Katrin was not a country girl for nothing. She knew the uses, good and bad, of many garden plants. She knew the plant growing outside the windows in great profusion. She knew it well. Ramplane. Given in small quantities, it brought on sleep, relieved pain and fever. Given in large enough quantities, it would kill a grundar.
Not allowing herself to flinch, she went to the window, reached low to remove the fleshy leaves from a place where it would not show and then crushed them against the lip of the decanter, watching as the thick, gooey sap ran down and mingled with the wine. When there was half again as much sap as wine, she shoved the mangled leaves into her pocket.
Katrin turned to the honey pot used at meals, drizzling the golden sweetness into the mixture in the decanter. She clapped the stopper into the neck and shook the entire concoction viciously before running back toward Aidelia’s rooms, the image of servility, eager to please, hurrying as quickly as she could with what her sister had demanded.
Aidela was groggy but groped eagerly for the wineglass Katrin proferred.
Katrin felt her breath come short as her sister gulped down the entire glassful without drawing breath and gestured for more.
“It’s excellent,” she slurred as Katrin poured more wine for her. “You must give me a few bottles.”
“Gladly,” Katrin smiled.
Aidela finished the second glass before her head drooped onto her chest. Katrin caught the glass and set on the floor. Aidelia slid down onto the sofa in a deep sleep, her breathing unnaturally slow and shallow.
Then the breathing stopped.
Katrin waited several minutes, then felt for a pulse. There was none.
She took the decanter with her, leaving the room quietly, calling over her shoulder for her sister to sleep well while easing the door shut. She walked decorously back to her suite. Once she was unobserved, she raced to empty the decanter out a window, then washed it out carefully. She refilled it with wine and replaced it on the table.
Then she sat down, exhausted, shattered.
Menders and the others were safe.
She was the Queen.
She was a murderer.
***
Menders never hesitated to take advantage of a situation. When he found most of the Court were absent, attempting to escape the heavy, wet heat of the day by traveling away from the city, he sent Hemmett and Menders’ Men in to capture and lock up those Palace Guards who were on duty, as well as the Palace torturer and the Queen’s Chamberlain, whom Aidelia had inherited from her mother.
Hemmett told him that Katrin had been sent to Aidelia. Once Menders was sure there were no Palace Guards they had not secured, he went to Aidelia’s apartments to fetch Katrin and take her to the safehouse he’d arranged. Aidelia could do her worst. If she confronted him, it would only speed matters, as this was going to be the last day of her life.
He listened briefly at the doors of Aidelia’s rooms, then eased them open an inch and listened again.
Not a sound – not so much as breathing. He was sure Aidelia had been left behind by her favorite and her Court. He’d seen them leave in a train of carriages that morning, bound for someone’s country house. Aidelia, who of late had been drinking and sleeping through the long summer days, had not been with them. They were not expected to return until night, when the temperature would drop rapidly.
He opened the door and went in.
Menders had seen death many times and needed to make no examination of Aidelia to know her condition. He was shocked to see that she had been pregnant. Even his intense information gathering had not given him that tidbit.
Suddenly he remembered his long illness when Katrin was just a baby, which had spread from infected eyes – and the medicine he’d been unable to take to lower the fever and ease the pain, ramplane. He cast about for a reason why this memory had cropped up – then he knew.
He could smell it. Ramplane. Faintly, but definitely. It was stronger near Aidelia. There was an empty wineglass on the floor near her. He picked it up and sniffed.
Yes, someone had already killed the mad bitch. But the Palace was practically deserted. Whoever it was had taken away the ramplane and wine mixture, but neglected to take the glass or rinse it. Definitely an amateur.
Menders stood there, the glass in his hand, a horrible knowledge dawning within him.
***
Katrin sat limply in her deserted suite, in what seemed to be a deserted Palace. She hadn’t heard a sound since leaving Aidelia’s rooms, not so much as a word or footstep.
She knew that sooner or later they would come and proclaim her Queen and say ‘long live the Queen’. She didn’t know if she could stand that.
She would have to. Her first Royal Command would be for them to release Menders and the others. Until they came, she would sit here, as she had been sitting for the hour since she’d killed her sister, desperately trying to will herself to move.
Just then she heard rapid footsteps. The door of the suite banged open and then shut and the bolt was shot. Then Menders was in the doorway.
He pulled off his glasses so she could see his eyes, staring at her with such an expression of anguish that she jumped to her feet.
“What in the name of the gods have you done?” he said in a tone she’d never heard from him before. He crossed the room and grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly. His eyes were streaming tears from the light. “Child, what have you done!”
“I’ve done what was necessary,” she heard herself saying.
“That was not for you to do,” he answered, his voice shaking with emotion. “You were not intended to have blood on your hands. I never intended you to have blood on your hands or the guilt in your heart. It was for me to do murder, never for you.”
Katrin stared at him, seeing the horror and despair in his eyes.
“She was going to kill you,” she cried. “She had sent for Borsen to be arrested and she said she was going to have you and Hemmett and everyone else executed by torture! I managed to get away from her to come and warn you, but when I came back here you were all gone! I thought she’d already had you arrested!”
She dropped into the chair, unable to stay on her feet. “There was no time. I did what I had to do! I made the sacrifice!
“Don’t look at me like that, Menders!” Katrin heard her voice going high. Tears were close but she couldn’t stop staring at him.
“I knew about her planning that!” he replied. “Borsen and Stevahn are already in Surelia, they’re safe. I was coming to get you and take you out of here.”
Katrin felt herself being destroyed by the look of desperation and despair on his face.
“I didn’t know you knew about it – I didn’t know, Menders! You never told me anything and I was alone!” she gasped.
He turned away, unable to meet her gaze any longer.
“I will never forgive myself,” he groaned, his voice deep with grief.
Katrin clung to the sides of her chair with her hands, dizzy with horror.
“It didn’t hurt her,” she said in a very small voice. “She just went to sleep. She wasn’t afraid. She didn’t even realize what was happening.”
He didn’t answer, standing with his back to her. Katrin held onto her chair and shook with shock and misery. The tears she’d refused to shed during all the weeks she’d been in the Palace were spilling out now. She could no longer hold them back.
“I don’t want to be Queen,” she finally gasped. “You know that. I never did. I want to live at The Shadows with you and Eiren and Hemmett and everyone else. I killed her to save you, not because I want to be Queen.”
He kept his back to her. She could see him clenching his fists.
“Menders, I can’t bear if it you don’t love me any more!” she finally wailed.
He turned to her and she understood why he wouldn’t turn around before – he, too, was in tears. It wasn’t because he despised her. He came to her, knelt before her, and took her hands.
“You have my eternal love, my little princess,” he said huskily. “I never intended for you to bear the murder of your sister. You’ve once again precipitated me.”
“Do you think I’m as bad as she was?” Katrin asked, staring at him, her breath coming short.
“You killed her for the purest and most unselfish of reasons. She killed for pleasure. Answer your own question, Katrin.”
His answer, his slightly sharp tone, made her tears slow. It made her think.
“And you still love me?” she asked.
“You know it. I grieve for your loss of innocence and I love you.” He kissed her hands. “Can you forgive me?”
She could only answer, “Can you forgive me?”
They both smiled at the same time.
“Now hurry, there might still be time to get you away,” he said, rising to his feet. “You don’t want them to declare you Queen, not now, and they can’t if you’re not here…”
Just then there were shouts from the direction of Aidelia’s room. Menders went to the door and looked out, replacing his glasses on his nose.
“The Council!” he gasped. “Why would they be up here?”
“They come up when they need a signature. She never goes – went to the meetings,” Katrin said weakly.
She knew it was too late to run.
Destiny, one she did not want, had drawn even with her. No matter what she did, it would not be denied. She had chosen her sacrifice out of love. The thing she had most feared all her life would come to pass.
“Hurry!” Menders cried, grabbing her hand and pulling. “We can still get to Bartan’s rooms…”
Katrin looked up and met his eyes.
“It has come,” she said softly. “There is no stopping it.”
Menders had his mouth open to protest but then drew a deep breath and nodded.
“Yes, I know,” he answered, just as softly. “I am so sorry, my little princess. My little golden girl.” He looked at her, his expression full of regret and love.
Then Menders went slowly down on one knee, arms extended out to his sides, head inclined in the most formal Court bow.
“You have my unswervable fealty, Your Majesty,” he said quietly.
Katrin shuddered at the words Your Majesty. Then she stood and gave him her hand as a signal that he could rise. His fingers tightened on hers and he drew her into a strong embrace. She threw her arms around him and held tightly to him.
Thundering, floor-shaking footsteps rushed down the corridor toward the suite, an inexorable tide. The Council was hastening to make obeisance to the new Queen.
Menders put her away from him as the pounding on the door began.
“We must let them in, Katrin,” he said.
Katrin drew herself up. She knew she looked dreadful, tear streaked and red-eyed. They would think she was mourning the death of her sister, the news brought to her by her retainer. That would be the official story.
Menders had taught her well. She straightened her spine, held her shoulders back, and took a deep breath.
Queen. Queen and sacrifice.
“Open the door,” she said.
The Palace, Erdahn, Mordania
5
“That’s Therbalt!”
“K
atrin, stay here in the suite,” Menders said. “No matter what you may hear.”
He looked significantly at Eiren and Franz, who had been sent for as soon as Katrin was declared Queen. They had just arrived by the steam launch. Not long after them the Court had returned in the late summer twilight. Menders’ Men and Hemmett’s Guard met the courtiers and sent them directly to their quarters.
“I’ll see to Petran,” Katrin answered, trying to smile.
Smiling didn’t come easily. It had been a terrible afternoon and early evening. She had ended up roaring orders to release all prisoners to a Council obviously unaccustomed to obeying Queens. Then poor, young Petran Borghel had been brought to her rooms by her command, while Aidelia’s other prisoners were released to go to their homes.
The young man’s condition was dreadful, though Franz said he would live with good care. Petran kept grabbing and kissing Katrin’s hands anytime she was near and would become disconsolate if he couldn’t see her.
Katrin knew what Menders was going to do. She wasn’t going to think about it. She didn’t want to know.
***
Hemmett stood in the doorway of a room he had seen only once before.
His brown eyes roamed over the hooks and wires from which Katrin had been suspended. They fell to rest on the bloodstains on the floor, which hadn’t been cleaned in the years since she was tortured here.
He felt fury, pure and hot, surging inside, reaching all the dark places in his mind, cleaning them with the intensity of flame.
His sword rang in the silence as he pulled it from its scabbard and turned to go join the others.
***
Menders looked at his assembled soldiers – all of his Men brought over from The Shadows the day before, all of Hemmett’s Guard. With them were Bartan and two of the Palace Guard who had been at the Mitary Academy with Hemmett and had proved themselves loyal during the past weeks, doing much to ease operations and to keep Katrin safe, at great risk to themselves.
They’d been busy through the long afternoon and evening, meeting the returning Court members and escorting them to their rooms, locking them in. Bartan had let Menders know which ones were in Aidelia’s group of confidential courtiers. They were given extra guards. No-one was permitted to leave the Palace.
“You know who to target,” Menders said. “All the freaks Aidelia kept around her. I want Prince Talbreth in particular. Bring him to me alive, if at all possible. He’s not back yet, so Villison is going to watch for him. Deal cleanly and quickly with the rest of them.”
They dispersed rapidly, in pairs. Menders was left alone and then set out for his own destinations.
He let himself into the chamber of the Palace Guard Commander who had arrested Katrin and refused to let her dress properly or bring anything with her. The man had been held in his rooms that afternoon by none other than Corporal Villison and a very large gun. Now he sat sullenly, glaring at Menders.
“Now,” Menders said, in a very quiet and reasonable voice, “You have one minute to explain why you didn’t allow a young woman to dress properly when you arrested her.”
“I have no need to answer to you,” the man replied firmly.
Menders drew a long knife from its sheath and made sure it flashed in the light. He had the pleasure of seeing the soldier swallow nervously.
“Imagine how that girl felt, in that thin dress and nothing else, being taken by you and your men,” he said companionably. “You didn’t show her the least bit of mercy. No-one would have known if you’d waited for ten minutes to let her dress herself and put on proper shoes, but you refused to allow her that much decency. Now that young woman is Queen. What do you think of that?”
The man went pale and started to speak.
“No, no, no, you’re out of time,” Menders said kindly. He swung the knife in a rapid arc, neatly slicing through the bull neck of the Commander as if he’d cut through a flower stem. He left him, still spouting blood, and went to visit the Palace torturer. Then he would be paying a social call on the Queen’s Chamberlain.
***
For an hour, there were muffled cries and screams and the occasional gunshot as the members of Aidelia’s inner circle were removed, along with others Menders knew would be a threat to Katrin later. Menders’ Men and Hemmett’s Guard moved with speed and precision, eliminating one courtier after another, including many who had at one time or another been involved in plots against Katrin’s life.
There was no sign of the courtier who called himself Prince Talbreth. Menders had begun to suspect he’d gotten wind of the day’s happenings when there was a clatter of hoofbeats in the Courtyard. Then Villison ordered someone out of their carriage.
There were sounds o
f a scuffle, then a shot and a cry – Villison’s.
Hemmett was already halfway to the door when the courtier known as Prince Talbreth raced into the Palace, contrary to anything anyone could expect. He made a sharp right turn and fled toward the stairs leading to the dungeons.
Kaymar bellowed, “That’s Therbalt!” He grabbed a halberd from a rack of weapons and raced after him.
“It’s just me arm, Hem, get him!” Villison roared in the courtyard. “Right in me Watch the Lady arm! Bastard!”
“I want him alive!” Menders shouted, running after the tide of Men who were pursuing the large man.
Talbreth plunged into the stairwell and could be heard leaping from one flight to another over the bannisters. Kaymar, unable to move that quickly with the halberd, dropped it with a clang that echoed up through the staircase over the thunder of dozens of men’s feet on stone steps.
The pursuit ended in a hall that was a dead end. There was no sign of Talbreth by the time Menders got there. Kaymar and Ifor, along with half a dozen of the other men, were desperately pushing and shoving at the wall.
“It’s a damned hidden door he’s gone through!” Kaymar groaned.
“It’ll lead down to the ocean from here, go, go!” Menders roared to the rest of them, who went full tilt for the staircase again. He tried along with Kaymar and Ifor to find the hidden apparatus that would cause the nearly invisible door at the end of the hall to open, but had no luck.
“That bastard is the one who was after Eiren years ago,” Kaymar panted, finally giving up and leaning against the wall. “The one who set DeLarco on us. Therbalt.”
“Shit!” Menders hissed, studying the door again. It would take hours to sort it out, and likely Therbalt or Talbreth or whoever was long gone down a hidden passage or stairwell.
Love and Sacrifice: Book Two of the Prophecy Series Page 62