by Speer, Flora
“Now, sister dear,” Mallory continued, “for the remainder of your visit to Kantia, you will listen and watch both Garit and his grandmother for me, and then you will report anything you see or hear that has aught to do with me, or with Garit’s plans against me. I am certain he has such plans. Surely, he wants to be lord of Kinath, like his father before him.”
“You mean you want me to spy for you, as you forced me to do at Catherstone?” Calia exclaimed. “No, Mallory, I refuse! I will no longer aid your schemes, whatever they are.”
“Did you learn this unwarranted independence from Lady Adana? Don’t look so surprised, Calia. Before I sent you to Talier Beguinage I knew exactly who Mother Mage Adana really is. I hoped you’d make friends with her so you could be of some use to me in the future, but you have far exceeded my grandest expectations. You truly are our father’s daughter. First, you plotted your way into that old woman’s household at Saumar Manor and now you’ve forced your way into Garit’s heart. Into his bed, too, I’ll wager.”
“No!” Calia cried. “I had nothing to do with being sent to Saumar. I didn’t know Lady Elgida is Garit’s grandmother until after I reached there. And I have not slept with Garit. I swear it. Who knows better than a bastard child what dangers lie along that path? I have not slept with Garit,” she repeated.
“In that case,” Mallory told her, “you may use the possibility of succumbing to his charms as a way of controlling him. I expect you to be useful to me in return for the many kindnesses I showed to you when you were a troublesome girl.”
“I was never troublesome. In those days I was always obedient, because I believed a sister ought to obey her older brother.” Calia’s voice shook with the anger both old and new that she felt against Mallory and against herself, too, for ever being weak enough to love and obey him. “How can I be useful to you when I don’t know your intentions? It seems to me that you have done very well for yourself. You have a noble wife, you are the guardian of a large castle and of your wife’s children, and most of all, you are said to be a close friend to King Dyfrig. What more can you possibly want?”
“I don’t want to be a mere guardian,” Mallory answered her. “I want to be lord of Kinath Castle in fact and in title. I want to rule in the stronghold that Garit always assumed would be his. I want Garit permanently exiled from Kantia or, better yet, I want him dead.”
“No! Mallory, please understand. Garit doesn’t want—” At that point Mallory slapped her hard, the force of his right hand sending her to her knees.
“You will do as I bid you,” Mallory snarled. “If you do not, Lady Elgida will die rather suddenly. Of apparent old age, of course. How sad. I’ve noticed that you are fond of her. Next Garit will die. Then you will discover that the maidservant you brought with you was responsible for poisoning the old lady, whom she secretly disliked. You do recall what punishment is meted out to servants who kill their masters?”
“Stop,” Calia cried in horror. “You cannot treat folk here as you once dealt with them at Catherstone.”
“Can I not? You will see, sister dear. If you object, then I fear that treacherous maidservant will decide to kill you, too. You know I can do it, Calia, just as I did at Catherstone. And if you decide to run to Garit and tell him what I’ve threatened, well then, you will all have to die at once. So, if you want your lover and your friends to continue to live, you will listen to their plans, and you will report those plans to me. No one will question the private conversations of a devoted brother and sister, so long separated, who have found each other again and have much catching up to do.
“You will speak to me immediately after the midday meal tomorrow and make your first report then. Go, now.” With a flick of one hand, Mallory coldly dismissed her and remounted the steps to the chamber he shared with Fenella.
“Calia?” Winn’s heavy footsteps pounded down the corridor. “I heard a noise and loud voices. Calia, where are you?”
“I’m here, Winn.” She staggered to her feet, using the corridor wall for support. The old excuses that she had once used to explain similar incidents at Catherstone came much too easily to her lips. “I tripped on my hem and almost fell down the steps. So careless of me,” she added, trying not to cry from the shame and disgust she felt toward herself. She ought to know better than to defy Mallory to his face.
“Let me help you.” Winn took her arm to steady her. “Are you badly hurt?”
“I banged one knee and struck my cheek on the stone wall.” That excuse would explain the facial bruise she was sure she’d have on the morrow. “Thank you, Winn. I’m all right now, just feeling a bit foolish for hurrying so fast in an unfamiliar place.” She made herself stop then, knowing from past experience that too many excuses were worse than none at all.
“Calia?” Mairne suddenly appeared, coming up the stairs from the direction of the great hall with Anders close behind her. “What happened?”
“I tripped and fell,” Calia said, trying to dismiss her friend’s concern. “Actually, I was looking for you. Lady Elgida wants to see you at once. She’s annoyed that you disappeared after the meal.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mairne said. She turned back to her companion, to share a long look with him. “Good night, Anders. We have Winn to escort us to our bedchamber.”
“As you wish. Sleep well, ladies. And, Winn; thank you.”
“You’ll report to Garit?” Winn asked.
“Aye. I think I saw and heard more than you did,” Anders said in a low voice that Calia suspected he didn’t mean for her to hear. But she did hear the squire’s words and they helped her to make the decision she had dreaded while knowing it was inevitable.
When they reached the bedchamber, Lady Elgida was snoring softly. With a finger at her lips, Calia cautioned silence while she and Mairne made ready for bed. Then she lay in the darkness for hours, trying to think of the right words to use the next morning when she at last defied Lady Elgida’s command and confessed the truth about her parentage to Garit.
Only two secrets would she retain, the first being that she possessed well-concealed Power. The second secret she intended to keep was in obedience to the wishes of the Great Mage. She’d tell no one about the stone box that Ultan had entrusted to her. Thanks to the training she had received at Talier, she felt reasonably certain that she could obscure her thoughts about the box from Mallory, so he’d not learn of it, either. Once she placed the box into Queen Laisren’s hands, thus fulfilling her duty to Ultan, she’d never have to think again about the box, or about the casket it contained.
“By the heavenly blue sky above us!” Garit muttered as Anders finished his report.
“I am sorry to be the one to tell you,” Anders said. He flicked a fast glance at Durand, who had stood silent during the squire’s description of the events on the stairs. “I know you’ve grown to like Calia very much, but—” He spread his hands as if to indicate that nothing could be done about who she was.
“It sounds to me as if the lady is none too fond of her brother, nor he of her,” Durand remarked. “From what Anders says, she doesn’t want to spy for Mallory.”
“By not revealing who she is, she has been lying to me,” Garit said. “What’s more, she has lied to my grandmother in the same way, by omitting important information. “The first time I saw Calia,” he continued, “I thought we must have met before, because she looked so familiar. Now I know why. Her coloring is the same as Walderon’s. I wonder that I didn’t see the resemblance before this.”
“You weren’t looking for similarities,” Durand said.
“Even so, I ought to have been more perceptive.” Garit went silent then. He could not admit, not even to himself, the pain that Anders’s revelations were causing him. The memory of Calia in his arms with her sweet lips opening to him tore at his heart until, with a terrible wrenching sensation, he thrust the recollection and the longing firmly aside.
She was Walderon’s daughter! He could never offer to marry her now, not kno
wing that the kindness and honesty he had thought he saw in her were only illusions. Clearly, Calia was as treacherous as her father had been. And that meant his grandmother could be in danger.
“There’s more,” Anders said. “Mairne and I have been asking questions among the castle folk. Most of them are unhappy with Sir Mallory – except for Lady Fenella, who is apparently half-mad in love with him. That’s according to the lady’s personal maidservant, who revealed a few intimate details that Mairne refused to repeat to me.”
“Can we depend on any information we have from Mairne?” Garit demanded. “Didn’t she arrive at Saumar Manor with Calia? The two of them may be working together in this strange conspiracy. I am beginning to wonder if Calia and Mairne convinced my grandmother to come here to Kinath, knowing she’d be at Mallory’s mercy.”
“Mairne has told me that she first met Calia at Talier Beguinage and that Calia was kind to her,” Anders protested Garit’s assessment of the women. “Mairne says they were both unsuited to life in a beguinage and that Calia pleaded with Mother Mage Adana to let Mairne go with her to Saumar. Mother Mage Adana is your aunt, Garit; why would she send someone dangerous to live with her own mother?”
“Perhaps the Mother Mage didn’t know who Calia is,” Durand suggested. “Sometimes even the cleverest mage cannot read another person’s heart. Or, perhaps Calia is in truth the honest woman we believed her to be until a few moments ago. In any case, we have to investigate the situation here at Kinath thoroughly, so that I can present the facts to King Dyfrig as soon as we reach Kerun.”
“And also send a report back to King Henryk, of course.” Anders frowned at Durand, then nodded. “I realize now that I didn’t overhear as much as I thought that night aboard ship. So, you’ve pulled Garit into your secret investigation of Mallory. I should have guessed.”
“I volunteered for this mission as soon as King Henryk spoke of sending me to Kantia,” Garit said. “That decision was only re-enforced when Durand told me who Mallory is.”
“I was with you three years ago and I saw the damage Lord Walderon caused,” Anders said. “This latest investigation will determine who rules Kinath Castle, won’t it?”
“Very likely,” Durand said.
“Then, it’s also about the safety of young Lord Belai and his brother,” Anders persisted. “Which makes the matter my concern as well as yours, Garit.”
“Anders,” Garit began.
“They are my brothers, too!” Anders exclaimed. “You know they are. Though you and I seldom speak of it, we all had the same father. I understand my place in the world as a bastard, but I also know the call of kinship. I learned it as your squire these past few years. If there’s to be a battle, then it is my battle as well as yours.”
“Garit, it seems to me,” Durand said, “that we can use all the help we can get. I especially value the assistance of an honest man who has contacts among the ordinary folk of this castle.”
“If I have my way,” Garit told him, “I’ll take my grandmother and depart from Kinath at first light, leaving Calia and Mairne to deal with Mallory on their own.”
“Only if you throw Lady Elgida over your shoulder to carry her aboard The Kantian Queen,” Durand said. “You will have to explain your reason for wanting to depart so precipitously and without her companions. If I know anything about your grandmother, she will insist upon staying to watch the excitement.”
“Besides,” Anders added, looking worried, “we have to take Mairne and Calia with us to Kerun City, in case King Dyfrig wants to question them.”
“Just so.” Durand nodded his agreement.
Garit scowled at both of them while he refused to acknowledge his desire to learn exactly what Calia had been up to during the years she had spent with his grandmother.
Chapter 15
Calia was just helping Lady Elgida to complete her morning toilette when a sharp rap on the bedchamber door made her jump.
“Good heavens, child,” Lady Elgida exclaimed, “stop looking as if you expect to see a ghost. Kindly open the door. You know it’s most likely Mairne with a tray of food. If both of her hands are full she can’t pull the latch, now can she?”
But it wasn’t Mairne waiting for assistance. Garit and Durand stood in the corridor. Garit, his face dark as a winter storm cloud, shouldered his way past Calia and into the room.
“Grandmother,” he said, “there is something you ought to know about this person who has been your companion.”
“About Calia? Good morning, Lord Durand. Do come in and shut the door so we may be private.” Lady Elgida stood serenely, with her hands clasped at her waist while Durand obeyed. “Is Winn outside to keep away possible eavesdroppers? Good. Now, Garit, kindly lower your voice while you say what you must.”
“This creature,” Garit said, sparing a brief, scathing glance for Calia, “is the daughter of the traitor, Lord Walderon of Catherstone.”
“Yes, I know,” Lady Elgida said.
“What?” Garit glared at her, looking stunned.
“I’ve known since she first joined my household bearing a letter from your aunt in which Calia’s past was thoroughly described. Adana told me about Mairne’s past, too, in case you are interested. You ought to be interested in Mairne. Your squire certainly is.”
“You knew, and you never mentioned a word to me?” Garit’s face seemed carved in stone, only his lips moving when he spoke, though his eyes blazed with the outrage that Calia knew he must be feeling.
Calia had never imagined that a man so quiet and pleasant by nature could be so angry. In fact, she’d first been attracted to Garit partly because of his calm and open manner, so different from the cold and secretive natures of her father and her brother. She saw now that she had misjudged him. Garit had employed his training in diplomacy to conceal the depth of his emotions.
“You should have told me,” he said to his grandmother. The statement was an accusation.
“Why?” Lady Elgida asked, unperturbed by Garit’s outrage. “So you could punish the girl for something that’s not her fault? Calia knew nothing of her father’s villainy until the day when Catherstone was confiscated by King Henryk’s men. Nor is she to blame for her brother’s actions. She is afraid of him.”
During this speech Winn had opened the door without knocking, so he could let Anders and Mairne into the room, after which he closed the door again, presumably to continue standing guard outside it.
“Garit,” Anders said, coming forward, “last night Calia couldn’t have known that anyone would overhear her quarrel with Mallory. She stood up to him, but it was plain to me how afraid of him she is. Mallory is a vicious brute. He struck his own sister and slammed her against the wall when she refused to spy for him. Just look at the bruise on her cheek.”
“I heard the quarrel, too,” Mairne said. “I was shocked to learn whose daughter she is, but I’ll still vouch for Calia. I know she has a kind and loving heart.”
Garit stared at Calia with that same stony-faced outrage, a look so damning that she could not speak. She turned her head, letting him see the bruise she bore, knowing it was the best proof she could offer that what Anders and Mairne were asserting was true.
“Winn can confirm what we say. He heard the noise and came along just after Mallory left,” Anders continued.
“Winn didn’t actually see what happened,” Mairne added with scrupulous honesty. “Only Anders and I did. Mallory never guessed we were witnesses to his cruelty. If any man ever spoke to me like that, or hit me, I’d take a knife to him and he’d not get up again.”
“But you are Sapaudian,” Anders reminded her. “In Sapaudia, you could punish a man who abused you, while here in Kantia you’d be hanged for killing a knight.”
“All the same, I think Calia ought to carry a weapon while we are at Kinath,” Mairne continued with some heat.
“Be quiet, both of you!” Garit roared. “The issue here is not Kantian law or Sapaudian law, but why Calia concealed the very im
portant fact that she is Walderon’s daughter.”
“Because I forbade her to tell you,” Lady Elgida declared before Calia could respond.
“You? Why, Grandmother?” Garit was obviously still very angry, and his blue gaze on Lady Elgida remained cold.
“I knew you would refuse to admit that she could be an honest young woman who is worthy of your respect,” Lady Elgida said. “Garit, I tell you once again that for too long you have allowed yourself to be blinded by grief and anger. It’s time for you to stop mourning for Chantal. That’s why I insisted-” She went silent then, clamping her lips together in a firm line.
“Why you insisted that we come to Kantia,” Garit finished for her. “Why you suddenly decided to pay a visit to Kinath. You knew I’d meet Mallory here.”
“Yes!” Lady Elgida responded. “You’d meet him and settle your differences, and you’d finally be done with the past. After which, I dare to hope you can begin living again.”
“Unless Mallory kills him first,” Durand remarked. “But you did devise a clever plan, my lady. And a timely plan, as it happens. Tell me, did Calia ever describe her brother’s character to you?”
“Oh, yes,” Lady Elgida said.
“Then you knew the danger you were putting yourself into,” Durand murmured. “Yourself and your entire party,” he added.
“We brought men-at-arms with us,” Lady Elgida said. “In addition, you and Garit are here.”
“You flatter us. Dear lady, I fear you have never encountered deep malice until now,” Durand told her.
“Indeed, I have. Why do you think I left Kantia all those years ago? This land is plagued by men like Mallory, shrewd, vicious men who will not hesitate to commit any crime that will advance their own interests. Thanks to my honest outspokenness, I made enemies here, and so did my dear Belai, because he would not stop me from saying what I saw as truth.