by L. M. Roth
His travels had awakened the old love of adventure in Cort, but also the desire to journey and take new territory for the Kingdom. He knew that to stay in one spot forever would not only bring stagnation to himself, but to the Kingdom as well. For how could it spread and grow if the knowledge remained only in a few places?
He reflected that even the persecution in Valerium that had forced the Alexandrians into exile might yet prove to be beneficial to the cause of Alexandros; for as His servants scattered throughout the Valeriun Empire, they scattered also the seeds of His Kingdom, planting new colonies wherever the soil might prove receptive. And Cort knew that it was time for him to become part of that scattering after he had gone to Valerium to search for Dag.
Right after he spoke to Melisande and confronted her with the knowledge of her wicked scheme…
He did not wait to leave it to chance but knocked on the door of her hut on the afternoon of the second day of his return.
Her eyes widened when she answered his knock. For a moment she was so surprised that she left him standing where he stood as she stared at him. Something told Cort that she sensed something awry, and had not planned on his return to Eirinia…
He finally addressed her, as it was soon evident she would not begin the conversation.
“Hello, Melisande,” he stated, and gently pushed her aside.
He placed himself in the center of the room, and he noted that the window that she always opened during the day to allow the fresh air to circulate through the hut was open as usual. Although it was now late October, the weather was still mild, and by afternoon was very warm indeed.
Melisande was now shaken out of her amazement and expressed indignation at his audacity.
“Well, I see that foreign travel did nothing to polish your manners, Cort. I do not recall inviting you to come in to my home.”
Her eyes flashed green fire and she placed her hands on her hips. He knew that fury was rising in her like lava to the top of a volcano. This was exactly the response that he wanted.
“Oh, I apologize dear sister,” he mocked. “I thought with family it is permissible to just enter in; especially as I know you must have missed me while I was gone.”
Cort flashed a brilliant smile at her, and she frowned in return. Now to spring the trap…
He strode over to her, taking slow measured steps, his eyes never leaving her face. She watched his approach with widened eyes that blinked rapidly. He heard her short gasps of breath, as though alarmed at the sudden change in his manner toward her.
He reached her and stood very close to her, and took a lock of her golden-brown hair in one hand, stroking it very gently. She appeared to panic and moved backward away from him, only to end up in the far corner of the room. He pushed her back into it and stood so close to her that he could feel her breath on his face. He placed his hands on her arms and forced her to look up at him.
“I missed you Melisande,” he whispered. “I did not expect to feel that way, but I missed you.”
He removed one hand from an arm and stroked her hair gently. By now her eyes were so huge that he wondered they did not pop out of their sockets altogether.
“Tell me,” he whispered as he kissed a strand of her hair, “did you miss me while I was gone? Are you very lonely with my brother gone?”
Melisande suddenly found the strength that had seeped out of her and pushed him away from her as hard as she could. She whirled away from the corner and stood in the center of the room, her arms folded protectively in front of her body, and stared at him with a white face and staring eyes.
“What are you doing?” she screamed. “How dare you touch me like that?”
Cort strode over to her once again, but she backed away from him, careful to avoid the corner.
“Oh but Melisande, this is what you have been wanting is it not? Haven’t you been longing for me to say these things to you, even when my brother lived? Did you not tell me then, even when you were newly married, that you loved me and that your marriage was a mistake?”
“No, no!” she shook her head violently and continued to back away from him. “I did not say that!”
“Oh but you did, Melisande! It was the reason I left Eirinia remember? Brenus found you kissing me, have you forgotten? And here I am now, saying all that you have longed to hear! Does it not please you? Does it not make you happy?”
Cort’s blue eyes blazed in his face as he pounced on her. He grabbed her and spun her around to face him. She screamed and pushed him away again and ran for the door. He scrambled to reach it first and blocked her way. Her breath was coming in ragged sobs, but he showed her no mercy.
“Do you not remember, Melisande? Do you not love me anymore? What happened; did becoming a widow finally make you appreciate your husband after you threw yourself at his brother?”
He held her arms in a ruthless grip, and she sobbed as she struggled against him.
“No, I did not mean that. I never loved you, never, never! Leave me alone or I will call the entire village in here to witness your brutality!”
Cort released her and laughed at her. His laughter bellowed from somewhere deep within him, and she was startled by the sound.
“You never loved me?” he jeered. “And when did you discover that? Why did you tell me you did if you never had? Answer me!”
He said this last as he grabbed her again and shook her. He heard her teeth rattle in her head, so violently did he shake her. Once more she broke his grip and landed on the floor. There she lay weeping, and for the first time Cort wondered if he had gone too far in his pretense.
At last she lay still and rose slowly to her feet, pushing back the strands of her hair that had fallen over her face when he shook her. She wiped the tears from her face and glared at him with the ferocity of an animal that knows it is trapped but is determined to fight its way loose from the hunter’s snare.
“Love you? I despise you! You! A wild and crude savage; how could you ever believe that I truly loved you. I would not abase myself to fall in love with such as you!”
The sneer on her lovely face and the lips curled back in contempt confirmed the truth of her statement. It was as Cort expected, but he did not hesitate to press further in his interrogation.
“No, it was all an act, wasn’t it, Melisande? Right from the beginning, it was all an act.”
She sniffed disdainfully and shrugged her shoulders. As he remembered Brenus, Cort felt a flare of outrage.
“And my brother? Did you pretend to love him also? He was even more of a savage than I, having never traveled outside of Eirinia in his entire life. I have at least seen more of the world, probably more than you have, Melisande. I have seen great cities full of learned men and wealthy merchants, and old civilizations that have fallen to ruin yet retain their grandeur. I have walked in lands that few men have ever seen, and tasted fruits known only to a few.
“What have you ever seen, Melisande? Gaudereaux? I have been to Gaudereaux. Shall I tell you what that land consists of, Melisande? It is full of drunken men, and women also, those who do nothing but drink and make merry, because they have not the wit or the ambition to do anything else. Your mother was like that, Melisande. I knew her; she liked to drink until she could no longer stand. That is why she broke her vow to serve Dominio. And that is why Dag left her behind in Gaudereaux; he was far too fine a man to marry a woman who would turn her back on the God she vowed to serve because she wanted to waste her life getting drunk.”
As he flung this last statement at her, Melisande let out a screech and flew at him, her nails clawed his face and drew blood. Cort twisted her wrist and she cried out in pain, but let go of him. She bent over her injured arm and glared at him balefully, but he no longer feared the harm she could do. He knew now what her purpose had been in coming to Eirinia, and he was determined to expose her and drive her out.
“As for you,” he continued mercilessly, “you came to Eirinia with the sole intention of breaking up my family. You mar
ried Brenus as an excuse to get close to the family, and then you deliberately created discord between him and me by pretending to love me when you did not. You knew I would leave rather than hurt my brother or dishonor him in any way, and that my leaving would wound Dag. That was your intention all along; to separate me from Dag and bring him pain. Also, you knew that I watched over my younger siblings, and you had plans for them as well, didn’t you?”
Melisande gasped and fastened her bulging eyes on Cort. Indeed, she could not look away from him, and he thought she looked like a snake fascinated by the tune the charmer plays in order to control it.
“Yes,” he nodded his head, “you had plans for them as well. Oh not, Maelys, of course, of whom you were jealous and who had the shrewdness to see through you from the very first. But Nolwenn: you attached her to you almost as soon as you met her, and that always disturbed me. Now I know why: you planned to take her heart away from Dominio, to serve other gods. That is why she stood with you and Brenus at Spring Festival with the other villagers. You had already emasculated him with your lies that he wanted to believe because he desired you so much; and then you began to poison my little sister.
“Witch! Sorceress! Vixen! You had better hope it is not too late for Nolwenn, and that she may yet be turned back to serve Dominio. For if any harm comes to her because of your influence, Melisande, it will go ill with you, just as it did with Brenus, who married you knowing it was not in the will of Dominio, knowing you were a pagan, and who was so corrupted by you that he stood with the other rebels to bow down to another god.”
Cort was spent with the pent-up emotions released by his words, and he merely looked at Melisande, whose face suddenly went white. She licked her lips rapidly as if they had gone dry. Her green eyes were enormous in her face; but she made one last attempt at bravado.
“My, what a speech, Cort! However, I do not think that Siv will be pleased to hear how you threw yourself at me and declared your love to me. That might distress your little wife, don’t you think?”
She smirked at him with a triumphant air, only to have her exultation cut short unexpectedly by a commotion at the opened window.
“Oh, but she already knows, Melisande,” exclaimed Siv as she climbed over the windowsill and entered the room. “And she watched a rehearsal of his little act before he gave what you thought was a private performance. Did you not know? Cort loved the dramas and comedies at the amphitheater in Lycenium; that’s where this crude savage was first exposed to the fine art of acting.”
Chapter XXX
Justus
Justus strolled in thoughtful meditation through the grounds of his villa. The autumn air was brisk though mild, and he relished the chance to continue his morning walk before the advent of winter, which would arrive shortly. The trees had dropped their foliage, leaving their bare skeletons exposed against the November sky. On this day the sky was gray and overcast and their silhouettes flared dramatically in their stark beauty.
The day reflected his mood only too well. How gray Valerium was these days, days in which the citizens spoke in whispers for fear of provoking the Emperor to new bouts of rage. For the autumn had been only too full of the evidences of his wrath and cruelty to those who roused it.
Justus had seen the Alexandrians flee the country one by one, until none were left to his knowledge. They scattered to the farthest outreaches of the Empire, where they could escape unmolested. It was a peculiar feature of the Valeriun Empire that it permitted each province to govern itself according to its own native laws, asking only that allegiance be paid to the Emperor and an annual tax be paid. For the Alexandrians, this was a welcome reprieve, but Justus did not know how long it could be expected to last given the state of mind and the ruthless nature of Iacomus.
He had grown to loathe the man. He knew that had his son Felix or his friend Marcus Maximus heard him make such a statement, they would have reproved him. He should pray for Iacomus and ask for the love that Dominio felt for this man to fill his heart as well, is what he would have been told. Possibly they were right, Justus conceded; it never did anyone good to harbor hatred and resentment in their heart, but only made it hard and bitter. Yet he could not bring himself to even desire to love the man, or pray to a deity that he did not believe in.
Justus had spent all of his years in Valerium and had grown cynical at the witness of the abuse of power in that land of soldiers. Power was what all of Valerium craved, its rulers no less than anyone else, and the love of power was a deadly desire that served only to destroy the humanity of those who wished to rule over others, whether it be in the government, the army, the home, or the social circle.
He had seen in his days on the council men of intelligence who sought out truth fall into darkness as they used their brilliance to seek their own gain. And their wives, ladies of gentle refinement, reduced to the level of savage wild cats, always lying in wait to pounce on the social superior they wished to add to their dinner table to increase its luster, and clawing with their words those who succeeded where they failed.
No, he did not believe it possible for a man to attain salvation, as his son Felix had explained to him. For if it was only possible for a man to fall into darkness through his own desires, how could he believe in a deity that would elevate him to a status that was almost divine? It was not a question that he felt equipped to answer, and decided to leave such heavy thinking for another day.
A slight rain began to fall and the smell of the dead leaves beneath his feet rose to his nostrils in a musty odor that seemed to personify all of the stale and moldy character of the Valeriun Empire. It had reigned far too long and had grown arrogant and narcissistic, seeking only to serve its own desires and gave no thought to the poor or downtrodden. Was there anywhere in the city of Potentus a decent man or a modest woman, whose desires rose above the next invasion of a helpless nation or the empty table talk at the next banquet?
The rain fell harder, and the wind picked up briskly. He decided it was time to return to the villa. As he entered the small family sitting room, his wife Silvia shot an apprehensive glance at him. He was puzzled at this greeting, and then noticed an unopened scroll sitting on her lap. Even from where he stood he could see the Imperial seal.
Ah, he thought. That is what worries her.
He did not insult her by pretending ignorance at her concern, but held out his hand for the scroll. She placed it gently in his hands, as if reluctant to hear the words written on its parchment. He unrolled it, and read what he now realized he had been expecting all along.
He stood before Iacomus, waiting for the Emperor to speak, for he could say nothing until he did. Iacomus appeared troubled this afternoon, not quite the demeanor that Justus had expected. He placed his hands in front of him with the fingers laced together, and stared through them as if they held all the secrets of the universe within their grasp.
The Emperor did not speak, but signaled for a herald to read from a scroll. It was to Justus a pronouncement of the judgment he had secretly feared.
“Justus Lucius, you who have always been a loyal servant of the Empire, it is with reluctance that His Grace the Emperor Iacomus finds you guilty of treason in harboring a criminal, the man Dag Adalbart, who has confessed his crime of being a member of the rebel sect known as the Alexandrians. You will adjourn this day to the Imperial dungeon, where you will await the Emperor’s pleasure in deciding your sentence.”
Chapter XXXI
An Unexpected Reprieve
Antonius and Felicia arrived in Potentus on a rainy day in November that mirrored the general mood of the populace. All around them as they walked through the capital city they saw grim faces that looked as if a smile had become a stranger whose presence they had been deprived of for so long that they were uncertain how to entertain it if it had arrived. Even the few remaining birds that had not flown south for the winter were subdued, their songs hushed as if in fear of incurring the royal wrath for breaking the gloomy silence.
Felicia was grieved by what she witnessed in the city that had always been her home. The guards had been increased throughout the capital, but why that was she did not know. Was the Emperor on the prowl for more than just Alexandrians to betray themselves? Did the citizenry live in fear of imprisonment on imaginary pretexts?
She recalled how Maelys had described her meeting with the Archippos family, and how Thais had flashed a pearl at her. Kyrene had been present when she shared the incident, and she nodded her head vigorously, telling the girls that it was a method that was used in Solone to reveal one Alexandrian to another. Her own father had been a pearl merchant who gave pearls to the Alexandrians of Solone. He had gone on to his eternal reward a few years ago, and she still had his store of pearls, some of which she always carried with her should she meet another Alexandrian who was in need of one.
She produced a few small and creamy colored ones which she gave to Felicia and Maelys. They divided them and discovered that they had three apiece. One for each of them, Felicia said, and two more to be given to others that they met.
Felicia also thought of, but did not mention to the others, the ring she had bought from Bimo’s daughter which had been specially blessed to protect the one who wore it, and which she had given to Antonius on their wedding night. There was no one she would rather have it than her husband, but she wished she had more of the same. It would be so comforting, she thought, to be able to give one to Dag to protect him in his imprisonment.
She sighed audibly as she reflected on these things, sighed so loudly that Antonius turned to look at her with concern in his eyes. She smiled at him in reassurance and he relaxed. How wonderful it was to have a husband like Antonius! She thanked Dominio upon her rising every morning for the gift of such a loving and gentle husband.
She put her arm through his and clasped it to her tightly. She pulled his hand up to her lips and kissed the ring of pearl which he wore. He laughed in amusement and promptly planted a kiss on the tip of her nose. Antonius loved her nose; he had told her once that it seemed to express all of the vigorous determination that he knew his wife possessed.
