“You’re all aware of the recent tensions within the royal family, resulting from my unsanctioned love affair, and eventual joining with the Queens’ daughter, Princess Aurelia,” I said, prompting a collective gasp as I brought out in the open what everyone already knew, and had been whispering about since arrival. Lore stepped closer to me, placing a hand on my shoulder in warning.
“As you can see, all has been forgiven,” Lore interjected. “I assure you all, there is no rift within my family,” Lore insisted to her guests. I forced a smile before continuing with my speech.
“Regardless, during my years of banishment from this beautiful country, my time in exile was not wasted. Lia and I have lived happily in seclusion near our berry vineyards in northern Baneland, cultivating new varieties of berries we hope will tempt you. This evening I want to share, with you all, a blend that enhances sensual desire in the extreme. It has the power to make one more appealing, highly amorous, and a superior lover,” I said, offering a broad smile. “What more could one ask for?”
“You’ll notice there are no children attending our solstice celebration this year. That was not by chance. We have arranged to keep them safely on the other side of Sweet Lake, and entertained.” Again the room erupted into conversation and I raised my hand to silence the crowd. “For those of you not tempted by a taste hedonism, you should probably join the children and M’Tek across the lake, or at the very least, drink only water this evening,” I said cutting my eyes to the table in the corner with water glasses. I waited a moment, but none of the guests left. “And for those brave souls intent on experiencing carnal pleasures in the extreme, I suggest you stay near the one you love, if you want to keep his or her attention, and consider yourselves warned. The effects of this particular plant are extremely powerful.”
Raising one eyebrow in an imitation of M’Tek, I smiled and the room erupted into laughter and excited conversation. I turned back to face Lore, noticing she appeared anxious, even with her eyes dilated. The guests lumped close around the beverage area of the ballroom, as Lore glanced over at the musicians.
“Usually, M’Tek starts the music after I greet our guests,” she observed, staring at the throng pulsing in toward the torppa tables. “Do you think I should start the music?” she asked me. I’d never seen Lore behave indecisively. “How did you begin the revelries, Pet?”
“I simply claimed a partner and instructed the musicians to play,” I said. “Would you like me to signal them? The sooner we start this evening, the sooner my task will be completed.”
“Come and dance with me, Pet,” she commanded, taking my arm to lead me out into the middle of the room. She nodded to signal the musicians, and the music started. She draped her arms around me, her head falling forward onto my shoulder, bringing her nose close to my neck. “I’ve never opened a solstice celebration without M’Tek, even in those dark years when she was lost,” she whispered. “It feels wrong, somehow. Still, I’ve always enjoyed dancing with you,” she added sweetly. “And you do smell wonderful tonight.”
“It’s only the potion, Lore,” I cautioned close to her ear.
“I know that, my sweet friend,” she replied. “Don’t worry. You belong to my daughter, and I belong to your cousin,” she said in a wistful voice. “That doesn’t mean I can’t relish dancing with you, while I have you to myself.”
“Of course it doesn’t,” I agreed, noticing that the scene around us was already tumbling toward depravity, just as M’Tek had predicted.
Lore stayed close to me, either dancing, or glued to my side for the first half of the evening. My mind was only partially on my surroundings, as I contemplated the hideous events that would unfold when I finally confronted Lord Gere. Neither Lore nor I drank anything but water as I waited for my moment to strike. Finally, when I watched a Noge baron shove a Fae high lord against the wall to kiss him passionately, I decided the woodrose tincture was in full effect. I searched the faces in the room, finding Lord Gere a very few feet away, his hungry gaze fixed on me.
“Lore,” I whispered next to my friend’s ear. “Would you like for me to escort you upstairs to your apartment?” I asked. Lore’s gaze widened for a moment before she realized I wasn’t propositioning her, but trying to protect her from the banality of the scene around us. “It’s time I attend to the high lord, but I’m afraid to leave you alone with your guests,” I added.
“Don’t concern yourself with my welfare, Pet,” she said in a breathy voice. “No one would dare approach me in that way.”
“Lore, they’re out of their minds,” I argued. “I don’t think protocol will protect you.”
“Go, do what needs doing,” she replied. “My daughter needs your protection. I don’t. I’ll be fine.”
I had no choice but to leave her, as I stepped near Lord Gere and headed toward the garden. He took the bait, as I knew he would, releasing the young woman he was pressed against, to trail after me. When I was within reach, he took me in his arms forcefully, his mouth seizing the section of skin to which I’d applied the woodrose tincture. His lips traveled down my neck, and I twisted sharply to escape his grasp. I turned and ran out of the ballroom and into the garden, heading for the bank of Sweet Lake. Lord Gere pursued not far behind me, not even attempting to hide his intentions. He followed me for several minutes before I found the tree by which I’d marked the place. I turned to face him, finding he was only a few feet behind me. I slipped my poisoned stiletto from the sheath where I’d hidden it, along the inside of my thigh.
“Your Grace,” he said in a slurred voice. “I’d like to talk to you.”
“That’s why you’re stalking me, to talk?” I replied with a sharp laugh, noticing that his eyes were so completely dilated that they actually appeared black in the moonlight. “Then talk. I’m listening.”
He didn’t speak, but stepped forward, trying to catch ahold of me. I used a Vilken defensive move, swiftly slipping aside before spinning back to face him.
“Hold still, woman,” he growled, coming after me again.
Again I slipped out of his path, but this time I nicked his neck with the poisoned edged of my stiletto knife. The high lord’s senses were too befuddled for him to notice the small line of blood dripping onto his white collar. He came after me again, and I dodged him easily, nicking his cheek with my poisoned blade this time. I then waited for him to slow down as the poison took effect. Finally, after we danced around each other several more times, he stumbled and nearly fell, indicating the poison was working. I sheathed my knife, and unfastened the strap, allowing my weapon to drop to the ground.
“Lord Gere,” I called sweetly to him. “Come and swim with me.”
I carefully lifted my gown over my head, exposing my body to him before hanging my dress across a low branch of the tree. Lord Gere’s attention seemed to rally as his gaze trailed over me. He started unbuttoning his formal tunic, and stumbled out of his boots, dropping his trousers in a crumpled pile at his ankles.
Slowly, I waded into the cool water to my knees. I stopped, struck by the beauty of the many colored lanterns lifting into the night sky across the lake from me, and took a moment to imagine Lia’s face, lit from the glow of a red lantern. My musings were halted by the clumsy splashing of Lord Gere’s large feet as he pursued me into the chilly water. When he reached me, I shifted behind him, using my favorite Fae throw to bring him down to his knees. I grabbed his hair, in one fist, as I used my knee against the middle of his back to press him down into the water beneath me. His mouth was open as his arms flailed, trying to grasp me so he might free himself. He only struggled for a few short minutes, after I pressed his head down under the surface of the water. Still, I held him under water until I was certain he was drowned.
His body sank quickly from the weight of the water in his lungs, but we were in shallow water. I had to lift him, and swim his corpse out where the currents of the lake might take it away from the palace. I then returned to shore. I collected Lord Gere’s clothes, and
used his tunic to dry the droplets of lake water from my skin, before bundling his clothes, and tossing them out into the lake. I then found my discarded knife and returned my weapon to its proper place along my inner thigh. I claimed my dress from the low branch I’d slug it across, and slipped it over my head quickly. Just as I was straightening my gown across my hips, Lore stepped out from the shadows and approached me.
“You even kill gracefully, Pet,” Lore observed. “The high lord didn’t call out once.”
“I’m not certain he realized what was happening,” was my reply. “Were you waiting there in case I needed assistance?” I asked, smiling at Lore.
“You didn’t actually think I’d leave you unprotected? That animal was three times your size. I certainly wasn’t about to allow him to harm you,” she explained. “Now come. Walk with me, old friend,” she said, snaking an arm across my lower back. “For just a little while, I need you close to me, while I clear my head of this sordid business. You can escort me to my apartments afterward, since our beautiful celebration has descended into a sleazy orgy.”
“M’Tek was right, of course. The woodrose tincture is too powerful,” I said, glancing back toward the distant lights of the ballroom. “Before, I could only think of Lia, but now I feel guilty about…”
“Don’t worry about my guests. They’re my concern, and all adults,” she said, interrupting me. “And you were quite clear in your warning.”
“They thought I was teasing, or at least exaggerating,” I argued.
“It doesn’t matter what they thought,” Lore said. “Tonight was about dealing that beast his reckoning. My guests had their role to play in the task, and they’ve likely enjoyed this evening more than you and I have. You only did what needed to be done. Astrid is safe from the knowledge of her origins, and Lia need never see her tormentor again.”
“Your solstice celebrations will have fewer guests in the future, I’m afraid,” I observed.
“Come now, Pet. You understand human nature better than that,” Lore replied in an arch tone. “Next year will likely be twice as large as a result of this excitement. Your new berrywine will be famous all over the twin sovereignties, before you can get it in the bottles, before you return to Lauderdam Palace even.”
“Lauderdam is not a palace,” I said, laughing because I knew she was correct in her assessment of the celebration.
“Of course it’s a palace,” she said with finality, relaxing her head down onto my shoulder. “Deus, I’ve missed you,” she added wistfully. “Now that we have the high lord disposed of, I need only remove his horse and tack. I looked the mare over this afternoon. She has excellent conformation, and she’s a solid bay, so her color is unremarkable. Obscuring her brand will be no great feat, and then I can release her in the far paddock with my broodmares. I’m an experienced horse thief, you know,” Lore added, chuckling under her breath.
The celebration lasted until dawn, many hours after the effects of the woodrose tincture had faded. But finally, something about the pure, bright, light of a new day drove the debauchery out of the last straggling carousers. They hastily made their retreat back to their apartments as we, the non-revelers, were rising from bed. The palace was uncharacteristically quiet, aside from the sounds of children playing in the garden. Even our staff seemed to be sleeping it off.
As promised, I’d been waiting for Lia in our apartment when she returned. Astrid had to sleep in our bed with us, because we kept nine young children with us in the sitting room and adjoining bedchamber that night. Their parents had been unfit to attend to them the previous evening. Ania kept a few as well, as did M’Tek and Lore. As a result, the entire royal family was up, attending to the children of our solstice guests, not long after sunrise.
The night had been exhausting for the servants, as well as the guests, and no one moved about much, until well into the afternoon. Slowly, parents appeared in the garden to collect their forgotten children, looking worse than I would have expected, wearing dark circles under their eyes, and a gaunt, used, sort of exhaustion about them.
No one seemed to notice Lord Gere’s absence until late that evening, when his servant, Adlek, notified M’Tek that the high lord was still not returned from reveling. Apparently, this was not an uncommon occurrence. When M’Tek notified his family that he and his horse had gone missing, they were untroubled. A few days later his mother recalled his servant and guards back to his estate in the northeast.
The remainder of the week passed in more genteel socializing, but not a day passed without petitions, from at least two-dozen Noge and Fae nobles, requesting I share my new berrywine and torppa at whatever coming celebration was on the horizon. Lia asked about the party wistfully, as if it had been a glamorous affair, and she was sorry to have missed it. No one gave her a proper account of the goings on of the evening. Lore and I simply claimed we’d turned in too early to witness the spectacle.
The visit was an enormous success as far as I was concerned. Lore and Lia rode together often, as Lore continued her efforts to repair their troubled relationship. M’Tek and I spent a great deal of time together as well, riding, and simply talking, enjoying each others’ company. We’d grown closer than we’d ever been before, and as a result, I was surprised to realize I actually felt a great deal of affection toward her.
Ania adored Astrid, and the feeling was clearly mutual, as our daughter chose to sit on Ania’s lap whenever the space was available to her. As for the Noge and Fae nobles who had attended the celebration, they all witnessed the obvious affection within the royal family, the effect being that Lia and I were no longer to be ostracized from polite society. The first invitations for upcoming events began arriving before our return to Lauderdam.
The visit had to end, though, and in the company of our loyal Vilken guards, we set off to return to our quiet life in the northwestern Baneland Territory. Still, Lord Gere’s body had not been discovered, and no one had yet thought to start looking for it.
Part III
-CH 16-
The visit to Saranedam for the solstice had been enjoyable. Nonetheless, we were pleased to be home again. I began work almost immediately on the woodrose vines. My main fields were finally ready for harvest in late summer. The vines were treated in much the same way as any other, only more aggressively. They required pruning far more often than torppine vines. The seeds were then gathered and sorted for quality, and deposited in the appropriate casks for the fermentation process. In addition to this, I had every flower and damaged leaf, as well as the overgrowth from the pruning, collected. These parts of the plant were then baked and deposited in an enormous vat to make woodrose tincture. If the seeds failed to produce a quality alcohol, I planned to fall back on using the tincture to fortify each bottle after production.
Lore had been correct in her assessment about the demand for my new woodrose enhanced berrywines and torppa. My traditional torppa was selling as well as usual, but no one wanted my berrywine unless they were from the new batch. For that reason, I opened all of the older stock I was storing, mixed in a safe level of the new batch of woodrose tincture, and began a secondary, or bottle fermentation process, by adding yeast and sugar to each bottle after the tincture was added. In this way, I created an exceptional sparkling rose’ berrywine. My entire stock, aside from the cases I withheld for personal consumption, sold out within weeks, and orders began arriving immediately to secure cases of the following production year.
Lia began to take an interest in the berrywine process after her experience with the woodrose tincture, though neither of us apparently wanted to use that potent potion again. She accompanied me to the fields and distilleries each day, with Astrid in tow, helping in every way she could think of, as I waded my way through the enormous demand I had inadvertently created. Of course, Lia believed I was a genius, and my plan all along had been to market my product, rather than to kill Lord Gere. At that point she was still ignorant of his demise.
During that period the social wo
rld reached its tentacles out to us with a vengeance, despite our remote location. We began receiving a deluge of invitations to various events we had no intention of attending. As a result, I was forced to spend the better part of the morning twice a week politely declining invitations when my attention was needed elsewhere. It was during one of these tedious mornings of office work that I heard a single horse’s hooves thundering up the entryway to Lauderdam. I continued my work for a few minutes, but then curiosity won out over work ethic, and I left my office to head down to the entry hall, intent on discovering who had gained entry past our gate guards.
When I walked outside, I found Countess Emmuska crumpled on the ground. She had arrived on an unusual, tall horse, of indeterminate breeding, whose coat was covered by a variety of brightly painted images that were running with foamy sweat, causing the colorful pigments to drip onto the pale stone of my entryway. The animal was panting heavily as if the poor creature had been nearly run to death.
Lia was kneeling on the ground and leaning over the countess, calling directions to our staff in an urgent tone. I rushed to my friend’s side to find she was barely conscious, burning with fever, and severely wounded through her abnormally protruding belly. Her tattered clothes were stiff with dried blood and she smelled of putrid flesh. Lia held one of the countess’s hands pressed between hers and hurried along at Countess Emmuska’s ear, comforting the Vilken woman as three guards lifted, and then carried the countess into the manor house.
Lia instructed the guards to carry the countess into the bedchamber at the head of the hallway, the one with a lovely view of the mountains, that M’Tek and Lore preferred during their visit. The countess was cautiously placed down on the bed at my direction. Haden took my shoulder, turning me abruptly to gain my attention.
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