by Martin Ash
"What have I done? My lady, have you not been told? It has been my sad duty to assume the office of rule whilst the King recuperates from an illness that has gripped his mind. Might I say, my lady, how delighted I am to see you returned to us safe and well. We have been so concerned. Our troops have searched everywhere and we had, alas, all but given up. I look forward to hearing of your adventures."
Fectur could barely speak. It was evening, the dusk closing in upon the city-castle. Only two hours ago he had been in Leth's study, dealing with the impossible fact of Leth's disappearance. Distracted, fulminating, disbelieving, he had returned to his office. He brooded darkly, questioning over and over again how Leth could have achieved this, wondering what it would mean for him, Fectur, now. He would rise above it, somehow. He would not be swayed from his course. But it was a debilitating blow, complicating his plans beyond calculation.
And then, just minutes ago, a quaking lackey had brought the news that the Queen was approaching the Palace. Impossible! Unthinkable! Fate, Fortune, which earlier had seemed to smile so warmly upon him, had now conspired to bring him down. He had barely moved since the lackey retired. He was locked into himself, a welter of conflicting impulses and emotions. He could scarcely order his thoughts into a coherent pattern.
Issul stared at him. His mouth twitched, his eyes would not focus on her face. He was despicable to her eyes, but her fear and apprehension had not yet receded.
"Where is the King, Fectur? Where are my children?"
"My lady, I am at a loss to explain."
"A loss? You?" Now another species of fear yawned in the pit of her stomach. "Fectur, if you have harmed them. . . ."
"I have not. The King was in protective custody. He had requested that your children be brought to him, with which I gladly complied. Subsequently they - all three - vanished."
"Vanished?" There was a rushing sound in her ears; her stomach dropping, her knees threatening to buckle.
"Every effort is being made to locate them, but somehow the King has achieved the impossible. He has escaped from a chamber from which escape was not possible. Not by ordinary means. My lady, if you know of any secret way-"
She shook her head. What was he saying? Were they alive, or had he secretly had them murdered? She struggled to remain standing, heard her breath coming in short, deafening gasps.
"Or of any magical practice the King was involved in?"
"No, nothing." Her thoughts flew back months, to the seeping blue lucence beneath Leth's study door, and the bluish aura around him the night before she had ridden for Lastmeadow. Her own enquiries had revealed nothing, yet, was it possible that Leth had foreseen what was coming, had found a way out? Oh, Leth, my babies, my darlings, be safe. Be safe!
She blinked back tears. Could Fectur be lying? Yet he was thoroughly thrown by something. It had to be a combination of - to his mind - disasters. Not just her return. Or had she returned just after he had committed the unthinkable? "Fectur, their welfare is your responsibility." Her voice was feeble, shaking.
"I am wholly aware of that. I am sparing no effort." Now his cold carp eyes met hers. "My lady, I do not wish to alarm you, but I am afraid. . . the King, he was distraught. . . he asked for the children. . . I saw no harm. But I fear he may have. . . in the state he was in--"
"Never!" She screamed, her fingers curling, outraged. "You are responsible, Fectur. You! Only you!"
"I have acted at all times in the best interests of the realm."
She inhaled deeply, steeling herself, forcing back the terrors that rose to rob her of all reason. "There is much to discuss, Lord Fectur. I want a full report, within the hour. I want to know precisely how my husband came to be overthrown--"
"My lady!"
"I will have a full report, Fectur. Every detail, every ruse that was employed to undermine his authority."
"You have it wrong. It was not like that."
"Additionally you will convene an urgent Assembly tonight in the Hall of Wise Counsel. All ministers, nobles, knights, generals, faction heads and officiers will attend. Before them you will declare the termination of your office as Regent and your resumption of your former station. You will announce my formal investment as Sovereign in temporary stead of my husband. Is this wholly understood?"
Fectur slowly straightened. She held his gaze, the silence building like a scream between them. Finally he gave a single, curt nod. "Quite, my lady."
I have him! Issul almost shuddered with relief. All could have been lost in that moment, but she knew now that he lacked the support to openly defy her. How he had succeeded in removing Leth she could not imagine, but quite plainly he had achieved it without overtly threatening the integrity of the Crown. With her return he could but yield - to fight another day.
"Moreover, I wish to know all that has been learned of Karai movements and anything else relevant to our situation."
"Of course."
"And you will explain to me, here and now, how it was you came to defy me by sending your own men to Lastmeadow to interrogate the peasant-woman Ohirbe and her family."
"Defy you? My lady Issul, there was no defiance, I assure you. You requested an escort for the woman-"
"I expressly forbade you to interrogate her!"
"I feared for your safety, my lady, and as subsequent events have demonstrated, my fears were far from groundless. It was wholly in order that I should take whatever precautions I considered necessary to clear your way."
"To the extent of sending Commander Gordallith, one of your most senior intelligence officers? To the extent of having him strike terror into the hearts of simple folk with warnings of what might befall them if they spoke to any other?"
"It is possible that in his endeavours to ensure your safety Gordallith may have gone a little further than was strictly required."
"I think not. I think he followed his orders to the letter."
"For all we knew these persons might have been kidnappers, conspirators against the throne, in the pay of our enemies. . . anything! You declined to divulge anything about them, yet insisted upon placing yourself at their mercy with only a minimal guard. I would have been remiss had I not acted to secure your welfare. As it is, the King berated me in no uncertain terms for my failure to overrule you."
Issul glared at him, the heat rising again to her cheeks. "You know--" she began angrily, then halted. It was futile. Fectur could glide smoothly around her, ever able to cite as evidence in his favour the fact that she had been ambushed and almost killed. She should wait, then, until she had all the facts. But if she found he had acted illegally. . . .
She could not think clearly. A scream persisted at the forefront of her thoughts: my babies, Leth, what has happened to you?
She held out her hand, palm up. "Gordallith took something from Ohirbe's husband's cousin, the man called Julion. I will have it, now."
Fectur's thin brows lifted quizzically.
"Do not push me, Fectur!"
"Ah," said Fectur, a forefinger raised. "You must be referring to this."
He stepped across to a cabinet behind his desk, opened a small compartment and drew forth a small white object upon a leather thong, which he passed to Issul.
Intrigued, she turned it over in her fingers. It was ivory, as far as she could tell. A little stained and ingrained with age, no larger than the terminal phalanx of her thumb. It was beautifully, intricately carved and shaped, representing an abstract form, vaguely animal-like, but unidentifiable. "What have you learned about it?"
"It appears to be a trinket, nothing more, of curiosity value only. We have discovered no special properties. Apparently it was given to the child whom you suspect to be the Legendary Child - given by a stranger in the woods."
Issul studied him, suspecting more, but his face was blank. The welts upon his skin were dissipating; he seemed to have accepted the inevitable and regained his customary command of himself. She remained wary, despite her triumph. "If you know more, Fectur, tell me now, f
or I will find out soon enough."
"There is nothing more."
Issul studied the little carving a moment longer, then slipped it into a pocket in her tunic. She turned and called over her shoulder, "Shenwolf!"
From the outer office the rangy figure of Shenwolf stepped through the door, glanced first to Issul, then stiffened to attention and bowed his head tersely to the Lord High Invigilate. Fectur observed him with narrow-eyed bemusement, shot with indignation that someone - a common trooper - should be invited into his private office without his prior permission. "Who is this?"
"A brave and loyal soldier of the 1st Battalion of the King's Light Cavalry. His name is Shenwolf. Through his efforts - initially his efforts alone - I was saved. He will be accorded the highest honours. It is solely through his courage and heroism that I am able to stand before you now."
Fectur's grey eyes travelled Shenwolf, taking in every detail, despising him. Tall, lean, young, perhaps handsome in a rough and undefinable way. A firm jaw, bright, intelligent eyes, resolute and good-humoured. There was a powerful rapport between the two of them, this he detected instantly. The way Shenwolf's eyes had gone to the young Queen as he entered, the way they so plainly longed to return to her now. Were they lovers? If not, what would it take to bring them together? Fectur considered. It would be the Queen who would demur, certainly not the soldier; but she was impressed by him, this much she had already made abundantly plain.
Fectur filed the notion away in a secure compartment somewhere in the back of his mind, for future consideration. Possibilities would suggest themselves. He was resigned to the fact that he had to begin to plan again, for the future. His immediate aspirations lay in tatters about his feet. How it galled, but he could not stand against Issul, at least not yet. Not directly against the Crown.
But if she were shown to be an adulteress. . . .
Yes, he could make use of this. He was down, temporarily disadvantaged, but not beaten. Far from that. Nothing was unsalvageable. The future beckoned, and his shadow extended there.
"I said, 'it is through Shenwolf's courage and heroism that I am able to stand here today,' Lord Fectur," repeated the Queen.
Fectur's mouth twitched. "Allow me to express to you my overwhelming gratitude, and that of the Realm, Shenwolf. Our precious Queen is returned, safe and well, and for that we give unqualified thanks. You will not be forgotten."
"Now, about your business, Fectur. Have the Assembly convened by midnight at the latest."
Outside, Issul strode down the corridor from Fectur's office, trembling, wanting to scream, needing to weep, unable to think of anything but her children and Leth. Would she see them again? Would she ever know their fate?
She spoke, quietly, in an unsteady voice, to the young cavalryman at her side, "Mark him well, Shenwolf. There stands an enemy perhaps more vicious and determined than any other I may face."
II
In the dark silent hours Issul stood at her window and gazed across the barely discerned rooftops, the straining, crowded towers of her beloved Enchantment's Reach. She looked past the city walls, to the void beyond the scarp, and she felt nothing of the elation that had gripped her earlier in the day as she had ridden with her three companions up the climbing road towards the city gate. Dawn's first pale tints had yet to illumine the eastern sky; Issul could see nothing but the innumerable lantern-lights and little communal fires of the city-castle, the dense starclouds so infinitely far above, and the far-off glow of the weird-lights of Enchantment.
I have seen you, she said to herself, and her pulse quickened. I have been within you.
She had been within a mysterious tower inside Enchantment, had spoken with a threefold child-being which called itself Triune. She had gazed upon bright, blazing mountains and watched the shifting, changing colours of the air. And still she was no wiser. As if Mystery might be the natural state.
Her heart swelled. Tears streaked her pale cheeks. To return here and find such turmoil and uncertainty, such betrayal, mistrust, anger, fear. Her children gone, her husband gone, Enchantment's Reach being torn apart from within even as it was assailed from without. And she had returned with nothing. No answers, no way through the darkness. She felt more desolate now than in even her darkest moments in captivity.
The night had gone well, in its own manner. The Assembly had convened in the Hall of Wise Counsel at midnight. Issul had occupied the Seat of Sovereignty, Lord Fectur and one of the senior knights upon her right, Pader Luminis and the Commander of the King's Forces upon her left, the assorted nobles, ministers, grandees, sundry officiers and faction heads of Enchantment's Reach ranged before her. It was an impressive turnout at such short notice, which both pleased and concerned her. If she had their support, all would be well. But if the majority put themselves against her she could be rendered powerless. She had tried studying their faces to gauge the mood, but could read little in what she saw.
The ceremony was brief and to the point. Lord Fectur stood and formally welcomed the Queen, expressed his heartfelt gladness at her safe return. His manner was subdued. With the minimum of words he renounced sovereign authority in her favour. Issul had suppressed a bitter smile, wondering how much those few words were costing him.
When he had done she briefly addressed the assembly. She gave them her thanks for their loyalty and spoke of her intention to rule resolutely and justly in her husband's stead, and to respond to the current crisis in the manner she believed Leth would approve. Leth's disappearance had not yet been made public, and for the present she left it at that. Re-seating herself she scanned the faces before her and saw scepticism, indignation, disappointment on a significant number, but many were with her and when she departed the Hall she was buoyed by the sound of rousing cheers.
Once alone again her fears had mounted. She could not sleep, though she was exhausted. Too many things upon her mind, and how she missed Leth, how she missed Galry and little Jace. How she feared for them.
Be safe! Be safe! Be safe!
As she gazed towards the distant lights she fingered the little carving absent-mindedly. Was Fectur being truthful about this? She was inclined to believe so, for he would surely not have handed it over so readily had he discovered anything of interest. But if the carving lacked significance, why had the stranger made a gift of it to the Child? Coincidence?
She would probably never know. The Child had vanished. The old woman also. And the identity of the stranger who had given the gift would almost certainly never be learned.
Issul heaved a desperate sigh, racked by waves of despondency and guilt. She had brought disaster upon her world; without her the Legendary Child would never have lived. And still she knew almost nothing about the Child.
There was a soft knock at the door. Issul dabbed at her eyes with a silk chiffon, gathered her gown about her and went to answer.
"Pader," she smiled wanly, genuinely pleased to see the little Murinean. "Thank you for coming. I need so much to talk to you."
"And I you." Pader Luminis stepped lightly into the room, the steward who had brought him fading back into the depths of the royal apartment. "But what is this? Issul, my child, my bright young Queen, you are sad. Your eyes are pools of sorrow, your brow clouded with worry, your cheeks deprived of colour, your lips adroop with remorse. Come. Come now. We can hardly talk when you’re like this. Oh, look! Oh my, what have we here?"
Following his gaze Issul glanced across the chamber. A brilliant shower of radiant golden stars danced in a column before the window. Countless, they spun, twirled, darted and suddenly flew in a bright plume straight towards Issul. She stepped back, lifting her hands. The stars were transformed into a score of tiny finches, multi-hued and loudly chirruping. Their fluttering wings stirred the air as they encircled Issul, playing upon her loose hair and gown.
Issul laughed. She spun, trying to follow the movements of the tiny birds, reaching out to try to touch one. The finches became stars once more, shimmering blue this time. They whirled
in a cloud, floated to the window and were gone.
Issul smiled, clasping her hands. "Pader! Oh Pader, how I love you!"
"Ah, sweet child, that's better. It gladdens my heart to see a smile light your face once more. Now come, let’s sit. I’m anxious to learn of everything that has befallen you since you took leave of Enchantment's Reach."
"And I rely upon you to tell me all that has happened in my absence. I return to find Fectur as Regent, my husband and children gone. Pader, how is this? What has happened here? But wait! Before you attempt to answer that, there’s something I must tell you. A confession. Will you listen, Pader, and promise not to speak of what I say to any other? You are the only one I can trust."
"Only I?" Pader clicked his tongue, adjusting his robe to sit. "I think that is not so. What of the dashing young cavalryman who has seen you home, and your other two companions? From what I hear they’ve proved themselves worthy of your trust?"
"Shenwolf? Yes, he risked his life again and again to save mine. We’ve become. . . good friends. I think I can safely say that. Certainly he’as earned my trust. But in truth I know very little about him. His background, his past . . . . He shies away from my enquiries. Phisusandra and Kol have also proved themselves." She smiled briefly to herself, remembering their faces when they had entered the city with her and finally learned her true identity. It had been a moment to savour. "Yes, all three are good, brave and loyal men. Even so, as Leth isn’t with us, what I have to say now I dare impart to no one but you."
"Then I’m honoured."
Issul's look became sombre and inward. "Pader, my sister, Ressa, gave birth to a child."
Pader's wrinkled head, which had bowed slightly in an attitude of attentiveness, came up sharply. "Ressa? Issul, what are you saying? I know of no child."
"I know. I know. Just listen. You know she was attacked, as was Mawnie. The full details were never made known. Our parents put out the story that they were mauled by a bear. But you were told, about the creature."