Not even a whisper. The empress died in childbirth. The child did not survive. It was … a male.”
“I understand, my lady. But to keep something like this quiet. . .”
Laera could imagine the man shaking his head. “Someone is bound to talk.”
“Nevertheless, we must try, for the sake of the emperor and the empire.
If word of this gets out,” said Ariel, “there is no telling what may happen.”
Oh, yes, there is, thought Laera, smiling with grim satisfaction. Oh, yes, there is.
Aedan had not been drunk in years, not since that night in the Green Basilisk, but he felt like getting drunk tonight. He needed to get drunk. He feared for Michael’s sanity. He had never seen him in such a state, not even in battle when he loosed his divine rage. He had not done so tonight, for it was not rage that seized him but agony and desperation. Nevertheless, it had taken Aedan and Derwyn and four guards to restrain him.
Aedan had him brought back to his quarters, where the physician had forced a sleeping draught down his throat while they held him down.
Thankfully, it was very strong and had taken effect quickly.
He would sleep till morning. And then, when he awoke …
Aedan didn’t want to think about that. He knew he had to because it was his duty to think about such things, but not just now. For tonight, just one night, he did not want to consider possibilities.
They were too frightening to contemplate.
Ariel would sleep with her ladies-in-waiting tonight, if she would sleep at all. She had sent for all the midwives and the guards who had seen the …
the thing, instructing them they were to reveal nothing, on pain of direst consequences, but it was an empty threat. What were they to do if anyone should talk? Imprisonment? Execution? For what? For failing to keep to themselves something so horrifying and grotesque that to keep it bottled up inside would eat at them like acid?
It was a doomed effort, anyway, and he knew it.
By now, the entire castle would be buzzing with talk of what had happened, and by tomorrow, the town would know of it, too. From there, it would spread
throughout the empire, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
He signaled the serving wench for another drink.
How could it have happened? It seemed beyond all comprehension. He could still scarcely believe it, yet he had seen what had come clawing out of her womb, killing her as it was born. The empress had given birth to an abomination. An awnshegh.
A gorgon.
It seemed impossible. Faelina was a virgin when she went to Michael’s bed. Ariel had assured him of that, and he saw no reason to disbelieve her. He simply could not accept the alternative. Faelina had never left her father’s estate. She had grown up there, had lived there all her life. Her trip to Anuire was the first time she had ever left home in Aerenwe. How could she possibly have lain with …
No, it was unthinkable. And yet, what other explanation could there be?
He could not believe it was Michael’s seed that had produced that …
thing.
Unless, perhaps …
He moistened his lips as the serving wench brought him another drink.
It was late, and the small tavern was nearly empty. Tomorrow night, it would be full as people met to discuss what they would doubtless have heard by then.
Had the gods cursed Michael? Had Haelyn punished him? For what? What offense could have been so horrible as to deserve a penalty like that?
Michael had been driven to expand the empire and secure its borders.
In so doing, he had fought one campaign after another, and the losses had been very high.
Had the gods punished him for his arrogant pride and ambition, which had cost so many lives? Why
then did Faelina deserve to suffer as she had?
He had known she was dead the moment he entered the room. No one could have survived such terrible wounds. There had been so much blood….
He had felt shocked, horrified, and painfully helpless. He had the blood abilities of healing and regeneration, but he could not reanimate the dead.
Michael had known it, too.
He had changed after he met Faelina. The marriage had been so good for him. They were perfectly suited to each other, and they had both recognized that from the moment they met. Michael had doted on her.
He had become a different man. Still mindful of the goals he wanted to accomplish, but no longer so driven or possessed. What would become of him now?
Aedan drained the goblet and signaled for another. There would be many more to follow, but he did not think there was enough drink in all the world to numb what he was feeling.
“Lord Aedan?”
He glanced up. A cloaked and hooded figure had approached his table.
It was a woman’s voice, and it sounded vaguely familiar. She sat down across from him and pulled her hood back slightly.
“It is Gella, my lord. Perhaps you may recall me.”
The memory clicked. “Oh, yes,” he said tonelessly.
“You served the empress.”
“I fear I served her very poorly, my lord. Forgive me, but I must speak with you. There is something you must know. It concerns the empress.”
he is past all concern now, thought Aedan, looking down into his drink.
Clearly, Gella was ignorant of what had happened.
47?
“And it concerns Duchess Laera, too. It is she who is behind it all.”
Aedan glanced up sharply “What do you mean?
Behind what?”
The girl leaned forward, speaking in a low voice as if afraid she might be overheard, though there was hardly anyone in the tavern-only a few old men deep in their cups. “I had to flee the castle, my lord, or else she would have killed me. I know this beyond all doubt. I hid outside the walls, waiting for someone I could tell this to, someone who might believe me, but I did not know who that might be.
And yet, I had to tell. I had to. When I saw you, I thought you were the only one who might listen to my words and not dismiss them out of hand. You are known to be a fair and honest man. And I … I am but a lowly thief. Still, I swear to you, I swear upon my life, I am telling you the truth.”
“Wait, wait,” said Aedan. “Calm yourself and speak slowly. What are you talking about?”
“Duchess Laera is a sorceress, my lord.”
“A sorceress! Ridiculous. Laera may be many things, and most of them unsavory, but she has never studied sorcery.”
“I tell you she has, my lord. She is well versed in the art. My mother, rest her poor soul, was a witch, and she had taught me a few things before she died.
I know a sorceress when I see one. Especially when she takes a token of my hair to use against me in a spell if I should fail to do her bidding.”
“A token?” Aedan knew something about sorcery.
His old teacher, after all, had been the librarian at the College of Sorcery in Anuire.
“She kept it in a locket, which she had hidden in a secret drawer inside her jewelry box,” said Gella.
“This locket.”
She held it out, dangling it from its chain.
“She likewise had another, which I stole from her as well.” She took the second locket out and showed it to him. “I cannot say for certain, but I believe this is a token of the wizard who comes to see her in her bedchamber at night. She thought I did not know, but I spied on her and saw him. I think it must be the wizard who instructed her, and she had turned the tables on him, so the student became the master.”
“Hold on,” said Aedan, trying to take it all in.
“Who was this wizard? What did he look like?
“He was a wizened old man,” said Gella, “very old, with a bald pate.
She called him Callador.”
“Callador!” Aedan no longer doubted the girl.
Callador had been Arwyn’s wizard, and he had disappeared after the Battl
e of Dalton.
“She has a third locket, as well,” Gella continued, “but she never takes it off. It is a token of her husband, the duke, whom I believe does not suspect its purpose. Through it, she keeps him in her thrall.”
Yes, thought Aedan, that sounds like just the sort of thing Laera would do. She had always liked being in control. Of men, especially. “I believe you,” he said. “Go on.”
“There was a fourth locket, too,” said Gella, “and I believe it was her own token. Perhaps the wizard held it and she got it back somehow. I saw it once, but I have never seen it again. I think she must have destroyed it. But I stole these. This one, which is mine, I shall keep and destroy so it may never be used against me in a spell. But this one, which I believe is the wizard’s, I shall give to you. I looked inside. The hairs are short and curled. As he is bald, I gather they came from elsewhere.”
Aedan took the locket. “I see. Go on. How does the empress fit into all this?” He had the sudden feeling of a pit yawning open beneath him.
He sat on the edge of his chair, completely alert and sober now.
His blood was racing.
“She planned to insure that the empress would not have a child, so that there would be no heir to the throne,” said Gella. “And if the emperor left no heir-2’ “As the firstborn princess of the House of Roele and wife to the Duke of Boeruine, it would be her son who would succeed,”
said Aedan. He pressed his hands down hard against the table to stop them from shaking.
Gella nodded. “She assigned me to the empress as her body servant and forced me to give her a potion every night from a vial that she gave me.
I was to put several drops into her drink each night, and it would prevent her from conceiving a child. This I did, though I was loath to do it, but you must understand that I did not have any choice. So long as Duchess Laera held my token, I was helpless to resist.”
“A potion. . . ” Aedan said, his mouth suddenly dry.
“Last night, that is, in the evening, before the empress was due to retire, Duchess Laera gave me a new vial, saying I was to use it instead. She said it was a new preparation, more efficient. I was to empty the entire contents of the little vial into her drink tonight, and she insisted I return and tell her when I did it. I did not want to do it, my lord, you must believe me, but I had no choice. I was afraid.
When I came back to her tonight to tell her I had done as she commanded, she responded very strangely. She smiled in an evil way and nodded to herself, then turned to gaze out the window for a moment, as if deep in thought. I knew I might never have another chance, so I stole the lockets. I am very quick and light-fingered. It … it was my trade, you know.”
“And you gave her this new potion tonight. .
said Aedan, his voice came out hoarse through a constricted throat.
“I fear it may render her permanently barren,” Cella said. “I hope there is an antidote. If that should be so, I pray that it is not too late-“
“The empress is dead,” said Aedan.
Cella gasped and gave out a small cry.
“She died in giving birth to an abomination,” Aedan said harshly. “It quickened within moments and tore its way out of her womb. It was a gorgon.
The emperor killed it, and now I fear he may be driven mad with grief.”
“Oh, what have I done?” said Cella in a shocked whisper. She broke down and started sobbing. “I do not deserve to live!”
“But live you shall,” said Aedan. “You are coming back to Seaharrow with me. We shall deal with her ladyship, the duchess.”
Derwyn couldn’t sleep. He was too keyed up. He paced across the room, running his fingers through his hair, frantic with anxiety.
Laera sat on the bed, watching him and listening 476 to him, thinking things couldn’t have gone more perfectly.
“It’s horrible,” Derwyn kept repeating. “Horrible.
How could this have happened? The empress dead, the emperor raving, the child . . .” His voice caught.
“Dear gods! How can one call that nightmarish thing a child? That poor woman! That poor, poor woman!
How she must have suffered!”
“She is suffering no longer,” Laera said. “She has found peace.”
“Peace! Peace? To die like that?” He closed his eyes. “I can only thank the gods she never lived to see the monster she gave birth to!
What a horror!
What a horror!”
“It was an abomination,” Laera said. “A gorgon child. An awnshegh.”
“You’think I don’t know? You think I did not see?
How could it have happened? How?”
“It must have been the gods,” said Laera. “That can be the only explanation.”
‘The gods? You must be mad! You do not realize what you are saying!”
“How else could it have happened?” Laera asked.
“You saw it with your own eyes. I saw it, too. When she went to bed, she was not with child. It happened within moments. Mere moments. We watched the monster child quicken. We saw her stomach swell. It was unnatural. Who else but the gods could have brought such a thing about?”
“But why? Why would they do it? Why would they make an innocent girl suffer so?”
“It was Michael,” Laera said. “They punished Michael for his sins.”
Derwyn stopped and gazed at her with astonishment. “He is your own brother!”
“Even a sister cannot turn a blind eye to the truth,” said Laera. “How many lives were lost because of Michael’s ruthless ambition? How many died needlessly in his campaigns of conquest? And how many died because he would not give in during the War of Rebellion? How many suffered because of my brother’s obsession with power and his thirst for blood?
Or have you forgotten that it was Michael who took your father’s head?”
“No, I have not forgotten,” Derwyn said heavily.
“How could anyone forget a thing like that? Was I not there to see it?
I do not need you to remind me!”
“And now you defend him.”
“He is the emperor!”
“He killed your father.”
“Yes, damn you! But it was my father who had made war on him, not he who made war on my father!”
“And you were your father’s son. What of your duty to him? What of your loyalty? If you had so little loyalty to your own father, what loyalty can I expect as your wife?”
“Do not speak to me of loyalty, you who would condemn your own brother!”
“It is not I who have condemned him, but the gods,” said Laera. “Or can you deny the evidence of your own senses?”
Derwyn swallowed hard. His shoulders slumped.
“No, I cannot. Much as I do not want to accept it, I can think of no other explanation.”
“I can,” said Aedan, standing in the doorway He had opened it and walked in, hearing the last part of the conversation. “Why don’t you ask your wife
how this awful tragedy has come to pass?”
“Aedan! What are you saying? What is the meaning of this intrusion?”
“Justice,” Aedan replied. “Justice is the meaning.
Your wife is a foul sorceress, and it was a potion that she gave the empress that brought about the birth of the abomination. I am here for justice.”
“What?” said Derwyn. “Are you mad?”
“He must be,” Laera said. “The lord chamberlain seeks to find a scapegoat for this tragedy, and he has chosen me because I once rejected his advances.”
“My advances?” Aedan said. “It was you who seduced me, right here in this very castle. And it was your spite at me for breaking off our affair that ate at you like a disease for all these years that led you to this monstrous betrayal.”
“What nonsense is this?” asked Derwyn, staring at him with astonishment.
He glanced at Laera.
“He lies,” said Laera. “He is desperate to pin the blame for this on someone,
and I am his chosen target.”
“Aedan, I cannot believe you would stoop to this!” said Derwyn.
“Where is your proof?”
“Does this look familiar, Derwyn?” Aedan asked, holding up a locket.
“It is much like one your wife wears, is it not? It contains a lock of hair, a sorcerer’s token to be employed in the casting of a spell. One just like the token she took from you and wears around her neck, even as we speak. This one contains a token from your father’s wizard, Callador, her instructor in the sorcerous arts. And this one,” he said, holding up a second locket, “contains a token from the woman she used as a dupe, to slip her foul potion to the empress.”
“That is your proof?” said Laera with contempt.
“Two lockets which you could have obtained from any jeweler?”
“I have obtained something else, as well,” said Aedan. “Come in, Gella.”
Laera’s eyes grew wide as Gella entered.
“She will tell you that everything I’ve said is true,” said Aedan.
“She is a thief and would-be murderer,” said Laera. “A common whore whom I, in my misguided compassion, sought to help. Is this how you repay me, Gella? By bearing false witness against one who saved your life?”
“You would have taken it when you were through with me,” said Gella vehemently.
“As she planned to take yours, Derwyn,” Aedan added. “When her plot to see her son placed upon the throne came to fruition, you would be all that stood between her and the regency.”
“Enough!” said Derwyn. “I am not going to listen anymore to these ludicrous accusations! I demand you leave Seaharrow at once!”
“You forget, Derwyn, I am the lord high chamberlain of the empire,”
Aedan said. “As such, I carry the authority of the emperor himself.
And it is only by the emperor’s grace that you have retained your life and lands. If you are too blind to see the truth, I need prove nothing to you, nor account to you for my actions. I am arresting Laera for high treason.”
Derwyn grabbed his sword. “You shall have to come through me.”
“Don’t be a fool,” said Aedan. “You never were a swordsman. I have no wish to kill you.”
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