The King's bastard cokrk-1

by Rowena Cory Daniells

  Valens released the nun and caught Piro's arm, swinging her around. Before she could react, he had her back pressed to his chest, a small dagger digging into her throat just under her right ear.

  Piro clenched her fist and drove it into his ribs. She heard him grunt with pain, but his grip didn't slacken as he backed towards the door to the corridor.

  His panting and her ragged breathing were the only sounds in the solarium.

  Her mother stood absolutely still. 'Let Piro go. I won't call for the guards. Just let her go.'

  But Piro knew he wouldn't. He'd touched her, tasted her Affinity. When she was no longer any use to him as a hostage he'd drain her too.

  Piro felt him tense as he went to reach for the door. Then he made an odd strangled sound and hot fluid ran over her shoulder, down her arm. She stared at the bright red blood.

  Valens released her.

  Piro stepped away, turning around to see a gaping tear in his throat under his right ear. Even with one hand clasping the wound, blood pumped between his fingers.

  Valens pitched forwards. Piro only just slipped out of the way in time.

  Seela came in, shut the door and wiped her dainty little knife on his back, then crossed and pushed it into the coals of the brazier for a moment.

  'Fire purifies evil Affinity, remember that, Piro.' This was said in the same tone her nurse had used to remind her to wear her woolen under garments.

  Piro couldn't find her voice.

  'Thank you, Seela,' her mother whispered.

  'Power-workers always forget a knife is just as deadly to them,' Seela remarked. She withdrew the knife, tested the blade for heat, then tucked it into her belt sheath where it had always been kept, ready to peel fresh apples and pears for hungry children.

  Piro blinked. The world contracted to a single, bright spot of light reflecting off the knife hilt. She felt the floor come up towards her.

  When the mists cleared her hearing returned first.

  'There, love,' Seela was saying. 'Just lift your shoulder.'

  Her bodice peeled off down both arms and Piro opened her eyes to find she was lying on the day bed near the tiled warming stove.

  'This is ready,' her mother said, bringing a bowl of steaming water to the low table.

  Seela handed the bloodied bodice to the queen and dipped a cloth in the warm, scented water. She began to sponge Piro's arm and shoulder. 'There, you don't want his nasty blood on you. You're lucky it didn't go through to your chemise.'

  Piro bit back the urge to giggle, then struggled to sit up. Valens still lay in a puddle of blood on the floor and… 'Springdawn?'

  'Dead. She underestimated him.' The queen held up Piro's bodice. 'Do you think we can save this, Seela?'

  'Burn it,' the old nurse advised. 'Burn anything touched by his blood.'

  'Of course. What was I thinking?'

  'You've had a shock, dear. Send for Autumnwind. He'll have to settle the Affinity released by their deaths and ensure their bodies are properly disposed of.'

  'Springdawn's death will have to be reported to the abbess,' the queen said, as she tossed Piro's bodice into the brazier and stirred it until the material caught. 'As for Valens, I don't — '

  'Now we can banish Cobalt.' Piro made the connection.

  'We can't confront him.' Seela put aside the wet cloth and dried Piro's shoulder. 'He's grown too powerful. Your father has named him Protector of the Castle.'

  'But Valens was Cobalt's servant.'

  'Cobalt will say he did not know,' the queen pointed out. 'He'll be horrified and terribly sorry.'

  Her mother was right, Piro could just imagine Cobalt's reaction. 'But Valens is dead. How do we explain that?'

  'I'll remove his belongings. We can say he ran away, back to Ostron Isle because he feared the Merofynians.' Seela winked at Piro. 'You know what cowards, Ostronites are. They never fight, not if they can wheedle their way out of trouble.'

  'Cobalt will suspect, but what can he do?' The queen took off her woolen over-wrap and passed it to Piro. 'You'll have to run down to your chamber and put on another bodice.'

  Piro tied the wrap. It smelt of her mother's favourite perfume and made her feel warm to the core. She came to her feet. 'Very well. Is there anything I can do to help?'

  Seela and her mother exchanged looks.

  'Wait down by the stables,' Seela said. 'Rolen still trusts you. If he comes back too soon, distract him until we can get rid of Valens.'

  Piro nodded. She didn't ask what they were going to do with the renegade's remains. He would have to be burnt and the ashes sprinkled over water.

  'Go by the servants' stairs,' Seela suggested.

  Piro stepped over Springdawn's body and through the tapestry.

  Back in the solarium she heard someone tap on the door and enter without waiting for a reply. 'Queen Myrella, I — '

  Old Lord Steadfast? What did he want?

  Piro peered through the chink in the tapestry.

  Steadfast had stopped in the doorway, his path blocked by Valens' body. He raised stunned eyes to the queen.

  'What's going on, Myrella?' Cobalt asked, his ashen face peering over the old warrior lord's shoulder.

  'Thank Halcyon you've come. I was just about to send for help.' Piro's mother did not miss a beat. She crossed the room, having to avoid Springdawn's body to reach them.

  'What happened?' Steadfast asked, stepping around Valens' body so that Cobalt could enter the room.

  'It's terrible.' The queen wrung her hands. 'I sent for Springdawn because I'd discovered she'd taken a lover. She denied it but Valens admitted it. She took poison and he cut his throat.'

  'Who would have thought?' Steadfast muttered.

  Cobalt stared at the two bodies, one without a mark, the other lying in a pool of blood. Piro was impressed with her mother's ability to think on her feet.

  'I…' The queen reached for Cobalt. 'I don't feel…'

  He had to catch her as she fainted.

  'The shock,' Steadfast explained knowledgeably, shaking his head in sympathy.

  'That's right, poor dear,' Seela agreed. 'It happened so quickly there was nothing we could do. Bring the queen over here, Cobalt.'

  As she indicated the day bed, Piro noticed that the bowl which had been used to wash the blood from her shoulder and arm had been returned to the stove. Would Cobalt or Steadfast notice the pink water?

  'On second thoughts, Myrella won't want to be near the bodies when she wakes,' Seela muttered. 'Better bring her through to the far chamber.'

  And she herded both men out the door into the larger solarium.

  Piro leant against the wall, weak-kneed.

  Why had Cobalt and Steadfast arrived just when they did? Cobalt's spies must have reported that the queen had sent for his manservant. Whatever Cobalt might suspect, he could not disprove her mother's explanation.

  She darted back inside to grab the bowl and slipped out, heading for her bed chamber. It was the work of a moment to tip the bloodied water down the drain at the end of the corridor and leave the bowl with the others waiting to be washed.

  Fifteen minutes later, dressed in a completely different outfit — she couldn't stand the thought of wearing anything that Valens had touched — Piro crossed the stable courtyard. Several of Byren's honour guard were strapping travelling kits to their saddles and mounting up.

  'Chandler, Winterfall. What are you doing?' Piro asked. Yesterday, when she had delivered the news of Byren's banishment, they had seemed relieved to hear that their vows of service had been annulled.

  'We're going after him,' Chandler replied, swinging up into the saddle. His tired but determined eyes met Piro's. 'Byren's loyal to the core. We refuse to believe he's a traitor and we're going to help him.'

  Relief made Piro feel light. She touched his boot top, level with her face. 'I'm glad. Watch over him.'

  Chandler nodded and the eight of them rode out.

  Piro couldn't remember how many honour guards Byren h
ad sworn in but only eight had stood by him. Perhaps it was for the best. Where Byren was going he needed followers who were completely committed.

  Piro stayed in the stables until lunch time, by which time she was too hungry to think straight. She hadn't eaten breakfast and was going to miss lunch, and still there was no sign of her father. Knowing him, he was probably treating himself to roast beef and potatoes in one of Rolenton's rich merchant's homes. There was time for her to snatch some food. When the king came back, she wanted to be sure he saw her mother and Seela first, not Cobalt. She headed for the kitchen, begging some extra scraps for her foenix.

  Settling in with him she shared her lunch. Glad of the foenix's uncritical company, she whispered her fears to him. 'So I don't know what Father's going to say when he hears Valens has killed himself.'

  The foenix made a soft, sympathetic noise in his throat as though he understood.

  'Piro, are you there?' Seela scurried into the menagerie.

  Piro came to her feet.

  Seela looked relieved. 'Your mother wants you.'

  Piro dropped the last of the crumbs for the foenix and hurried over to her old nurse.

  'Is everything all right? Did Cobalt suspect? I overheard him arrive,' she explained. 'Mother was so quick to invent that lovers' story.'

  'It was not invention.' Seela looked grim. 'Something very like that happened not forty years ago in the Merofynian court. Still, Cobalt was suspicious.'

  Piro smiled. 'Even if he is, what can he do?'

  'Cause trouble. He has a gift for it,' the old nurse muttered as she hurried down a corridor. 'You've been taking your dreamless-sleep, haven't you?'

  'Yes.' Piro only half-lied. 'Why?'

  Seela didn't answer. Piro went to take the quickest route to her mother's solarium but Seela caught her arm, urging her to the left.

  'Why are we — '

  'Nightmares?' Seela asked, panting a little.

  'Some,' Piro admitted. With the unistag gone the only surviving Affinity beast in the menagerie was the foenix, and he was too small to absorb much of her power, so it had been building up again. Too much dreamless-sleep made her feel listless and groggy the next day, and too little could not keep the nightmares at bay. She preferred nightmares to feeling half-alive.

  'We're going to write down your dreams so Autumnwind can try to interpret them,' Seela explained. 'You were right about the threat to Rolen, even if you had the wrong source.'

  Piro felt relieved to be taken seriously at last. They hurried up the servants' stairs to the rear entrance of the solarium. Male voices sounded muffled through the tapestry-covered opening. Seela froze. Piro almost collided with her.

  Seela signalled for silence.

  Piro recognised Cobalt's voice and her stomach knotted. Other voices joined him.

  Seela peered through the gap in the tapestry. 'Cobalt, and he's with several of Lence's honour guard, boys who have more ambition than sense, if I'm not mistaken,' she whispered. 'You stay here.'

  Before Piro could protest, Seela bustled through the tapestry hanging, entering the room beyond.

  'Here, what's this all about, young Illien?' the nurse demanded.

  'He has come to arrest me, Seela,' Queen Myrella said, her voice rich with scorn.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  'How could you, Illien?' the queen demanded. 'You, of all people, should know I'm faithful!'

  'I am only following orders, Queen Myrella. Lord Steadfast thinks — '

  'That I've been working treason against Rolencia? As if I would!'

  'We have proof, madam queen. Written in your own hand,' old Lord Steadfast announced, stepping forwards. He glanced to Cobalt, who reached into his vest and handed something over.

  There was a rustle of something being unrolled.

  Steadfast cleared his throat. 'This is a description of the steps King Rolen has taken to ensure the safety of his kingdom. I intercepted it being smuggled out of the castle.'

  Lence's honour guards murmured disgustedly.

  'Let me see that,' the queen demanded. As she studied the paper Piro caught sight of the wax seal her mother had used on her message to the ambassador only this morning. 'A clever forgery. Nothing more. Rolen knows I would never — '

  'The king is not here and Lord Cobalt has been appointed Protector of the Castle,' Steadfast said. 'When I intercepted this, I took it straight to him and insisted he act upon it. In good conscience I could not let a traitor wander loose in Rolenhold.'

  'I am sorry, Queen Myrella,' Cobalt said, sounding genuine.

  But Piro knew what he was capable of. His spies had intercepted her mother's message and he'd used it to forge this message, then arranged for Steadfast to discover it, knowing that the old man would insist he arrest the queen. Her mother had neat, elegant script. One corner of Piro's mouth lifted. It would be much harder to forge her own handwriting which, despite her mother's best efforts, was barely legible.

  Cobalt bowed to her mother. 'The honour guard will escort you to the mourning tower, Queen Myrella. You may take anything you need.'

  There was a moment's silence, then the queen spoke. 'Very well. Come, Seela. No… we will not need anything. King Rolen will set me free the moment he hears of this!'

  There was some shuffling and then the sound of boots marching from the room. Piro leant against the wall, feeling weak-kneed.

  The hide of him! Rage surged through her. How dare Cobalt frame her mother!

  'Now, we must find the kingsdaughter,' Cobalt said. 'The message was discovered in her drawing satchel.'

  Piro peered through the gap. The four young honour guards stared at Piro's satchel, which contained the sketches she had planned to turn into paintings. How had that got into Cobalt's hands?

  'Piro Kingsdaughter?' one of the guards whispered. 'But she's Rolencian-born.'

  'You doubt me?' Cobalt countered, rolling up his sleeve to reveal something Piro couldn't see because the men were in the way. 'This is where she scratched me when I tried to question her. She's as wild as a wyvern and as cunning, for all that she looks so sweet. Don't listen to a word she says.'

  'They say the apple never falls far from the tree,' the first voice marvelled. 'Who woulda thought it of little — '

  'Exactly. Find her. Bring her to me.'

  'Not to her mother? I thought you'd want her in the Tower with the queen.'

  'What, and give them time to concoct their lies?' Cobalt demanded. 'No. I want to find out who she was meeting and if there are other spies within Rolenhold.'

  'Very good, my lord. Come on, lads.'

  They marched off.

  Piro sank to her knees, dizzy with dismay. She had underestimated Cobalt badly. But even so, how could Lord Steadfast and the others believe this ridiculous concoction?

  They say the apple never falls far from the tree, the guard's words returned to her, triggering another memory. The old seer had been right. Cobalt was the bad apple and he was turning the others against them.

  She had to get to her father before Cobalt did. Heart thudding in her ears, she scrambled to her feet and backed up until she came to the top of the landing. But she must have made some small noise because Cobalt flung the tapestry open. He stood a mere body length from her.

  His eyes widened, then narrowed. 'You heard?'

  She nodded.

  His lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl as he lunged.

  Piro fled down the stairs with him not far behind. She could not outrun a grown man. What should she do? Already she could hear him gaining on her.

  Rounding a bend, she came to the top of the next flight of stairs. No side passages. He'd catch her for sure. Only one thing to do.

  She pressed her back to the wall, judged how close he was and, at the last moment, stuck her leg out. The impact jarred her whole body, but he was worse off. His stride broken, he missed the top step and fell heavily, thudding into the wall, bouncing off and rolling down the steps.

  Piro grinned fiercely.
With any luck he would break his neck!

  Then she was off, running back upstairs to the solarium. She had only a few moments before Cobalt recovered and came after her. Where should she hide until King Rolen came back? And how could she prove her mother's innocence, when the seeds of doubt had already been sewn? She glanced to her mother's writing desk. If only her mother hadn't written to the ambassador. But Cobalt would have thought of some other way to implicate her in treason. If only she had proof of Cobalt's machinations.

  Perhaps she did!

  Valens' case of tools and creams. Maybe there was something in it to implicate Cobalt. She dragged it out from under the desk but there was no time to look through it now. Her first priority was to get to her father before Steadfast or Cobalt could. Where could she hide Valens' case?

  The last place they'd look.

  Piro marched down the stairs into the servants' quarters. Spotting a scullery maid, who was no taller than her with long dark hair bound in a plait, Piro beckoned the girl. 'My mother needs this. Please take it to her.'

  The maid did not ask where the queen was, so the news must have travelled all over the castle. Someone was sure to get to her father if she didn't meet him at the stables. Piro hurried through the connecting courtyard. And she was only just in time for she heard the clatter of returning horses.

  'Father?' She ran out into the stable yard.

  There he was, riding in with Captain Temor and several of his old honour guard.

  'The town has outgrown its walls these last thirty years,' Temor was saying, as he swung down from the saddle and handed his reins to a stable boy. 'But, even if it hadn't, the people are better off coming up here to take shelter. Rolenhold will never fall.'

  'And if the townspeople are safe within these walls, they cannot be used as hostages to force us to open the gates,' King Rolen agreed, also dismounting. He grimaced when his boots landed on the cobbles, jarring his body.

  'Father?' Piro darted through the stable boys, who led the horses away, past the old honour guard. She caught the king's arm. 'Something terrible has happened. Cobalt locked mother in the mourning tower. He says she's a traitor but it's a forgery!'