by Tad Williams
He glanced again to Briony Eddon, but her expression was unreadable. Barrick and the company of fairies who came with him made their silent way up the colonnade beside the commons and then emerged into the sunshine again just short of the residence's front steps and the king's body, where Barrick stopped and stood, straight as a sentry.
After a confused few moments Hierarch Sisel continued the prayer. When it was ended the mantises came with their rattles and flutes to lead the procession, and the pallbearers lifted the coffin onto the wagon that would carry it toward the graveyard. It seemed the Eddons meant to keep using their family vault, Vansen noted, no matter what had taken place there or what lay beneath it. But before the pallbearers could take a step, Barrick abruptly stepped forward and laid two sprigs atop the coffin, one of meadowsweet and one of mistletoe, the Orphan's flowers of immortality. As he did so, he paused for a moment. A look of pain and confusion twisted Barrick's features and he snatched back his hand-the one that had once been withered and useless-almost as though he had burned it.
The prince and his followers did not accompany the coffin all the way to the graveyard, but turned away near the crumbled walls of the Throne hall and walked back toward the Raven's Gate and their camp in Funderling Town. Some in the crowd turned to watch them depart, making the sign for the pass-evil, but most paid scant attention, as if the king's son and his odd companions were only another clutch of mourners.
The funeral feast had ended nearly an hour before, and many of the guests had already retired, though a group of older nobles remained in the residence's long, low dining room drinking wine and telling tales of the late king and of all that had happened since last Olin had sat on Anglin's throne. Doubtless, many of them also expressed quiet reservations over the fitness of his daughter to rule, and questioned why her brother had made himself so absent from the business of governing the country, but Vansen ignored their conversations as he pulled a few of his more trustworthy guards from their duties in the dining room and led them to the residence parlor that served as Briony's royal retiring room. The princess was waiting there already, her face carefully empty. To Ferras Vansen, her expression was like a sort of wound: it hurt him to see it.
When his guards had filed in, he turned to Briony. "Shall I go and get Lord Brone, Your Highness?"
She nodded, but scarcely seemed to see him.
To Vansen's surprise, Avin Brone was waiting just outside the door of the hall-he had arrived while Vansen had been arranging the guards. The big man nodded. "It is good to see you, Captain Vansen. I assume you will not remain much longer in that low rank…?"
"No one has spoken to me of any promotion, Lord Brone."
"Ah, but I am sure you will be rewarded. I hear you did noble, brave-minded work since your return to Southmarch. Many say that if you hadn't stiffened the Funderling resistance we would all be slaves now. You must tell me everything that happened one day, Vansen. I wish to hear what you saw. I trust your eyes and thoughts more than any others save my own."
"Thank you, your lordship."
The count smiled but he looked tired. "Let us not keep our mistress waiting. After all, she will soon be our queen." He walked past Vansen to the door.
When Brone had bowed to Briony (not without a little difficulty; the old man had gotten even stouter and his limp was now pronounced) she asked for a bench to be brought so he could sit down.
"Before we get to the meat of things," she said, "I have a question for you, Brone. Berkan Hood will soon be captured or dead. The post of lord constable is empty. Do you have anyone to recommend?"
Brone cleared his throat. "I can think of no one better than this man here, Ferras Vansen."
"Not yourself, Lord Brone? You held the post a long time. Do you no longer have confidence in your own abilities?"
"With respect, Highness, do not play games with me. I am too old for that, and also too old to try to be what I was. If you did not want my advice, you should not have asked."
"Very well, then, let's not circle like two tavern bullies." Briony's smile was hard. "You were my father's trusted adviser, Brone. You were that to my brother and to me as well."
"I have been lucky enough to serve the throne and the people of the March Kingdoms. That is well known. Many would say I did it well."
"Many would, yes-but that is not my complaint." For the first time, Vansen saw that the emotion she had hidden was not weariness or fear, but rage. Her cheeks were red and her eyes narrowed in fury; for the first time he saw how much like her brother she really was. "You betrayed us, Brone, or you planned to. You schemed to see us all dead-my father, my brothers, and me. What do you say to that?"
Brone did not burst out into a torrent of denials, which made Vansen feel even more that the world had tilted on its foundations. Instead, the old man pressed his chin deep into his beard and frowned with his bushy brows until he seemed like a bear staring out of a cave. "And why do you say that, Your Highness? Who has told you such a thing of me?"
"That is not your affair. But a person I trust has told me that you had a list, and on this list was the name of every member of my family and also the method by which each would be apprehended, imprisoned, and then murdered at your order. Do you deny it?"
Ferras Vansen realized he was holding his breath, and even the guards, his best men, looked startled. Only Avin Brone himself, of all in the long room, did not seem unduly troubled. "No," he said. "I do not deny it."
Briony let out a ragged gasp like someone struck a painful blow. "So," she said at last, her voice barely under control. "You told me to trust no one, Avin Brone. I thank you for the honesty of that lesson."
"Do you not wish to know the reason why?"
"No. No, I don't. Guards, take him away. The stronghold held a less guilty man in Shaso-it will serve for this villain, too."
Brone sat, unmoving, as at Ferras Vansen's signal a quartet of guards in Eddon black and silver surrounded him. "Will you really do this again, Princess?" the old man asked in a mild tone.
"What do you mean?" Briony had pushed her feelings back behind the mask again: she stared like a statue of Divine Retribution.
"You imprisoned Shaso dan-Heza without learning the truth. You regretted it later, as you make clear. Would you repeat that error?"
"Error?" Briony almost jumped out of her chair. "You have admitted you planned to murder my family, Brone! What could you say that would make any difference?" But she did not repeat the order for his removal and Vansen, sensing something afoot, signaled his men to wait. "Speak," Briony said at last. "It is late and I am tired and sad. I have just buried my father, and I want to go to bed."
"I loved him, too, Briony."
"But you planned to kill him!"
"My duty is first and foremost to the throne, Princess. That has always been true. Your father himself was careful to make certain I understood that. Yes, I planned his death-but it was with Olin's own knowledge."
"What?" Briony seemed about to spring from her chair and attack him. "Do you claim he wanted see his own family slaughtered…?"
"No!" Now for the first time Brone lost his temper. "No, of course not, Highness! But your father knew he had an illness that no one could cure-an illness of the blood that brought raging madness upon him. For ten years or more, he also knew that Barrick had that same distemper of the blood. You and Kendrick did not seem afflicted, but who could tell?"
"What does my father's… blood have to do with…?"
"He did not trust himself-and to be honest, I could not afford to trust him entirely, either. He was the king, but at least one night every month he was also a beast-a madman. How could I defend the country without planning to deal with the king himself if he went utterly mad? How could I protect the March Kingdoms if his heirs were also infected? If your father lost his mind beyond saving, I was under orders to lock him away-to lock you all away as well until we knew if one of you was trustworthy. And if none of you were, then there would be no point in leaving you al
ive to foster unrest among the people, who would not understand. I was prepared to put another relative on the throne if necessary, perhaps one of the Brennish cousins-yes, even to kill you all if no other choice was left to me! But I did not wish to, and I only imagined it because your father, may the gods bless his bravery and foresight, ordered me to do so." So saying, the count of Landsend folded his hands across his belly and stared back at her. "So if you still wish to execute me, Princess, then do so. I will not resist."
At first, Vansen thought Briony was going to scream at the old man-her face had flushed so deeply he feared for her health. But when she spoke, her words were little more than a whisper.
"Do you have some letter from my father that will prove this?"
He shrugged. "I have letters from him that allude to the plan. I can assemble them for you. All my papers from the time I served your father are yours now, in any case, Princess, though you might prefer to have someone more trustworthy than myself go through them. But choose that person carefully, Briony." His smile was mirthless. "I suspect there are traitors around you still uncovered…"
"Get out of my sight, Brone." She spoke as if she had a mouth full of poison. "I will send guards with you to collect the papers. Until I decide what to do, you will confine yourself to the inner keep. You will most especially not return to your house in Landsend."
Avin Brone dipped his head in a small bow, scarcely more than a nod. "You are my sovereign, Princess. Of course I will do what you say."
Vansen had finished dividing the guard, keeping double Princess Briony's standard pair on duty but sending the rest away, and was waiting now as she had asked, but Briony deliberately ignored him as she finished a cup of wine.
Briony knew she should have been happy Brone had a plausible excuse-she could not remember ever dreading a meeting more-but instead she was just as angry as before but with no certain target for it. A tiny part of her had hoped he would laugh at the accusation, that it would turn out to be so transparently absurd she could soon laugh, too, but the greater part of her certainty had been that Brone was guilty, that his warnings to her to trust no one had been a form of thinly veiled confession. And when he had admitted it, every hard, protective thing inside her had clanged down like the portcullis of Raven's Gate. Now she was still furious with the old man, but just as angry with herself. If Brone's story was true, what else should he have done but followed her father's orders? But if he couldn't prove what he claimed? What then?
The chance that he might simply be dissembling-that she might still have to imprison and likely execute him-made things even worse, like being whirled around in a too-fast dance, stumbling and breathless.
Ferras Vansen was still waiting in the doorway, a look on his face that Briony thought a very annoying picture of noble suffering. She felt almost as unhappy with him as she had with Avin Brone. She beckoned him forward but gave him no indication of what to do. Vansen stopped before the throne, made an awkward bow, and then stood waiting again. After she had regarded him silently for a long moment, he finally said, "Highness?"
"Yes, Captain. Thank you for staying. I'm a bit weary just now, as you might guess, but I wanted to speak with you. What do you think of Lord Brone's proposal?"
He looked quite startled. "Highness?"
Briony was beginning to fear he would never say anything else. "He suggested you as an able candidate for lord constable, Captain. Lord Constable of Southmarch? You may have heard of the position? Rather well-known in these parts, I'm told."
He colored and Briony disliked herself more than she had when the conversation began. So many times she had longed to see this man-why did she find herself treating him in this unpleasant way again?
"I understood the question, Highness, but I didn't understand why you were asking me."
"Because I want to know if you're interested, Captain. As I said-and as I sincerely meant-you have done wonderful things for Southmarch. Not simply for my family, but for everyone who shelters under the Five Towers."
"I did only what any loyal servant of the Eddons would have done, Princess."
"What any would have liked to have done but few would have had the wit or courage to manage. Do not belittle your own deeds." He was coloring again. How could she have ever thought this man cared for her? Or that if he did, it was a passion any deeper than a little child's mute love for his nursemaid? How could such a tall, strong man seem so deep one moment, then so foolish the next? Were all his most appealing traits products of her own imagination? "What of the post, man?"
"I… I am no lord, Princess."
"A small enough matter. You would not have escaped your heroics without a title and some land in any case, Captain. Shall I make you a marquis? Though I fear you will not relish being a lord. You don't seem like the type to enjoy the preening and scurrying of court life."
"It terrifies me."
She laughed a little despite herself. "Poor Captain Vansen. It does seem a terrible thing to do to you…"
He had been looking at the floor. Now he raised his gaze to hers and Briony felt a little shock. Ferras Vansen's dark eyes were fiercer than she had ever seen-fiercer than she would have imagined possible, like something that can retreat no farther and must now turn and fight.
"Why do you do this to me, Lady? Why?"
"What do you mean, Captain Van…?"
"This! I mean this! This way of talking to me. I liked it better when you hated me. At least then being lashed again and again was no surprise. But now… you say you are grateful, you praise my deeds, but all the time you act like… like…" And although he was as flushed as she had ever seen him, anger mottling his cheeks and his forehead, he stopped suddenly. A moment later he said, in a far quieter voice, "Your pardon, Highness. I had no right."
"My pardon will not be given-not until you tell me how it is that I act."
"Please…"
"No, Captain Vansen, I insist. In fact, I command you-tell me how I act."
His eyes roved in desperation as though there might be some way out of the trap into which he had delivered himself, but all of the guards were working hard to seem as though they weren't listening, that they weren't even aware other people were in the room.
Vansen squared himself, took a breath, and said: "You act like a spoiled child given a pet with which she has already grown bored. Instead of simply sending it away when it displeases her, she teases and torments it only for her own amusement." His voice was thick now. "That is what you do, Briony Eddon. That is the part you act with me."
Part of her was enraged that he should speak that way to her, but close behind it stood a larger part that was horrified to realize what she had done to this kind, good man. "But I did not…" She could not make the words come out properly. "I never…"
Vansen, who a moment before had looked so resigned that he might have been a prisoner atop the gallows, now took a step nearer to her. He had a look on his face she could not understand-it looked something like exhilaration but also something like terror. "And I will say more," he told her in a breathless rush. "No matter what Avin Brone thinks, and even if you yourself do feel something like the gratitude you profess, I can never be the lord constable, nor could I hold a noble's place in your court-or, if it comes to it, be the captain of your guard. So, with gratitude for what your family have given me and the kindness you yourself have shown me… at times… I must resign my commission." He pulled his gloves from his belt and laid them on the floor at her feet, then unstrapped his sword and set it beside them. "May the gods watch over Your Highness and the throne of the March Kingdoms."
He had gone only a few steps before she called to him. "But why? Why would you turn your back on the rewards you have justly earned?"
He turned slowly, knowing that what he said now could never be unsaid. "Because I couldn't bear working within sight of you the rest of my life, Briony Eddon. I've loved you from almost the first moment I saw you, knowing also that moment that the gods in Heaven must be laughi
ng until they wept… because who was I? A mere soldier."
"No! A brave man," she said, because it was so much what she had been thinking. "A kind man. A good man."
"Why do you speak kindly now when you wouldn't before, Princess?" He no longer seemed to care. "Pity for a fool?"
"I'm the fool, I think." She laughed. "But you are a fool, too, Captain! Oh, merciful Zoria, I thought you would never speak your heart. How could I let myself love a man who was too frightened to tell me how he felt?"
"You care… for me…?" She thought he might laugh, or burst out into some kind of great oration like a character in a play, but instead he suddenly called out, "Guards! Go outside and guard the door for a short while. I have a sudden concern about the security of the outer passage."
"You don't have to send everyone away…" Briony began as the soldiers made their way out into the hall. Briony's heart was beating fast. She felt a strong urge to giggle like a child. "But I do," Vansen said. "Even if they are discreet, it's asking too much that they must pretend to be blind and stupid as well. We common folk still have our pride." He stepped up onto the dais. "And you may send me to the headsman for it tomorrow, Princess, but I must kiss you-I must! I've waited so long…"
At first Briony didn't speak, because it was all so strange and unexpected that she feared it might vanish if the moment was interrupted. She could scarcely breathe as Vansen reached out and drew her up from her chair, but the feel of his warm breath on her face made her realize how far she had kept from him all these months. "Yes, kiss me, Vansen," she said at last. "Kiss me, please!"
48
By the Dark River "The kindly Dawnflower thought she had rescued Adis when she stepped into the sun outside the gates of Kernious and the underworld, but when Zoria looked down she discovered she was holding nothing more than one of the Orphan boy's wooden arms…"