it was reasonable to suspect you might be in cahoots with Chamberlain to take over the throne.”
Talia’s jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I had to be cautious. The only curious thing was that you did not use your empathic skills to connect with me, probe me for your own gain. In fact, you seemed to fight against it.”
“I was protecting myself. I didn’t know what I was walking into.”
“You also seemed rather earnest, if uncertain, about helping me. You could have been faking that, but I didn’t think so. I observed you in the passageways and the antechamber with Archer, watched as you prepared yourself to enter your mother’s room. Your demeanor is not that of a predator. Then, when you arrived today and the connection was i
nstantaneous, I knew all I had to know. You truly had no idea, did you?”
Talia shook her head, amazed at the intrigues and assignations that had been swirling around her, all without her knowledge or suspicion. “Archer was right,” she muttered. “I’m not cut out to survive at court.”
“You will learn.”
Talia’s head jerked up. “Surely you don’t still think I want to take what is not—”
Catriona’s expression smoothed, but her eyes were lit with an inner light. Talia recognized it. It was hope. “I know you didn’t come here planning to be part of the royal family, but here you are anyway. And seeing that you are here, you must take your rightful place in it.”
If Talia had thought herself panicked over the burden of healing this young woman, she was completely overwhelmed now. “You can’t be serious.”
Catriona frowned. “Surely when you returned, assuming you were the royal healer, you intended to stay here? Your position has merely undertaken an extreme transformation.” She smiled. “No need to look so horrified. I assure you I will set everything up before I die.”
Talia leaped to her feet. “How can you say that? And how can you talk about your own death so cavalierly? I am not royalty, despite what my DNA says. I am not cut out to run anything more than my animal shelter back home in Connecticut, year two thousand and one.” She paced. “Please don’t think me ungrateful, but I came here planning to do whatever I could to help you, then go back home.”
“This is your home.” A touch of the imperious returned to her tone. “This is where you belong.” Her tone softened as she touched her stomach. “We are your family. Your only family.”
Family. What about her mother’s family? There was only one person she knew that her mother had been close to. Baleweg. But she’d asked him about her father and believed even now he hadn’t known. Or he’d have known she wasn’t a healer. But someone had known, someone had suspected. Or had Eleri merely been paranoid to think someone would try to find her and kill her or her half-royal child? Then a part of what Catriona had told her of her own mother, about her bitterness, came back to her and she looked to the queen, a sick feeling in her stomach. “Are you sure your mother never knew about me? Or suspected?”
The Royal Hunter Page 24