“Please do so,” Scylla said crisply. “Meanwhile, you may have him add this to the castle records. Our new high priest—although he is young—is Jay, until otherwise noted. And furthermore, after he gives Lady Dara and Rosson their blessing of marriage, I shall issue a supporting writ… a decree of their marriage. Morse may add that to the castle records too.”
“That boy is not a priest,” Dara objected. “He is not ordained, and it will not be legal.”
“Jay!”
Jay took a few reluctant steps toward her.
“As Scylla, Queen of Rellant, I ordain you, Jay, priest of the Kingdom of Rellant. First Priest, that is… not high priest. See that Morse writes that up—prior to the royal writ for Lady Dara and Rosson’s marriage. Is that satisfactory, Lady Dara?”
“I hope it is.” Lady Dara eyed the boy with suspicion. Jay glared back.
“Do you accept it as such?”
Lady Dara nodded reluctantly. “Yes, Queen Scylla.”
“There, then. Jay, as First Priest, you may give Lady Dara and Rosson their blessing of marriage.”
“How do I do that, Princess?” As Scylla had never paid attention to couples marrying, she hesitated.
Mako said, “You must ask each one if they promise to take the other in marriage, and then give them the blessing of the Goddess. You remind them that their promise is held by the Goddess herself. Then they give an offering for you and another for the Goddess.” He looked around defensively. “That is how ours was performed.”
“Thus the marriage vow does not necessarily mean anything!” Lady Dara snapped bitterly.
“As you say. I regret that I was a poor husband.”
“The king was more important to you than I was… Unfortunately you failed him too!”
Mako flinched. He gave her a stiff bow. “I carry the guilt of both to my grave,” he said coldly.
Rosson laid his hand on Dara’s shoulder, and she gave him a quick glance. Her cheeks had flushed red at Mako’s words.
Without enthusiasm, Jay faced the couple he was about to marry. “Do you promise to take each other in marriage,” he said stiffly, as if he read the words from a page.
“Yes,” said Rosson, speaking for the first time.
“Yes,” said Dara.
“The blessing of the Goddess upon you, then. Remember that the Goddess holds your promise.” He gave a final nod.
Dara looked up at Rosson. He blinked twice, and then said, “We offer this to the Goddess, and to you.” He fumbled in his pocket and held out several coins. Jay accepted the offerings.
“We will wait below for the writs.” Lady Dara stood up, straightening her cloak.
“One moment, Lady Dara… Chancellor, how is Rosson related to you?”
“He is the son of my aunt and her husband who managed the district after my parents died.”
“Do you have an objection to Rosson as Lord of Espritt Keep?”
There was a moment’s silence. Then Mako shook his head. “I do not.”
“Herron! Yet another writ! I proclaim him Rosson, Lord of Espritt Keep.”
It was Rosson’s turn to flush red. Lady Dara acquired an air of triumph. With a sharp, satisfied nod she said, “I thank you, Queen Scylla.”
“Go with the Goddess,” said Scylla. “May she bless you in many ways, including your child.”
Herron escorted the newly married couple out. “I will bring the writs up shortly for your signature, Queen Scylla.”
“Well! Enough of that… Four writs! Or is it five? Perhaps there should be one for Jay’s marriage blessing as well. I am sure Herron will instruct Morse on that subject. Our secretary-treasurer will need a nap this afternoon!” Scylla struggled out of the oversized chair. “These chairs may be removed, Minda. I do not wish to hold audiences here again. In the future, I will hold audiences in the king’s office below.”
“My sincere apologies, Princess.” Mako was still staring at the closed door, as if he could see his former wife walking away.
“You do not need to apologize, Chancellor Mako. You may have been a poor husband, but that is between you and Lady Dara. Carry on!”
Minda said, “I believe you serve Rellant far better now as chancellor than you did as the lady’s husband.”
Mako turned away from the door. “It could hardly be worse. I cared only to be the King’s second-in-command, and my wife and lands fell by the wayside. Espritt is better served by my cousin.”
“I expect it is, Chancellor, and I do not care. At any rate, she is out of your hair and mine. I do not wish to lay eyes upon her again!” Scylla hobbled back to the main room.
Sorrell now sat beside Coltic’s bedside and held his unresponsive hand in hers.
“Is there any change?” Scylla asked as she sank back into her chair.
Sorrell shook her head. “Sometimes his eyes are partly open, but that is all.”
“Princess,” said Jay urgently to Scylla, having tagged along. “What do I do with the offerings?”
“Some of it is yours. The rest I do not know. Mako?” Mako, still distracted, could offer only a shrug.
Minda said, “I wonder what the priests did with the Goddess’s offerings over the years.”
“A question with unsavory answers, I’m sure!”
“I suspect it went for books of magic and other things we do not care to know about,” said Mako. He stared at nothing in particular and ran a hand through his hair. “And if nowhere else, into the priests’ pockets. They had trunks of riches now in the castle vault. Morse has tallied it and will present a report, if I ever have time to sit down with him.”
“That, presumably, belongs to the Goddess too,” said Scylla. “I wonder what the Goddess does with our offerings to her.”
“A philosophical question, Princess. They are not taken up in a puff of smoke,” said Minda.
“Generally, in the past it has been taken up by priests,” Mako said cynically. “Even coins tossed into the Goddess’s springs… are they not taken by those who tend the spring? They need food and other earthly things.”
Jay bore a deflated expression. Scylla eyed him.
“You as our new priest, Jay… what do you think the Goddess wants with your offerings? And the riches taken from the priests’ house?”
“I did not think of what the Goddess would do with my coins. I was only giving them to her.”
“Offerings freely given, in appeal or in thanks,” Minda noted. “Ask yourself what the healers do with the offerings given to them. The religious house, I mean, with the medical calling.”
“They use it for keeping their own healers fed and housed… and for caring for those who are ill or injured,” said Mako. “I think we will have to decide what our new priests will do, how many we will have, and what they provide in service to the Goddess.”
“I live at Orwen and Minda’s farm,” said Jay, stubbornly. “I do not need a priests’ house.”
“Not at the moment. In a more immediate concern, we have begun feeding the feral children—although that cuts little into the kitchen’s budget, which seems unlimited! I am also sending soldiers to Zara’s village to repair the shacks… so she can house the children we send her, including those who will tend the spring of the Goddess. That will cost us the soldiers’ wages, supplies for them and their horses, the materials required, and a payment to Zara and her village. Once the children go there, they will need house-maids, food and clothing, and a regular payment to the village. All of this will take only a small portion of the priests’ reserves that we seized. Thus, offerings made to the Goddess in the past will serve the Goddess soon.”
“I am exhausted with all these details, Chancellor! Jay, the Goddess will need you to spend some of her offerings on her requirements. Keep half for the service you performed. As you saw, it was very important to Lady Dara, even if you were not exactly the priest she expected.” She looked around and pointed. “There is a tin box which is empty—put the Goddess’s half in it for future use. The
n go take those dogs out—and the pony too!”
After Jay had put the coins into the trunk, reclaimed the dogs from the roof garden despite Leon’s objections, and started for the door, there was another knock. Cuddles and Sparky sounded the alarm once more. Several kitchen lads filed in, bearing the morning meal.
“Curses!” Scylla hissed to Mako as the lads placed the feast on the table with a flourish. “Will we never be left in peace? I want to know what took place in the village last night!”
“You may not enjoy eating,” he replied, watching the table with keen interest. “However, not only have I been woken at dawn to battle words with Woliff and escort him to the delta, but I have had to face a fiercer enemy—my wife—and I am hungry.”
“I am pleased to see your return to a better humor, Chancellor. Sit down. Jay! Take some food with you.”
Some time later, with the kitchen lads and Jay gone, and Axit and Prince Leon eating out on the roof garden with a soldier standing guard, the present members of the War Council sat around the table. Scylla nibbled on a pear and some cheese while watching the others consume the meal.
“I wonder if Coltic is aware at all of his surroundings,” she said, glancing at the nearby bed where the captain’s silent form lay.
“Who can tell?” said Minda. “If he eventually awakes, perhaps he can tell us.”
“Chancellor… we have waited a long time to find out. What happened last night?”
“I can say we won the battle, Princess, with only a few injuries to our side. Although who knows what battles are still to come? It was even worse than we had feared… after dark two sailors left the Gryor boat and set fire to the nearest buildings in the village. Our villagers lay in wait in the shadows and… stopped them. Then they cut down the other Gryor sailors with arrows and clubs. Meanwhile, signals were seen from both boats, and the fishermen out in the reeds say there were ten or twelve men on the hidden boat. They were launching two rowboats in silence and without lights. So our fishermen lit the reeds on fire and the wind caught it… nicely, shall we say.”
“So the hidden boat burned?”
“Yes, along with the two rowboats. One charred corpse lies on the small island nearby. No one was seen to survive, either due to the flames or drowning or snakes. During the night—after the fire died down—the fishermen hauled the floating bodies further into the reeds. Brit reports also that the sailors from the dock were carried by boat out to a distant section of the delta and dumped… to be eaten by turtles and fish, I expect. Also, Woliff’s boat drifted downstream, where it caught on a sandbar some distance out. So although Woliff strongly suspects that we foiled the attack, slaughtered his soldiers, and burned the second boat, he could not say it without admitting his plans. And although we believe his men intended to invade the castle, I could not accuse him without admitting their fate. We know that he and his five companions at the feast drank very little, and watched the doorways like hungry hawks. And they knew we were on alert—yet there was nothing they could do, outnumbered as they were.”
“If the village had been torched there would have been bedlam, and a surprise attack on the castle may well have been disastrous… How many men did they have?” Minda asked.
“Six in the great hall plus sixteen or eighteen—twenty-two or more,” said Sorrell. “Also, Princess, you suspect the secretary, Mangus, is a sorcerer.”
“I did indeed sense a power from him—similar to Soler’s,” Scylla said with a shudder, remembering the frightening moments at her coronation ceremony as she faced Rellant’s high priest.
“So it seems our army, including fishermen and villagers, killed a dozen and a half of Woliff’s soldiers, while at the feast we watched the others stand around as feeble as lambs,” Sorrell said.
Mako nodded. “Meanwhile, as you heard, Woliff and his secretary claimed to feel we have a sorcerer or an amulet in the castle. I could hope they attribute their missing men to whatever they felt… but then I wonder what they felt!” He shook his head, perplexed. “At any rate, we won the battle—but what comes next?”
“Not revenge, I hope,” said Minda. “My husband Orwen is likely to reach Gryor late tomorrow. Woliff will land there the day after, if he has a favorable passage.”
“Some spies went to Gryor earlier—they will report to Orwen, and he will make inquiries of his own once he arrives. We plan to move as quickly as we can to arouse the citizens of Gryor. We cannot be complacent about our success in routing Woliff this time. Our delta is a strong defense, but Woliff has now seen it and our village and castle for himself… Perhaps we should have housed him in one of the lords’ houses in the village,” Mako said thoughtfully. “I will consider that for the future. As he has seen the interior here, he knows the layout and also that our gates are rusty relics. Our kingdom and army are small compared to the forces of Gryor… if they return with more boats and three times the men, the delta will not stop them and we will fall before them.”
“We can not blame Herron for housing Woliff in the guest chambers,” said Scylla. “It is exactly what my father would have done.”
“True. Also, who would have expected Gryor’s Protector himself to make the journey here? I will give Herron orders for all future guests—however few there may be—once we have decided on a suitable house. Perhaps my own, as I did not sign that over to Dara. I rarely use it. We could host guests there, and not in the castle again.”
“We close the stable door after the horse has run away,” Scylla said. “As many have done before us, I’m sure. And I suppose that is Morse or Herron at the door with Lady Dara’s writs, at last… come in!”
But the knock at the door was not Herron or Morse. The door opened and the soldier on duty announced Mother Caryn, the healer.
She peeped in, a small woman with bright eyes in a weathered face.
“Please come in,” said Minda, getting up to greet her.
“Greetings, Lady Minda,” said Caryn as she crossed the reception area. “And Queen Scylla. How is your trellet?”
“The trellet has gone back to the forest as he wanted.”
“Ahh,” sighed Caryn with a sweet sadness. “I am sorry not to see him again. And why have you called me here today?”
“Here is our Captain of the Queen’s Guard—he is struck down by some illness or exhaustion and the physician Greyel has gone away.”
“I see. Is he an older man?” The healer advanced carefully toward Coltic’s bed, studying him.
“Oh, no,” said Minda. “In his middle twenties, we think. He is young, vigorous and healthy, and yet look at him now.”
“He is not dead,” Caryn murmured to herself. “And yet…” She laid her small hand against his cheek with a feathery touch. Coltic’s eyes opened halfway and then closed again.
Caryn withdrew her hand. She turned to cast a glance over her shoulder at Scylla and the others with an oddly wary expression.
“Is there a problem?” asked Mako uneasily.
“Oh, no… no… I don’t believe it is a problem… unless…”
“Unless?” Mako repeated, a little too loudly.
“Unless.” She repeated it with finality and turned back to Coltic, studying him. Her lips were pursed, and her bright eyes narrowed. She did not touch him again.
Then she stepped back. “It is not my business,” she said with her doleful kindness. “I do not know if he will recover. All I can do is ask the Goddess to free him. Perhaps that is not the right word. I will ask the Goddess to assist him.” She scurried away, brushing off Minda’s offer of payment.
“Free him!” Sorrell repeated in astonishment after the door closed behind her. “What does that mean?” She sat down beside the captain again, taking his hand in hers.
“Chancellor, at last night’s dinner… when you told Woliff that Sorrell has a suitor already, did you mean Coltic?” Scylla whispered.
Mako turned a cautious glance to her. “Possibly.” He added in a lower tone, “Recall that our captain likes the l
adies and may not be…”
“… as interested as she?” Scylla filled in for him. “Queen Maris accused Sorrell of flirting with the soldiers, but I saw none of it.”
Mako said carefully, “Do consider, Princess, that when you still lived in your own chambers in the upper corridor, your handmaid often went out alone to shop or fetch food from the kitchen. As she is pretty…” He left the sentence unfinished.
“I have seen Coltic look at her,” Scylla admitted. “I hope he does not think…” It was her turn to leave the thought unfinished. Then she added in a sharper tone, “I will not have him brush her off as my father the king brushed off Neyella!”
She stared out the window where she could see Axit coaxing Prince Leon to eat. The small child was, in fact, her half-brother—King Tobin’s son. Pretty young Neyella had been married off before Leon’s birth to the king’s cousin, the loathsome Prince Darwyn. Scylla wrinkled her nose in remembered dislike. And he was also one of the traitors who murdered the king, the queen and their twin sons. Revealed as King Tobin’s illegitimate offspring at Scylla’s coronation, Leon was dubbed “the twig” by a funnyman, and the nickname had stuck.
“Is he stirring?” After closing the door behind the healer, Minda returned to the bed where Coltic lay.
“He may be,” Sorrell said with a flash of hope.
“Captain!”
Coltic’s eyes opened, showing a gleam that had been missing earlier. He looked up at Minda, blinking slowly, and then at Sorrell.
“Sorry…” he croaked and closed his eyes again.
“Captain!” Minda called again, but he lay as still as if he had never moved at all.
A loud rap on the door made them all jump. All but Coltic, that was.
“I hope that is Herron bringing up the cursed writs at last!” Scylla snapped in irritation. “Come in!”
6
River ran across the edge of the king’s games field opposite from the castle wall. Two men chipped away at stones on the ground, while others were at work on the scaffolding. Queen Scylla’s small gray cat sat on the battlements looking down, alone.
The Queen and the Mage Page 12
