The Swithin Chronicles 3: The Comet Cometh

by Sharon Maria Bidwell

  That was an ill-disguised insult if ever there was one. In his peripheral vision, Markis saw Ryanac move his head down. The gesture barely moved the man’s head an inch, but more than enough to show that Stargazer had just pissed Ryanac off.

  “If you had children now, we could breathe easy knowing that the line continues strong. If any problems…occur…”

  Markis had had enough. The deliberate pauses were getting on his nerves. He rose to his feet. From where he stood, he looked down at the assembly. “If there are any problems, we will seek the advice of a healer when that time comes. When the time is appropriate. Now, if there is no other business to attend to…”

  Stargazer let forth a gasp that sounded too like an incredulous laugh for Markis’s liking.

  “Forgive me,” the old man said once again. “I must be too used to dealing with your father. I am shocked that you refuse to discuss this.”

  “I do not refuse to discuss this when the time is right, but even then I will discuss it with the appropriate people. Do not suggest that I would take the matter of children lightly.” For the Swithin, it was a most grievous insult to do such a thing.

  “I meant no such thing.”

  Markis captured his tongue between his teeth, and it took all of his willpower not to bite in order to hold in his words. He would achieve nothing but personal pain that way, but he needed to choose his words carefully. “Then I ask your forgiveness if I am mistaken, but being Swithin, you will understand why you are standing on very unstable ground.”

  Another murmur ran through the council, but this one was in assent. Markis bowed to the council and turned to leave, holding out a hand to beckon and take Tressa with him.

  “I really must insist…” Stargazer spoke up. A collective gasp stilled Markis’s forward motion. He turned his head to the centre of the room, squeezing Tressa’s hand, which he had taken, as he did.

  “I take it you did not see me bow to leave the room.” Alas, he had to give the old man something, a way out of this. Stargazer knew that, of course.

  “I am sorry. My sight does fail me at times.”

  “Yes, it does,” Markis replied. He wasn’t referring to the old man’s eyes, but probably only Stargazer would know that.

  “Even so ‑‑”

  “Take care.” Ryanac’s voice rang through the room.

  Stargazer blinked in apparent surprise. His gaze shifted about the room as though he searched for the source of the voice. “You have your guard speak for you in open council now?”

  “I do not speak to the council. I speak as Sonndre, protector. I will guard the king against all threats, even insults.”

  “I hardly see ‑‑”

  Another voice broke into the assembly. The position of the old king’s protector allowed Harton a council seat. He stood up. “I would never have allowed you to speak to my king this way. Ryanac acting as Sonndre is within his rights to reprimand you.”

  Even from this distance, Markis could tell Stargazer didn’t take his defeat well. “Very well.” Stargazer looked away. “I will leave this matter for another, more…appropriate day.”

  Markis could have walked from the room, but he didn’t. “You will leave this matter for eternity.”

  The old man had turned to shuffle from the podium. Now he looked back, his mouth agape, always the consummate performer. “I must insist ‑‑”

  “Insist?” Markis let go of Tressa’s hand and took a step down. Ryanac moved closer to him. Markis stared at the old man a minute and then let his gaze sweep over the room. “I will not bear this kind of insolence from anyone. I will not” ‑‑ he mentally apologised to Tressa for what he was about to say ‑‑ “bring a woman home as my bride and impregnate her right away!”

  All whispering stopped. Silence became the monarch for a painful span of time. Then Markis said, “You insult me by your insistence that we speak of this now, and that we speak of it here. You insult my wife more by insisting that she should carry my child a few weeks after her arrival. If it happens, it will be the natural course of things, or it will be when we plan.” His gaze raked the room; he copied the technique Stargazer had used, waiting for everyone’s attention. “We are Swithin. What is happening to us that any one of us would contemplate behaving in such a way?”

  A few murmurings begged his forgiveness for the old man. Stargazer clenched his fingers into a fist. His face hardened, but he couldn’t say a thing. To do so would strip him of his council seat or worse. As Markis walked away, he almost wanted the old man to say something. He had never wanted to punish someone so much in his life, and he didn’t like the feeling at all.

  * * * * *

  “Serelia means pregnancy?” Uly walked at Markis’s side.

  Markis nodded. “It means to be fruitful, particularly in regards to a woman.”

  Uly ruminated over what he had heard of the meeting. “Considering what happened, Tressa is taking it remarkably well.”

  Markis sighed. “She does well in matters of state. It’s only…personal problems that get the best of her.”

  “Stargazer insulted you.”

  “As good as.”

  “He’s either brave or stupid.”

  As Markis looked at him, Uly tried to keep a straight face but failed. His lips broke out into a smile. Markis shook his head but smiled back.

  “I love to see that smile of yours, or hear you laugh.”

  Uly shrugged. “Strangely, I understand that.”

  “Why strangely?”

  He gave another shrug. “I like to see you happy too. I just didn’t know what that meant once.”

  They continued walking along the corridor. Uly had waylaid Markis on the way to another part of the palace. Ryanac and Antal followed on their heels, at a polite distance. Uly found it comforting and creepy, even amusing. They both had their shadows. Somehow, Ryanac being Markis’s lover made his presence easier to bear. Uly didn’t want Antal for a lover, though.

  “How does…?” Uly paused. Markis looked at him with an expression he had come to understand meant he waited to hear the question. “How does a woman avoid catching a child?”

  “Catching? I’ve never heard that expression before. That makes it sound as if it happens by accident. I didn’t know until I met Tressa, but Azulite women take the same herbs the Swithin do. Once, her people used to feed their women concoctions that as good as poisoned them over time. Thankfully, they’re no longer that backward.”

  “So Tressa is taking these herbs?”

  Markis nodded. “Yes.”

  “And when she wants a child, she just stops taking them?”

  “Yes. It might take a few weeks for her system to adjust or…” Markis sniggered. “Well, they aren’t completely trustworthy. Accidents do happen, but as Swithin, we do not sleep with anyone with whom we would not consider taking on such a responsibility. We do not have to marry for a child, but both take care of it.”

  “Then what if…?” Again, he hesitated. Again, he received that look. “What if Tressa became pregnant by me or Ryanac?”

  “Does fatherhood frighten you?” Markis sounded amused.

  “Yes. No.” Who was he kidding? “Yes! That’s not it, though. How would we know?”

  “You mean whose child it was?”

  Uly nodded.

  “For one thing, if it’s a girl, we’ll know it’s not mine.”

  He frowned, not understanding.

  “Ever since the first man walked from the comet, his descendants have always been boys. Don’t ask me why. As a race, we have no preference. This seems to be out of our control. If the child is a boy, well” ‑‑ his gaze wandered over Uly’s face ‑‑ “if it looks anything like you, I think we’ll know. If it looks Swithin, then I’ll test it.”

  Test? Markis must have seen the look on his face.

  “When the child is a few weeks old, I’d be able to tell if it has any power of the comet at all. If not, then we would know it was Ryanac’s child. That’s all assuming T
ressa…caught with child. I hope we will have the opportunity to plan our children more carefully.”

  It sounded straightforward enough. Something else bothered him, though. “What if I wanted a child someday? Would Tressa have to be the mother?”

  Markis turned his gaze ahead. “No, but she could be.”

  “If I want her to be and she’s willing?”

  Markis nodded.

  “You don’t want me to have anyone else, do you?”

  Markis laughed. “We have quite a large enough family already, don’t you think? Even in our society, two is usual, three is accepted, and four is…unlikely. More than four people living together is extremely rare.”

  “That’s not your reason, though.” For a moment, Uly believed the other man wouldn’t answer him.

  “No,” Markis finally admitted. “No, it’s not.” He glanced sideways. “Even I have a heart only so large. I won’t hold you to me, but I would find it difficult to share you more than I already do. I want you with me.”

  Uly tried to think of something intelligent to say. All he could manage was a smile.

  * * * * *

  Markis almost groaned when he saw Kilan step out into the corridor ahead. He was Markis’s youngest brother, and he had already tried to waylay him once today. Knowing Kilan, he would just keep pestering until they spoke.

  “I heard what the old fart said,” Kilan declared, in his usual abrupt manner.

  Markis stopped to hug his brother. Kilan had been away until recently. He had just started his training at an academy when Markis arrived. The young man had travelled all that way to start training only to travel back home again to see his father die. Now, several weeks later, he was home yet again, suspended for continually showing disrespect, the report said. Markis had shouted at him, told him how disappointed he was in him, but unfortunately, Ryanac always backed up his harangues with a grin.

  “Don’t say that,” Markis said. “This is the type of behaviour that’s got you into trouble.”

  “I just speak the truth.”

  Markis sighed. “And you don’t need Stargazer mad at you. I can’t send you back to the academy while you continue to behave like this.”

  “Good. I don’t want to go.”

  Markis stopped in his tracks and looked at him. He glanced up and down the corridor, but thankfully, only the five of them were present. “Don’t say things like that.” Acceptance into an academy was a great honour. Of the king’s sons, it was expected.

  “Why? Because they drummed it into us from an early age? I told Father how I felt. He screamed and threatened me more than you do. Knowing he was ill, I promised I’d try. I think he thought once I got there that I’d have no choice. Then I discovered that it’s all too easy to piss people off so they’ll get rid of you.”

  “No,” Markis said. “It isn’t. Only you can do that.”

  Kilan shrugged. “What can I say? You have your gifts, I have mine.”

  “And now our father is gone, your discipline falls to me. Or maybe I could just hand the duty over to Harton.” As their father’s Sonndre, that was permissible. Kilan’s eyes narrowed.

  “You wouldn’t do that.” They both knew Harton would be hard on him. “Oh, come on.” He fell into step beside Markis as the king marched off. “I tried it. I hated it. You can’t send me back. I want to stay here with you. You can train me and teach me the comet.”

  Once more, Markis stopped walking. “No, I can’t.”

  “You mean you won’t.”

  “He has a point,” Ryanac chimed in. Markis shot him a look. Kilan took the opportunity to step closer.

  “I’m never going to be as strong as you, but with your help, I could be as strong as Mairtin, if not stronger. I’m faithful to you. Do you really want Mairtin watching your back rather than me?”

  “Don’t talk that way about our brother.”

  “Why not? I can’t stand him.”

  Ryanac bent forward with laughter.

  “Don’t look that way,” Kilan continued, clearly in reply to the expression on Markis’s face. “I know you don’t like him any more than I do”

  Markis closed his eyes. Worse than Ryanac’s laughter, which in some ways he expected, he could now hear Antal sniggering. He opened his eyes and glanced at Uly, only to see that even he had a smile on his face. Ryanac knew what Mairtin was like and how Markis and his middle brother shared an uneasy alliance and a less than loving relationship. Ryanac knew of all the pranks and the bullying Markis had suffered at Mairtin’s hand, but how much did Uly realise this? What had he heard about Mairtin or what had Ryanac and Kilan told him?

  Of course, Markis had suffered much of that in order to stop Mairtin turning his animosity on Kilan. Markis had done everything possible to protect Kilan, being that the youngest of the three had been a big enough disappointment to their father due to his rebellious nature. Of course, even though Kilan was their father’s biggest disappointment, Markis was the second for his habit of questioning. Markis had always wanted explanations even when he obeyed but he usually complied. Kilan simply hardly ever obeyed at all, and if he did, he grumbled about it. Markis had long accepted his father was easiest to love from afar. More recently, he had disobeyed their father in political matters and brought an Azulite princess home as his wife.

  Even though Markis had no wish to remember certain aspects of the day he’d returned home, his mind flashed on it now. The meeting with his father had been far from pleasant; he’d learned Mairtin was already in residence, with Kilan on the way. Even on that inauspicious day, Markis found it easy to speak with love when mentioning his youngest brother, but Mairtin… He was glad Mairtin had left to return to his duties as soon as their father’s funeral took place.

  Struggling not to grimace, Markis shook his head in admonishment at the other men. Even so, he couldn’t help remembering how he and Ryanac had once joked over Mairtin having no problem with celibacy. However, Ryanac had also pointed out how quick Mairtin rushed to the king’s side, the implication being that the man’s behaviour was sycophantic at best, scheming at worst. Mairtin was more than four years younger than Markis, yet something about the man made one think of him as older. Perhaps that was partly the reason their father favoured the middle son, though how anyone could fail to notice that Mairtin preferred isolation, was sullen, judgmental, cruel, and selfish, was beyond Markis. He didn’t want to feel this way, but he didn’t trust Mairtin and never would. By the comet, he didn’t even like him. He feared Kilan saying something that would reach their brother’s ears.

  “You’re speaking inappropriately about our brother and in front of…” He hesitated, unable to say it.

  “What? The wrong people?” Kilan’s gaze darted left and right. “These are just about the only people I would trust with my life.”

  “And if one day you speak like this in front of the wrong person, then that will be exactly what you are doing. People have killed each other over less.”

  Kilan looked about to argue the point, and then he nodded and stepped back. “Fine. I’ll curb my tongue if you will let said tongue and the rest of me remain here.” The younger man looked into his eyes. “Please, Markis, I can’t go back. I hate the life.”

  “The discipline would do you good.”

  “It’s not the discipline. It’s getting up before the cock crows.”

  Markis hated it, but a smile tugged at his mouth. By the look on his face, Kilan knew he had won.

  “Ryanac and Antal can teach me to fight the way they teach Uly, and maybe I can help your Samir. And you can teach me the comet.”

  Markis shook his head.

  “You have more control than you let the council know.” A hint of anger crept into Kilan’s voice when Markis opened his mouth. He was about to deny it, but Kilan could only guess at his intent. “By the comet, Markis, you’re not even taking lessons any longer. You think others don’t notice? I don’t know what you did or how you did it, but our father continued to have lessons
until ten years ago. That wasn’t just because the strongest seers and advisers switched to you. He had all the control he was ever going to have. Even when they left, lesser advisers guided him in practice for another couple of years. Shavar practice and train all their lives. You’ve just stopped. That’s what has pissed Stargazer off. That’s why he tried to antagonise you. I don’t know what it is you know, but you know something about the comet I don’t, and without your help I face years of misery trying to control it, and it starts a couple of years from now. I don’t want to start then. I want to start now, and I don’t want all that torment. I’ve no patience for it. If I were in your place, I would do everything I could for you. If you know something that will help, why won’t you offer it to me?”

  “That will piss Stargazer off even more,” Ryanac remarked.

  No doubt Ryanac intended the comment to help. It was certainly a way for Markis to back out and tell Kilan that what he proposed was out of the question. Instead, it caused a slow smile to stretch Markis’s lips. He nodded at Kilan. “Yes,” he said. “It undoubtedly will.”

  Chapter Five

  Uncertain as to what had made him look up from the book, Uly hesitated. He almost went back to reading it, so caught up in the pages was he. Once, when he first gained access to the Swithin great store of books, he had allowed himself only to read the didactic volumes, feeling sure that if Markis found him reading books that contained stories, he would have berated him for wasting his time. Markis had told him there was no shame in reading purely for pleasure. It cleared the mind and cleansed the spirit, and, he had said, Uly would be surprised what he might learn reading stories. In time, he had come to understand. The stories were starting to give him a greater insight into the mind of the Swithin people. As he grew to understand them, he had begun to feel more at home.

  However, the volume in his hands wasn’t a storybook, but he found it highly entertaining and enlightening. He couldn’t see how three men could possibly get into such a position, but… He turned the book and suddenly the image became clear to him. Was this what Markis meant when he said the two of them could fuck him?