Black Kath's Daughter

by Richard Parks

  The reached the spiral stairway on the outer wall of the tower and started down. Marta still seethed. "So she arranged for you to travel all this way to do her dirty work."

  Kath shrugged. "That's one way to look at it. Another is that it was wise of her to reassure both the king and the queen that all that could be done, had been done, considering the result. Don't hold it against her, Marta. In her place, I'd have done the same."

  That was as close to a compliment as her mother ever gave, in Marta's recollection. She grudgingly accepted the logic of Mistress Thornap's actions, but she still didn't like them very much. Yet something else came to mind then that rather pushed her annoyance deep into the background. "Mother, what happened in there? How did I know what little I knew?"

  "You're on the Arrow Path now, remember? That means that you recognize a manifestation of the Laws when you experience one."

  Marta grasped what her mother was saying and felt a rush of excitement. "Which Law?"

  Kath shook her head. "I can't tell you that for two reasons: One is that I don't know. There is more than one Law that could have told you. The second, and most important reason, is that telling you what the Law is called won't help you, or I would have named them all already. You can't be taught the Laws, Marta, as I've said more than once. The name of a Law comes last, not first. Be patient."

  "I'll try, but it's hard," Marta said. "Are you going to see the king now?"

  "We're both going. I don't expect a proper curtsey and he won't either, but do bow when you're introduced. Otherwise I again suggest you keep silent unless an answer is needed. This may be delicate."

  Marta didn't know much about kings or queens either, for that matter, but she rather thought her mother was right about that. As glad as she was to be included she was worried, too. She hoped she wouldn't have to speak at all.

  The king's private chambers were on a lower floor of the castle, below the towers. Kath spoke briefly to one of the guards on station outside, who disappeared through the door and returned almost as quickly. "His Majesty will see you."

  As if there was any doubt, Marta thought, but she kept the thought to herself. She followed her mother inside.

  The king's chamber wasn't quite what Marta had expected. It reminded Marta of her mother's kitchen. Not that there were pots and pans and an iron spit in the fireplace, but it was clearly a work space, just as her mother's kitchen was. It was always at the table there that Kath worked on her accounts, and wrote in her big ledger book. There were ledgers here, too, and a massive table to hold them. Neither the heraldic tapestries nor the weapons displayed on every wall did anything to hide the room's main purpose. Across the table from the king were other open books, and parchment and writing tools, and two chairs now empty. Marta didn't need the sound of a closing door across the room to tell her that Alian had only just dismissed a pair of clerks so he could grant the private audience her mother had requested.

  King Alian looked up from his books. "Mistress Kath." He didn't say anything else.

  "My daughter, Marta, Your Majesty. I believe you've met her before."

  Marta bowed awkwardly and the king nodded at her. "Of course. I remember you; you've grown up well."

  Marta found herself blushing despite her best intentions. She stammered a thank you, since it seemed rude not to, but the king had already shifted his attention back to her mother.

  "That is a very grave face you're wearing, Mistress Kath."

  "The child is dead, Majesty," Kath said.

  So much for delicacy, Marta thought, frowning, but she kept silent, and watched, and listened.

  The king sat back in his chair, almost as if someone had pushed him. "Blunt and to the point, as usual," the king said finally.

  "A quick, clean wound heals fastest, in my experience," Kath replied.

  "Yes, of course you're right. And since we're alone it's not indelicate to be told the truth," Alian said. "I would ask if you are certain, but that would be foolish, wouldn't it?" Her mother didn't say anything, and it was plain King Alian hadn't really expected an answer. "Perhaps if Mistress Thornap had been quicker..."

  "It's tragedy enough, Majesty. Blame will not make it better."

  "It would make me feel better," Alian said. "And I am the king."

  "You will still be king tomorrow and the day after, and your queen may yet bear you children. You will need Mistress Thornap then."

  The king grunted. "Tell me, Black Kath of Lythos--do you ever tire of being right?"

  "Every day. This one has been particularly grueling."

  Alian rubbed his eyes. "I must go see her. Forgive my haste, but please name your fee."

  "Nothing."

  King Alian had started to rise, but at that he sat back down. "Mistress, I'm in no mood for riddles."

  "Neither am I," Kath said. "There was nothing I could do save confirm what all suspected...including yourself, unless I am very much mistaken. Else you'd have been even more upset than I judge you to be. Still, I have worked no Power on your behalf. Yet."

  Alian frowned. Marta could see the lines on his face then, and that sense of age that had been missing when she'd first seen him in the queen's rooms. "Mistress, you haven't told me the worst, have you?"

  Kath shook her head. "Majesty, the queen's womb should have expelled the unfortunate infant on its own by now. It has not. If that does not happen soon the corruption of the dead child’s flesh will spread to your lady. She will die."

  The king didn't say anything for several long moments. "Now we come to the real transaction and the real price. You can correct this, I know. How soon?"

  "As soon as possible, though I would have the Queen rest for a little while first. This will not be easy for her."

  "I will want to see her first."

  Kath shrugged. "I think Lady Dolwyn can be persuaded."

  The king smiled then, very faintly. "Please wait and rest here, Mistress. My guards will bring you anything you require."

  "I need nothing save some water and the use of your chair. Your queen will require brandy wine, and as much as she can drink. So. Aren't you going to ask my price?" Kath said.

  The king hesitated. "I think I must."

  "Five hundred in gold."

  Marta almost gasped. The king did gasp, and his face turned bright red. "Mistress Kath, have you taken leave of your senses?!"

  "Your Majesty, my senses are among the few things I have not taken my leave of in the last few years. I am well aware how high the price is. I know that the queens's own bride price could not have been so high. I know what I am asking, and I am sorry. The one doesn't change the other."

  Marta finally realized where the 'delicacy' her mother mentioned came into play. Marta had the distinct feeling that King Alian was a hair's-breadth from calling for an axeman and a good stout wooden block.

  "Your services have always been dear, Mistress. Even a king should not trade with you without need, and Lythos is not a rich kingdom. This is the income of at least an earldom for a year!"

  "You have one or two still vacant, as I recall. You can manage."

  "Mistress, that is not the point—"

  "Your pardon, Majesty, but it is precisely the point. For my own part I would help your lady for nothing, and gladly. The price is not up to me; I always know what it will be, but I do not set it. I am of the Arrow Path, and this is how it must be. All I can say, Majesty, is that you must ask yourself if your lady's life and the future heirs she will bear are worth the cost."

  The king frowned. "What about catweed? I understand it can be useful in some...predicaments."

  "True, Majesty, but it works by poisoning the mother a little and the child she carries a lot. Since the child is already dead I doubt it would serve, nor is your wife strong enough to risk it in any case. Killing her outright would be more honest."

  Marta had seen no king other than Alian, and she had certainly never seen a king engulfed in stone cold fury. She wanted to change herself into something very sm
all, if only she had the skill, and disappear into a crack in the wall. Yet she watched her small, frail mother bear the fury of the king's glare without flinching and Marta felt ashamed.

  "Mistress Kath, I warn you—"

  "Forgive me, Majesty. I have this bad habit of saying what I think. Yet I realize I am your subject and you have the right to compel me to your service at any time. Yet the price will be paid, one way or another. I have no more say in the matter than you do."

  "I don't understand that part of it all," the king said. "Yet people who know far more of the matter and in whom I have trust say this is so. That is the only reason I haven't called my guards. The notion tempts me still, Black Kath."

  "Your counselors speak the truth. You can believe me as well so far as this: I wish it were otherwise. I know the King's problems are great, and I do not wish to add to them any more than I presume to judge them."

  The king said nothing, did nothing for several long moments, time that, to Marta, felt as close to eternity as she ever wished to judge.

  "You've said the queen may conceive again. If you speak truly, then Mistress Thornap may need me to summon you again. My resources are not limitless, Mistress. Do you see my problem?"

  "I do," Kath conceded. "Is there a solution?"

  "That's up to you... or the one you serve." Alian looked grim. "If you agree now as part of the price to be present and aid at the queen's next confinement, I will grant you the income of all rents from the Earldom of Lutnal for two years. I think you'll find that comes to somewhat more than you're asking now. I'm not sure how I'll manage short of new taxes, but I will do what I must. What say you?"

  Now it was Kath's turn to be silent. She closed her eyes, and after a bit Marta thought that perhaps she had gone to sleep, but finally she opened her eyes again, and there was a strange expression in them that worried Marta. Her mother only nodded. "It is acceptable, Majesty."

  If the king was relieved he didn't show it. Or much of anything. "I'm going to see my lady now," he said coldly. "Please wait here."

  "As you wish," Kath said, but Alian wasn't listening. He was already striding fast toward the door, as if he could not wait to get away from Kath and anything to do with her. He slammed it behind him.

  "Well," said Marta.

  "Well, what?" Black Kath was already on her way to the chair King Alian had vacated.

  "Five hundred?" Marta was having trouble imagining the sum. She could count that high, easily enough. She had seen the number written down before, recognized its shape and form, the sound it made it her head when she spoke it. Yet she tried to picture it as five hundred medallions of gold and felt a little dizzy.

  Kath lowered herself into the king's chair. "You weren't the one who had to tell him," Kath said. "I was afraid he wouldn't pay; a new queen would be cheaper. Old Junland has more daughters than a dog has fleas. Alian still might take that door, I suppose. The queen could slip away quietly while he is alone with her."

  "Mother!"

  Kath yawned again. "I didn't create this world, daughter. I do try to understand how it works."

  "I can't believe the king would do that," Marta said, though no sooner had she said the words she pictured Alian smothering his child bride with a feather pillow. She shivered. "I hope he won't do that..."

  Kath smiled, faintly. "If he does, I've misjudged the man."

  "What if he had refused?"

  Kath looked unhappy. "The truth? I'd have saved the poor girl anyway," Kath said. "And in so doing, been liable for the price myself and thus increased the Debt I would have passed down to you. That act of charity would have harmed my own daughter, and yet I would have done it. I'm sorry."

  Marta shook her head. "Don't be. I'd do the same, if I were in your place. I wasn't sure it was possible, though."

  Kath smiled then. "It's one of Amaet's cruel jokes. You can use Power on your own behalf however you wish. Any use of Power to help another brings a high cost, in some form. You'll find that a conscience is an inconvenient burden along the Arrow Path. Yet it persists…in some people."

  Marta was still having trouble at the thought of all that money. "What are we going to do with five hundred pieces of gold?"

  "Oh, that? Nothing. I didn't tell the king, but most of the price is to be paid to the Karsanmon Shrine, where doubtless Maleet will commission an even gaudier statue. You'll find that most of the time the bulk of a payment in gold will go directly to one of Amaet's shrines, somewhere. And before you ask: no, this was not my decision, any more than the amount was. One virtue of the Arrow Path is that you always know what a use of Power on another's behalf will cost. Don't worry about it now."

  Marta tried not to worry, but she couldn't help thinking about it. The more she understood about the Arrow Path, the more Marta wondered if it was such a good bargain. Even so, she asked herself if she would have chosen differently, knowing what she did now, and the answer came to her in the image of the flames in her mother's fireplace, dancing their pavane for her alone.

  Despite his anger King Alian didn't forget the water; a guard brought a tin pitcher of cool well water and two cups. Marta poured for her mother. It didn't seem very long at all until the summons came. Marta followed her mother as she walked slowly back up the staircase to the queen's chamber.

  The king, Mistress Thornap, and Lady Dolwyn were already there, of course. Kath whispered something to the king who nodded, curtly, and slipped out the door after kissing his queen once on the forehead.

  The queen's eyes were red and puffy; she'd clearly been crying but she wasn't crying now. Rather, the queen seemed to be trying to remember the words to some old Junland nursery rhyme; she sang the words in a high lilting voice, just a bit slurred.

  “Clever is my darlin' o, carving shells for a cameo,

  Knock three times and enter o, quickly does my garden grow....”

  The queen frowned. "Doly, love, is that how it goes? I con' remember."

  "Perfect, my girl," said Lady Dolwyn, as she poured out another cup of the dark red brandywine.

  The queen sighed and leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to Marta as she and her mother approached the bed. "'s really about getting a baby. They thought we didn't know. Garden growing. We knew what that meant." She giggled.

  Marta tried not to laugh. It was hard at first, but then she remembered why they were all there. After that, it was easy. Marta glanced at the half emptied bottle on the tray and hoped the queen had drank enough.

  Kath whispered something to Mistress Thornap, who nodded once and hurried from the room. Kath looked at Marta. "Help me turn the covers back down."

  The queen protested. "'s cold."

  "Just for a few moments, Majesty," Kath promised.

  The queen emptied the dregs from her cup and put it aside. Lady Dolwyn started to fill it again, but the queen shook her head. "'No more, please, Doly. Stuff makes me dizzy."

  "One more, my girl," Lady Dolwyn said.

  "I'm your Queen!" said the girl crossly.

  Lady Dolwyn didn't even blink. "That too, and still my precious girl, Mysona. Now drink up."

  Marta now knew the queen's name, Mysona, and it seemed as if that knowledge brought Marta a little farther from the Queen of Lythos and a little closer to the frightened girl in the bed. Marta realized that Lady Dolwyn had been seeing that girl all along.

  "Very well, but if I stain these sheets 's not my fault," the queen said. She took the cup and sipped, made a face. "Doly, I con'. No more. Please?"

  Lady Dolwyn took the cup away. "All right then." She glanced at Marta's mother. There was a question in her eyes. Just then Mistress Thornap returned, bearing bundles of cloth that looked like swaddling, and a plain stout covered basket. Kath nodded.

  "I'm ready. Lady Dolwyn, hold her hands..rather, let her hold yours."

  "Take my hand, Mysona," Lady Dolwyn said. The queen reached up and Lady Dolwyn enveloped the girl's small right hand in both of hers.

  "Marta, help on the other sid
e," Kath said.

  Marta hurried to the far side of the bed and took the girl's left hand. The queen's grip was surprisingly strong.

  "Your Majesty, grip as hard as you want. They'll just have to bear it," Kath said. She turned to Mistress Thornap. "Be ready."

  The queen suddenly looked around. "Where's the king? Where's Alian? He should be here!"

  No one said anything for a moment, then Kath looked at her. "I sent him away, Majesty. I can bring him back if you wish. Do you really want him to see this?"

  The queen finally shook her head. "I want him here...I don't want him to see." She thought of something. "We could blindfold him."

  "Your Lord would look silly in a blindfold," Lady Dolwyn said, smiling.

  "I know," said the queen, and she grinned wickedly. "Very silly..." She yawned then. "'m tired."

  Kath placed both hands on the girl's belly. She took a long, slow breath. Marta knew something was coming, but she knew better than to listen for chants or look for flashes of light and thunder. It was always thus in an invocation of true Power: touch? Sometimes but not always. Touch would be the case here. Focus? Always. Concentration. Intent. Then the thing was done and the consequences, whatever they were, quickly followed. There were always consequences.

  "What was that song you were singing, Majesty? You have a lovely voice," Kath said.

  "'Clever Darling,'" the queen said. "I con' remember it all."

  "Please sing what you know," Kath said.

  The queen started the song again, but she hadn't gotten past the first line before her eyes went wide and her face as white as the sheets she lay on. She opened her mouth to scream but just as quickly whatever had struck her seemed to pass. Slowly, the color began to return to her face, but she was still very pale. Her mouth worked slowly up and down, but no words came out. Two great spasms passed through her body and Marta's hand began to ache where the queen gripped it. Mistress Thornap came forward with her baskets and her winding cloth and in another few moments all was done.