THREE DROPS OF BLOOD

by Michelle L. Levigne

  "Megassa." Mrillis held out his hands to the child perched on top of the stall wall, and forced a smile. Only a few steps, and he would be able to grab hold of her and lift her down.

  Gynefra dashed into the stables, her black hair streaming down her back, barefoot, her tunic lacing undone, holding up her trousers with one hand and her belt hanging loose. She skidded to a stop in the straw carpeting the main aisle of the stable.

  "I'm sorry," Megassa whimpered, her eyes glistening like jewels with tears.

  "Do you want to get hurt?" the guard captain said on a sigh. She nodded slightly to Mrillis and stepped around to the open stall door, raising her hands to get Mist's attention.

  "Want to ride."

  "Why this horse?"

  "It's the princess's horse. Everybody likes her. If they see me ride, they'll like me, too."

  "I like you, troublemaker though you are," Gynefra said, stepping into the stall. She sidestepped quickly, making a sour face, and Mrillis guessed she barely missed stepping in a pile of droppings--barefoot. He had seen Gynefra step in far worse without batting an eye, and knew she did it to distract the child.

  Holding his breath, he stepped up behind Megassa and took hold of her skirt with both hands, making his touch delicate to avoid startling her.

  "Really?" Megassa said, her voice on the verge of breaking.

  "Absolutely. You're a tough little thing. I think you'd make a fine warrior. How would you like to start training when you're older?"

  "I'm not allowed to do anything," she said, shaking her head so hard, she tipped sideways. "Bastards aren't allowed to be anything."

  "Who told you that?" Gynefra frowned, sparks in her eyes, revealing to Mrillis that she had been speaking the truth to the child--she did like her.

  Megassa's answer was a yelp as she overbalanced and fell off the stall. Backwards, straight into Mrillis' arms. He gasped as one flailing foot caught him just below the ribs. Hugging the child close, he stepped backwards, away from the stall, before turning her around in his arms to face him. He found himself reluctant to let go of her. How long had it been since he cuddled a child close? Meghianna sometimes sat on his knee when they had one of their long talks, but they were both too engrossed in her lessons to even think of cuddling. Meghianna's brilliance fascinated him too much to even see her as a child to cuddle, much to his regret.

  "There. Safely back on the ground again," he said, indulging in another squeeze before putting her down. "Kindly do not frighten us again with such antics, Megassa."

  "Are you mad?" the child whispered.

  "Frightened that you'll get hurt," Gynefra said, dropping to her knees to run her hands over the child, checking for cuts and other injuries.

  "But if I'm going to be a soldier, I'll get hurt, won't I?" she said, frowning.

  Mrillis found he preferred that thoughtful expression to her usual pout. He felt a queasy little jolt of guilt as he realized that part of the child's attitude might be his fault, and her father's. Efrin's avoidance of the child undoubtedly cued everyone else's attitude toward her.

  "Are you all right?" Meghianna stopped just outside the stable doors, haloed in mist and light from sunrise. Her hair hung long and unbound down her back, and she wore a pale green underdress. Whatever had alerted her to the ruckus in the stables had interrupted her in dressing for the day.

  "How did you know?" Gynefra stood, heaving Megassa up to ride her hip.

  "I heard Mist..." Meghianna frowned and tipped her head sideways, like a serious little bird. "I heard her in my head. She was upset. She... it was me, but not me, and that made her frightened and angry."

  Mrillis noted that Meghianna wore one shoe and carried the other. It made her serious, thoughtful expression all the more incongruous. Especially in light of this demonstration of the strength of her imbrose.

  "Megassa wanted to ride Mist. I think she frightened a few years growth off all of us." Gynefra frowned at the child in her arms, then ruined the scolding by crossing her eyes at her.

  Megassa giggled.

  It jolted Mrillis to realize he had never heard the child laugh before.

  Blessed Estall, forgive us, but we have been cruel to the child without intending. This is how Endor was turned evil under our very noses, by punishing him for the sins of his father. Will the evil of previous generations continue because we cannot avoid taking vengeance on the innocent?

  "Do you know how to ride?" Meghianna said. She slipped her other shoe onto her foot and came into the stable. She frowned, her bottom lip sticking out a little in a most becoming, thoughtful expression, when her half-sister shook her head. "You have to start on a pony before you can ride a horse. I'm not allowed to ride Mist alone, and I won't for years because she's so big and I'm still small. Lord Mrillis, can we get Megassa a pony to learn on?"

  "We will have to ask... your father," he said after blanking for just a moment. This new sensitivity to Megassa's feelings made him reluctant to mention Efrin in front of her. Just how aware was the child that her father didn't want anything to do with her?

  "I won't get to see him until after my lessons," she said with a shake of her head. "That's much too long to wait."

  "You don't see him, either?" Megassa said, curiosity brightening her face. She knuckled the last tears from her eyes. "Nurse said you're with the king all the time."

  "I don't even live with our papa all year. He's much too busy being the Warhawk to be my papa every day, all the time. You're lucky. You live in the same place with him."

  Blessed Estall, how blind have we been? We thought Meghianna understood. We know how clever she is, and we never thought to explain.

  "I see him a lot, but he doesn't ever see me," Megassa said. "I think he doesn't like me. Why did you get sent away? Did you do something even worse than me?"

  Chapter Three

  "What did you do?" Meghianna's frown deepened. "Lord Mrillis--"

  "It is complicated," he said on a sigh. "Megassa, you did not do anything wrong. Remember that. Anyone who tells you it is your fault that you do not see your father is lying." He fought a grin when Megassa looked up to Gynefra for confirmation of his words. At least the child trusted someone. "The easiest explanation is that your mother was not married to your father when you were born. The Estall says it is wrong to make babies between people who are not married. Your father does not want to remember that he and your mother did something very wrong. You did nothing wrong by being born. Do you understand?"

  Megassa's nod and little smile stabbed him yet again.

  I am getting soft in my old age, Mrillis thought.

  "My mama died when I was a baby. Seeing me hurts Papa, because he misses her," Meghianna said, and reached out to take hold of Megassa's hand.

  "So he sent you away?" Megassa shook her head, her confusion and disbelief almost comical.

  "No. Princess Meghianna is a student at the Stronghold," Gynefra hurried to say. "She has very much to learn before she is grown up. That is why she only lives here part of the year."

  "That's why I never saw you before?" She tipped her head to one side, mirroring Meghianna's expression.

  Mrillis caught Gynefra's glance, both of them sharing silent concern at this mimicry. Megassa's hair had more curl, and slightly more red tint, but other than their mode of dress, the girls could have been twins. That would only be a problem for another six or seven years, he estimated. Meghianna's hair would grow fairer, finally turning white as she reached maturity. That was one constant among all the girls who became Queen of Snows. The flow of power through them as they manipulated the Threads turned their hair white. But Megassa could bleach her hair too easily, if she wanted to take her sister's place.

  Ridiculous, he scolded himself. Megassa has little imbrose, and even if she started training now, she would never reach Meghianna's skill and strength. We have agreed she will never be sent to the Stronghold to study, never be encouraged to cultivate her magical talents.

  In light of the prophecy o
f the Three Drops of Blood, the Council had decided soon after Megassa's birth that if she showed any imbrose strength, any talent in magic whatsoever, she would be enfolded in spells and bindings, to cripple that aspect of her life. The leaders of the Rey'kil had learned a bitter lesson with Endor and his siblings. It would be wrong to kill Megassa, but there was nothing either criminal or cruel in keeping her from becoming a weapon in the enemy's hands.

  As those thoughts ran through Mrillis' head, Megassa seemed to come to some settlement with what she had just learned. She smiled, nodded once, and looked up at Mist, who hung her head over the stall door, visibly waiting for Meghianna to pet her.

  "Do you think they'll really let me ride a pony?" the child asked.

  "If you want to become a warrior when you're grown, you have to learn to ride," Gynefra said. "Why not start now?"

  "I'm going to ask Papa tonight," Meghianna promised.

  "There you are." Nalla hurried into the stable, only slowing a few steps when she saw the group gathered in front of Mist's stall. She wrapped a shawl around Meghianna. "Come back and finish your breakfast. We don't have much time. You're riding out with Healer Onach today, remember?"

  "Can I go?" Megassa immediately chirped.

  "If you want to miss your first lesson with bow and arrows." Gynefra laughed when the girl's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in dismay. "They'll be riding all day. You don't have a pony yet."

  "But you will by tomorrow morning," Meghianna promised, and nodded her head for emphasis.

  Mrillis didn't doubt, no matter how reluctant Efrin might be to give Megassa any mobility or recognition, his elder daughter would have her way.

  The girls had discovered each other, and Meghianna's generous, open nature wouldn't allow her new sister to be pushed back into a dark room and forgotten. He supposed the wisest course of action was to allow the girls to be together, and be friends. If true affection developed between them, love for Meghianna might be all that was needed to keep Megassa from following her mother's and grandmother's footsteps into treachery.

  He took comfort from the knowledge that Gynefra would guide Megassa's steps, away from using her magic and toward the life of a woman warrior. That sort of destiny for the girl would be safer for all of them.

  * * * *

  "Where is Megassa's mother?" Meghianna asked, looking up from the scroll she had been studying for the last hour.

  Mrillis sighed, ending on a soft chuckle. He should have known that question would be bouncing around in her clever mind all day, since her most recent encounter with her half-sister.

  "Nalla said nobody really knows, and I... well, I heard something she thought. I didn't mean to listen," she added, eyes widening in earnestness.

  "I don't doubt you." He got up from his worktable and crossed the long, narrow room to her worktable, set in front of a window looking down on her garden. He reflected, not for the first time, that without meaning to, life in the Warhawk's fortress shifted to focus on this innocently wise child when she resided there. He rearranged his workroom to accommodate her lessons and her safety--this window was a far safer place for her to sit than the other window, which looked down over the outer courtyard. For an enemy to see Meghianna, he would have to penetrate several walls and sets of guards, and stand in the open where anyone looking down into the courtyard could see him. Or her.

  "I think someone does know where she is. Whoever is guarding her. And you know who that person is. She did something bad, didn't she?" The child swallowed and her gaze flicked away from his for a moment. "Nalla thinks she hurt my mother."

  "Yes, we are very sure Trevissa contributed to the death of your mother. Her cousin." Mrillis tugged over the stool so he could sit with his back to the window. All the light fell on Meghianna's face, and left his in shadows. "And yes, I know where she is. What have you learned in your lessons about Wynystrys?"

  "It is the counterpart of the Stronghold, an island. When Master Breylon died, the island was rocked by the tearing of the Threads that had wrapped around him in his lifetime, and came loose, so it drifts along the coast of Lygroes."

  "Hmm, and let this be your first lesson on prevarication and the usefulness of lies." He snorted when the child's eyes widened. He could almost hear her clever mind racing, fascinated and repelled by the concept of some lies actually being beneficial. "The problem with lies is that there is always some truth mixed into them."

  "Then the island was knocked loose from the bedrock when Master Breylon died? And what does that have to do with Trevissa?" She frowned and tipped her head to the side.

  "The island was rocked when my old master died, yes. We took advantage of that visible, very real sundering of the island from its roots and we set it free. It was Master Breylon's own deathbed vision that guided us. Wynystrys lies behind a cloak woven of Threads, to hide its presence from all who are not devoted to its safety, and to allow it to float freely along the coast. And we put Trevissa there, as her prison and her safe hiding place."

  "Because people want to kill her for killing my mother?" Meghianna shook her head a moment later. "No, for killing Queen Belissa. For killing her own cousin. No one cares about a newborn baby being orphaned." Her lips twisted in what Mrillis could only describe as a bitter little smile, and something inside him shuddered in sorrow. No child, he swore, should ever have to wear such an expression.

  "Those who know you want vengeance for you." He gave in to temptation and caressed a few soft strands of hair off her high forehead. "We need to protect Trevissa, because the madness that resulted from our enemies using her as a weapon against us also formed her into a tool of prophecy. When she is lucid, she speaks nothing but truth, and her eyes go white with Seeing. She has given us warnings that have all proven true. Would you allow such a gift from the Estall to be destroyed, or to fall into enemy hands?"

  "No." She looked down at her wax tablet and made a row of dots down the edge, along the frame, while she thought. "So she wasn't evil, just insane, when she killed my mother?"

  "Only the Estall knows."

  "Why did my father make a baby with Trevissa, if he wasn't married to her?"

  Mrillis nearly laughed aloud at that question. He had been living in fascinated, half-dreading anticipation of it, since the encounter that morning in the stable. No matter how sweetly, how cleanly they tried to explain the situation for the girls, no matter how they tried to protect them, the truth was basically ugly and cruel.

  "Trevissa wanted to be queen, or at least a princess. Since Belissa was betrothed to Cafral, the Warhawk's heir, Trevissa thought she should marry Efrin, his younger brother."

  "But my uncle died with my grandparents, so my father became Warhawk."

  "Your parents married for duty, but they liked each other very much, and grew to love each other before she died," he hurried to assure her. Mrillis knew Efrin rarely spoke of Belissa to his daughter, and suspected the young Warhawk wasn't sure if it was guilt or love that gave him such pain at the memory of his queen. "Trevissa was jealous, and she was badly hurt, angry, when your mother announced she was pregnant with you. Trevissa used her imbrose to cast a spell on your father, to make him think she was Belissa. They... mated, and Megassa was conceived. When your mother died soon after you were born, we knew magic had been used against her, but we were not sure of the source, only that blood-magic had been intertwined with imbrose. Then, before the ashes of her funeral pyre cooled... Trevissa announced she carried the Warhawk's heir. She demanded he marry her.

  "Magic examination proved she spoke the truth, and how the conception took place. We were unable to determine either her guilt or her innocence in your mother's death, which led us to believe she was used by someone else to commit the deed. Despite the methods used, the fact remained that Trevissa did carry another child for the Warhawk. Your father vowed he would only marry her if she gave him a son. The strain of the questioning shredded her fragile grip on her sanity, and that refusal to legitimize her child before birth on
ly made things worse. When Megassa was born..."

  Mrillis shook his head and studied the somber little face, with the bright afternoon light spilling across it. "Trevissa was furious to learn she had given birth to a girl. She tried to kill Megassa when she was only a day old, and we realized then she was truly insane."

  "So you put her on Wynystrys, behind the shield, to protect Megassa." Meghianna nodded, pursing her lips as she thought. Mrillis waited, fascinated by her thought processes, even as he sorrowed over another bit of her lost innocence. "And to protect me."

  "Yes, indeed. To protect you."

  "That's why she isn't held prisoner in the Stronghold, even though it might be a more secure prison. To keep her from being anywhere near me. And..." She exhaled slowly, loudly. "I think you keep Megassa away from me, because you think she might hurt me, too?"

  "There is always the possibility. Do you ever wonder why we are so careful of you, why we teach you duty and consequences and fill your head with such serious things?"

  "Because Lady Ceera chose me as her heir before I was born, and there is so very much to learn before I can become Queen of Snows. Papa says the Court is filled with people who would want to make me silly and do my thinking for me, and waste all that time I need to use for studying."

  Mrillis surprised both of them by laughing, tipping his head back, the sound coming out of him so strongly his chest ached. He was delighted at the grin and the sparkle in the child's eyes. As long as she could laugh and not fear the reactions and thoughts of the adults entrusted with her care, he knew she would be well. He regretted taking her childhood away from her, but she had spoken a large part of the truth. There was so very much to teach her before she could fulfill her destiny. And yet, there was more truth to the course he and the child's guardians had taken. Despite being only six years old, Meghianna was no doubt wise enough to comprehend.