“You don’t look the least bit surprised?” Danielle said. Her intelligent blue eyes were full of suspicion.
“We know of Fren. And yes, she is a druid, a priestess in fact. But you have no reason to fear her or her kind. Their numbers are very few and secretive and are no longer possessed of any powers that pose a danger.”
“She turned into a crow, etched words into my sword and made steel bleed!” Danielle raised voice made Joseph cringe. The noon prayers had begun, and even the plain song, which had begun again, would not hide her voice from ears that did not need to hear of such things.
“You will lower your voice.” When she begrudgingly agreed, he said, “We have believed for some time that she is also responsible for your dream, and this prophecy.”
“Yet you have said nothing to me? And worse, are you not concerned a druid is associating with my brother? You know what the prophecy says …”
“Danielle, calm yourself. You need to understand that Fren has long been a familiar of your brother. She serves his interests. And in that regard we believe she is merely using her knowledge of druid lore to scare you with the hope you might stop meddling in your brother’s affairs. Her reappearance today and your brother’s new threats merely confirm this likelihood. And then to bleed your sword and have the words Druids Bane appear in the steel … well, she is toying with you and clearly with much success.”
“So you aren’t taking my dream seriously?”
He could see how much that annoyed her. “On the contrary. We are looking into it as I have told you, but mostly because we have never heard of this prophecy, and some of it could be truth, adapted for the purpose in hand of course, and as you know, when it comes to matters concerning the Book of Minion those of us here like to know as much as we can.”
“And why did you not share this with me before?”
“Because you already know too much and frankly, I would feel more at ease if we had not told you anything. This woman is playing you, and I fear you may do something ill conceived, like saying more than you should to the wrong person.”
“I would not do that. I swore an oath to you, Joseph … but none of that changes the way I feel about this prophecy. I know in my bones that it’s a premonition of sorts.”
“Danielle, really, you are worrying needlessly. For one, why would Fren show her hand to an enemy and give us forward warning of what is to come, and allow us to counter her?”
She sheathed her sword with a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know?”
“Exactly. And there are a great many other things you don’t know either. So, please, trust us in this matter. In turn, I promise to keep you informed the moment anything new is discovered. Now you’d best go and get changed for the banquet. I’ll see that your sword is anointed with Gods water and returned to your chambers as soon as possible. It’ll remove the magic. And think yourself lucky I don’t have it taken from you permanently. You know the conditions governing its use, so do not let me catch you violating them again or your father will hear of it. And James, remember just who you are answerable to and that you were appointed to protect your charge as much from herself as others. Now both of you may go.”
It wasn’t a request and Danielle offered a curtsey and left with James in tow, neither of them looking happy. Joseph waited until the door closed and then said to Father Jarivus, “What do you think?”
“It would not hurt to increase the number of brethren we have looking into this matter.”
Joseph nodded. “Then see it done. I’ll tell the others.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
James was in his chambers getting dressed for the banquet when a knock came at the door. He pulled on a shirt and called out that the door was open. Hinges groaned against the weighty timbers and a man attired in messenger’s livery stepped into view. The gold and red trim on the man’s tunic and the chain of keys that hung round his neck marked him as a royal courier. “Sir, the princess isn’t answering her door. Could you deliver her a message from her father?”
“Of course.”
“He wants to remind her that the banquet begins at the next bell, and she isn’t to be tardy.”
“I’ll see that she knows,” James said.
Suspecting that Danielle and her maids were ensconced in her bedchambers, changing her ruined gown, James took the time to finish dressing before going to her. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other on the return from the cathedral and he knew he needed to clear the air between them before the banquet. He secured his cravat, wincing as he tightened it over the cut on his neck, and pulled on an embroidered waistcoat and tailored long coat before slipping through the doorway to her chambers. The lack of chatter inside her room concerned him and he knocked at the door.
“Danielle?”
“What?”
He ignored her curt reply and relayed her father’s message. When she didn’t answer, he eased open the door. She was sitting in front of a dresser, her back to him, frantically writing in a leather bound journal. Her gown lay in a pile of rumpled white satin on the floor, her shoes kicked off beside it, and she was sitting in nothing more than a shoulder-hung petticoat and with no company in attendance.
“Where are your maids?”
She kept writing. “I didn’t call them back.”
“And Martha?”
“I’ll manage alone,” she said testily. “It seems I must do everything else alone.”
James ignored the remark. “Danielle, your father is waiting.”
She sat up with an impatient sigh and glared at him. The shift in posture afforded him a tantalising view of her comely breasts beneath the silk of her skimpy garment and slender thighs below a lace hemline. It was a visage he really did not need to see just now.
“He can wait,” she said. “I need to finish writing this down.”
“Fine, so what are you going to wear?”
“The blue gown hooked over the wicker screen.”
He found the garment and laid it on her bed before collecting the little blue doeskin shoes that went with it. Then he collected up her ruined dress from the floor and laid it over a chair and bent to collect the shoes.
Danielle had returned to her labours, her quill scratching away at the parchment at a furious rate, and pausing only briefly as she dipped it in the ink.
“What are you writing?”
“Everything I can recall from my dream and my abduction this morning. Joseph might be right about Fren, but I know there’s truth in it somewhere and I cannot let it stand.”
“Can’t it wait? You don’t want to displease your father.”
She sat up again, making him look away for modesty’s sake. “That’s right I forget. You’re my father’s lackey.”
He laughed at that. “Why, because I wouldn’t draw my sword on a cathedral steward and palace guards as you did?” He still couldn’t believe how outlandish her conduct had been.
She slammed her journal shut and stood to face him, “You saw those crows, you saw the blood on my sword, the words … yet you stood there and said nothing!”
“It wasn’t necessary. Joseph explained it sufficiently well to dispel your fears, I would think. And he certainly didn’t need my interference. Though as your protector I probably should have interfered more readily than I did.” He said the last more curtly than he intended.
Her face darkened with anger and she abruptly snatched up the gown and stepped into it. “I think I have a right to expect more loyalty from you,” she said as she walked away to the mirror, trying to lace up the back of her gown. Her hands were trembling, and she was making a horrid mess of it, so James followed her and took over the task as he had hundreds of time before.
“Is this why you want to marry me? I mean, a peasant born husband will be a great deal easier to control than a protector with a royal warrant.”
She pulled free to face him, horrified. “Is that what you think of me? Little more than a manipulating courtier?”
He knew
he wasn’t being fair. “No, of course not. But I’m not going to be bullied, Dee. I am duty bound to protect you and if my actions incur your displeasure then so be it.”
“Yes, you are duty bound to protect me … not tell me what course of action I should take in the fulfilment of my responsibilities as a royal daughter. Your warrant is explicit; you are to act to remove any threat to my person and life as I go about my duty. Not to pass comment and interfere in state affairs. So if anyone has the right to feel bullied it’s me, and aggrieved also, since you seem to be more loyal to my father than your fiancée.”
“I have a right to interfere, you know that,” he said as he gently turned her back around and continued lacing her into her gown.
“Yes, but only if my person is in danger which it was not.” She picked up a brush from her dresser and began to pull it through her hair.
“So you think your actions in the cathedral were justified?” James asked, watching her reflection in the mirror as he worked.
Regret furrowed her brow. “Not entirely.” Her eyes found his reflection in the mirror. “And you?”
He shook his head as he finished securing her gown.
Danielle turned to face him with a sigh. She took his hands and bit her lower lip, wincing slightly, before saying more sympathetically, “How are we going to manage this? Because I don’t want to be at odds with you every time I do something you don’t approve of. And I’m sure you feel the same.”
James saw her point. “You are right. It shouldn’t have come to this. Your life was never in jeopardy, and I should not have tried to interfere. I’m sorry. I promise that from now on I’ll be more supportive.”
That naughty smile spread across her lovely face and she slipped her arms around his neck and rewarded him with a slow lingering kiss. “Thank you.” She ran her hands down to his crotch and giggled when she found him hard and waiting.
Conscious of what they had not had a chance to finish in his bedchambers in the afternoon and that there was no time for this now; James broke off with a sigh. “We need to be going.”
“I know,” she said glumly. She blew out a wary breath, her cheeks as flushed as his, before kissing his nose and turning back toward the mirror, and picking up her hairbrush again.
James watched her as she settled on the stool in front of her mirror. He still couldn’t believe that they would soon be husband and wife. He felt utterly undeserving and overwhelmingly blessed. His thoughts also kept going back to what had happened on the balcony earlier.
“So what are you going to do about your dream?”
She chewed her lip for a moment then said, “I’m still thinking on it. But at the very least I’m going to ask Joseph to have Fren arrested. That way I might actually get some answers.”
***
It was some hours later that Danielle spotted the Lord Protector across the crowded Summer Hall. She’d been dancing with Bastion and discussing some thoughts she’d had about the Vafusolum proposal, when a harrowed looking Joseph came down the stairs to the ballroom and disappeared out onto the torch lit patio.
“Bastion, would you excuse me?”
“Of course. Anything I should know about?” her undersecretary asked, as they left the ballroom floor and pushed through the well-attired and lively crowd at the fringes who were watching the dancing. The musicians were playing one of her favourite Arkaelyon ballads but she hardly noticed it right now, her attention fixed on the doors to the patio and her thoughts elsewhere.
“Not yet.” Danielle was surprised not to see James anywhere. Unlike the farewell banquet at Fairfax the night before, he’d been at her side most of the evening, even sitting beside her at the royal table during the dinner and leading her out for the first dance of the evening. He’d relaxed considerably after she had whispered their intention to marry to her father, who had welcomed the union with genuine pleasure. Not that it was yet public news.
“Did you see where James went?”
“I saw him talking with several of your guards over by the entry doors.”
“Can you find him for me. Tell him, I’m out on the patio. I need to talk to Joseph for a moment.”
“He said I wasn’t to let you out of my sight.”
“I’ll be fine.”
After parting company, Danielle barely made a few yards towards the doors to the patio before having to politely weather compliments from a gaggle of young noblemen, who were less than sober. She felt them watching her like a pack of vultures after she finally managed to extricate herself and slip out into the pleasant night air of the garden. The patio, like the garden beyond was lit with braziers and torches, and more than a few guests were out here with glasses of wine, enjoying the summer evening as they talked at the railing or walked arm in arm in the garden below. Danielle accepted a glass of wine from a silver platter and wandered over to where Joseph was in quiet yet earnest conversation with Lord Fairfax, Lord Worthford and General Hendrix. Apart from Joseph, who was still attired in the plain brown robe of the reformist priesthood, the rest of her colleagues were regally dressed. She had danced with all of them during the course of the evening.
The talk stopped abruptly at her approach. She graced them with a wry smile. “Interrupting something am I? Tomorrow’s council meeting maybe; or perhaps this matter that cannot be spoken of? Or could it be something else altogether?”
Austin Fairfax laughed as he put a hand on her shoulder and bent to kiss her cheek. The other two men were smiling too, as guilty as sin. “You’re going to make a wonderful Madam Protector, Dee. You have Joseph’s art for sneaking up on a man unnoticed. And congratulations on the engagement.”
She let their diversion go with good humour.
Lord Worthford and the General offered their congratulations as well, before discreetly excusing themselves. They sensed she needed to talk to Joseph.
“Was I right?” Danielle asked, handing her mentor the glass as she watched her three colleagues on her father’s inner council depart.
Joseph merely smiled. “What can I do for you lass?”
She suddenly realised how pale he looked. She frowned at him, concerned. “When was the last time you ate?” she asked, taking his free hand and rubbing the cold out of it. The tip of his nose was red and his eyes a little puffy, which usually meant he was coming down with a touch of the winter ailment or was simply exhausted. Given the season, she suspected it was the latter and he should not have been out here in the cold air.
“I had a little lunch earlier if I recall correctly.”
He seemed confused on the matter. “Right, you’re coming with me.”
“Dee, really, I’m quite fine.”
She ignored his protests and soon had him sitting in her father’s chair at the royal table, where she put a plate of roast pork and vegetables in front of him. The dinning hall was virtually empty but for servants clearing the benches of what had been a wonderful meal. “Now eat.”
Joseph took a mouth full and chewed before saying, “You clearly have something on your mind lass, though I do warn you, if it’s about this premonition and a certain prophecy, I will not hear a bar of it,” he said, beginning to tuck into the meal with a healthy appetite.
“Fine then, but what do you think of the idea of arresting Fren?” Danielle asked. She’d decided to be forthright about this.
Joseph frowned as she suspected he would. Then after finishing a mouthful of pork he picked up his glass and took a sip, before dabbing his lips with a napkin. “It’s been tried before with no success. As you can no doubt understand, the ability to change form makes her extremely elusive.”
“So you know about her changing form?”
“Transmutation. Yes.”
It made Danielle wonder what other things she had thought to be myths, stories and tinker’s tales when in fact they were anything but.
“Why not just follow Kane and trap her?”
“That’s how it was done. Unfortunately the first time we cornered her she turn
ed into a crow. The second time we wised up and tried to trap her in doors, only she confounded us again by turning into a mouse.”
“Third time lucky then?” she ventured. We trap her in a sealed room.”
He considered that a moment, his lips pressed together, then nodded reluctantly. “I guess that if it will help ease your mind, we can try again. But truth be told, Dee, even if we do manage to catch her, I’m not sure we’ll get much out of her or whether what we do get out of her will be the truth.”
“Then what about others of her kind?”
A wane smile touched his face. “We don’t know who the other’s are. They’re extremely reclusive. In truth, the last time we had any contact with the Larniusian Druids other than Fren was more than two decades past. Several of their number broke into the Aquarius Abbey, you see. We know what they were looking for of course, however, when they were cornered, two killed themselves while the third managed to transform and escape. We never established who they were in name.”
“So how do you know they’re not a threat if you know so little?”
“Because we know the theft of the book and the death of the last Hand and the vast majority of the members of his war council as well as the general slaughter of their brethren and the outlawing of the druid religion left them severely weakened. What remains is a mere shadow. If it were otherwise, they would not be as reclusive as they are and we would be seeing the manifestation of things that are quite terrifying.”
“Unless of course they have been waiting for the fulfilment of the prophecy.”
Joseph waved his fork at her. “Lass, we are not going to discuss that again. At least until something is found in the archives.”
She knew she’d pushed him as far as was fair so she kissed his head. “You have a reprieve then. A sign of my appreciation for all you’ve done over the last few months, including bringing James into my life.”
“My pleasure, lass.” He pushed his plate away. “I should retire for the night. Tomorrow is going to be another long day, and I really am exhausted.
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