Maig's Hand

by Phillip Henderson

  Mr. Liptal was the royal butler aboard the Arkaelyus, as James understood it. He thrust a thumb back at the doorway he’d just come through “Do you want me to leave?”

  “No. I just have a great deal to do.” The thin parchment page crackled as she turned it and kept writing. The script was the same as the writing on the walls of her chamber. Durean. It was likely the first time it had been used by someone other than a Druid in more than a two hundred years and the thought made James uneasy.

  “Should you be using that language?”

  She didn’t reply, lost in her labours.

  Feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all that had happened James approached the desk. He refilled her half empty glass with wine and poured one for himself. “Joseph apparently summoned you before we left the palace?”

  “Eden telling tales is he.”

  James pulled off his long coat and sat down in a comfortable chair in front of an iron stove. He felt damp after the foggy air outside and rubbed his hands against the cold. “There were a number of things he wanted to share with you. I think to hear them would have put you a little more at ease.”

  “I’m listening.” She dipped her quill in the ink well and kept writing.

  James took a sip of wine from his glass. “He wants you to know that he has called an urgent meeting of the elders of the Aquarius Brotherhood. He will be leaving for the abbey at first light and he expects that they’ll now conclude that this prophecy presents a genuine threat to the realm and all avenues to stop its fulfilment will be explored. That also includes opening a secret archive of Larniusian books that hasn’t seen the light of day in two hundred years. The translations will take some time, but the work will continue day and night until it is complete, you have his word.”

  She laughed bitterly. “It would have been well advanced, perhaps even complete if he’d taken me seriously when I first made him aware of my dream. So what is to be done about Kane and the Archbishop?”

  “They’re hoping the discovery of slaves on the Helidon estate will take care of that problem. In the meantime, more men have been sent to watch their movements and the guards at the city’s various gates has been doubled and orders given to search every wagon seeking to leave the city.”

  “Oh, how wonderful, I feel greatly relieved, thank you.” Her tone dripped with sarcasm.

  “That’s charitable of you.”

  The quill stopped in its tracks and she glared at him with incredulity. “Charitable of me?”

  “You haven’t exactly been forthcoming yourself. Perhaps if you gave them more to work with?”

  “Like what! Does the entire palace have to cave in before people will begin to take this threat seriously? Or maybe if Cargius had cut off my head …”

  “Or conversely, you could just say what it is that you aren’t telling us? You seem to have filled a great many pages there, and we all know there is a great deal more in the writing on your walls than what you relayed.”

  Her glare hardened into anger, but the truth of his words was plain enough in her eyes. “If I’d said all of what was written there, we wouldn’t be on this ship.”

  That’s what James feared. He got up and went over to her. “And now that we’re on the ship?”

  She put her quill down, pushed her diary aside and rubbed her tired face. “I don’t know what to tell you. Most of it is ridiculous, even madness.”

  James stepped up behind her and began to massage her shoulders. She was as tight as a drawn bowstring. He bent and kissed her velvety neck. “I can’t help you unless you talk to me. Come on Dee.”

  She said nothing for a while just sat with her head bowed letting him work on her shoulders and neck. When she did speak it was grudgingly. “I have to be the one who kills Kane.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “As Druid’s Bane my hands have to swing the axe. And it has to be done after this ceremony, not before.”

  He could see how that would upset her. To kill in cold blood wasn’t an easy thing. To kill a family member in cold blood was something else altogether.

  “I’m also charged with the destruction of the Book of Minion—which, according to Joseph is beyond the reach of mortal men, so I suspect that will be easy enough. There’s also a thing called the Fountain of Rebirth, which like the Book, I need only to touch and it will turn to ashes, except of course, also like the Book of Minion, I have no idea where it is or what it looks like. Oh, and apparently I am capable of transmutation, I can talk to animals, control the weather, and ride in the face of the undead without fear of harm. How does that please you?”

  James crouched down and slipped his arms around her shoulders and leaned his head against hers. All his good work was undone; she was as tight as a bowstring again. “Perhaps there’s another way?”

  She snorted at the idea and pushed him off before standing. “If there is, I know it not, and that’s not the worst of it.”

  He was not sure how it could get any worse.

  “This ceremony,” She stopped and settled into one of the soft chairs by the iron stove. James took the seat beside hers. “What about the ceremony?”

  Her blue eyes settled on him, scared and vulnerable. “I think it’s a betrothal.”

  “A wedding?” he didn’t know what else to say.

  “What else am I supposed to think? He restored my maidenhead and the writing makes it clear that the secrets in my blood cannot reveal themselves until this union is consummated. It sounds very much like a marriage.”

  James fought to reign in the anger and grief swelling up in his chest. “So we’re taking you to this Cargius to be wed? Why didn’t you share this with your father, or me for that matter? I thought we …” it was too hard to say. He got up, trying to think this through.

  “My father would never have allowed it.”

  “Aye, and for good reason. This scurrilous bastard hurt you, and now he demands your hand? I thought the first law of the White Druid’s was free will?”

  “It is.”

  “So you go freely?”

  “Of course not. But what am I supposed to do, not go at all?

  He realised he was all but yelling at her. The hurt in her eyes made him bite back his anger and sit back down again. “I’m sorry. Let’s not decide anything until we meet this Cargius and know more fully what he and his kind intend? But you have to tell Joseph about this.”

  She nodded reluctantly and reached out for his hand. Her eyes were earnest and sad as they held his. “I don’t want this. You know that.”

  The thought of losing her cut deep and he pulled her up and held her close. “I know, and I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted at you. Just know that I’ll stand with you, whatever you choose. I’m yours, Dee, to do with as you please.”

  Her lips pressed against this neck. “Thank you. You don’t know how much I need to know that.” She nuzzled his neck. “So how do I tell my father that his daughter is a monster and might have to wed a thousand year old Druid to save his realm?”

  “Let Joseph handle it. I don’t think the Lord Protector is going to be as shocked as the rest of us about this. You saw his face when he was in your chambers.”

  Which reminded James of the amulet in his pocket. “Joseph sent something for you.”

  A little surprised, Danielle watched him as he fished for the leather pouch in his pocket. He took her shoulders and turned her away from him, removed the amulet and chain from its pouch and hung it around her neck.

  “What is this?” she asked, fingering the gnarled piece of amber. It was not much larger than James’ thumbnail and about as well worked as a tinker’s trinket. He shifted her hair and connected the chain. “Joseph said it would hide you from something he called the Sight, and you’re not to take it off or wear it exposed to view.”

  “No explanation beyond that?”

  “You know Joseph.”

  “He’s lucky he has you in his service or I’d be tempted to return the courtesy.”

  A
t that she went back to her bureau to sit down and take out several sheets of message parchment.

  “Be direct and honest. Joseph needs to know every detail,” James said, kissing the top of her head before going to the door. “Call me if you have need.”

  She nodded, but said nothing, her quill already busy at work.

  James found the servant’s cabin Danielle had directed him to without trouble. His bag of belongings, along with his longbow and quiver of arrows, had been brought below deck, and he set about putting his clothes into the small set of drawers that were built into the wall and his long coat in a small wardrobe. He’d got round to making up one of the top bunks when Danielle appeared in the doorway, her letter to Joseph in hand.

  “You realise Eden will want to know what this is about before it’s sent?”

  “I’ll get it past your brother, don’t worry about that.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll let him read it.”

  “You are in jest, I hope?”

  “He’s a soldier, Dee, he’ll understand why this must be done, even though it grieves him deeply.”

  She watched him make the bed. “Are you sleeping here?”

  “It’ll be warmer than the deck and I’m not sure sleeping with one betrothed to a White Druid would be advantageous to a long life.” He threw her a grin, only to have it wane quickly as he saw the fear in her eyes and her arms fold across her chest. James sighed and held out his hand to her. She took it and slipped easily into his embrace. He dreaded the likelihood of their separation as much as she. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I’d gladly sleep beside you, keep you company, if that’s what you want?”

  “I would like you close.”

  He stroked her hair. “Then close I’ll be.”

  “James whatever happens I don’t want to lose you.”

  “You won’t. I promise you that. We are betrothed and that’s a promise I have no intention of backing away from. We might just have to wait. Let’s just see what this Druid requires of you.”

  They both felt the hollowness in his words. For what was their love in the face of Arkaelyon’s future?

  ***

  Eden’s brow furrowed as he read his sister’s letter by the light of a night lantern hanging from the rigging. James was standing beside the prince at the stern railing of the royal barge, the cold night air for company. He couldn’t begrudge Eden’s reaction. Any brother worth his weight would be furious to read what was penned on those pages. Or husband to be for that matter.

  When he’d finished perusing the last page, the prince handed the letter back to James. “I’ll talk to her first,” was all he said before turning for the stairs

  “Milord, that’s probably not wise. She won’t be moved. She can’t be moved, for Arkaelyon’s sake.”

  Eden drew up and came back, his eyes angry in the lantern light. The two knights standing at the head of the stairs glanced over, as did the captain at the helm. “Is this the way you intend to protect my sister?” Eden demanded quietly. “Because if it is James, you’ll make quite the husband.”

  “You do this, Eden, and you’ll burden her more than she already is. And what of your father’s kingdom if her fears prove true and you have stood in her way?” James replied, working to calm the prince down.

  “This will not prove necessary! We’ll find another way.”

  “Don’t you think she would take another way if it was possible?”

  “You trust this cur?” Eden whacked the parchment with his hand.

  James laughed derisively at that. “He seeks to rob me of the woman I love, what do you think?”

  Eden considered that and then sighed and looked out into the fog, his anger fading. “Sorry, I know what she means to you and you to her.”

  The lights of Illandia had receded almost immediately as they had pushed out onto the lake and rowed east towards the river and the headwaters of the Illandia. Now the dark hazy shadows of the forested riverbank was all they could make out through the fog and it was eerie still with the creaking of the ship and the grinding of the oars the only sounds to break the quiet. Even the soldiers and knights had quietened down.

  “So what do you say we do?” Eden asked.

  Despite his own misgivings James said what he knew Danielle wanted of him. “Send the letter. Trust Joseph to know what’s best and support your sister. Our duty in this is to stand by her, not to add to her already considerable burden, and I suspect Joseph knows what this is about already. He will deal with your father.”

  “And if this cur tries to harm her again?”

  James didn’t flinch under the hardness in the prince’s face. “You’ll join the rush to defend her like every other man on the vessel, though I assure you, I’ll have the bastard before you.”

  Despite everything, Eden smiled at that. He blew out a weary breath and then nodded. “Then I’ll send the letter. But the moment this cur gives us reason not to trust him, I’m turning this ship around. We understand each other?”

  “I’ll be the first to help you at the helm.”

  “I know you will and for that I call you brother.” Eden waved a sailor over. James had organised a carrier bird before coming up on deck, and the man held a caged raven in his hands. The pages of Danielle’s letter were rolled up in a scroll, tied with a royal ribbon and slipped inside a small leather pouch to keep it safe from the weather and then attached to the harness on the bird’s back.

  Eden gave the nod, and the raven was released into the air, its heavy wings stirring the fog and then the bird disappeared into the darkness, the whisper of its passing fading quickly as it made for Illandia and the palace.

  Eden waved the man away and when he and James were alone again he said, “How is it, do you think, that Danielle and Kane can have this druid blood, but not Michael and I?”

  “I don’t know. Perhaps you do have it?”

  A brother’s fear settled over the prince. “I half wish it was so. At least then I’d be able to take this nasty business from her. To swing an executioner’s axe is no small thing. To swing it at the neck of a brother is something else altogether.”

  James understood that. The misery he’d seen in Danielle’s eyes as she told him this had been haunting and rather difficult to bear since they were helpless to change what must be done. “If these White Druids are what legend say, they’ll give her the strength to do what she must.” At least that’s what he was praying.

  “But are they, that’s the question,” Eden said solemnly.

  “Fires ahead! Fires ahead! Starboard and port,” a sailor yelled back from high up in the rigging.

  James turned and looked beyond the ship’s bow, Eden did the same. With no sails set, it was easy enough to see a glow to the left and right of the vessel, one elevated, likely on a cliff top and the other level with the starboard side of the ship. He’d caught the faint smell of smoke in the fog as he’d come out on deck, but hadn’t thought much about it. After all Illandia was only a handful of miles behind them and it wasn’t uncommon to smell a city for miles away in fog such as this.

  There was a stir of apprehension across the deck. Soldiers began to stand, some drawing weapons. Every man knew that there was no reason for there to be light out here let alone on both sides of the river and in sufficient measure to be seen through the fog. The last fishing village was on the marshes and within view of Illandia’s walls, and they had passed it sometime ago.

  “Easy men,” Eden called out, striding over to the captain who was standing at the helm.

  “That is certainly no hunter’s fire that’s for sure, Milord. Other than that I don’t know,” the Captain said, pre-empting the prince’s question.

  Men of Eden’s retainer were filing up the stairs to the aft deck, alerted by the sailor’s cry.

  Eden sniffed the air. His eyes found Sir Jeffery. “What do you think?”

  With his face as hard as flint the usually jovial knight said, “I think it’s got a taint to it?”r />
  Eden gave a soldierly nod. “Captain, can you bring the ship around?”

  “Aye, but not without risking her. The river is shallow out here and not more than four hundred feet wide. You got an idea what this is about, Milord?’

  James saw the look pass between the prince and his knights.

  “I know the smell of burning tar oil when it’s in the air,” Eden’s tone crackled with annoyance. “If we can’t come round then get us in close to the starboard side of the river. Out of range of whatever devils are up on that cliff.”

  “Aye, sir.” The captain worked the wheel and the deck began to pitch under foot.

  “Jeffery, get the archers to the starboard railing. Have them ready to loose arrows just in case there is need. Wait for my command before shooting—assuming there is need. Thomas, watch the port side and call fair warning if there is any threat to the ship. Mayton, you are with Thomas. James, whatever happens, keep Danielle below deck. Last thing we need if there is trouble is my undisciplined sister countermanding and creating chaos or worse, getting herself hurt.”

  “I’ll see to it, Milord,” James said, not exactly sure what was going on. The only thing that was certain was that those fires should not be out here.

  Orders were shouted and soldiers began to move quickly to their positions.

  James was jostled as a dozen archers passed him on the stairs down to the mid deck. It seemed incomprehensible that anyone would be fool enough to attack the royal barge. But even as James thought this, the sound of bowstrings being released somewhere off in the distance reached them and the fog high above the port side of the ship lit up with streaking fire arrows.

  Sir Thomas bellowed a warning to those on deck to take cover. There was barely enough time to duck before the swarm of fire arrows began to clatter through the ship’s rigging and hammer into the deck in showers of flame and oily black smoke. Screams erupted and a few men went down as red-hot iron barbs sliced through chain mail and into flesh. The consolation was that most of the arrows fell short and landed in the river.