"I just realized--we're going to have a son!"
Mrillis chose that moment to lead Meghianna away, so the expectant parents could celebrate the news. He took her to her quarters, where he could give her something to wash the ache and weariness from her body, and they could discuss her vision and her few spoken words in freedom and privacy. They were still discussing their plans when servants came to summon them to the evening meal. This early in the spring, Court meals were still informal, quiet, with no ranked seating, no music, and everyone served themselves from long tables laden with dishes, rather than servants bringing food to the seated courtiers.
Meghianna and Mrillis joined Glyssani and Efrin at a small table on the main floor, rather than the dais. She noticed too many people trying to watch them, and felt as if she were on display just as much as if she sat on the dais. She supposed she had grown so used to the quiet and solitude in the Stronghold, with everyone living by their own schedules and only socializing in the evenings, that she had grown quite unsociable. A flicker of pity for her brother, who would live most of his life constantly on display, welled up inside her. She would certainly have to do something about that while he was living in hiding. If only she could arrange for both of them to disappear.
"What are you smiling about, Meggi?" Efrin asked.
"I am becoming quite the recluse, Papa dear. We welcome so few visitors to the Stronghold nowadays, and men aren't allowed to live inside our walls any longer. I think I shall give orders that no one will ever step foot on the Lake of Ice, let alone pass through the Mist Gates. In a few years... don't be surprised if people begin to forget that I and the Stronghold exist at all."
"So no one comes looking for you," Glyssani said, nodding, a smile of understanding lighting her eyes.
"If no one comes looking for me, they won't realize I'm not there."
Too bad we can't do the same for me, Mrillis said, and reached over to squeeze her hand under the table. That's the piece of our plan we kept tripping over--how to establish you somewhere without half the World coming to you for help and leading our enemies straight to the boy. It's a given I can't have him stay with me.
If no one remembers me, why would they recognize me when I walk among them? Meghianna muffled a giggle. I've always wanted to dye my hair.
Where is the last place anyone would look for you and the boy? Some place busy. Some place where thousands of people pass through every day.
Quenlaque, she immediately responded. He'll learn about the world, just watching people passing through the port every day. I think I'll become a cook. No, I'll run an inn, and work as a healer on the side. That will bring plenty of people to us, and teach him about all the levels of society, all people, without anyone realizing he's learning anything at all.
It's brilliant. Most people would expect the Warhawk's son to be hidden some place forbidding and dangerous, with drakags and other monstrosities guarding the doors to keep away all comers. Mrillis paused to respond to a remark from Efrin that Meghianna didn't hear, caught up in her plans, the dozens of new ideas and possibilities that came to her with every heartbeat.
She thought of the port city of Quenlaque, and remembered a vision, a misty image that had come to her three times as she sat on the last high hill looking down on the bustling, sprawling town. In all those visions and waking dreams, she had seen a fortress sitting on the plateau that looked down over the port. It was too far away from the center of the port to be useful for anything but grazing sheep and cattle now, but by the time her brother was a grown man and Efrin gave him the crown, Quenlaque would double in size. Her brother, the next Warhawk, the third drop of blood of the prophecy, would build his fortress there on that plateau. He would love Quenlaque and make it the center of his kingdom, and all the World would revolve around that port city. Someday, Quenlaque would become a name of legend and wonder.
Before the ending of all things worthwhile and strong, there will be three drops of blood born to the bloody sword.
The daughters shall walk in light and be strong, but the son shall overstep them.
One shall serve and one abominate and one will triumph.
One will sleep and one shall wait and one shall suffer.
They shall do so forever, and yet even to forever there is an ending.
The blood drawn from the third shall open the doors and smooth the road and waken the sleeper.
Protect the strong and vigilant, so that the three drops of blood may come.
Though you look for the abomination, you will not find her until she has destroyed innocence. Keep her from the blood drawn from the blood, or all is lost.
About the Author
Michelle Levigne has been a book addict since kindergarten, starting with Dr. Seuss and graduating to the Happy Hollisters juvenile sleuth series, then an abridged two-volume set of Rudyard Kipling found in her parents' bookshelf (fell in love with Mowgli and Kim) before detouring through a flirtation with Star Trek in fifth grade (who is better, Trek's Dr. McCoy or X-Men's Dr. McCoy?) before being captured by the Black Stallion like all the other girls in her class. In junior high, she fell captive to Greco-Roman mythology and found The Odyssey after watching an old Kirk Douglas movie on rainy Sunday afternoon. (And some people still believe her when she says she read it in the original Greek.) Then in senior high, the addiction took over her life and she became a pusher--she started writing.
The Zygradon books, which are original to Uncial Press, have a firm foundation in the Mary Stewart Merlin books (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment), which she discovered in college. During a brief flirtation with fanzine publishing, influenced by a friend who wrote Fantasy Island stories (yes, that long ago!), she wrote a Fantasy Island episode where the daughter of King Arthur, awakened from an enchantment, became Mr. Roarke's ward and came to the island to find Excalibur. When will the descendant of that story show up in the Zygradon books? Be patient. There's a lot of history to explore and enjoy.
Welcome to the Zygradon series, and many thanks to Uncial for inviting me to join them at the beginning of this adventure.
We're going to have a lot of fun.
To learn about other universes and genres Michelle writes in, visit her Web site: www.Mlevigne.com.
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THREE DROPS OF BLOOD Page 28